TREMONT — The Tremont Turks boys basketball team is — in some ways — the type you’d see in a book or movie.
A small-town high school. Players that have known and played with each other since they were in grade school. A home gym that carries age and charm and is rarely not full whenever the team plays.
But the Turks aren’t your average team. Behind a first-year head coach that’s an offensive mastermind and a wealth of guards, Tremont’s ability to light up the scoreboard has it on track to possibly break the program record for wins in a season.
“The ride started off really fun,” Tremont junior Griffin Meeker said. “We started off on a hot streak, and then we kind of went down a little bit, but I feel like our chemistry got a lot better and it's just rolling now.”
“Our mission is simple: we want to be an aligned team with quality, habits, pursuing excellence,” head coach Brian Emich added. “The great thing about this group is when I coach every day, I don't have to coach effort and I don't have to coach attitude.”
The Turks stand in an enviable position, 21-4 overall and 7-1 in Heart of Illinois Conference play with six games left in the regular season. As with any championship team though, the work toward a big season didn’t start the night of the first game.
The Turks had plenty of returners back from last season’s squad that finished 20-12 and bowed out in the Class 2A regional semifinals. But their head coach Troy Schmidt stepped down after the season to become Tremont’s athletic director.
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Finding the right new head coach to lead a team used to continuity can be a meticulous process, especially when Schmidt had been the head coach for 13 years.
Enter Brian Emich, who came to Central Illinois in late 2023 after an assistant coaching stint at Copley High School, outside of Akron, Ohio. Emich, whose daughter, Shelby, plays volleyball for Illinois Central College, has multiple ties to the area and was able to watch the Turks play last season.
“I got to observe from the stands last year and had some kids playing college sports in this area, so we wanted to be out here and around my wife's family,” Emich said.
Emich isn’t the only new face on the sidelines. His new staff includes assistant Logan Pflederer, a former multi-sport star at Tremont who graduated in 2018. Emich and company wasted little time in getting to know their players well before the 2024-25 season started.
“He just got to know us really well at the start, and that definitely helped,” Meeker said. “[They] pressure us every day in practice and I feel like just as we play as a team, we get better every day.”
“He's got great basketball knowledge, some of the best I've ever seen,” senior Ryan Kaiser added. “It's great to see his offensive flows and his new defensive mindset that he brings.”
Kaiser knew the team had high expectations going into the season. But with a new head coach always comes a question mark. Sitting just a half game out of the HOIC lead, that question mark has turned into an exclamation mark.
“We kind of had a goal in mind to obviously get to state and try to chase the win record so we've had a goal to keep ourselves motivated and keep working,” Kaiser said.
Emich has molded Tremont into using its relatively small size to its advantage. The Turks bring a load of energy into any gym they step foot in, playing uptempo games with quick possessions.
That brand of basketball was on display in a 64-54 win over Heyworth on Feb. 4, where Tremont led 51-48 with 2:39 left in the game following a pair of Hornet free throws. Turks junior Josh Papenhause hit a three on the next possession, then Kaiser — a shorter, but electric, guard — came away with a steal that led to a quick midrange jumper from Meeker and a 56-48 lead.
“We're undersized pretty much in every game play,” Emich said. “So we have to be physical, we have to be aggressive, we have to box out, get on the boards, and really, we gotta use our speed and athleticism to score in transition.”
After forcing a stop, Tremont worked the ball around quickly and Meeker found Miller Reynolds for a corner three that capped an 8-0 run that took just 1 minute and 11 seconds.
“We play better in a little bit of a [chaotic] environment so when we sped the game up early, I felt like it gave us some of the advantages that we need,” Emich said. “[The type of play] in the last three to four minutes is why we have 21 wins.”
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There are several other factors that have played a role in Tremont’s strong season. One is the home crowd and student section, which has turned out in big numbers to support the Turks in their success.
“It helps at home because our environment is crazy, our student section is always big, our fans are always into it just as much as we are,” Meeker said. “Also we've been playing against each other since we were young, so that definitely helps.”
Ironically enough, Meeker is one of few Turks to not have grown up around his current teammates during his formative years after moving to the school district when he was a freshman. Kaiser, who has played with fellow senior Luke McLean since Upward Basketball in first grade, notes that regardless of their background, every player on the team meshes well together.
“Our chemistry I feel like it's the best in the state and I feel like we're the one of the hardest-working teams so we're always gonna out-work the other team and hustle no matter what,” Kaiser said.
It’s easy to see how the chemistry, mixed with Emich’s coaching, has paid off. Tremont averages 67.1 points per game and has scored 70-plus on 11 occasions this season, including a season-high 94 points in a win over Flanagan-Cornell on Jan. 14.
Emich notes Kaiser’s energy, IQ and leadership abilities but contributions have been pouring in from every corner of the roster as well. Papenhause, Reynolds, Kaiser, Meeker, McLean and Andrew Dawson are just a few of the Turks that can put their stamp on any given game.
“I think what makes us special though is of all our starting five, they can all score 15 to 20 points any given night,” Emich said. “We've been very balanced this year from an offensive standpoint overall.”
All of those players are playing hungry this year, as Tremont hasn’t won a regional since 2019. Kaiser and his teammates saw Turks stars of yesteryear add to the school’s trophy case.
They’ve added to it already this season with a title at the Peoria Heights Thanksgiving Tournament and a third-place finish at the Williamsville Holiday Tournament. However, they want more, including to win six more games which would set a new program record.
“When we were younger, we used to watch those teams like you can see up there [on the wall], the successful teams that won regional championships and won the HOI Conference,” Kaiser said. “When you're younger, it's inspirational to see those guys like Landon [Pflederer] and Titus Thompson.”
“We haven't won a regional since 2019, it’s been a long time and I feel like this year's one of our years for that,” Meeker said. “Definitely regionals, but after that, I feel like we can go farther too.”
Emich is thinking about a postseason run too, including from the moment he wakes up. The things they needed to fix, he said, in order to do so were accomplished in the win over Heyworth.
“Us coaches, we don't sleep a lot, and we think about basketball all the time and I kind of woke up a week ago and I said, ‘If we don't dramatically improve some of our defensive issues, we're gonna lose early in the postseason,’” Emich said. “And I think when you watch postseason basketball, it becomes slower.”
“Our emphasis coming in was we have to be better fundamentally on the defensive side of the court and I thought we did a good job of that.”
A Friday game at home against Tri-Valley will go a long way in determining Tremont’s path to the HOIC regular season title. The Vikings (19-5, 7-0 HOIC) lead the Turks by a half-game in the conference standings and have plenty of size on the floor.
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But don’t tell Emich that. With what the Turks have, there’s no reason for him or anyone else not to believe in what they can do.
“They are very competitive and they show up and they play hard.”