Wrapping up another season starts with some memories
In the ever evolving world of high school sports one thing hasn't changed.
The memories.
High school sports have and, hopefully, always will create lifelong memories for those who participate, watch, administer and, yes, report on them.
This year's girls state basketball tournament gave us a chance to relive some of those memories, as it does every year. But this year held a bit of a special meaning as it was the 30th anniversary of the only girls state championship produced by a team from an Elgin school.
It was 1985, and St. Edward's girls — dubbed then as the Cardiac Kids — made a magical run to the Class A state championship, winning the three-game state final tournament that was then held at Assembly Hall in Champaign.
Beth (Hasenmiller) Sauser was a sophomore on that state championship team and would go on to lead St. Edward to a third-place finish in 1986 and a supersectional berth in 1987 before she went on to play at DePaul and then professionally in Europe. Sauser, of course, is now a 16-year veteran of the IHSA administrative staff and has been the association's girls basketball administrator for the past 13 years.
While Sauser, who was the third leading scorer in the 1985 state tournament, remembers well her state experiences, especially the championship ride in 1985 that saw the Green Wave win their three state games by a total of 7 points with the quarterfinal victory coming in overtime, she now gets to relay that on a yearly basis to all the teams who qualify for the state finals.
“I'm lucky enough that every year is a pleasant reminder because I'm able to be here every year,” she said during last weekend's Class 3A and 4A state finals at Redbird Arena in Normal.
“Watching kids when they come here and get on the court for the first time on Thursday, just remembering how that was … it's a real cool feeling. It's hard to believe it's been 30 years.”
And it's more than just the wins, or losses, of playing in a state tournament.
“The stories here become so much more than who got the rebounds or who scored the points,” said Sauser.
That St. Edward team will long be remembered in and around Elgin because state championships just don't happen in these parts every year.
More Green Wave: Bouncing back again to that period of the middle 1980s, Fremd coach Dave Yates, whose team finished second in the Class 4A tournament last weekend, was a St. Edward student-athlete at the same time as Hasenmiller, and had his own state experience as well. Yates was a junior on coach Joe Tullo's 1987 Green Wave boys team that made it downstate, losing to Chrisman in the quarterfinals, a game in which Yates scored 9 points.
Another anniversary: Bartlett celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Class 4A state runner-up season of 2005 last weekend as well. That Hawks team, coached by the retiring Denise Sarna and led by future Notre Dame star Lindsay Schrader, beat Edwardsville and Bolingbrook on its way to coming up just short of Peoria Richwoods, 52-48, in the title game.
IHSA archives: Both of the games mentioned above are available as are a multitude of state championship games, on YouTube through the IHSA archives. It's a great collection of videos that can keep a basketball junkie busy for hours and hours.
Wrapping up the season: For the first time in four years the Fox Valley didn't have a team playing at Redbird Arena this year but that didn't mean we didn't have our share of excitement during the season.
Seeing Huntley and Harvest Christian develop into supersectional teams bodes well for the future and watching many young players develop into varsity contributors tells us we're in for another exciting season in 2015-16.
Put Huntley on top of the list of teams to keep an eye on again. The Red Raiders set a school record with 28 wins on their way to a supersectional berth and they have four returning starters led by all-area co-captain Ali Andrews.
Want more teams to keep watch on? Next up is Bartlett. The Hawks will have a new coach for the first time since the school opened in 1997 and that person will also inherit four returning starters led by all-area forward Kaitlin Brohan. Retiring coach Denise Sarna developed her young team into 20-win squad that won a regional championship this season, so it's fair to expect Bartlett to challenge for a deeper postseason run next year.
It doesn't stop there. Burlington Central's dream of back-to-back state runs may have ended with its upset loss in the regional finals but the Rockets, who have won 79 games the past three seasons, return three starters and their top reserves. The challenge for coach Mark Smith's group next year will be to replace the senior leadership of all-area co-captain Alison Colby and classmate Aly DeTamble.
Milestone season: This season may have produced more area girls who reached 1,000 points for their careers than any other.
First, though, there's Huntley's Ali Andrews, who already had reached 1,000 coming into the season but added nearly 700 to it and became her school's all-tine leading scorer in the process. The Illinois commit will enter her senior season with 1,805 career points, which means she has a chance to become the all-time leading scorer among the 16 schools the Daily Herald covers in the area. That distinction currently belongs to Bartlett's Lindsay Schrader, a 2005 graduate who scored 2,422 career points.
Also worthy of recognition is Harvest Christian senior Kylee Knox, who came into the season with 1,060 points and finished her fine Lions' career with 1,562.
Others who reached the 1,000 plateau this season include Cary-Grove senior Katie Barker, Crystal Lake South junior Chanel Fanter, Hampshire junior Emma Benoit, Burlington Central junior Samantha Pryor and Westminster Christian junior Maddie Versluys.
That's a lot of juniors.
According to Daily Herald records, Fanter has become CL South's all-time scoring leader, breaking Meg Scherman's record of 1,217. Fanter will enter her senior year with 1,243 career points.
Benoit has a chance to become No. 2 at Hampshire. That's currently Alex Dumoulin (1,363). It would be pretty tough for Benoit to catch Morgan Bahe, the Whip-Purs' all-time leader with 1,875.
At Burlington Central Pryor will enter next season with 1,025 points, giving her a chance to make a run at Jenna Real's school record of 1,647. She will most certainly at least end up No. 2, the position currently held by Jordan Maisto (1,085).
And at Westminster, Versluys enters her senior season as the program's all-time leader with 1,318. That gives her a shot at 2,000 which only three others in the area (Schrader, South Elgin's Becca Smith and Elgin's Leslie Schock) have achieved.
Closing in: the 1,000 watch for next season starts with Burlington Central juniors Shelby Holt (917) and Kayla Ross (772) and includes Harvest Christian's Paulina Castro (831).
IBCA honors: Several area players were recognized on the Class 3/4A all-state teams by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association. The IBCA does combined teas including both classes.
Huntley's Ali Andrews was a first-team selection while Burlington Central's Samantha Pryor was a second-team choice and BC's Shelby Holt made the fourth team.
Honorable mention players on the IBCA list included St. Edward's Cece Rapp, Cary-Grove's Katie Barker, Streamwood's Kiana Jeremiah, Bartlett's Kaitlin Brohan, Burlington Central's Kayla Ross, Streamwood's Jenejah Williams and Hampshire's Emma Benoit.
jradtke@dailyherald.com