Kessel, Boyle: Their number’s up

No wonder they were gym rats.

Greg Boyle had to look no further than his dad’s key ring to gain access to his high school gym at any hour of the day, any day of the week.

Ditto for Kyle Kessel, nearly 20 years later.

The two overachieving teenagers took full advantage of the free court time, spending hours and hours in Mundelein’s main gym, working to the point of exhaustion.

They worked on their shooting, on their dribbling, on anything and everything basketball.

And usually, they worked by themselves. Workouts could be more serious that way.

Both Boyle and Kessel were determined to be the best point guards in Lake County.

“When I think about those days, I think about all that time I spent by myself in that gym,” Boyle said. “It was a lot of practice in solitude.”

Those lonely days and nights of practice made for quite the opposite experience come game time.

It was then that Boyle and Kessel, who will share the honor of a lifetime tonight in the very gym that defined their childhoods, became the centers of attention.

Boyle, the son of Jim Boyle, Mundelein’s principal in the 1970s, was the school’s first basketball superstar.

A Parade all-American in 1977, Boyle earned a scholarship to Iowa after scoring 1,423 points at Mundelein, the most in school history.

Boyle’s record stood until 1994.

That’s when Kessel, the son of former Mundelein basketball coach Dennis Kessel, wrapped up his spectacular career with 1,920 points. He also finished with 860 career assists, which to this day still ranks him second in IHSA history.

Just like Boyle, Kessel earned all-state honors as a senior.

“When I was in high school, everybody used to talk about how great Greg Boyle was,” said Kessel, who went on to play at Texas A&M before shifting gears to concentrate on a career in professional baseball as a pitcher. “(Boyle) was an all-American with Magic Johnson and everything. It was kind of neat for me to be able to set some records after that.”

Interestingly, the two best players in the history of Mundelein boys basketball had more in common than dads with important keys, and an affinity for marathon workout sessions in the same empty gym.

They also wore the same number.

Both Boyle and Kessel wore No. 14 during their playing days at Mundelein.

And as of tonight, no player will ever wear that number again.

At halftime of Mundelein’s North Suburban Conference Lake Division tilt against Stevenson, No. 14 will be officially retired in honor of both Boyle and Kessel.

It’s the first jersey number in the program’s history afforded that prestigious distinction.

“I was pretty emotional when they inducted us into the Hall of Fame a few years ago,” said the 51-year-old Boyle, now a financial planner with Morgan Stanley who lives in Lake Bluff. “I don’t know what to expect with this. I’m sure it will also be very emotional. I have two daughters now (4-year-old Grace and 2-year-old Claire, with wife Renee). I’m glad I can share this with them. That will be exciting.

“I just wish I could share it with my dad. He is deceased now. He would have enjoyed this immensely.”

A father’s pride ... and joy

Kessel’s father is counting his blessings in that way. He can’t wait to share in the big moment.

It will be yet another in a long list of big moments Kyle and Dennis have shared together through basketball.

Back at Mundelein, Dennis coached Kyle and the two love to reminisce about Kyle’s senior year, when the Mustangs went 28-2, reeled off 25 wins in a row and advanced to the sectional final.

“I am so proud of Kyle,” Dennis Kessel said. “You know, probably the thing I loved most about Kyle was that he was such a team player. He really wanted to make his teammates better. To me, he was a coach’s dream and an absolute pleasure to coach.

“Everyone always talks about how difficult it is to coach your own kid. But Kyle made it easy. He worked hard, he never questioned me or any of his coaches. He never thought that, because he was good, he knew it all. And he only cared about winning.”

Even now, Kyle and Dennis share basketball victories every day.

They run one of the most popular travel and AAU basketball programs in Lake County, Kessel Heat.

Both have spent more than a decade teaching the basics, as well as the finer points of basketball, to kids from grade school to high school.

Kyle is anxious to get his own children involved. He and wife Kristin have two daughters (2-year-old Reese and 1-year-old Ella) and a son (Colt, who was born in December).

“My kids are going to be out there playing a lot of basketball, that’s for sure,” 34-year-old Kyle said with a laugh. “Sometimes, kids need to be pushed a little bit by their parents. I know it helped me. My dad was hard, but without him, I don’t think I would have been half the player I was.”

Not always easy

With encouragement from his dad, Kyle overcame a serious back injury that relegated him to a back brace for the six months prior to his senior season. He also learned how to operate at a severe height disadvantage.

Kyle wound up being about 6-feet by the time he was a senior. But he grew to that height slowly. When he earned a starting spot on varsity as a freshman, he was barely 5-foot-2.

“I was a pretty small kid for most of my career, definitely a late-bloomer,” Kyle said. “I wasn’t as big or as strong as most of the other kids and that hurt me.”

Boyle also pushed through some personal challenges.

He suffered a severe knee injury in January of his senior year at Mundelein. He attempted a few comebacks in an effort to help the team. But he wound up making his knee worse.

To his surprise, his perseverance kept college coaches interested.

Iowa offered Boyle a scholarship even though he was forced to finish the season on the sidelines for Mundelein.

Eventually, Boyle played in an NCAA Final Four at Iowa.

It was a thrill of a lifetime that came with a hefty price tag. Boyle endured six knee surgeries while trying to play at Iowa.

“Back then, there weren’t the innovations with knee surgeries that there are now,” Boyle said. “I had so many surgeries. It was hard, but I wanted to keep playing because I loved basketball.”

Love and basketball

Boyle and Kessel will be feeling the love tonight as they are presented with their jerseys, framed neatly in display cases.

The pomp and circumstance of the event will provide quite a juxtaposition to all of those quite hours they used to spend in the gym by themselves.

In a way, it kind of brings their time there full circle.

“That gym is like home to me,” Kyle said. “When I’m there, I always get a great feeling. That place is full of great memories.”