Gage Kreski: Also a safety.
In December 2012, St. Ignace began its season against Cedarville, one of the best teams in the Upper Peninsula.
St. Ignace’s Gage Kreski was only a freshman, but he had earned a spot in the starting lineup.
The first time the Saints got the ball, Kreski flashed into the high post, received a pass, drove to the basket and scored.
Nothing to this high school basketball, he thought.
“I did actually think that, for a second,” he said, laughing. “And then we got smoked.”
Little did he know, but those first two points were the beginning of a tremendous high school career, one in which Kreski, 6 feet 3, has become one of the most prolific scorers in state history and only the fifth U.P. player to surpass 2,000 points.
“I knew I could get it after my junior year,” he said. “I kind of figured I was going to get it, but I really don’t care how much I score, I want my team to win.”
Kreski is in a catch-22 of sorts. He scores a lot of points because he is trying to help his team win. If he didn’t score a lot, the Saints (15-2) would not win.
As he progressed through high school, Kreski emerged as a flat-out scorer, averaging 29.8 points this season, but he isn’t a pure shooter. He does not sit behind the three-point line and launch bomb after bomb.
Kreski is more of a blue-collar scorer. He drives to the basket, grabs offensive rebounds, posts up smaller guards and even takes on bigger guys and turns steals into lay-ups.
He has spent countless hours with coach Doug Ingalls perfecting ways to put the ball in the basket. “Coach Ingalls taught me a lot of stuff that helps out with the scoring,” he said. “Dribble driving and baseline moves to dribbling to shoot … anything, Coach Ingalls taught me all that stuff.”
That is why surpassing the 2,000-point mark didn’t have Kreski doing somersaults.
“I’m not surprised, but a lot of the points came from my teammates getting steals and all that,” he said. “I didn’t make all the points — my teammates helped me out a lot.”
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Speaking of steals, Kreski is pretty good at that, too. He is the state’s best of all time.
Last month he surpassed the career record of 363 steals held by Pinckney’s Matt Taylor (1997-2000) and has 421 entering tonight’s game at Cheboygan.
“It helps to have good hands,” he said. “Anticipating and being in the right spot. I guess its court awareness.”
Kreski’s first love was basketball, but in the fall he will be a safety on Central Michigan’s football team.
“I’ve worked really hard at basketball, I know that,” he said. “I love football, and my body is kind of cut out to be football player a little more. I work really hard at football, too.”
With 2,067 points, three regular-season games and at least one state playoff game left, Kreski has an excellent chance to surpass the U.P. record of 2,140 Dom Jacobetti scored for Negaunee St. Paul in 1962-65.
“It’s a big deal, but like I said, it’s more important to be winning games right now than worrying about a scoring record,” Kreski said. “If we’re winning games, I have to score a bunch, so that’s just going to come.”
Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.