In basketball years, stern taskmaker Ed Wallach is an elder statesmen. While Wallach has roamed sidelines, jawed with officials, and groomed a slew of physical, bar room brawling players well before all of his current players were born, he has not changed his approach or longtime philosophy.
The man is a defensive guru, an old-school coach who can live with an offensively inept unit as long as they execute a rock em’ sock 'em, put-the-clamps-on-them-now brand of defense that instigates turnovers and leaves the opponent fuming.
Defensive pressure has always been Wallach’s calling card. Now, in his first year of coaching girls, Wallach has helped accelerate Putnam Valley's ascent from cellar dwellar to ticket seller.
Wallach, who got his first 914/845 area coaching gig in 1974 (that's right 1974!), has long been proponent of physical, Big East-style basketball. Wallach utilizes a suffocating matchup zone with much emphasis placed both guards pressing throughout.
“Everybody who sees us play will always come away with one thing,” said Wallach, who has helped revive a 7-7 Putnam Valley team that languished in constant turmoil last season.
“The see how hard we play. One of the things we do no matter who we play is we play very good defense. We have great defensive rotation and we double wherever we can. We don’t sit back, we make you play.”
Subscribing to the same "harassing D" philosophy that earned Lakeland berths in the Section 1 finals and semi-finals at the Westchester County Center, Wallach has helped Putnam Valley evolve into a contender in 2011.
“We’ve already made the Sectional playoffs. The difference for us is we are a class B school. Our league is really difficult, as every team is an A school. Now the difference for us is we are going to be playing “B” teams in the playoffs. So, the experience is really fantastic for us.”
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Anybody who witnessed Aquille Carr's high-energy, high-flying game at Baruch College during the Big Apple HS Invitational turned was wowed by the 5-foot-7 Patterson (Md.) guard's 34-point barrage.
Carr doled out four dimes and made some steals that only rarified athletes (looking more like a defensive back picking off a QB) can pull off, en route to racking up eight on the afternoon.
The kid jumps so high, has so much hang time that he can holler at a Jet Blue stewardess before landing on planet earth and depositing an acrobatic layup with two 6-foot-7 behemoths draping him.
Keep an eye on Carr at NBEbasketball.com and other sources as the young gun's game draws Iverson comparisons and elicits more drool than Pavlov's puppy from a laundry-list of major Division-I programs.
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