Plenty of hope from the hoops

The two Hoops for Healing boys basketball tournaments Doug Smith has founded, first as athletic director at Woodstock and for the past eight years at Naperville North, have raised more than $100,000 to benefit Edward Cancer Center's Camp Hope.

Smith will be retiring from Naperville North after this school year, his 28th year as an athletic director. He hesitates calling Hoops for Healing his legacy.

“I don't know about that word, but it's very near and dear to me for a lot of different reasons,” he said. “It's my way of giving back, I guess.”

In 1998 Smith was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. Despite the severity he has been in remission since treatments ended.

“I've been very lucky,” he said, “knock on wood or my head.”

His levity no doubt contributed to his improvement. Therapeutic arts and crafts, music, exercise courses and discussions during the two-week-long Camp Hope likewise helps children ages 5-12 who have parents or grandparents going through cancer treatment and aren't able to attend a summer camp. Some 250 children and families have been served this way.

Now working with the Edward Foundation's Linda Conlin and Meghan Moreno, Smith and Oswego athletic director Steve McInerney have raised more than $50,000 for Camp Hope since Smith originated Hoops for Healing at Naperville North in 2005. Smith and current Oswego assistant principal Craig Watson founded the original in 2001.

Smith said Huskies coach Jeff Powers and Oswego coach Kevin Schnable have stated their interest in continuing the tournament.

As for the players from Waubonsie Valley, Geneva, Marmion, Aurora Christian, DeKalb, Oswego East and the two host schools, their efforts don't end on the basketball court. “It's not just our kids playing basketball,” he said. “They really get involved with this Camp Hope. It's certainly become their legacy as well.”

Birthday boy

Former Wheaton Academy star Tim Rusthoven, now at William & Mary, celebrated his 19th birthday at another of the schools that recruited him.

The 6-foot-9 freshman came off the bench to collect 2 rebounds in 6 minutes during the Tribe's 76-52 loss to Virginia on Nov. 12.

Spanning the globe

Wheaton Academy's girls basketball team has two juniors who are part of the high school's international boarding program.

Guard Michelle Suh, from Korea, lives with a host family in West Chicago. Forward Tobi Ballantine was from Elk Grove but lived for the past four years in the Dominican Republic with her father, a businessman, and her mother, a missionary.

“It's a benefit not only for them but also for us, because we're trying to understand their cultures while they're trying to understand ours,” said Warriors coach Beth Mitchell.

Wheaton Academy's international boarding program is in its fourth year, and has grown from an initial two students to 23 representing eight different countries. Most remain at Wheaton Academy their entire high school careers and matriculate into United States universities.

They may even help the locals into college, too. Ballantine, for example, was helping a teammate learn Spanish. No text required.

A roof over their head

With construction at Addison Trail finally done, the Blazers have a brand-new field house to practice in. Now instead of having to wait a few hours for their turn for the gym, they can practice right after school. They have team rooms with overhead projectors and a DVD player, where they can watch film of their games and practices.

“Yesterday's practice was 100 times better because they saw how lackadaisical they were in those drills,” said Addison Trail girls coach Rob Schader. “It's just amazing. Hopefully it'll pay off.”

The Traveling Healys

There is flux within the Healy coaching camp.

When Bob Quinn left his post as Wheaton Warrenville South athletic director to take that job at his alma mater, Loras College before the 2009-10 academic year, Tigers boys basketball coach Mike Healy took the WW South job on an interim basis.

Now selected to do the job on a permanent basis, that meant Healy made the difficult decision between administration and curtailing his coaching career after this season, his seventh with the Tigers. There was no option to work both.

His younger brother, St. Francis boys coach Shawn Healy, has a different situation to deal with.

His wife, Yvette, was hired as the University of Wisconsin's softball coach the last weekend in July, and the couple has since moved to Fitchburg, on the outskirts of Madison. Shawn Healy is doing the road-warrior commute.

“My headquarters will be Wheaton for the next four months,” he said. “I'll stay at my mom's four or five nights a week, then go up to Madison a couple times.”

Due to Yvette's late hire, Shawn felt obliged to stay on as the Spartans' basketball coach, though he did leave as a business and computer programming teacher.

“I miss seeing the kids every day, I miss the classroom,” he said.

“With her getting the job so late I felt that St. Francis, my alma mater, I didn't really want to leave them caught in a tough position. I have a really good relationship with a lot of kids on the team. I wanted to come back and this group wanted me to come back.”

Yvette Healy, the 2007 Horizon League coach of the year during a seven-year stint at Loyola (Ill.), signed a three-year contract with Wisconsin.

That's good for her but makes for a tough choice for Shawn, who hasn't ruled out continuing as the Spartans' coach after this season.

“I'll kind of see how this year goes and then make an adjustment,” he said.

Small world

The new superintendent at Timothy Christian is Matt Davidson, son of retired Aurora Christian boys basketball coach Don Davidson.

Matt, who along with brother Marc was on a 1989 Class A sectional champion at Aurora Christian, brought three children into Timothy Christian's basketball program, said varsity boys coach Jack LeGrand, two middle schoolers and sophomore Luke Davidson.

Start up

Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza looks too young to be one, but he is a basketball lifer.

The 1990 Waubonsie Valley all-conference guard is already in his 17th season as a coach. He began at Aurora University though he stopped playing basketball and continued in soccer and baseball instead then was a varsity assistant to Tim Pease at Geneva.

“When it came time for a (coaching) decision, basketball was what I wanted to stay with,” said Vozza, a Wheaton resident.

He was part of Neuqua Valley's start-up program, and until leaving for Metea Valley when it opened in 2009 he'd assisted Wildcats coach Todd Sutton for a decade.

“I was there kind of when he came in and started building the program,” Vozza said. “It's like déjà vu for me right now.”

What he learned from Sutton was off-season development, attention to detail, and the behind-the-scenes work that puts players “in a position to be successful,” Vozza said.

The Mustangs were 22-3 at the frosh/soph level last year. Now they're in the thick of the ultracompetitive Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division with Neuqua, Lake Park, Waubonsie Valley, Bartlett, South Elgin and favorite East Aurora.

“We're looking forward to the challenge and we're excited about the opportunity for varsity basketball,” Vozza said, “but at the same time we know how good the basketball is in this area and how hard you need to work.”