RIVERSIDE – Being the coach’s daughter can be tough on both the player and the coach, but Morton coach Joe Maietta and his daughter, Chloe Maietta, a junior point guard, seem to be enjoying the extra time together.

Chloe is in her third season on varsity after joining the Mustangs’ varsity team midway through her freshman year, even earning a spot in the starting lineup before the end of the season. Joe is in his second year as head coach, although he was an assistant in the program previously.

The two are playing their parts to engineer Morton’s improved girls basketball program.

“I actually really like it,” Chloe said. “He pushes me. He’s a lot harder on me. I hear it here and then I hear it at home, so I like the feedback and I like having him as my coach.”

Chloe runs the show for Morton. She is a strong ballhandler with plenty of varsity experience and has some talented players to set up in her role as point guard.

“Her scoring is down, but she is getting the ball to our scorers,” Joe said of his daughter. “[Jasmine] Davis is a big-time scorer and Mar [Maryam Wilcher] is a prolific scorer, so I’m happy with that.”

Even though the Mustangs dropped the first two games of pool play at the Riverside Brookfield Holiday Tournament, losing a 56-51 game against Niles North and a 66-49 loss against St. Ignatius, Joe is seeing the improvement in his team. He complimented the play of Chloe in distributing the ball, saying the team moved the ball as well as they had all year in the loss to Niles North.

He didn’t always coach his daughter when she was growing up. Chloe wanted to play a sport when sixth grade rolled around and wasn’t sure what she wanted to play. Dad suggested basketball and Chloe took to it quickly.

“I got into it and just fell in love with the game,” Chloe said.

She’s moved around between point guard and shooting guard, but has settled into playing the point for Morton. It’s a crucial position because of the impact it has on the team’s offense, but that’s what Chloe likes about it.

“I like it and then I don’t because if I mess up I’m letting the team down, but I have control of the tempo so I like that as well,” she said.

The Mustangs’ rough patch at R-B, which was preceded by an overtime loss against Willowbrook, is the first time the team has lost consecutive games this season.

“Overall I think we’ve been playing well,” Chloe said. “We’ve had a few rough patches that we’ve got to clean up in practice, but overall compared to previous years I feel like we’re a solid team and hopefully we can keep improving on that.”

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