Athletic Spotlight Eli Schott: Getting better all the time

PHS senior puts all of his efforts into becoming a better team player

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This week’s Athletic Spotlight is on senior Eli Schott, 17, who plays on the Perryville High School boys’ basketball team. He was recognized by his coach, Chris Hahn, who said this about Schott: “Last year, Eli averaged two points a game for the team. This year, he is averaging 10 points and is shooting 42 percent from 3, up from 20 percent last year. He loves the game and has improved tremendously.”

The son of Rick and Elisha Schott, like most outstanding athletes, the teenager became interested in sports at an early age.

“I started whenever I started playing soccer — like in first or second grade — and then I just kept playing sports all the way until now,” Schott said. “Basketball has been my main sport since middle school. I started my seventh-grade year, I think.

Ever since I touched a basketball, I’ve loved the sport. As soon as I started playing, I just really liked it and enjoyed it.”

Asked how he spent his time during the off-season to improve his game, Schott said, “I was nonstop basketball every day. I just worked hard, and it’s paying off.”

Of course, like most sports, basketball is centered on the team experience, and according to Schott, the Pirates boys’ basketball team has been getting better since the start of the season when coach Hahn came on the scene.

“Our team is pretty good,” he said. “The first half of the season, we were just getting used to coach Hahn and were starting to learn more about how he wanted us to play. I think we’re gonna start doing good here.”

Schott believes the team has begun picking up on the positive energy the coach brought with him when he started coaching the team.

“We haven’t been that great of a program,” he said. “In the last few years, we’ve just been a terrible team, and we want everyone to start believing we can win,” he said. “I feel like coach Hahn has definitely helped us believe that we’re a good team and that we can win anytime we want.”

This new positive attitude — or winning spirit — exhibited by the team could perhaps be best attributed to Schott and the others becoming increasingly focused on the game.

“Every day we don’t have practice, I feel like I’m on a court somewhere else,” he said. “I’ve been working every single day to improve.”

Schott is a shooting guard for the team. Explaining in his own words what a shooting guard does, he said, “A shooting guard could be your main scorer. You’re always touching the ball, dribbling, and shooting a lot, like on the top of the defense. It’s the position I’ve played pretty much my whole life.”

Another factor that Schott believes has helped him become a better player is the support he gets from his parents.

“My dad has always come to every single game, and my mom comes to every single game, too,” he said. “My dad used to be an athletic trainer, and he tells me what I can improve on every single time I come off the court, like after the game and stuff.

My mom’s just always there for me, and my dad is usually the one that helps me with learning more and more about the game.”

As Schott begins to move ever closer to high school graduation in May, he mentioned giving some thought to playing basketball on the college level.

“If I get an offer from anywhere, then, yeah,” he said, “but if I don’t, I don’t feel like I will reach out and try to get one. I might just go into a trade school.”

Whatever direction Schott decides to take in life, he will have a much stronger foundation after playing basketball under the tutelage of a coach like Hahn, who is helping his players to give 100 percent in their preparation and performance on the court while also keeping a winning attitude in everything they do.