RACINE — Tyrese Hunter will look back on his junior year and think about how special the 2019-2020 basketball season could have been.
The star guard helped lead the Racine St. Catherine's Angels to an unbeaten record (25-0). This included a win over St John's Military Academy in the regional finals, which put them one step closer to their dream of winning the coveted gold ball.
Then, the Coronavirus pandemic shut down their dreams of a perfect season.
Hunter now spends his time focusing on online classwork and his future.
"You go online and teachers send you assignments,” says Hunter. “We do this Zoom thing if you need help. Teachers are available at certain times, but you have to have every assignment in every day at three o’clock.”
As a highly-recruited junior, Hunter would ideally be visiting colleges, and instead he's making it work during these unforeseen times and meeting coaches via Facetime.
"It's pretty cool just building relationships with coaches,” Hunter says with a laugh. “Coaches will Facetime with you while they are at the grocery store. One coach Facetime'd me from the grocery store and he was looking for some bread and the bread was out so he got back in his car. His wife was driving and I was talking to the family. It was pretty cool.”
Hunter is regarded by some as the top guard in Wisconsin and has several scholarship offers, including one from Marquette.
The Angels are expected to be a top contender for the state championship again next season, giving Hunter the opportunity to shine in his senior year.
