'Shoot for Scott' a huge success at St. Charles East

St. Charles East girls basketball coach Lori Drumtra can remember the first time she met Scott Munroe, the father of the Saints' senior point guard Sam Munroe.

Scott Munroe passed away from kidney cancer in 2013, the summer before Sam Munroe's freshman year.

"I went to a game to watch (SCE and Illinois Wesleyan graduate) Lexi Baltes, they were play at Wheaton College," Drumtra recalled. "Sam and a friend of hers came to the game, they were in eighth grade. I remember having a conversation with her dad about how Sam couldn't wait to get into high school. That was in January and he died in July.

"It happened fast. It happened very, very fast."

The Saints honored Scott Munroe last Friday during a girls/boys doubleheader against Batavia. Called "Shoot for Scott," donations were collected for points scored - and the girls and boys both won - 56-41 and 53-48.

The year Munroe passed away, Sam's older brother Mitch was a senior on the football team who held a similar fundraiser. Friday was the first time the Saints' basketball programs did.

"The Munroe family, I've known them since I've got here," Saints boys coach Pat Woods said. "It's awesome. Sam is a gym rat. She's a great example to other kids in our school and our community. Her father supported us and is a really good guy. I have nothing but good things to say about the Munroe family. So the small part we played in this, we were happy to help and support that cause in any way we can."

It was an emotional night for the senior Munroe, and she addressed the crowd before both the girls and boys games.

It wasn't the first time Munroe has spoken in front of large crowds, and she got a big round of applause after each speech.

"I'm so mad at myself for sounding so shaky. I'm the MC at the school, I give announcements, usually it doesn't come hard," Munroe said.

"I said, 'Sam, you aren't talking about your dad at a pep assembly.' I could detect some emotion," Drumtra said. "I thought she did a nice job."

Many in the crowd wore Never Forgotten shirts for Scott Munroe, so many that the shirts sold out. Community members donated money based on how many points the Saints scored.

Munroe did her part with 12 points.

"It's really touching because I really wanted to do something for my dad this year," Munroe said. "I'm just really excited to have a game honored for him. Obviously I play every game for him but to actually have it mentioned out there is really nice and touching."

Huntley pushing through: The first 20 games of the season have been a challenge for Huntley and 18th-year head coach Steve Raethz, and it's easy enough to figure out why. Graduation hit the Red Raiders hard as they lost Ali Andrews and her 2,548 career points as well as steady point guard Kayla Barreto and power forward Paige Renkosik. Andrews is now playing at Illinois and Barreto at Milwaukee School of Engineering while Renkosik is playing soccer at Limestone College in South Carolina. With those three leading the way, Huntley went 111-21 the past four years, including a fourth-place state finish in 2013, four straight regional titles and three sectional crowns.

But despite the heavy hit to graduation, the Red Raiders are 11-9 and still in first place in the Fox Valley Conference at 5-2.

"It's been a bit of an adjustment in the sense that with the heavy turnover and graduations we had and those kids being such a huge part of our success over the past four years, it's been a big adjustment with these kids in terms of redefining our roles and getting kids to step up," said Raethz, now 315-207 in his Huntley career after the Red Raiders fell to Lincoln-Way East in the consolation championship game of the DeKalb MLK Tournament Monday.

"You can't compare what we've done in the past but what we can do is play the brand of basketball we want to play, getting great effort and playing hard on the defensive end."

Defense has been Huntley's strong point this season. The Raiders are fifth in the Fox Valley area, allowing just over 38 points per game. The offense, though it doesn't have the firepower it has the past several years, has shown at times to be capable of scoring. Senior Brown recruit Morgan Clausen leads the way at 15.6 ppg.

And, according to Raethz, there's plenty to look forward to the rest of the season with eight more FVC games on the schedule before the postseason.

"There's still a lot to play for in terms of our conference season," Raethz said. "We're still in first place and we play in a tournament like this (the MLK) to tweak a few things and ready ourselves for the stretch run in the conference and hopefully we'll be playing some solid basketball come postseason time.

"The past 4-5 years have been a great run but at the same time you have to be able to turn the page and new kids have to come in and step up. We're still battling and playing for things that are important to us, like winning our fourth straight conference title and contending for a regional. Those are the things we've been preaching about and talking about and hopefully we can put things together down the stretch."

Kyles to return?: Larkin coach Steve Knapp said Wednesday it's possible Royals' senior standout Marlee Kyles could return to action Friday when Larkin travels across town to face Elgin at 5:30 p.m. in an Upstate Eight River game. Kyles, the leading scorer in the Fox Valley area at 28.4 ppg, has missed the last five games with a concussion and Larkin has gone 1-4 in those games, including a 40-34 loss to Elgin last Saturday in the Elgin City Classic. Kyles, who is headed to Arizona, has 1,800 career points. If she does return Friday and plays the rest of the season she would have to average 28.6 points pe game (assuming Larkin plays at least two postseason games) to become the eighth Fox Valley area player in girls basketball history to score 2,000 points.