By: Jonathan Szczepaniak | Fraser-Clinton Chronicle | Published January 6, 2025
CLINTON TOWNSHIP — If you’re going to play basketball for head coach Corey Smith and the Big Reds, defense has to be part of your game. There’s no other way around it.
For juniors Joshua Johnson and Brandon Bellante, that was an unfortunate reality check during their sophomore year on the Clinton Township Chippewa Valley boys basketball team.
Both are elite-level scorers who can make things happen no matter where they release the ball from, but it was about stepping up and playing the type of defense Chippewa Valley embraces that made it the top defensive team in the Macomb Area Conference Red last season.
“That was my main priority in the offseason — get better on defense,” Bellante said. “If I wanted to stay on the court, I had to have a defensive role. It was just picking that up and putting my full effort on the court no matter what.”
“I wanted to guard the best players on the other (team) and be able to shut them down or hold them to a certain amount of points to help our team,” Johnson said. “I knew I couldn’t just be an offensive threat. I had to be on both sides of the ball.”
Johnson showed just how crucial he could be offensively last season in the state tournament, leading the Big Reds in scoring in a district championship win over Utica Ford and aiding the offense to a regional semifinals win over Macomb L’Anse Creuse North.
Graduating an entire starting five last year, including an all-conference player in Jordan Wright, Smith needed his guys ready and able to step up.
With Bellante and Johnson taking the steps needed defensively and senior Justin Gloster (a Clinton Township Clintondale transfer) and junior Jaden Brown (returning from an ACL tear in his freshman year) both joining the squad, Chippewa Valley’s offense is at its strongest point in quite some time and a key reason the Big Reds sit at 9-1 this season.
“Justin was a huge addition in terms of his ability to create mismatches,” Smith said. “Brandon (Bellante) and Josh (Johnson) were ready to play offensively last year. Defensively, they both went through their growing pains and that’s why they didn’t play many minutes. They’ve both taken steps to improve their defense. Then we added Jaden Brown, who was injured last year and didn’t play. That was a huge addition as well.”
Other contributors for Chippewa Valley are senior Cassidy Sanders, who Smith calls the “glue of the team”, freshman Izzy Plair, who will be a problem for MAC teams for years to come, senior Jake Clay, and senior Caleb Fowlkes.
Standing at 6 feet, 5 inches tall and an athletic guard/forward, Gloster, an all-conference player last season, can guard from one to five on the court while providing a boost offensively and manning the boards, leading the team in rebounds.
Brown was an ace up the sleeve for Smith and company, returning from the ACL tear he suffered in April of 2023.
The junior guard was sidelined the entirety of his sophomore season, but said he gained a different perspective of the game that translated to the court for him.
“Before, I was just used to playing, playing, playing,” Brown said. “Last year, it allowed me to watch the game and focus on the mental part of it.”
The mental battle was difficult at first with every jump and cut being immediately followed with a concerning thought surrounding the safety of his knee, but Brown’s dominance on the court this season shows he’s playing with a clear mind.
In Chippewa Valley’s season-opening win over Harrison Township L’Anse Creuse, Brown tallied seven points and a team-high eight rebounds. He was just getting his feet back under him, and since then has become one of the primary scorers for the Big Reds.
“He didn’t get cleared until the spring of last year to start playing,” Smith said. “From then until now, it’s been a huge growth in terms of his ability to grow and explode. He’s been such a dynamic player. He’s 6-foot-1 and pushing 200 pounds, and he’s one of the best athletes on the court. He’s such a mismatch for other teams.”
Brown’s pivotal stretch came when he posted 13, 17, and 21 points in three-straight games, all wins for Chippewa Valley.
Chippewa Valley has yet to open league play with its first MAC Red game coming on Jan. 7 as it hosts Macomb Dakota, but jumping out to an impressive start was exactly what Johnson said the team hoped for.
“We felt like we weren’t playing to our potential at the beginning of the season last year, but towards the end of the year we were playing to more where we should’ve been all year,” Johnson said. “This year, we wanted to start from the beginning instead of having to wait.”
Unfortunately, Chippewa Valley at its best wasn’t enough in the regional finals against Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice in a 76-44 loss.
Chippewa Valley’s defense held its previous three playoff opponents under 50 points, but Smith said Brother Rice tested Chippewa Valley’s physicality.
“When I walked out of that game, and we obviously got drummed pretty good in that game, my biggest takeaway wasn’t basketball related. It was how they (Brother Rice) were physically stronger and more explosive than us at every position,” Smith said. “They did to us what we did to most other teams last year, which was overwhelming them with athleticism and tenacious defense. I learned last year that it can get us to a certain point, but it has to be even better if we want to compete at the state level.”
Smith said Chippewa Valley’s physicality was the point of emphasis in the offseason.
“We spent most of the summer in the weight room working on explosiveness and conditioning on trying to build,” Smith said. “They got a long way to go to be better than last year’s team defensively. This team is better offensively. From one to eight, this is a more physically ready team to compete.”
Coming off a trip to the regional championship and already looking like a different team than last year, the expectation around Chippewa Valley basketball is shifting to thinking beyond regionals.
The Big Reds have a squad that is ready to compete against anyone in Division 1, and every player on the roster fully believes this team has the opportunity to do something special this season.
“We definitely have a whole new culture now,” Johnson said. “After we got a taste of what winning feels like, I think we all are really hungry for it again. We’re all pushing and working for it more this year.”