Chesterton boys basketball coach Marc Urban looks back on season and ahead to 2025-26

Tom Keegan
onwardtrojans.com
The best time to hear a coach’s thoughts on the season just completed and the next one on the horizon is in the moments after the final loss.
The problem with that is that nobody emotionally invested in a team wants to read those thoughts when the loss is too fresh. Reliving the end generally is not a healthy stage of early grieving. Time is needed to let it settle.
It’s been a week since Chesterton’s boys basketball season ended in Valparaiso with a sectional semifinal loss to Portage, so it’s no longer too soon to look back on the 15-9 campaign that started 8-8 and ended 7-1 and look ahead to a promising 2025-26 season.
Chesterton coach Marc Urban’s first words for public consumption in the locker room after eventual sectional champion Portage defeated his team, 69-55, were those of gratitude for the two players who won’t be back: seniors Anthony Gonzalez and Robert Williams.
“Anthony and Robert have done a lot of really good things for us and are going to do great things in the world,” Urban said. “They’ve been a pleasure to have as part of the program, and I’m proud of them.”
Seven players used in close games throughout the season return, and that doesn’t count shooter extraordinaire Cooper Huwig and big man Tommy Kostbade, a pair of freshmen who project as rotation players as sophomores.
Urban ended the season with a starting five that featured sophomore Tobias Ray and juniors Jaylon Watts and Logan Pokorney on the perimeter, plus a pair of 6-foot-7 post players, freshman Bradly Basila and junior Caden Schneider.
The first two players off the bench, sophomore guard Malachi Ransom and junior forward Rob Czarniecki earned starters’ minutes. The graduating Gonzalez was eighth man.
On paper, it looks as though the top seven in this season’s rotation, plus Huwig and Kostbade will fill the majority of the minutes next season. Also, Gunner Ello, who made two starts as a sophomore, will fight for minutes in the post.
“With a lot of these guys who are returning, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Urban said. “I’m very proud of these guys and the work that they’ve put in. I think that they’ve represented Chesterton basketball in a really good way. The way that they handle themselves in school, the way they handle themselves throughout the community, the way they go support other teams throughout the year, the way that they work in the weight room is really good. It makes you feel good as a coach about who you’re coaching.”
Can anyone guess the next word coming? Hint: It starts with a ‘b.’
“But obviously there is a next step that we have to take, so we have 360-some days to do whatever we can to make sure that when we get in this position ,we can rebound, we can execute and we can find a way to get it done,” Urban said.
The coach’s structured program doesn’t end when the season does, it merely shifts to the next phase of the sport that Urban considers to be a year-round one.
“It’s tough, but you’re proud of them,” Urban said. “When you look back through it, in the spring they never missed. They were there the entire time. They never missed weights. They did everything they could. So, you check the spring off. They did everything in the summer that you possibly could do in the summer. We played over 20-some games. They lifted. They didn’t miss. They were there. So, you can check that box off. They checked the fall off in the way they did everything.”
Ransom, who attended Chicago Simeon as a freshman, wasn’t yet in the Chesterton program in the summer. Neither was Basila, who moved from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Jan. 18, speaking French with extremely limited knowledge of English.
The Ransom and Basila factors were unavoidable and therefore didn’t prevent Urban from checking the summer box.
“I thought you could check the season off as far as we really struggled early and we got to a point where this thing could go a few ways,” Urban said. “They stuck with it and won their last seven games and got third in the conference, so they kept getting better and they kept sticking with it.”
The Trojans return 99% of their free throw attempts, 96% of their points, 92% of their rebounds and 96% of their assists.
Pokorney led the team in scoring (15.5), 3-point percentage (.396), free throw percentage (.840) and steals (1.0). Ray was the assist leader (4.0), Basila the leading rebounder (4.8). Schneider’s .523 field goal percentage led the team.
“Yes, we have guys returning, they have the experience. But the truth of it is, whatever we did we have to do it better,” Urban said. “And we understand what’s coming. There aren’t going to be any surprises. We had the kids over for the sectional draw and half of them didn’t really understand the draw piece of it. So, there should be nothing new to the season, to how it goes, to how we practice, to how we go through a scout, to how we lift, to how we put in extra work, how we have to stay connected and how hard it is to win basketball games.”
Urban and his players were hoping they would be facing Crown Point in the one-game regional at Michigan City on Saturday at 4 p.m. Instead, it will be Portage and Crown Point playing a rematch. Portage defeated the visiting Bulldogs, 64-40, in a DAC game Feb. 6.
“We’ve got 365 days,” Urban said after the sectional semi loss. “We have to start now. We have to go chase it again. That’s winning, right? You do everything you can, and you don’t get the job done, so you have to do it better, and you have to figure out how to get it done.”
Urban believes in the roster he has returning.
“We have the right kids. They’re great kids. They work hard. They do stuff right,” Urban said. “We just have to keep getting better together and that part is really, really exciting. You’re not going to work with a bunch of bums. You’re going to work with really good kids who do stuff the right way and represent Chesterton basketball and represent our school in a really good way.”
That reality sinking in appeared to be the best tonic for a coach mourning a loss.
“So that’s fun, and for me, I feel a great sense of responsibility to do whatever I can to help those guys keep chasing their goals and what they want,” Urban said.