Elmont's Elechi gets message from his coach

@CoachHolub: "Never let anyone out work you or out hustle you. Ever."

@CoachHolub: "Attitude is everything, so pick a good one."

@CoachHolub: "Most people fail because they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment."

Elmont's Anthony Elechi doesn't have a cell phone.

But whenever the senior basketball player logs on to his Twitter account, he's peppered with the motivational musings of his tech-savvy coach, George Holub.

"I'm surprised he got this far with computers," the 6-6 forward said of his 48-year-old coach. "You wouldn't think he's good at all these technical things, but, it is 2011. He knows things like Twitter and Facebook take up most of our time outside basketball."

Indeed, in this digital age, coaches must find new ways to reach out to their teams. It's working for the Spartans, who have won nine straight games after a 1-2 start and are tied with Great Neck South at 8-1 in Nassau Conference AA-III.

Elechi, who laughed when he first saw his coach's posts (and his Spartans logo avatar), is certainly getting the message. He needed the motivation after suffering a slightly torn patella training for the Metro Classic in late October.

He returned to action on Dec. 15 against Long Island Lutheran and scored seven points in a 79-61 loss. Two days later, he scored just four points in a 52-48 loss to Bellmore JFK in the conference opener. Said Elechi: "We had a rocky start."

Added Holub: "We didn't have our footing yet . We were still recovering because the Lutheran game was such a massacre."

The Spartans haven't lost since. Elechi is averaging 14.4 points during the winning streak, which is high for this defensive-minded team. Elmont hasn't allowed more than 47 points in a game during its streak. "Our goal every game is to keep a team around 40 [points]," the eighth-year coach said. "If a team scores in the 50s, we're in trouble. We're not the most talented team on offense."

That's not exactly true. Dillon Williams is a multifaceted point guard who can find his co-captain Elechi for easy baskets, nail outside shots or take it to the rack himself. Tyler DeChalus, Robert Chambers and Michael Dugue are excellent secondary scorers who can hit shots from anywhere on the court, and Greg Senat is a force in the paint.

En route to last Friday's game at Bellmore JFK, all those guys got a 109-character message from their coach.

@CoachHolub: On our way to the biggest game of the year. We've waited a month for another shot @ BJFK. 3 hours to gametime.

Said Holub of the tweet: "It was payback time."

They won 63-44 behind Elechi's 15 points and 10 rebounds. Elmont won't get revenge from last season's three-point loss to Westbury in the Nassau Class A final. The Spartans moved up to Class AA this year. With perennial power Uniondale off to an uneven start and Baldwin feasting on some lesser competition in Conference AA-II, does that leave the door open for the Spartans to sneak into the county title conversation?

"I don't wanna say we're a good team, because the minute we say that, we'll go bad again," Holub said. "The kids will get big egos from the headlines."

Can't he just bring them back down to Earth on Twitter?

"He knows when to play around and when to play hard," Elechi said. "He molds you into the type of player you have to be to win games."

Every morning when Holub wakes up he posts "Hello World!" on his page.

His Spartans are saying the same with their recent play.