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Polish couple look up former Manual star on their basketball mission

By In News

By Dave Reynolds
OF THE JOURNAL STAR
Posted Jul. 21, 2014 @ 8:12 pm

PEORIA — It’s a small world, after all.
Former Manual basketball star Brandun Hughes discovered that this summer when he received a Facebook message from a Polish man named Sebastian Zwolak.
The pair played for the same coach in Poland four years apart. Nothing extraordinary about that.
What was unusual was Zwolak was sending the message … from Peoria. He’s here with his wife, Daria Mieloszynska-Zwolak, who played basketball at Illinois Central College for Lorene Ramsey from 2002-04.
The couple has been in Peoria for seven weeks this summer conducting basketball and conditioning camps for kids at the YMCA and the Dream Center.
‘Ten minutes after sending the message, my phone rang,’ Zwolak said. ‘Somebody said in Polish, ‘How are you doing?’ in an American accent.’
It was Hughes, who spent seven years playing professionally in Poland. He also played in Israel, Germany, Slovenia and Serbia, retiring in 2010.
‘The Facebook post caught me completely off guard,’ said Hughes, who’s back home working at Trinity Social Services. ‘I remember Sebastian vaguely from when I played there. It’s a small world. Especially the basketball world.’
Zwolak recalled Hughes much better.
‘Brandun was a star in our league,’ Zwolak said.
With the help of the Journal Star, the trio met in person for the first time last week at Peoria High, where Hughes was spending the week as an instructor in Shaun Livingston’s Pride of Peoria basketball clinic.
They spent a long while catching up before Hughes had to get back to work.
The Zwolaks knew more Peorians than Hughes at the clinic. Their camp experience here acquainted them with several of the campers at Livingston’s clinic. Daria also re-connected with camp coach Tim Sack, a longtime ICC men’s basketball assistant.
The Zwolaks operate a nonprofit organization called Warrior International Training, which teaches athletes strength and conditioning, nutrition and injury prevention. While here, they’ve also done volunteer community work at the Hult Center.
Zwolak works mostly with professional athletes in Poland, including the 6-foot-2 Daria, who has been a pro on the women’s European basketball circuit since finishing her college career at the University of Texas eight years ago. Her season with the Zamarat club team in Spain starts in October.
‘I resigned from the Poland National Team so I could have time in the summer to do other things,’ she said. ‘It’s nice to have my personal trainer with me.’
They will head back to Poland later this week. Until then, they’ll continue working with Peoria kids.
‘It’s a true blessing to be able to interact with kids and see how easily they grasp all the information we give them,’ Daria said. ‘Peoria is a basketball city. Here, everybody plays basketball. It’s a different mindset than Europe. We have school teams, but they aren’t the kids who play professionally. The club teams select the kids when they are young and they are the ones who go on to play.’ Said Sebastian: ‘We really love Peoria.’

 

Hughes has similarly fond feelings for the Zwolaks’ homeland.
‘Poland is close to my heart,’ he said. ‘Some of my best friends live there. I picked up the language, liked the food. The people there are awesome, so friendly and laid back.’
Now 38, Hughes, who played college ball at Barton County Community College (Kan.), Michigan and Southern Indiana, looks like he could still play.
‘I think I retired too soon,’ he told the Zwolaks. ‘I can still run with the 18-year-olds.’
‘Yes, but how do you feel the next morning?’ Daria asked with a smile. ‘That is the key.’
Hughes could only laugh at the truth of that statement.
While he won’t be playing in Poland anymore, Hughes wants to get back there to reunite with his 9-year-old son, Brandun Jr. Another son, 8-year-old Eryk, lives in England.
‘They’re going to meet each other for the first time this summer,’ he said.