Aurora Christian hit hard by transfers

Updated: July 15, 2011 1:42PM

Back to the drawing board. That, apparently, is where Aurora Christian boys basketball coach Steve Hanson is headed.

It’s been a turbulent flight for the third-year coach since his 15-17 team’s surprising postseason run ended last spring with a loss to Class 2A state champion Hales Franciscan at the Joliet Supersectional.

It included the recent agreement between school officials and Fifth Third Bank that keeps the financially beleaguered school at its Sullivan Road site for another year. But the strain of that dilemma apparently has resulted in a big hit for the program.

Hanson was expecting all five starters back this season but it doesn’t appear likely. He said last week he was expecting to lose his top two scorers from last year’s team.

“I believe Dean Danos is going to a prep school in Indiana and Nick Marema has transferred to Oswego East,” Hanson said.

Danos, the junior point guard who transferred here from Richards before last season, averaged a team-high 19.8 points. Marema, a 6-2 forward, was second on the team with a 12.2 scoring average and second in rebounding with a 7.9 average.

Contacted last week, however, Danos said he had no plans to go to school in Indiana and added that he and his parents were still discussing his senior season plans in the wake of the recent announcement about the financial situation by school administrators.

Danos said the confusion could come from the fact he plays with a Merrillville, Ind.-based AAU team. He said he suffered a leg injury during a workout and wasn’t able to play in June.

“We had an apartment in Aurora last year and ended up going back to Oak Lawn,” he said. “We wanted to find out the news at Aurora Christian. I don’t have a preference, but I had a great experience there last year.”

Neither Marema nor his parents could be reached for comment, but Oswego East coach Jason Buckley confirmed Marema has registered at the school and played with the Wolves this summer.

“We’ll still be pretty good,” Hanson said of his Eagles. “Our junior class is really, really good. We’ll be young, again, but I’m used to that. I think we’ll be solid.”

The team should have decent size with the return of 6-foot-5 C.J. Schutt (10.2 ppg, 8.1 rpg), 6-4 junior Cory Windle and 6-3 junior Ryan McQuade (8.8 ppg, 5.5 rpg). Senior Jake Hanson, junior Ryan Suttle and sophomore Jonathan Harrell would also play key roles.

Win one, lose one

While Buckley was pleased to add a player of Marema’s caliber, he was disappointed that junior guard Thomas Wilder had moved within the district and will be attending Oswego this year.

The 5-7 Wilder was brought up to the Wolves’ varsity during the season and played well. In fact, he had a big game in February when visiting Oswego East won at Oswego in Southwest Prairie Conference play.

A good fit

“He knows all of our guys, having grown up in Oswego,” Buckley said of Marema. “It wasn’t that tough of a transition this summer.

“There’s no question he’s got a feel for the game. We saw him a bunch in previous years at the East Aurora (Christmas) Tournament and we knew of him as an eighth-grader.

“He’s a scorer. He’s got that mentality and he’s really developed his game. He can get in the lane and contort his body and switch hands and find ways to score, and that should help open things up for (junior guard) C.J. Vaughn and (senior forward) Kalmon Stokes.”

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