Sterling grads take basketball to a new level of learning

STERLING — Even though it’s been nearly 20 years since Josh Binder and DJ Olalde wore the uniforms of the Sterling High School basketball team, they haven’t forgotten how playing the game for the Golden Warriors became a profound part of their lives.

These days, the 2005 Sterling High School graduates are sharing their hoops skills with a new generation of players.

Binder and Olalde are the driving forces behind Outwork Elite, a basketball program that hosts travel basketball teams and offers development camps and instruction sessions for both boys and girls. Its events have attracted hundreds of aspiring young basketball stars who’ve come together to have fun and improve their game.

Outwork Elite’s programs have brought together teens from Sterling, Rock Falls and surrounding counties to help build their collective talent – many of whom never played against one another during school, but get a chance to in Outwork’s program.

“We wanted to bring the Sauk Valley together,” Binder said. “We’re Sterling grads, and we have a lot of Rock Falls kids, Dixon kids, Newman kids, Polo, you name it. That was the idea, being small but mighty, but together we can be pretty dang good. There’s a lot of talent here, and it’s spread out. There’s a star here, and a star here, and we’ve said, ‘Boy, if we could collect it all, we can show people what we’re made of.’”

Now in its sixth year, Outwork Elite’s coaches preach to their student-athletes that no matter how high the deck may be stacked against them on the court, as long as they put in the time and work hard, good things will come from it.

In other words: Outwork your competition.

While improving their skills is important, the social aspect – building friendships – is just as important. That’s the thrill Olalde gets out of being part of the program.

“It’s more than basketball when you really think about it,” he said. “It pays off more than the wins on the basketball court by being able to see these guys be friends. I can speak for us: When we were younger, we didn’t hang out with a bunch of kids from different schools. Now we have all of them together and get to see how they enjoy each other and like to hang out. It’s good to see these communities come together through basketball.”

Binder, who lives in North Aurora, and Olalde, who still lives in Sterling, run the operation, juggling their time between their primary jobs – Binder as senior director of advancement at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and Olalde as a sales manager at U.S. Cellular in Freeport – and their school coaching – Binder for the Kaneland School District’s feeder program in Kane County and Olalde as an assistant varsity coach at Dixon High School.

During their years on the court, as both players and coaches, they’ve seen players of all kinds: from small-town kids big on talent that they earned on the court to big-city players whose parents could afford to foot the bill for camps and training.

Binder and Olalde strive to bring the best of both worlds together, providing big-city instruction for a small-town price.

“We want to give kids an opportunity,” Binder said. “That’s our biggest thing, is to expose them to the game at a young age; and for the older players, to give them an opportunity to compete and see something that you don’t get anywhere else around here. Kids would have to drive to the Quad-Cities, Rockford or the suburbs to get something comparable to what we have, so let’s provide that experience here.”

Binder and Olalde lead the program, but they employ a group of local coaches to help them with travel teams, instructional sessions and camps. Mike Menchaca, who’s also an insurance agent and varsity girls coach at Fulton High School, has worked with Outwork Elite since nearly its beginning. The 2001 Rock Falls High graduate remembers days when kids like him would play basketball on the streets or at parks, something he doesn’t see as often these days.

Menchaca enjoys seeing how Outwork Elite has helped get more kids engaged in basketball, and helped foster their talent.

“The most gratifying thing is seeing kids do things that they didn’t think they could do,” he said. “Back in the day it was a different world, we could run outside and play for two or three hours and Mom or Dad would be OK with it. Now, nobody wants their kids to grow up in the streets to play ball, like we used to; if we’re going to do it, it’s going to be in these settings. I love it because these kids get to do some things, learn some things, and probably realize the potential that they have.”

Also helping out are Geoff Wing, an assistant girls coach at Sterling High; Seth Nicklaus, a former boys and girls coach at Faith Christian School in Grand Detour; and Tyler Merdian, who coaches in Polo.

In high school, Binder and Olalde played as underclassmen for Luke Yaklich, now the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and then for Pete Goff, who is the athletic director at DeKalb High School. Goff also advises Binder and Olalde on basketball matters on occasion. The pair also played basketball in college, Binder for St. Ambrose University in Davenport and Olalde for the University of Dubuque and Missouri Baptist. Binder also has collegiate coaching experience, most recently at Kishwaukee College in Malta.

Binder and Olalde’s families are big believers in teamwork, too, helping out at functions. In addition to their own families, Olalde’s sisters regularly help at camps, and Binder’s father Jerry, a former SHS principal and girls basketball coach in Wisconsin, lends a hand when he can.

In fact, the whole program is like one big happy family as far as Binder and Olalde are concerned.

“Our kids in the area are great,” Olalde said. “We’ll get out to watch their games during the season when we can and support them, and it’s kind of grown into a little family type of thing. Our [social media] hashtag is ‘#OutworkFam’ and people have really bought into that, and it shows on a Sunday morning at 9:30 when you got 15 high school players helping you out for a camp, so it’s worth it.”

Since its beginning, Outwork Elite’s teams and players have racked up an impressive resumé of accomplishments on the court, but there’s more to their success than just wins, stats and records, Binder said. It’s seeing players go from light-skilled to four- or five-tool success during their time with the program.

The same can be said for another part of the Outwork Elite that’s near and dear to Binder’s heart: Its involvement with Special Olympics Illinois.

Outwork Elite’s Special Olympics camps – one in the fall in Sterling and another in the winter in Oswego – came as a result of both Binder’s idea of having one to honor his young daughter Maddie, who has Down syndrome, and the Special Olympics Illinois Region’s idea of a skills camp for its athletes. The nearly 200 Special Olympians who attend the camp work on skill development and fundamentals, and are then formed into teams to compete on the court. The camp not only improves their athletic skills, but helps build confidence too.

“I think our biggest accomplishment is being able to partner with the Special Olympics,” Binder said. “That has seemed to tie the whole community. One of our other hashtags that we use is ‘#BiggerThanBasketball,’ and at our core, it’s so much more than dribbling a ball or making a basket.”

Outwork Elite’s AAU youth traveling teams compete in several tournaments throughout the Midwest. “Super session” Sunday instruction is offered to middle school students in January and February at Newman Central Catholic, and its Fall Academy camp is on Sundays in September and October, also at Newman. Hour-long individual and small group instruction is offered Sunday through Thursday evenings at Sterling High School.

The program’s most recent event was its Presidents Day weekend camp on Feb. 18 at Newman, where about 100 middle school and high school students fine-tuned their shooting, ball handling, defense, strength and ability, and special skills for their positions – guards, forwards and centers. Some of the high-schoolers, along with recent grads, helped younger players with their drills, passing along some of what they learned during their own time with Outwork Elite.

“Since we don’t see them every day, we make the most of the time that we do get to spend with them,” Olalde said. “With the relationships that we build, that’s what I enjoy a lot out of it. We’ve had kids who were at our first camps, and now they’re helping; some are going to play college basketball next year or have the chance to do that in a couple of years.”

“Our alumni have come back to support the younger kids,” Binder said. “That’s a neat, full-circle moment when you’re now supporting the program that you came from.”

What tournament victory sticks out the most? That’s tough to say for Binder and Olalde, who’d rather focus on the victory that’s most important to them: helping each kid learn and grow – both as a player and as a person. Those are the real winners, whether they’re the kind who find confidence on the court or they’re the ones who never thought they’d have a chance at college play but end up having colleges court them.

What’s been their game plan? While you won’t find the word “can’t” in their rule book, they don’t teach with an iron fist, but rather an open hand that helps lift players up to be the best they can be.

Putting their shoulder to the wheel helps, too – as long as there’s a little something on it.

“It’s going to be all about having a chip on your shoulder, that we may not always be the biggest or the best – kind of what we do with being in a small town – but we’re going to just work harder than everybody,” Binder said. “From there, it’s kind of taken on a life of its own, from adding Special Olympics camps, to our first golf outing this past year [to raise money for the camps], doing more camps, having our Fall Academy grow into its own little thing. It’s become more of a year-round hobby than a job, and it’s great that we get to connect with so many kids in the area.”