Special night for McCormack, Hildabrand

In December, Conant coach Tom McCormack spoke of "the end of an era for Cougar Basketball" when referring to the four sons of Jim and Katy Sotos of Elk Grove Village who have played for him in 10 of the past 11 seasons.

On Friday night, that statement took on even bigger meaning.

During pregame recognition honors of Conant's senior class at its home finale, a 54-40 win over Schaumburg, it was announced that McCormack and his long-time assistant Bruce Hildabrand were retiring from coaching and teaching this school year.

Both were acknowledged by Cougars assistant coach Matt Walsh, a former Conant player who was a Daily Herald all-area team captain in 1993.

Walsh first acknowledged Hildabrand (with his wife Lynn by his side), who will complete a 36-year teaching career, the last 30 at Conant in the school's social science department while he assisted McCormack on various levels during that time span.

"You've left an incredible impact on hundreds of players as well as thousands of students," Walsh said.

He soon followed by honoring McCormack as a man of "family, faith and last but not least, basketball. A diligent worker who plans and prepares for every game. A coach who made every player better for having played for him."

Walsh also acknowledged the five seasons when he was head coach at Schaumburg (2009 to 2014) when he had to do battle with his former coach.

"It was always fun," Walsh said. "Truly an honor to coach against one of the best."

Then the youngest Sotos brother, Jimmy, took the microphone and payed homage to his coach.

"It has been a tremendous honor and privilege to play for you coach," Sotos said. "Perhaps in your free time you'll maybe get some film work in."

Throughout the first half it appeared that visiting Schaumburg (9-15, 3-7) did just that as it built an 11-3 lead over the first 5:30 of the game.

Early in the game, the Saxons took advantage of the Cougars loss of 6-foot-9 center Ryan Davis (absent due to illness).

Conant (23-4, 8-2) methodically work its way back, thanks to four consecutive points from Sotos that brought the home team within 13-10 at quarter's end.

That method would continue until the Cougars answered a 19-16 deficit with a 7-0 run in the final minute of the half, highlighted by senior forward Mike Downing's 3-pointer that gave Conant the lead for good with 30 seconds remaining at 21-19.

C.J. Deshazer's hoop made it 23-19 at the break.

Conant gradually opened up the lead in the third quarter despite 6-1 sophomore guard Michael Hodges' team-high 16 points and junior forward Ben Schols' tallying 9 of his 12 points.

The Cougars outscored Schaumburg 24-10 in the quarter as Sotos would connect on a 4-point play in the closing seconds of the quarter that served as the exclamation point on the evening's festivities. The Cougars took a 47-29 lead into the final eight minutes of play. Sotos led all scorers with 19 points.

"It's been very sentimental," said Sotos who played in his 40th and final home game Friday. "It's been a privilege to be a part of so much tradition here at Conant."

Sotos' final home game completed a stretch where he and his three older brothers have worn the Cougar home jersey 113 times over 94 games at Perry Gym during 10 of the past 11 seasons.

The stretch dates back to Dec. 1, 2006 when oldest brother Tommy donned the Cougar home whites for the first of 20 home varsity games over the following two seasons.

In 2009, Christian (19 games) began his two-year varsity career followed by Danny (34 games) a mid-season call-up during his freshman year (2011-12) that had him overlapping Jimmy's first two seasons.

McCormack was honored by a five-minute standing ovation by the packed Perry Gym crowd with his wife of 40 years, Mary, along with two of his four children (sons and former players Pat and Matt) and three of his four grandchildren in attendance.

Retirement has yet to sink in for McCormack.

"I still have a game to get ready for against a very good Buffalo Grove team (On Tuesday), then regionals where potentially we may have to face both Palatine and Barrington for the third time (Conant swept both teams this season) which will be tough," McCormack said.

As the No. 2 seed in the Class 4A Elk Grove Sectional complex that begins Feb. 28 at Palatine, McCormack and Sotos are well aware of the fact that winning one's division or conference title is not a prerequisite of a deep postseason run.

As of matter of fact, there have been eight teams in the Daily Herald Northwest area who have gone on to qualify for supersectional play in the past 30 years that fell into that category highlighted by a pair of Conant squads in both 1990 and 1997.

"Obviously if both us and (MSL East Champ and No. 3 seed) can get through regionals we would have to face each other once again and that would be a fight (both teams split their two meetings during the regular season) for now that's a long way off," McCormack said.

"Right now we're taking things one game at a time," Sotos added. "We're feeling confident about the direction we're heading into the postseason."

Schaumburg travels to Grayslake North for a nonconference game on Saturday night.