Last season, Fresno City Basketball coach, Ed Madec took a group of predominantly freshman players and won the California State Championship.
This season, their goal is to win another State Championship this season.
Madec recognizes that his team has a target on their backs, “I’ve watched teams get so emotionally high that I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He went on to talk about how his players now understand that the other teams are going to give them their best shot. “We just have to be mentally ready to go every night.”
The Coach wants his team to go from being good to being a great team, “I’ve learned this year that there is a process that you have to get caught up in,” The Coach went on to say that
“It’s a day in and day out process that could be grinding.” He also mentioned, “Commitment & focus are standards that you have to be willing to perform every day.”
The team philosophy is based on all the aspects of toughness, mentally, physically.
“I like our team to pride ourselves on being unified and then identify people’s roll and then put them in the position to make the most of their ability within their role.” Madec said.
He learned his tough philosophy from his Grandfather, George Madec, whom happens to be a former war prisoner in German prison camps.
When the Coach talked about his grandfather toughness, it was clear why toughness was his philosophy. “I learned how to become a man from watching him, because he rarely made an excuse about anything.” Coach Madec continued talking about his grandfather, “He never wanted any sympathy, he never felt sorry for himself, and he was extremely mentally tough like any person that I have ever seen.”
Coach Madec understands that his players aren’t just here to play basketball, so basketball isn’t all he teaches the young players.
The coach is sort of a philosopher, “In about five to ten years not many people are going to remember if we won, if we lost or how many points somebody scored, we are here for many other reasons than just basketball.”
Getting his players to graduate, transfer and become productive members of our society is part of their governing philosophy.
Coach Madec can remember watching his grandfather, a mechanical engineer, almost cut his hand off with a band saw, while bleeding profusely and he wrapped a towel around it, to stop the bleed, then he went back to work.
“I was very fortunate to be around my grand parents the majority of my life and see them set a real good example of how to work hard.”
He also learned from his grandparents that a person’s race or religion doesn’t matter because in the business that they owned, they hired people based on their ability to do the job and not race.
Like his grandfather, Madec doesn’t play favorites.
His starting five players are Thomas Ammon, forward; Mike Marcial, point guard; Artie Williams, forward; Corey Billingsly, shooting guard; and Marlond Burnett, combo guard.
Madec said of Ammon, “If you look up the definition of warrior, you may see a picture of him,” Coach Madec said. He believes that Ammon is one of the toughest kids he has ever coached.
The Coach said that Ammon, who was red a shirt last year, played a major role in helping his team win the state championship last year, because he practices just as hard as he plays in the game.
“He is a great leader that leads by example,” something Madec learned by watching his grandfather, who didn’t talk much but was a real leaders. “This guy’s action speaks way louder than his words,” said Coach Madec.
Mike Marcial is another “tremendous leader.” The coach describes Marcial as a person that has the ability to make people better around him.
Williams is a big time player who dad played for Fresno State. The Coach considers Williams to be a special player. The Coach can remember the first day that Williams walked in the gym and practiced with the team, “I played that day and when I was play with him, I fell in love with his style of play.”
The Coach knew at that point that Williams could really help his team. He also considers Williams as a “gift from God.” He has a great attitude, “he is just a genuinely good person. The more time you spend with Artie, the more you will like him.”