Maine West Summer Tourneys

 The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association had been organization for boys basketball only. At the end of the 1984 season, the IBCA took in girls basketball and girls coaches. I had the opportunity to be on the first All-State Board that met at the end of the season. That meeting was the first real chance to network with coaches from the suburbs and southern Illinois. 

At that first meeting, Derril Kipp of Maine West told me that he hosted summer tourney and would like to get some downstate teams involved. We went for the first time then in the summer of 1984. That first trip, we had no school transportation and we had to get someone else to coach the team according to IHSA rules. Cessy Burga’s parents offered their station wagon and a coaching friend, Mike Jaskoski offered to coach. 

Things did not go smoothly that first trip. Two days before we were to leave, the Burgas left for South America with Cessy but left us the van. So we had transportation but not our point guard. We got up there early and checked into the hotel. Jas was coming up later. The time he was to arrive, came and went and went- no Jas. Jas had gotten to the hotel and asked for Evan Massey’s room- no such room. It was pre-cell phones. Finally heard him yelling, “Massey,” outside in the parking lot. It turned out the rooms were under Mr. Evan.

Our first venture playing in a summer shootout resulted in an 0-3 record. There were only 8 teams there. Maine West who was very good, and soon to be a powerhouse, they blitzed us. They ran a “bubble fast break.” I am not sure of all the rules, but against us they got a lot of layups. They had an All-Tourney team, and gave players a medal after there last game. No Galesburg player was honored in this top ten list. Jas was unhappy, he decided to go back and tell them he was unhappy. When he went to Kipp, before Jas could say anything, Kipp handed him a medal for Lisa Williams. 

The next year we got a van, and Jas was both driver and coach. He was determined to find an outdoor court in the area to “practice” before we played. Being unfamiliar with the area, we drove and drove but could not find a court. Finally we saw a guy out shooting in his driveway. Jas pulled over and told Jane Albright to go ask him if we could shoot at his basket. Jane was a good choice to send, she charmed the guy and Jas had his practice. 

As years went on, it got bigger and bigger. We usually went in June for a two day shootout and played five games. Then we went back in July and played three days and usually 7-8 games. The July tourney by the 2000’s was having over 200 teams from all over the Midwest. And the July tourney was open to college coaches to attend. Because some of the best basketball in the United States was played in the suburbs, there would be around 150 coaches in attendance. AAU people like to talk about exposure, seldom do most AAU teams ever have the college exposure Maine West had. We were scheduled to play on a court right after Candace Parker was playing in front of Pat Summit, when Parker tore her ACL.

Games were played at multiple sites- Maine West (5 courts), Des Plaines Rec Center (2 courts), Maine East (6 courts), Maine South (2 courts), Prospect (5 courts). 

For our players it was a great opportunity to play very good competition. Kipp and his staff always took care of us. I would tell him what level of competition we would have- they always matched us with just the right competition level. And they always made sure that they scheduled a win for us in our last game. 

We steadily got better and better. In the summer of 1994, our team of Bonny Apsey, Gina Miller, Sara Wood, Stef Mitchell, Ami Pendry, Molly Watson, Jennifer Bulkeley, Jen Wright, Jen Cirmotich, Jen Bulkeley, and Mandy Rinker went undefeated both trips at Maine West. (They went undefeated for the entire summer in all their games and camps.) It is no accident that they won our first Sectional title. 

Throughout most of the 1980’s and 1990’s, while we were playing Maine West, New Trier, Buffalo Grove, and the powers of the suburbs in the summer- hardly any other downstate teams ever made the trips up there. Probably nothing impacted our success the way the Maine West games did. And then in 1996 when we made it to State, playing suburban teams really was not a big deal-they had done it before. 

Also for our players, it was such great way to be seen by college coaches- D1 thru D3 coaches were there. Derril Kipp and Steve Tucker (writer for the Sun-Times) told Doug Bruno that he needed to watch a little guard from Galesburg who was really clever with the ball. Bruno watched two of our games, and after the second game at Maine South he said he was going to contact Molly Watson and offer her a full-ride. 

Our trips to Maine West not only made us familiar with suburban schools, it made them familiar with us. Through the years, I am convinced some of them earned their All-State honors because of the exposure they got at Maine West. 

Derril Kipp also was very good to us. We got game films from him on Belvidere in 1996 and 1997. He helped us locate films and made contacts when we were getting ready to play Loyola. Derril and I had a couple long conversations in prep for the Loyola game. He had recommended we use a “triangle and two.” While we didn’t use “Triangle and Two,” it was a result of his thoughts that we designed a “Diamond and One” to use. 

Not only were Kipp’s summer tourneys something that impacted Illinois girls basketball and raised the skill level of basketball, he impacted both boys and girls basketball. When Illinois went to rule you could play 16 games and 3 tourneys with up to five games- it was Kipp who first came up with the idea of just setting up tourneys with no brackets to get 5 games. His shootouts had all the best teams in Illinois, and he matched them up playing over a month with games at multiple sites. As you can guess- that was the model I followed for our Thanksgiving and our King Tourneys. 

In the summer when we went up there, Maine West over 3 days might be scheduled to play 10-11 games. When I asked him about it, he felt strongly that players got better when they had to push through fatigue. That is why I always tried to schedule our varsity to play multiple games in our league. 

When we went to Maine West, it was not all work. Things like:
- Teammates giving Stef Mitchell a fake wake-up call at 3am. She got up quietly and thought she was pulling one on her roommates. She went down to the lobby looking for breakfast, only to find it was 3am.
- We drove oversized rental vans. We decided to take the girls downtown Chicago one evening. Peachey was driving the rental van, and we found a garage. Evidently we missed the sign of the height limited. It was when we got up to about 5th level that the van could not go further- Peachey had to back down an oversized van from the 5th level. 
- A tradition was always to go to the Spaghetti Factory for a team meal. The girls could always eat.
- We had college players usually come to coach- the IHSA did not permit HS coaches coaching players during games. One summer Molly Watson and Sara Wood were our coaches. They road up with Jon Peck, being a gentleman, he offered to take Sara’s bag for her when they parked. He didn’t know that Sara had her barbell set in the bag.
- One game the team played poorly. As soon as the game was over Sara took the girls out of the gym, sat them down for about a 20 minute lecture on competing. I guess that was not fun for the players but it was fun for me to see a former player being that invested. 
- The time Whitney Snyder commented that, “Man, it doesn’t matter what time of day or night it is, it is always 76 degrees here.” The sign at our hotel showed the room rate was 76…. Dollars!!

Maine West trips impacted our program tremendously. I don’t know where it would rank exactly but it was one the five most important things we did. We started in 1984 and went every year up to 2013. At that time AAU began to take over in the month of July and Maine West no longer ran the July tourneys. Our last trip to Maine West was in the summer of 2016 for a one day tourney on a Friday evening. You will NEVER convince me that the AAU experience is as good as playing with your team and going to Maine West. It all started with a suggestion from Derril Kipp.