By Cristina Solano and Allie Conwell
Sunday scaries failed to faze Illinois’ rising high school basketball stars as they finished off a weekend-long shootout at Riverside Brookfield High School’s 21st annual NCAA Live Event.
The facility consisted of six courts with games occurring about every hour beginning in the early morning into the late afternoon, each team was guaranteed four games over the course of the three days and challenged a new team every day.
The event consisted of 12 teams from the Chicago Public League (CPL) throughout the weekend, all performing to their maximum potential with fans, friends, family, teammates and coaches packing the stands and sidelines with support on every court.
When asked about the opportunities of facing other schools across Illinois, Zach Mazanowski, a rising senior at Lane Tech, stated, “It’s a different challenge.”
Mazanowski’s classmates, Andrew Bartolai and Brayden Rosenkrantz, were in agreement with their teammate, expressing their eagerness to face new schools and demonstrate that they can play just as well as everyone else across the state.
Westinghouse rising senior Terry Ricks also expressed his excitement with facing new opponents and gaining experience stating,
“It’s amazing just experiencing new players and seeing how it feels to play other teams not just in my conference but around the whole state,” he said.
His classmate Amari Hudson agreed with Ricks as he enjoyed being able to see new offensive and defensive styles of play from his opponents.
College coaches were also in attendance at the event with the opportunities for players to be scouted and possibly recruited to play at the collegiate level.
Ricky Robinson, a Westinghouse assistant coach, spoke highly of the event regarding the invitation and the players receiving college level observation.
“I think it is extremely important, getting this experience and exposure will help the team later in the year and our players in their futures,” he said.
While all were there to play the sport they love and admire, there is a deeper purpose the sport serves to not only the players but to the coaches of the teams.
“It’s more than just winning basketball games,” Lane Tech head coach Nick LoGalbo said. “It is turning these young men into men and building their character.”
Lane Tech and Westinghouse encountered intense competition over the weekend, experiencing numerous successes and few setbacks. Despite challenges, both teams demonstrated the overcoming of the obstacles they faced. Looking ahead, they are eagerly anticipating the upcoming 2024-2025 winter season.
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With the pressure of Division 1 college coaches lining the courts – and fierce competition from the state’s top teams – Chicago Public League coaches prepared their players to stay grounded and finish the weekend with gusto.
“We try to do a little pre-talk before just to relax our players, talk about game keys, just to get them ready to know what they’re walking into,” shared Hyde Park Academy assistant coach Erick Rozier. “We just try to keep them poised.”
Poise was the name of the game as Hyde Park won three of its four games at the shootout. Notably, LeShawn Stowers and Kye Ward-Owens surfaced as top scorers over the weekend and Ward-Owens’ play even helped him pick up an offer from Northwestern University.
The pressure was on for Michele Clark High School’s team, which started the weekend with two losses before cutting a close win against Rockford Auburn with a score of 51-47.
Despite a slow start, determination remained high as rising junior Jamareon Raines stated “We got to start the game off hard and finish off hard…we’re going to grab for the state championships.”
More seasoned players, like Perspectives Leadership’s rising senior, Derrick Dowdell, seemed right at home in a sea of top players and scouts. Dowdell’s sentiments about the day were confident and simple:
“It’s great — I’m really used to it because I play on a live circuit where it’s a lot of college coaches, so it’s kind of normal for me.”
