Kipp's Hoopsfest moving to Montini, Benet
After 25 seasons at Willowbrook High School, the Coach Kipp's Hoopsfest girls basketball shootout will move to Montini and Benet in 2021.
Shootout founder Jim O'Boye said he is making the move to the private schools to cut down on expenses.
"Willowbrook was terrific to us," O'Boye said. "They were so into it, they were so involved. ... They took such great personal interest in it and put their hearts and souls into it. They just loved doing it.
"It's just hard to leave them. It's no fault of theirs. It was just a business decision."
Willowbrook athletic director Brandon Murphy said the Warriors are sorry to see the shootout move.
"They put on a first-class showcase," said Murphy, who hopes his girls basketball team will continue to play in it. "I wish him nothing but the best, and we'll always welcome him back."
O'Boye has run the shootout for 30 years. Formerly the Chicagoland Girls Prep Classic, it was renamed two years ago to honor late Maine West coach Derril Kipp.
The first of its kind in Illinois for girls basketball, the shootout first was played at Northwestern University in 1991. The next four years were at DePaul.
It has always attracted some of the best high school teams in Illinois and throughout the Midwest and was a magnet for college coaches at all levels looking to scout players.
The shootout will continue to be played the weekend of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
Montini will host seven games on Saturday that weekend. Benet will host 11 games on Monday, with games staggered between the main gym and the old gym, allowing O'Boye to add a couple of more games.
"It will be the exact same thing (otherwise)," O'Boye said.
O'Boye said the 2021 shootout will feature one of the top teams in Indiana, Crown Point. Waunakee, a top team from Wisconsin, also is expected to play.
O'Boye said he's got great memories from the shootout's years at Willowbrook.
"It was just a great, great, great facility," he said.
The Daily Herald co-sponsored the 2020 shootout.