By Dominic Scianna
This past weekend, the Romeoville Athletic & Event Center hosted its annual live boys basketball summer shootout with many of Illinois’ top high school teams competing, 12 of which were from the Chicago Public League (CPL).
Games are played all throughout the day in one hour blocks, on 10 courts, and teams are guaranteed either two or four games over a three-day period (June 21-23). The pace is frenetic as college coaches, fans, friends, and parents have to have their heads on a swivel as they watch the action with balls flying, whistles blowing, and horns sounding from every corner of the spacious Romeoville facility.
And this format allows for a physical brand of basketball to keep the games moving – so players have more freedom to play aggressive defense, while not stopping and starting to shoot free throws which are few and far between.
Mass substitutions are often employed by high school coaches because most players feel the effects of the up and down full-court fatigue each game, and back to back games throughout the day and weekend are a common occurrence.
The CPL boys teams participating this year in the three-day Romeoville event were: Crane, Fenger, Hyde Park, Lindblom, Julian, Mather, Morgan Park, North Lawndale, Perspectives, Payton, Phillips (last year’s IHSA 2A state champion), and Prosser.
These live-period basketball events are designed to give players who are looking to showcase their talents, an audience in front of several college coaches (both locally and nationally) for basketball scholarship opportunities.
“Teams like us often get overlooked and we’re just thankful to be here and get our guys out in front of college coaches,” said Waybon McConnell, head basketball coach at Perspectives MSA. “We have some really good young talent, and I think it’s opened up some of our players’ eyes to the type of team we can be by beating some quality opponents already this summer.”
Hyde Park only played two games at Romeoville Shootout this year which the Thunderbirds split, first winning a nail-biter over a gritty Wheaton Academy team on Friday before falling to Evanston in a tight contest on Saturday.
“The intensity is heightened because of the atmosphere and the college coaches (in attendance) at these games,” said Hyde Park head coach Jerrel Oliver. “It’s like a big conference (CPL Red Division) game for us and summer games like this help, especially for our younger guys to get a taste of what it’s like to play at a high level.”
Kye Ward-Owens, a soon-to-be junior at Hyde Park this fall, agreed with his coach’s assessment and the exposure and experience during the live open recruitment process for players and college coaches alike.
“It’s definitely nice but you get a little nervous, and you have to learn to play the same way you normally do and not play differently just because the college coaches are there,” said Ward-Owens.
CPL teams did clash as opponents during the weekend schedule. Crane and Fenger wound up playing each other in a matchup. Fenger won the summer showdown over Crane 57-53. In addition, two other familiar CPL foes got to cross paths and play in their bracket as well, with North Lawndale outlasting Lindblom 52-51.
Coach Stephen Collum of Fenger was optimistic with his team’s performance admitting that the experience in the showcase will go a long way in preparing his Titans for the upcoming 2024-25 CPL regular season this winter.
“The more reps the better and we try to get our kids as many opportunities to compete like this as we can,” said Collum. “There’s a lot more parity in the CPL this coming year, so this experience will benefit us greatly because we’re a young team.”
Lindblom’s Narvel Newson agreed with his CPL coaching colleague that the exposure is well worth it against top Illinois state teams no matter the outcome of the games.
“Any time our student-athletes get a great opportunity like this to show their talents and the way they play team basketball in front of a college coach at an event like this – that’s special,” said Newson. “Plus, we get a chance to build chemistry, run our plays, and that helps us for the season. We’re moving up eight players from our JV team, so it’s huge to get those players experience too against quality opponents like this.”
The live period games will end the last weekend of June and have become a staple of the summer basketball landscape in Illinois each year. The Romeoville High School athletic department and staff put on a great three-day event and received rave reviews.
Final records from CPL teams over the weekend at Romeoville were as follows: Phillips (3-1), North Lawndale (3-1), Perspectives MSA (2-2), Lindblom (2-2), Fenger (2-2), Hyde Park (1-1), Payton (2-2), Crane (1-3), Julian (1-3), Morgan Park (3-1), Mather (0-4) and Prosser (0-3).
For more information and results on the Romeoville Live Summer Shootout click this link at Event | Romeoville LIVE.
For information on Chicago Public League high school and SCORE! elementary school sports visit our website at www.CPLAthletics.com.
