Euler lives Warrior Basketball
01.24.08 :: West Chicago Press :: By John Barrett
West Chicago, IL -
When Ben Euler says he grew up watching Wheaton Academy basketball, he’s not exaggerating.
His dad, Andy, was head coach (and Bible Department chairperson) for 11 years and during that time the Eulers lived close by. Their house was about 150 feet from the gym, located where the school’s Fine Arts Building is today.
“I was in there all the time, on weekends, late at night shooting around with my brother, Jordan (2003 Wheaton Academy grad),” Euler said.
Ben would film the varsity’s games, then eat pizza and watch tape with his dad afterwards, developing not only a tighter bond with his father but a greater understanding of the game. He was also ballboy for the soccer games.
So when Andy Euler became head coach at Covenant College, an NAIA school located in Lookout Mountain, Ga. (less than 10 miles southwest of Chattanooga, Tenn.) for the 2006-07 season, Ben moved down there for the summer and spent one week attending Chattanooga Christian.
Even before the week was up, Ben was unhappy.
“The main reason I didn’t like it was that it wasn’t Wheaton Academy,” Euler said. “The culture shock of moving from the Chicago suburbs to rural Tennessee might have had something to do with it but it was really because of Wheaton Academy, which is a very unique place, very unique school in a lot of different ways.”
Even though it meant leaving his family and possibly going without basketball for his junior year, Ben wanted to come home.
“He missed his friends but Ben also wanted to come back because the school down there was not as college-prep oriented as Wheaton Academy,” said Warriors head coach Paul Ferguson. “The IHSA ruled him ineligible for only 30 days during the fall so he didn’t miss any basketball.”
Returning to Illinois, Euler moved in with the family of John Keith, former principal and current chief operating officer at Wheaton Academy and close friends of the Eulers.
That allowed him to maintain his lifelong commitment to the program, part of what drives Euler to succeed.
“Initially it was the toughest decision I’ve ever made in my life,” Euler said of coming back. “I had the whole summer to think it over and it was so stressful I was just killing myself. I originally decided to stay, thinking it was the right thing to do, but after some time I made the decision to come back and I’m very happy I did.”
His years of hard work have paid off with a sweet, repeatable stroke from the perimeter and in the last couple of years he has developed not only a greater talent at driving to the basket but also at hitting that mid-range shot.
“Ben has shot more jump shots in our gym than anyone else ever,”
Ferguson said. “He’s invested so much into the game and into the program, it means a lot to him. The other half of that is his tremendous work ethic. He’s a great example for the rest of the guys and a coach’s dream because he understands the importance of practice and goes hard all the time.”
“He’s not the most vocal person but he is the hardest working high school player I’ve ever been around, and that includes all the kids I recruited while I was at Wheaton College,” Ferguson added.
That kind of commitment and discipline should help Euler succeed at the collegiate level and he definitely wants to continue his basketball career beyond high school.
Aside from his basketball skills to attract colleges, Ben has a knack for computers. He downplays those talents but they can be seen on the basketball team’s Web site, www.wheatonacademybasketball.org, where he helps Chris Welinski, the school’s sports information director, design the site and post updates, game summaries, statistics and sometimes photos. Ben also does work for the rest of the school’s athletic teams.
“I’ve had numerous college coaches tell me that it is the best basketball Web site they’ve ever been on — high school or college,” Ferguson said. “Ben is an extremely mature young man and I know he wants to study the Bible in college, but I can also see him doing some kind of communication or sports information work after college.”
Euler is not sure if he wants to become a pastor or high school religion teacher or delve into the world of sports information.
“Money is a factor but I want to go somewhere that if basketball was taken away from me I could still be happy there,” Euler said. “I’m looking for a good Christian college in a good community, the type of community that Wheaton Academy is.”
Before Euler decides which college he’ll attend, he has the rest of this season to worry about. It’s been a pretty successful one (the Warriors’ 12-4 overall record as of Jan. 22 matches last season’s win total) but is fast nearing completion as the playoffs begin in about a month.
As the season winds down, Ben has been able to display his diverse basketball talents in front of his mother and younger sister, Hannah, with whom he lives in Warrenville, along the border with West Chicago.
“I was thinking that exact thing the other week — I’m really not sure how I’m going to handle it when the season’s over,” Euler said. “It’s a strange feeling knowing it’ll all be over soon. I just want to make some memories here.”
Euler by numbers
17.6 points per game
4.8 rebounds per game
2.1 assists per game
1.5 steals per game
2.4 3-pointers made per game
3 Number of time he hasn’t lead his team in scoring this season