Coach Josh Belluomini started from the bottom and now he’s here…at Bishop Noll. When Belluomini first joined at coaching basketball for Bishop Noll, he was a fresh- men coach. The following year he was the JV coach, and now he’s head varsity coach. Coach Belluomini, who will replace for- mer head coach Drew Trost, brings a lot of different things to the table.
A good thing about Coach Belluomini is that he isn’t new to the Noll basketball system. Although he wasn’t head varsity coach, he’s been around the program and is familiar with all of the players. Since he isn’t new, this won’t be a learning experi- ence for him or the team. Coach Belluo- mini has a very diverse background play- ing in the Chicago Catholic League and coaching in the Chicago Public School League. Coach Belluomini plans on taking both of these experiences and incorporating them into what the team has already done under Coach Trost.
“I had several guys come up to me and tell me they wanted to get Bowman on the schedule this year because we wanted to take a major step as a team and beat them,” Belluomini said.
With this year Bowman not being in our sectional to the students may seem like a good thing. It makes Noll’s section- als a little easier to play in, but to the team and coach, it’s a different story.
Belluomini really liked this idea because it showed how competitive the team is and how they want to beat a good team instead of running away from a challenge. Un- fortunately though, Noll won’t be playing Bowman, but they will be playing some other really good teams.
Belluomini has big expectations this year’s season. His expectations are to win conference and be ranked in the area by the end of the year. The biggest goal Belluomini and the team have is a big State run and championship.
“We have a senior-heavy team and these guys have worked very hard over the last four years to be in a position to make a serious run at State,” he said.
With only one senior graduating last year, SG Matt Sandoval, the team still has a several strong varsity players.
“To win a state championship it’s going to take a lot of people stepping their game up,” Belluomini said.
In other words, it’s going to take a team effort if they want to accomplish their goals. Noll’s loss in the sectional final hurt them from making a serious run in the State tournament. The hunger is there. Fans can expect a lot more out of the team with the large number of seniors, and this is their last year. Go big or go home.