1995 Camp Notebook

We had experienced great success in Streaks basketball from 1988 thru 1995. We had been rated in the top 20 each year and we had won 20 games. In 1995 we had our best team ever, we made it to the Sweet Sixteen. We won the Sectional at a packed Thiel Gym. It was a dream season. We lost some of our best players. Our expectations for 1995-6 were lower. People on the outside did not have high dreams for the team- but the players had very high dreams. The 1995-6 team surprised everyone but themselves. Sound familiar???



Two of my more stupid statements (I realize this opens up a whole category for debate), were:
1- When they put in the three point shot I said, "It will only be involved in girls basketball at the end of quarters when people throw up a prayer."

2- After the 1995 season, I told Coach Rux, "If we can't go to state with this team, we never will."

When the girls went to Michigan Camp in the summer of 1995, this was a print out that we gave them-

Dream Denied
Normal Stops GHS 62-42

Pekin- Galesburg's dream season has ended. Normal Community provided a cruel early wakeup call for Galesburg here Monday night when the Ironmen defeated the Silver Streaks 62-42 in a Class AA Supersectional at Pekin's Dawson Hawkins Gym. Galesburg ends the most successful season in Streaks girls basketball history at 29-3. Coach Massey said, "What makes this loss so tough to take is the fact these girls were willing to challenge themselves with such high goals and such big dreams."

For Galesburg 1994-5 was a great season. We challenged ourselves to go beyond tradition. But as great as our season was, we didn't achieve our ultimate goal, making it to the Elite Eight. To sit and watch the State Tourney at Redbird was difficult for many of us. We knew we could of and we felt we should have ben playing there. to come so close and not reaching a dream is very painful.

Part of the sadness was to know that something great was over. But it isn't over, we've got another chance. Too many of us invested too much in that dream to forget it. Let everyone talk about Quincy, Rock Island, and Moline in the WB6, and Manual and Richwoods in our Sectional. They don't understand that Galesburg isn't through yet, there are too many of us coming back!

We experienced the satisfaction of going beyond expectations. We want to experience more of that. We experienced the exhilaration of sticking together to come from behind. We want to experience more of that. We experienced the thrill of winning championships. We want to experience more of that. We experienced the excitement of being with people who put the team ahead of themselves, and we want to experience more of that.

Did we go beyond tradition of Galesburg basketball? Definitely we did. But did we achieve everything we had hoped for? No. We did a lot of great things but we felt we could have done more. And that is what 1995-6 is about, ANOTHER CHANCE. There may be things that we cannot do as well as this year, but there are things that we will do better than any Galesburg team has ever done. We're not just coming back, we're coming back for more. Our dream has not been denied, just delayed.

We're proud of the tradition of Galesburg basketball. Many of us have already been part of it. We know wht it feels like, and we want more of that feeling. Plus, we want to leave our mark and add more to the tradition of Galesburg basketball. People better not count us out because we're not only back, we're back for more.