1997 Undefeated Regular Season- Handling Success

In 1997, the Streaks went 28 in the regular season. It was quite the season. Of the 28 regular season games, the Streaks only had five games where the other team came within 10 points. 

Nov 23- 81-74 over Carthage (Home)

Dec 5-  51-44 over Alleman (Awa)

Dec 19-  50-42 over Quincy (Away)

Feb 8-  61-52 over Quincy (Home)

Feb 13- 53-46 over Rock Island (Away)

And only three other times did teams come within 20 points. So 20 of the 28 regular season games were won by 20+ points. The Streaks were dominant. 

The poll I have included, was the next to the last poll of the regular season. It was the first time that any Streaks girls basketball team was ranked #1 in the State. Until the mid-90’s, the AP did not run a girls basketball poll. The AP poll for girls basketball was started and was run by Mike Trueblood, the sports editor of the Galesburg Register-Mail. (That was when local towns still had local papers and had local sports coverage. The poll was something that helped begin to shine some light on high school girls basketball. 

Seven players played regular on this team. Molly Watson (5’4” Sr- 19.5ppg, 5.3 apg), Melanie Pendergast (5’9” Jr- 11.0ppg), Angie Galyean (5’8” Sr, 7.0ppg), Jessica Thompson (5’11” Sr- 7.5ppg), Sarah Larson (5’11” So- 9.4ppg), Meg Sherwood (5’9” Sr- 3.8ppg), Megan Pacheco (5’9” Fr- 6.3ppg). 

In order to go an entire season undefefeated, you have to have a dominant group. That would seem to be a no-brainer. There are games when you aren’t going to shoot well, maybe you aren’t going to play with energy on defense, and maybe the other team is going to get hot. On those nights, you have to be so good that you still are able to win. 

While some teams may be intimidated, most teams are very motivated to be the team to beat the undefeated team. Opponents tend to feel they are under-appreciated and Galesburg is over-rated. As a result, you get the other teams best efforts. While that makes it tough- it really helps you as the season goes on. Even though you have been winning, you have played highly competitive teams. 

In sports generally the important thing is to be focused. To go undefeated, you must be focused but not be focused on being undefeated. Somehow, being undefeated has to be in the background. If you are focused on being undefeated, you are focused on not losing rather than on winning. To remain undefeated, the focus needs to be on the process- not the outcome. You need to be focused on practice and execution. 

As the season goes on, everyone gets excited. Fans, parents, friends, and teachers all get excited. A key for players is to not believe people when people tell them how good they are. Players are going to hear about how they are going to kill the next opponent. And they are going to have someone remind them that they are ranked #1 in the State. Players need to remain humble and be focused on continuing to improve. The 1997 team was one of the best practice teams that I coached. They continued to grow throughout the year. 

As I mentioned earlier, an undefeated team or any successful team, the players are going to have many people want to give the players their opinions about each game and how the team is playing. Players cannot let outside people disrupt their team chemistry. Players must accept their roles, view their role as valuable, and work to be a star in their role. 

We had a star- Molly Watson. She was our leading scorer and she had the ball in her hands 90% of the time. Most of our plays were designed to get Molly a shot. I have had teams where players didn’t recognize that we had a star or they were unhappy because they wanted to be the star. On our 1997 team, everyone knew Molly was a special player and everyone accepted that she was our star. A big part of the players accepting their role and Molly’s role was that Molly was extremely humble. 

In our first game vs Decatur MacArthur, we won 80-8. Molly did not play in the second half. It was relayed to me later that a little girls left the game in tears because “that mean coach didn’t play Molly Watson.” Everyone wanted to see Molly.

So we had players who knew what they were good at, and what they were not good at. Angie Galyean was not a shooter, but she could defend and rebound. Meg Sherwood didn’t start but came into play multiple positions. Our posts set lots of screens for Molly, and ran the floor for fastbreak layups. 

Winning is not easy. Our last two games of the year were at home vs. Quincy, who had lost by only 8 at Quincy. We were able to win that by 9. That set up the biggest game of the regular season. We had to go to Rock Island to finish the season undefeated. We had beaten RI in early January by 31 in Galesburg. But Rock Island was ranked #11 in the State and had lost only 2 other games the entire year. Rock Island’s gym is an intimidating gym- often you feel you need to wear your winter coat. Back them, they allowed people to enter the gym right down by the visitors bench. I think they left the doors open. 

We had not talked about being undefeated. I don’t think it was a superstition on my part, we just focused on winning the next game. The Rock Island game was not easy, but we pulled it out in a close game by 7 points. We knew it was highly likely we would be playing Rock Island in the Sectional, so toward the end of the game we instructed the players not to celebrate on the floor. The girls did not celebrate on the floor. We shook hands, went into the lockeroom and the girls went nuts. 

The Galesburg community has always been so great to the girls basketball teams. That night our school bus came back on Route 150. We were surprised out by Lake Stoney when we entered Galesburg. Several Galesburg Police Cars met us on the edge of town with their sirens on and escorted us to GHS. The girls knew the work involved to be undefeated and they were proud of their achievement, but I really think the thoughtfulness of the police escort made it really hit home- “Wow, it is a big deal.”

So yes, in order to go undefeated you must be talented. But you have to also be humble and tough.