LISBON — Jonah Sautter barely finished congratulating his teammates on Lisbon’s Unified basketball team for winning their season-opener when a whistle blew, signalling the start of practice for the boys’ basketball team.
Sautter changed out of his game garb and into his practice gear as the Greyhounds prepared for Wednesday night’s big late-season game against Mt. Abram.
Sautter, a junior, is one of the Unified team’s “partners,” student-athletes who serve as peer support and coaches for the mentally and physically disadvantaged athletes.
A basketball junkie whose parents, Doug and Nicole, have both been involved in coaching Lisbon sports, Sautter joined his older sister, Bree, on the Unified team’s bench as a coach last season. He quickly found that as much of the basketball knowledge as he can impart to the players, the lessons they give back can’t be quantified.
“I teach them some things, but in a lot of ways they’re teaching me — to enjoy everything and life’s not always about winning and losing,” Sautter said.
“He’s the perfect fit for a program like this because he’s an all-around good kid, good student, good athlete,” Lisbon Unified coach Terri Tlumac said. “He’s a face of Lisbon and that’s a great role model and great for the town to see him in a different light.”
A soccer and track and field standout, Sautter is at his best, and most comfortable, on a basketball court. His wiry 6-foot frame doesn’t make him stand out on the court, and he is the first to admit his athleticism won’t leave crowds gasping. But he is one of the most complete players in the Mountain Valley Conference.
“He’s a very intelligent basketball player,” Lisbon boys’ coach Jake Gentle said. “He understands he’s not the quickest guy, but you don’t have to be the quickest guy. He understands how to use his body. He understands how to use angles. He understands how to use fakes and jab steps to create space for him to get shots.”
Creating space becomes more and more of a challenge for Sautter as word has spread through the league of his scoring ability. A three-year starter who was primarily a perimeter scorer the last two years, he’s become much more proficient at going to the hoop and posting up when the matchup calls for it, and opponents aren’t willing to give him the room to operate they have in the past.
“Teams try to target him, so they’ll throw some junk defenses like a diamond-and-one or a box-and-one at him, and he does a good of running off screens with that. If he gets the ball and he’s not in scoring position, he helps create opportunities for other guys,” Gentle said.
“It’s definitely been a struggle when they have people face-guarding me sometimes,” Sautter said. “It’s hard to get points off of the that. But if they’re focusing on me, we have other players that can score, and that opens them up.”
Sautter’s cerebral approach to the game gives him some latitude to improvise at both ends of the floor.
“Defensively, he does a very good job as a secondary defender,” Gentle said. “He’ll move over and get blocks from behind. He’s got very quick hands. He’s gotten a lot of steals either picking guys’ pockets or getting his hands in passing lanes.”
Sautter has led the Greyhounds to an 8-7 record and has them in the thick of the Class B South tournament hunt. After reaching the regional quarterfinals last year, he’s hoping to lead them deeper into the tournament this year.
“It all comes down to the playoffs and that’s when we need to play our best,” Sautter said. “We’ve got to realize it doesn’t matter who we’re playing as long as we’re working together as a team.”
Lisbon’s Unified team reached the state final in Sautter’s first year, so he knows what he’s talking about. Gentle believes Sautter’s role with the Unified team and his coaching genes have helped him take on more of a leadership role with the boys’ team this year.
Sautter credits that to the perspective his Unified teammates have given him.
“When I get frustrated, I just think of them and how they don’t have the abilities I have and some of the other guys here have, but they can come out here and do the stuff we can,” Sautter said. “I can’t take for granted what I have.”
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