By TYLER DRUMMOND
of The Gazette
John Schell has been a prominent figure when it comes to Stevens Point basketball for the last 30 years but at the end of this season, Schell has decided to call it quits on a great basketball career.
"You get a feeling, you know, when the time is right," said Schell. "I just think the time is right for me to step down as the head junior varsity coach."
Schell's basketball career started back in the '60s when he was a star player for Cumberland High School. Although he enjoyed plenty of success, his fondest memory was the state tournament in 1965.
"At that time only eight teams made it to the state tournament, so it didn't matter how big the school was, it was just the best eight teams," said Schell.
At that time, Cumberland High School had about 340 students, relatively small considering that Cumberland's first game was against Wauwatosa East, a school of roughly 2,400.
"Their school was bigger than our entire city," said Schell.
As it turned out, it doesn't matter how big your school is as long as you can play the game, as Cumberland routed East by 29 points in the first game.
"It was one of those things that was great," said Schell. "It didn't matter how big you were because if you could play the game you could play against anyone in the state."
Cumberland dropped the second game against Eau Claire Memorial by two points and beat Brookfield by 12 in the final game.
When Schell graduated in 1965, he gladly accepted a scholarship to play for the Wisconsin Badgers.
"I really enjoyed my time with the Badgers," said Schell.
Along with gaining a valuable education that he'd use later in life, he also was able to play with some of the greatest players of the era, including Rick Mount. Mount was a guard for Purdue and was leading the country in scoring, but the tough defense of Schell was enough to hold Mount to a meager 10 points.
"I shut him down pretty good," said Schell.
Schell also had the chance to play against "Pistol" Pete Maravich when the Badgers played LSU.
"I held him to 40 points," said Schell. "But we did beat them by one so it was a great moment."
For Schell, the greatest achievement came during his senior year when he was elected the captain of the Badgers.
"That was really a great moment," said Schell. "I felt very honored."
Another interesting aspect was that Schell was drafted in the eighth round of the NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969.
"It was a tough situation for me because at that time I already had a wife and a child," said Schell.
The tryouts were rigorous, with a rookie camp in the summer and then he had to come back in the fall. "It was iffy if I would make the team, and I had another year of school, and my family needed money so I chose to forgo the NBA," said Schell. "It would have been great if I would have made it, but, if I wouldn't have, I would have set my family back a lot of money which we didn't have."
The Bucks had the No.1 overall pick that year, a pick they used to pick up a 7-foot tall UCLA graduate by the name of Lew Alcindor. Alcindor would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
After his playing days with the Badgers were over, Schell became interested in coaching. He started his coaching career with Beloit Catholic, where he stayed for two years.
"After my second year at Beloit, my ex-college coach John Erickson called me and told me about an opening for head coach at Cedarburg," said Schell. Schell coached Cedarburg for five years until he took the position as the head coach of the D.C. Everest Evergreens.
"I was lucky enough to win a state championship my first year at D.C. Everest," said Schell. "My first game as the head coach of D.C. Everest was against Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln, which was also Jack Bennett's first year as coach of Lincoln. They beat us by four but we ended up tying them for the conference championship."
After three years with Everest, the much-coveted Stevens Point High School job opened up. "There are a few jobs in the state that are equal to it but none are better than the SPASH job," said Schell.
Schell jumped at the opportunity to coach the Panthers and did so for the next 20 years. "We won four of five conference championships in a 10-year period and also lost the state championship game by one point," said Schell.
After coaching the Panthers for 20 years, Schell decided to retire from the head coaching position. "I just didn't want to do everything a head coach has to do," said Schell. It was then that then head coach of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Bob Parker, gave Schell a call. "He asked if I wanted to be an assistant and I told him 'I don't know much about being an assistant and I might say some things you don't want to hear', but he took me on anyway," said Schell.
After four years Parker quit the Pointer job, which was then filled by Jack Bennett. "As soon as Jack got on board he asked me to stay around as an assistant for him," said Schell.
Schell stayed with Bennett for three additional years before quitting the job as the assistant coach. "I didn't like all the time spent on Greyhounds traveling the country," said Schell. "I still worked as a phy ed. teacher at SPASH so I still had to get up early every morning to make it to school."
After quitting the job at UW-SP, the job as JV coach opened up at SPASH and he decided to take that position, also assisting for Bob Schultz for one year and now head coach Dan Fink for the last four.
Schell is still the head JV coach, a position he will retire from for good at the end of the season, and is also the golf coach, a position he will retain after this year.
"My true passion lies in golf right now," said Schell. "I have a true love for that pressure packed game."
Along with the announcement that this would be his final year with basketball, Schell has also made a department switch. Instead of working as a phy ed. teacher, he now calls the guidance office his home.
"I never knew how great I had it in the phy ed. department until I left it," said Schell.
However, he has no regrets of leaving phy ed. Schell has had his master's degree in guidance and counseling since 1975 and now seems like a good time to use it. "A great counselor in Dave Johnson retired last year and they asked if I wanted the position and I was real interested," said Schell.
No matter where he's at, physical education or guidance, Schell said it's his love of kids that keeps him coming back to school. "It keeps you young at heart," he said. "If you have an off-day, the kids can tell and they can pick you up. You have to be ready for anything and be ready any day as a teacher. It's not a profession for everyone but it works really well for me."
Even though Schell has had his share of great moments as a player and a coach, he is very happy with his job at SPASH. "I have been fortunate enough to coach both of my sons, and during those times my wife was the only sane one in the house," jokes Schell.
"This is a great community to coach, teach and raise a family in," said Schell.
"Next year I'll sit down and watch the games on TV, and I'll miss it," said Schell. "But the great thing is that I've met and worked with so many great people. It's been a good trip and now it's time for some of the young bucks to take over."