Titans’ Siegfried bringing success and passion for basketball full circle for his family

NAUVOO, Ill. — When Doug Siegfried watches his nephew Lewis Siegfried play for the West Hancock boys basketball team, it’s almost as if he’s stepped into a time machine.

He cannot help but feel like he is watching his brother — Lewis’ father Mike Siegfried — play for Nauvoo-Colusa in the 1990s.

“He reminds me so much of Mike,” Doug Siegfried said. “He’s the same player as he was.”

Mike sees it, too.

“When I see him out there competitive-wise, it’s very similar to how I played, kind of wearing your emotions on your sleeve for everybody to see and sometimes letting everybody know, ‘Hey, I just made a nice shot. Just remember that,’ that kind of thing,” Mike Siegfried said.

Whether it’s their styles of play or their demeanors, in Doug’s eyes, Mike and Lewis are mirror images of each other.

“Mike was a really good shooter, Lewis is a really good shooter,” Doug Siegfried said. “They’re also really aggressive driving to the basket. It’s full circle watching him play because he reminds me so much of his dad.

“Don’t piss (Mike) off because he’s a different person when he’s on the court. Lewis has the exact same thing. You can tell when he gets a little frustrated. You can see it come out of him just like his dad. It’s so fun to watch.”

Lewis, a senior guard, has helped West Hancock reach No. 8 in the Associated Press Class 2A state rankings heading into this week’s Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament as the No. 1 seed, and while Lewis still has some of that fire that his dad had, Titans coach Jeff Dahl said Lewis has toned it down a notch or two.

“Over the last year, I’m really proud of the way he’s changed,” Dahl said. “He’s not emotional on every call. We’re going, ‘Next play, next play.’ He’s cooled that down so much that it’s really helped him instead of reacting to everything.”

Mike has noticed a difference, as well.

“He’s calmed down a little bit with things you can’t control, whether that’s a call going the other way or not thinking it went the right way,” Mike Siegfried said. “He’s done a much better job this year of not worrying about it and moving on to the next play. 

“He was that kid when he lost the game, he was mad for a day or two. He would just hate it when he would lose. This year, he’s done a lot better if he’s done something that didn’t shake out or if he doesn’t like the way something’s happening. He lets it go.”

Lewis has made a conscious effort to improve in that aspect.

“I’ve gotten so much better at not talking trash,” Lewis Siegfried said. “People see that, coaches see that, so I’ve gotten a lot better since last year not doing that on the court.”

Lewis just takes the trash talk elsewhere.

“When I’m with my friends or my dad, I always will talk trash,” he said.

In terms of skill level, Lewis does not mind at all getting compared to his father.

“I’ve never really seen any videos of my dad playing. I wish I could because the way he describes himself, he was a really good player,” Lewis Siegfried said.

Mike allowed himself the freedom to humbly brag.

“I was pretty decent for the area,” said Mike Siegfried, who was a second-team all-area selection in 1996 and represented Nauvoo-Colusa in the McDonald’s/Herald-Whig Classic. “I started as a freshman, and I led our team in scoring for three years, but I also led our team in assists because that was my biggest thing.”

Mike was a good enough shooter to participate in the IHSA Class A Three-Point Shootout as a junior in 1995. Even still, Lewis thinks he is the better shooter.

“I’ve got to say myself,” Lewis Siegfried said.

Mike gave the nod to his son, too.

“I’ll give it to him. He gets pretty dialed in anymore,” Mike Siegfried said. “I’m not going to lie, I was a pretty decent shooter back in the day, but I’ll say him probably. We didn’t shoot as many 3-pointers back then as they do now.”

Considering the confidence Lewis has in himself, Mike was not surprised that Lewis said himself.

“I’m sure he did,” Mike Siegfried said.

But in Mike Siegfried fashion, a little trash talk ensued.

“There aren’t any YouTube videos he can watch of us playing though,” Mike Siegfried said.

Lewis’ 45 percent 3-point shooting percentage this season, up from 31 percent as a junior, provides ample evidence.

“These last few years have been crazy with how much I’ve progressed and gotten better at 3-point shooting,” Lewis Siegfried said.

Dahl has seen steady progression from Lewis in several areas.

“When he came in as a freshman, we challenged him to learn how to shoot because he couldn’t at all,” Dahl said. “He did what we said, and by the next year, he was a 3-point shooter. The next year, he got to be better at every phase pretty much. This last year, we challenged him to really change his body, and he’s put on a lot of muscle and he’s way stronger, and he’s more efficient.”

Dahl has had the unique opportunity to both coach Lewis and coach against Lewis’ father and uncle. Dahl was the head coach at Warsaw High School from 1994 to 2001 and won a Class A state title in 1997.

“Every time we played Nauvoo, all of Hancock County was there,” Dahl said. “I always enjoyed those games. I remember people standing outside our gyms in the middle of the winter, like in Dallas City, and looking in the windows to watch our games at the Hancock County Tournament.”

The year after Dahl’s Titans won their state title, the crown stayed in Hancock County as Nauvoo-Colusa made an improbable run to a Class A state championship in Doug Siegfried’s senior season.

Mike Siegfried, who graduated from Nauvoo-Colusa in 1996, and some of his former teammates formed a practice squad that helped the ‘98 team in their state title pursuit.

“That was pretty cool,” Mike Siegfried said. “That’s something that I didn’t appreciate as much back then because I was 20 years old, but looking back on it now, you realize how big of a deal it was.”

Doug Siegfried said Vikings coach Reno Pinkston knew what he was doing when he organized that practice squad.

“Reno brought in that group because they were physical and they just beat the hell out of us, getting us ready for our run,” Doug Siegfried said. “It definitely helped us. It was fun to get to play against (Mike) again, too.”

These practices reminded Doug of some pickup games in the driveway with Mike and their oldest brother, Andy.

“I was the youngest, so they were always beating the crap out of me,” Doug Siegfried said. “I knew it helped prepare me for high school ball because I was used to getting pushed around by the bigger guys.”

While Mike and Doug got after each other in their younger days, when it comes to Lewis, Doug has become the “fun uncle.”

“That’s my job,” Doug Siegfried said. “I critique my own kids just like Mike does, then he tells my kids how good of a job they did. I just try to lift (Lewis) up and give him a ton of confidence. I just try to build him up and keep everything positive.”

The critiques are reserved for Mike.

“My dad’s always been that way, but you need that,” Lewis Siegfried said. “You can’t just have someone telling you you’re doing well. If you’re not doing well, you need to have someone to tell you that.”

The critique comes from a place of love, though.

“I worked at a juvenile detention center for 20 years. You have to point out the things they do well because everybody has to get positive reinforcement, but if you don’t address the things that need to be cleaned up, they’re not going to get cleaned up,” Mike Siegfried said. “You don’t want to tear them down, but you have to let them know the things they can improve on so they keep getting better.”

Lewis has taken all that criticism, bottled it up and put it to good use on the court.

“He does a good job with it,” Mike Siegfried said. “He knows that when I talk to him about stuff that it’s coming from a caring spot. I’m not doing it to make him feel bad or bring him down. It’s just more of ‘What can you do better so the next game things go even better?’”

As long as the positive reinforcement keeps working, too, Doug will keep playing his role.

“I’ll keep pumping the confidence, being the fun uncle, keeping him in good spirits, and hopefully we’ll have something to celebrate,” Doug Siegfried said.

Someday, Lewis might be the fun uncle, the critic dad or both.

“(Basketball has) always been around, and it’s probably never going to go away,” Lewis Siegfried said. “It’ll be around our family forever probably.”