Syriah Boyd- Senior Reflections

Syriah Boyd came off the bench to help us win the Regional Championship as a sophomore. She went onto be a starter for the Streaks as both a junior and a senior. Probably every game she was matched up to guard a post player who was significantly taller than her, but she used her strength and quickness to battle them. Her defense on those posts was very important to our success. 

Massey- Where are you going to school next year?

Syriah-  Tennessee State University

Massey- What made you choose Tennessee State?

Syriah-  Going to an HBCU has been my dream, on my visit I fell in love with the team and automatically felt at home.

Massey- What do you plan to study?

Syriah- Major in Nursing, then become a Travel ER Nurse, or possibly continue my education to get my Masters in Nursing and become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists.

Antonia Kisler- Senior Reflections

Antonia Kisler brought high energy and a tremendous work ethic to the basketball program. Both her junior and senior year’s she was selected by her teammates for the “Bring It Award.” That award is given to the player who brings it in the weight room, in practice, in the off-season, and during games. Antonia was certainly a leader, and set the tone for the entire team with her approach. With Antonia’s work ethic, it will be exciting to see how much she improves as a basketball player while at Sandburg. 

Massey- Where will you be going to school next fall?

Antonia-  I will be attending Carl Sandburg College in the fall.

Massey- Why did you pick Sandburg?

Antonia- I picked this school to continue my basketball career and to get started with my college education at a low cost.

Steve Bryant- UCLA Shirt & Loyola Upset

Front of UCLA t-shirt

Normally on Facebook I do “T-Shirt Tuesdays.” Today’s t-shirt has a long story that needs to be told. I received this t-shirt from Steve and Jeanine Bryant many years ago. Steve’s son was a grad student at UCLA, and the Bryants happened to visit when John Wooden was doing autographs at the UCLA Bookstore. Knowing I was a big John Wooden fan, Steve got me an autographed John Wooden t-shirt. For about 30 years, Steve and Jeanine did that kind of thing for me, and did that kind of thing for the Streaks girls basketball program.

Back with John Wooden’s autograph

Just this past year I asked Steve how he became such a big Streaks girls basketball fan. It all started when Steve was hired to be custodian of Wicall Gym. He said, “I was so impressed with how your girls came out for practice and immediately went to work. They didn’t stand around, mess around, or talk- they just got to work.” We have always done some form of “Prepractice Routine” when we come on the floor- shooting and ball handling. We won Steve over. 

All-Time Best Illinois Boys Basketball Players

George Mikan

 The Basketball Museum of Illinois compiled a list of greatest Illinois basketball players. To find the entire list, go to Facebook and find the Basketball Museum of Illinois. 

It should be noted that their criteria is that these are the players who had the best professional careers. With lists like this, no one ever agrees on what criteria should be used and then who should be on each list. It is just a way of creating conversation about the wonderful history of Illinois basketball!!!

Top 25 Players

1- George Mikan

2- Kevin Garnett

3- Dwayne Wade

4- Isiah Thomas

Julia Robinson- Senior Reflection

 Julia Robinson was a valuable member of the varsity as both a junior and senior. Her value did not always show up in the box score. Her teammates and her coaches knew how valuable she was to us. Julia never took off a practice and never took off a drill. Julia is one of the "all-in" kind of people- about everything!

Julia came to every practice with high energy, enthusiasm, and competitiveness. Her approach made her team a better team. In practice, none of the starting group liked to have Julia guard them. Julia made it very tough on them in practice. It made the games much easier for the starters because the person guarding them did not play as hard as Julia had in practice. 

Kiarra Kilgore- GHS All-Time Scoring Leader

Kiarra Kilgore & Joey Range
GHS All-Time Leading Scorers

Kiarra finishes with 1986

Win 998- KWQC

This is KWQC talking to Streaks after win #998.

Jay Redfern- WGIL- Last Season

(Click on the second line of each set- it will take you to the spot.)

Podcast with Jay Redfern and Lexi Demott

Podcast- Redfern and Demott

Keeping It in The Familly

Demott Hired

Thanks You Galesburg, Thank You Players

Thank You Galesburg

Caitlin Clark Effect?

 Caitlin Clark has had a huge impact on women’s college basketball this past year. Iowa sold out all of their games going into the 2023-4 season, and had over 50,000 fans attend an outdoor game at Kinnick Stadium. It was exciting to see the impact.

Fans can be both rabid and irrational. This past year there were people who were either critics or haters of Caitlyn Clark. For any of us who have followed sports, this should have been predictable. Why did many hate the Yankees- they won. Why can’t some people admire Lebron James’ game- they don’t want anyone saying he is better than Michael. I could go on and on. People like it when their team wins, but hate it when their rival wins.

During the Final Four, in the alternative broadcast both Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart, were both outspoken in their criticism of Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. It would be legitimate to say there are WNBA players who are better than Clark, so I am sure Taurasi and Stewart were sensitive about how much Clark was built up, but there “UConn” pride was coming thru. Just as some think complimenting LeBron tarnishes Michael’s reputation, the UConn players seemed sensitive to Clark and Iowa’s attention, as if it was an attack on UConn’s history. 

To set the record straight, UConn had a more impressive run than Iowa. UConn’s run went on for decades. UConn won multiple titles. UConn had numerous GOATS play for them thru the last couple decades. But the UConn critics, the LSU fans, and the South Carolina fans are all missing the point. Celebrating what Clark and Iowa achieved is not meant as an attack on any of those teams or any of those legacies. Even a Badger fan got swept up in impact Clark and Iowa had on college basketball- we had not seen this on any level in women’s sports before.

Kara Lawson: Handle Hard Better

Kara Lawson played for Pat Summit, and is coach at Duke. Her talk about handling hard is fantastic. Her message, great things in life are going to be hard. 

Mastering a skill in practice will be hard.

Competing in a game will be hard.

Winning a conference title will be hard.

Winning a Regional will be hard. 

Expect it to be hard and prepare yourself to handle hard. Championship players want things to be hard. Championship players know they have prepared themselves to be tougher than their opponent. Championship players know they are prepared to be tough when things are hard!!

1961 Small Town America

Savanna High School

The 1960’s were a great time for Savanna, Illinois. According to the 1960 U.S. Census, Savanna’s population was 4,900 with 5,700 in Savanna Township. The Army Depot and the two railroad companies supplied employment. New houses were going up, and a new high school had just been completed in the late ‘50’s. Savanna was a “big small-town” that was growing.

The neighborhood was an important social entity. Baby boom children filled neighborhoods so there were always kids to play with. If your dog got loose, a neighbor down the street would bring them back. You didn’t lock your doors, so if you went to the Davis’ you knocked, didn’t wait for an answer, you just opened the door and went in. And even in grade school, it was safe to walk a mile home from school, and on the walk there were 3 “neighborhood groceries” to stop and get candy or baseball cards. 

European Basketball- Whole World of Basketball Out There

Coach Shiltz- State Trophy

It is obvious that if a coach is going to be successful, they really have to study the game. Basketball is an evolving sport. If you stick with what you learned 10 years ago or even 10 months ago, basketball will pass you up quickly. The casual "coach" who coaches weekends with youth basketball or the fan who watches games on TV have no idea of the work high school and college coaches put in as students of the game. Coaches can learn by attending clinics, subscribing to virtual clinics, reading articles, joining coach's groups on Facebook, and watching tons of film.

Justin Shiltz has been successful everywhere he has coached. In the 15-20 years that I have known him professionally, it is amazing how much he has evolved, changed, and grown as a coach. Several summers ago, he came to Galesburg in the summer with his team for our summer league. I had an opportunity to talk basketball with him. I was struck by how invested he was watching and learning from European basketball. Since then I have read more and tried to learn more about European basketball. It is clear that offensively a lot of what is going on now in American basketball has European routes.