Love of the game, ultimately, wins over Wauconda's Tylka
Shooting baskets in the driveway with dad and big brother as a kid. Hands blackened by dirt and asphalt. Pretending to splash buzzer-beating shots. It's the dream of little hoopsters everywhere.
It just wasn't Allie Tylka's dream.
For sure, the Wauconda senior enjoyed shooting hoops in the driveway with her dad and big brother Drake, but she didn't fall head over high-tops for basketball growing up. After all, cheerleading, dance, softball and soccer took turns occupying her time.
Then one day, about seven years ago, Tylka acquiesced to the wishes of her parents, Ron and Majella. She attended a Matthews Middle School basketball clinic and then tried out for the fifth-grade girls team. Tylka says her mom insisted she try out but said she could choose whether she wanted to play for the team, assuming she was picked.
"I made the team and I was like, 'I guess I'll play,' " Tylka said with a shrug. "I played, I enjoyed it and now I'm here."
"Here" is where every little hoopster wants to be someday - Division-I basketball scholarship in hand, set to graduate high school, and coming off a senior season loaded with individual and team highlights.
After a four-year varsity career that she capped by averaging a career-best 19.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.8 steals and 2.9 assists per game, while leading the Bulldogs to 21 wins, the 6-foot Tylka is the Daily Herald Lake County All-Area Girls Basketball Captain.
"She works extremely hard year-round and deserves everything she has earned," Wauconda coach Jaime Dennis said of the Florida Atlantic University-bound combo guard.
Tylka has come far. She leaves Wauconda having scored 1,538 points, which Dennis believes is the most in program history. Who would have predicted that kind of offense a few years ago, Allie?
"I used to be a very defensive(-oriented) player," Tylka said. "I didn't attack the basket much. When I was in middle school, I scored, but it was mostly off fast breaks from a steal or easy baskets. I didn't pull up (for shots). I didn't have any moves to get past people. If I was open, I'd take it. Otherwise, I didn't take it."
Dennis remembers watching Tylka at an open gym, before she had made the varsity team.
"She came in and basically made our juniors and seniors look silly," Dennis said. "Even though she says she wasn't an offensive player, I noticed her cutting ability, and her off-the-ball movement was fantastic. That's not something that you can really coach. They either have it or they don't.
"And defensively," Dennis added, "she could stop anybody that was on the court."
A Day-1 starter as a freshman for Dennis, Tylka put together a breakout season as a junior, averaging 18.1 points and 10 rebounds per game, as a young Bulldogs squad finished 14-14. They headed into this season experienced but still young. Dennis started Tylka with three sophomores (Ella Karg, Kiley Szmajda, Maddie Carver) and one freshman (either Mackenzie Arden or Jessie Pakaski). Tylka insists she felt little burden being easily the team's most-experienced player.
"It wasn't that bad because we had a lot of returning players, even though they were young," Tylka said. "It felt like everybody was my age."
Wauconda won 5 of its first 6 games, manufactured a nine-game winning streak and had its best season since going 24-4 in 2010-11. The Bulldogs lost twice to Grayslake Central (23-8 record) and once to Round Lake (21-10), Marengo (24-7), Grant (16-13) and Prospect (15-10), which rallied from 10 down at halftime to beat Wauconda in the Class 4A Mundelein regional semifinals.
"I wish we would have went further, at least to the regional final, but going 21-6 I really couldn't ask for anything better," Tylka said. "Our losses were all winnable games. It was just sometimes we didn't play our game."
Tylka had a triple-double (16 points, 10 rebounds, 11 steals) in her final game, despite playing with a sprained left thumb (non-shooting hand). It was the latest example of her hard work paying off.
Unhappy with her offensive game, she worked the last two years in the off-season with well-known basketball skills trainer Jeff Pagliocca, who's trained NBA, college and high school players. He helped her a lot, Tylka said.
Now, she can spin on the dribble not just going right, but left too.
"My favorite move is her fake pass (before driving for a layup)," Dennis said.
Tylka played volleyball and soccer as a freshman too, but gave them up to focus on basketball. Giving up soccer, in particular, was difficult, but there can be no regrets.
She's living a little hoopster's dream. Not that she had it.
"That's why you got to try everything," Tylka said.
Wauconda basketball is thrilled she fell in love with basketball.
• Follow Joe on Twitter: @JoeAguilar64