O'Boye's Girls Classic renamed 'Coach Kipp's Hoopsfest'
After 27 years, the Chicagoland Girls Prep Classic will have a new name.
And it's a name very familiar to girls basketball fans across the state.
Event organizer Jim O'Boye has renamed his long-running showcase event to 'Coach Kipp's Hoopsfest' in honor of the late IHSA hall of fame coach Derril Kipp.
Kipp was the legendary coach for Maine West's girls basketball program, where he won 788 games in 35 seasons and an undefeated Class AA state championship (35-0) in 1988. He lost his courageous battle with cancer in the summer of 2016.
O'Boye announced the name change when Maine West played at the event for the 27th time last January in Villa Park.
The Warriors are one of only two teams who have competed in O'Boye's event all 27 years.
He never thought twice about renaming his event, which began at Northwestern in 1991.
"I believe no one has done more to grow, promote and help young girls continue their basketball and educational goals than coach Kipp," O'Boye said. "His summer league and observation tournaments at Maine West High School are legendary.
"In the 1980s, no one was making the efforts in the summer for girls basketball like coach Kipp. He and his wife Marianne, along a couple of other Maine West staffers, organized these leagues and tournaments that were attended by thousands of young girls and hundreds of college coaches over the decades."
Kipp had a hand in starting the Chicagoland Girls Prep Classic.
When he heard O'Boye was possibly planning the event, Kipp made a phone call.
"He told me what a great idea it was," O'Boye said. "And that he would bring his team if invited. He said he would promote it to the local schools in the area and talk it up to college coaches who he was connected with across the country."
Kipp also told O'Boye he was not aware of any in-season shootout formats at the time being held for girls basketball.
"And he was pretty certain this would be the original 'shootout' in the country," O'Boye said. "Looking at today's landscape of girls basketball shootouts around the country, coach Kipp was right on target about the concept being a good one."
Kipp entered the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001. His teams won 26 Central Suburban North championships, 24 regional titles and 10 sectionals, and they appeared in the state tournament seven times from 1983 to 1993, the year his Warriors were state runners-up.
Nearly 80 girls from Maine West's program earned scholarships during Kipp's career.
"It's really nice of Jim O'Boye to do that for the Kipp family," said Warriors coach Kim de Marigny, whose team is off to a 9-0 start. "We want to make the Kipp family proud and we want to make Derril proud, too."
While the event has had various presenting sponsors over the years, Subway has continued its sponsorship for 2018.
Here is the schedule of games for this year's 'Coach Kipp's Hoopsfest':
Saturday, Jan. 13: Batavia vs Willowbrook, 9:30 a.m.; Bogan vs. Hillcrest, 11 a.m.; Hersey vs. St. Ignatius, 12:30 p.m.; St. Joseph (South Bend, Ind.), 2 p.m.; Glenbard South vs. Mother McAuley, 3:30 p.m.; Marist vs. Downers Grove North 5 p.m.; New Trier vs. Wheaton North, 6:30 p.m.; Geneva vs. Loyola, 8 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 15: Plainfield North vs. Brooks, 9 a.m.; Rolling Meadows vs. Bradley Bourbannais, 10:30 a.m.; Lake Park vs. Fenwick, noon; Marquette (Michigan City, Ind.) vs. Marian Catholic, 1:30 p.m.; Central (East Chicago, Ind.), 3 p.m., Trinity vs Wheaton Warrenville South, 4:30 p.m., Homewood-Flossmoor vs. Naperville North, 6 p.m.; Montini vs Naperville North, 6 p.m.; Benet vs. Maine West, 7:30 p.m.