Jackson hoop star spent summer focused on 'making teammates better'

Jackson High School senior forward Kole Deck looks to pass to a teammate earlier this summer during a game at the Rib City Shootout at the Bearcat Event Center in Dexter.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

The month of August may not bring basketball to the minds of many, but if you are a really talented high school hoopster, then there isn’t a month on the calendar when working on your game can be dismissed.

Jackson High School senior Kole Deck falls into that category, in which striving to develop has to be on his mind because the Indians are going to need him to do a lot this coming winter.

“Kole is our leader,” third-year Indian coach Kory Thoma said earlier this summer. “He’s back and had a really good season.”

The difference for Deck this coming season will be that he won’t have the comfort of having seven seniors on the roster to help take defensive focus and the pressure that comes with that, off of himself.

“Kole can get a shot up anytime he wants to,” Thoma explained of the talented 6-foot-6 perimeter player, “but I don’t need him trying to score 30 points a game. I need the other kids to contribute and get some confidence because we are so young, and then see where we are.”

To Deck’s credit, he has the ability to create for others, just as he can for himself.

“He has to understand his role,” Thoma continued on Deck, “because he has had some really good teammates, and now he has a whole new roster coming back.”

Deck was named First Team All-SEMO Conference after averaging 20 points per game as a junior.

“We’ve been talking about how he is going to have the best defensive player on him,” Thoma said. “He’s got to understand that. My goal for him this summer was to put pressure on Kole to make his teammates better.

“I know what he can do, but how is he going to make his teammates better? That is going to make our team better.”

That will be quite the task.

Under Thoma, the Indians have won a combined 40 games, advanced to the MSHSAA Class 6 State Finals in 2023, and advanced to the Class 6 District 1 title game this past spring.

Deck will be joined by seniors Kolton Thoma (6-foot), Austin Criddle (6-foot-3), Braaden Thompson (6-foot-3), Lee Ivy (6-foot-4), Teaheb Perkins (5-foot-10), and Chris Masters (5-foot-10).