TOLEDO, Ohio — A household name is making his own way. Race Kowalczyk, son of Toledo men's basketball head coach Tod Kowalczyk, has risen to the occasion.
“I feel a little bit of pressure but it doesn’t get to me, I just go out and play," the St. John's sophomore varsity basketball player said. “I just want to make them proud and be the best I can be."
Kowalczyk averages 14-and-a-half points and five rebounds per game.
"I watch film by myself and Coach (Mike) Schoen prepares us very well in practice and he’ll walk through before the game," Kowalczyk said. “I focus on who’s guarding me, who’s going to guard me and the sets they run defensively and what we run and I just find spots and get open and let the game come to me."
Schoen described Kowalczyk as a competitive gym rat who refuses to settle for the success he has already built.
“I want to become the best defender I can be, I think I haven’t shown how good of a defender I can be, but I think I will the next two years," Kowalczyk said. "Because that’s what my team needs out of me, I think we’ll take the next jump when all five can defend and we can switch and we’ll be really dangerous when we can do that”."
The Titans currently sit at a 12-6 record overall and respect Kowalczyk as one of their leaders, which he has earned through his physicality on the court and vocality off the court.
“It’s fun. They really do listen to me which is surprising coming in here," he said. I didn’t really think they were going to accept me as a leader but they did and they followed me, [Jaylen Murphy] and [Joseph Taylor] and it’s been good so far. I think we’re a little bit deeper than I have been on teams in the past and that’s nice to rely on other guys off the bench and having three seniors that are very vocal and that play basketball pretty well."
Kowalczyk is not stopping, either.
“I want to continue to score and be as much of a vocal leader as I can be and rebound and take pride defensively and just take my team as far as I can," he said.