Trojans senior Anthony Gonzalez ready to bring passion to the courtin the final home game of his Chesterton basketball career, tonight at 6:30 vs. Culver Academy

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Based on his two years in the Chesterton program that in many ways seemed longer than that, Anthony Gonzalez is bound to do something memorable in the final home game of his career tonight vs. Culver Academy.
Last season, as a junior and a newcomer after transferring back to Chesterton from Brother Rice for his final two years of school, most of Gonzalez’s highlights off the bench came on the offensive end of the floor.
He and Tyler Parrish, who is redshirting in his first year at University of Indianapolis, always seemed to know the location of the other on the court.
Gonzalez knew that Parrish was going to use his quickness and nifty handle to dart his way into the paint to draw multiple defenders. And Parrish knew right where Gonzalez would be waiting outside the 3-point semi-circle. If he had the hot hand that night, Gonzalez would light the home crowd on fire.
“Last year, I was just getting familiar with the system, and I’d catch and shoot off Tyler’s kicks. He found me a lot,” Gonzalez said. “It was a great experience playing with Justin (Sims) and Tyler. I still tal to them all the time.”
Some streak shooters take offense at that label.
“Streaky? Hundred percent, yeah,” Gonzalez said. “I have days where I can hit five, and other days I’ll go 1 for 4.”
Chesterton is deeper this season, particularly in the backcourt, and Gonzalez has taken on a role that juices the home crowd even more than his flaming 3-pointer nights.
He described his role this season as, “Make electric plays, come in and play defense and help lead the team any way I can.”
Gonzalez plays defense with an edge, thrives on hustle plays and has a way of pumping adrenaline into the other four players on the floor with him.
Chesterton and Valparaiso fans always travel well to each other’s venues for rivalry games, which was obvious when Gonzalez dove to the floor to steal the ball from a dribbler at Valpo in a DAC finale won by the visiting Trojans, 62-52.
In the 44-42 win at home vs. Portage, Gonzalez made a big stop guarding O’Mari Evans late in the game.
“The best thing about this year all those plays I’ve done last a lifetime,” Gonzalez said. “Last year, we ran a lot of things through Tyler and Justin, but this year I feel like we’re more of a team all together, and we have a lot of weapons, and a lot of the guys know their roles and jell really well together. We’re 100 percent deeper.”
Still, Gonzalez has been able to work his way into a valuable role, even on nights he’s not on fire from long distance.
“I prefer defense to offense. On defense you just have to play hard and make things happen to get things going,“ he said. “Even if you’re having a bad day on offense, you do whatever you can do on the defensive end to get the team going.”
Gonzalez seems to have a knack for making big plays in big games, and for Robert Williams and him, senior night was a big game. Gonzalez responded with eight points in a 64-40 win over Hobart.
“That was a great night, and I had a lot of supporters come, a lot of family come to watch the game,” he said.
Gonzalez started last season playing a lot of JV minutes until he became more familiar with Coach Marc Urban’s system at both ends of the floor.
Making a social transition to a new school wasn’t a problem at either Chesterton or Brother Rice for Gonzalez because he grew up on the South Side of Chicago and moved to Chesterton in fifth grade.
He went to Brother Rice out of Chesterton Middle School in hopes of one day playing varsity basketball for Bobby Frasor, the former North Carolina guard. Frasor left coaching after Gonzalez’s freshman season and after his sophomore year, Gonzalez returned to Chesterton.
“I knew kids on both sides, so making friends was never an issue,” he said. “It’s been amazing here. Great. I think it’s the best basketball I’ve been around in my life. The community support and the team as well make it great.”
In terms of the effort and dedication required to fit naturally into a demanding program, Gonzalez didn’t struggle.
“A lot’s expected of you, but it shapes you to be a better player and a better person,” Gonzalez said. “Last year, it took me a little bit, but I started get the hang of it halfway through the season. Then this year, it was a lot easier after playing in the summer.”
Tonight’s varsity game tips at 6:30. For those who aren’t regular attendees of games, no need to look at your roster sheet to find the name of the scrappy guard with the wavey black hair wearing No. 15 who just made a big play: Anthony Gonzalez.