Bring it on: Central students take on faculty in charity basketball game
Eric Kaisling would never, ever engage in anything close to trash talking on the basketball court.
And the Spanish teacher would never, ever even dream of, say, taunting a member of the opposing team during the seventh annual Staff vs. Students charity basketball game Tuesday night at Naperville Central High School.
No way. No chance.
Well, OK, maybe just un poco.
Like the subtle little sign Kaisling wrote in Spanish and plastered outside his classroom door. You know, the one that says "The students will cry on March 18."
Not that he was trying to provoke a response. Oh, no. But it wasn't long before kids came back with a sign of their own -- one that says "Come Watch Señor Kaisling cry for his madre on March 18."
Sense of community
It's that kind of good-natured ribbing that has lifted the Staff vs. Students basketball game from something that began seven years ago in a nearly empty gym to a much-anticipated school-wide event that could lure as many as 1,000 people Tuesday.
When the game tips off at 7 p.m. in Central's main gym it will be a chance for students and faculty to come together for something that's fun for the players, entertaining for fans and, better still, raises money for a good cause.
The contest is the brainchild of Todd Holmberg, who teaches anthropology, geography and history, and has been playing hoops since he was a kid.
There had been a faculty-student game when he began teaching at Central, he says, "but it kind of fizzled."
So he worked with the school's pep club, known as Red Rage, to resurrect it as a way to help pull the Central community together.
He also wanted to use that first game to raise money and awareness about Crohn's disease, which had struck his wife, Christine.
"That first year there were probably more players than fans," Holmberg says.
Still, it laid the groundwork for what has become an annual happening that continues to grow in popularity.
"It's starting to become an event that people look forward to," he says.
And, as with the first game, each subsequent contest has raised money and awareness about a disease that has affected someone at the school. Last year participants raised roughly $6,000 to combat Huntington's disease.
Admission to this year's outing is $5 and raffle tickets will be sold for gift drawings throughout the evening. Proceeds will go to battle ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, which claimed Clyde Sundquist, who had worked in the district's technology department and was based at Central.
"He was a great man and we wanted to honor his memory," Holmberg says.
Kaisling says he appreciated that type of attitude when he arrived at the school four years ago. He began helping Holmberg organize the game a year later and he couldn't be happier with how it's turned out.
"I wanted to build a sense of community wherever I went to teach," he says, "and I think we have."
Winning streak
Tuesday's game will work like this. Seven co-ed student teams will challenge one large co-ed staff team in individual 5-minute games. The winner of each game earns a point for their side. The team that accumulates four points or more wins.
It's not like they're paying attention, but both Kaisling and Holmberg are quick to point out the staff has lost only once in the history of the event.
Holmberg remembers the night well. Each student team can have one varsity basketball player, he says, and in the key match-up of that evening one of those varsity players grabbed total control of the court.
Holmberg claims he can't remember the kid's name, but says he must have been 6-6 or 6-8. In a couple of years, the kid probably will have been 7-2. It doesn't matter because, however tall he was, he literally took the staff to school.
"That kid just lit us up," Holmberg says. "He was dunking right over us."
That's pretty impressive, because this isn't exactly a ragtag bunch of teachers who wouldn't know a basketball from basket weaving. Most of the staff members you'll see on the court play regularly on Monday and Friday mornings before school and some of them are pretty darn good.
Probably the best female player on the faculty team -- their own version of Candace Parker -- is Heidi Heslinga from the math department.
"Last year she drained a couple 3's toward the end of a game that saved us," Holmberg says.
Even Principal Jim Caudill has some game. He was a high school wrestler and isn't afraid to get out there and mix it up a little.
It probably doesn't hurt that he's the boss, but Caudill is likely to get his fair share of shots.
"We'll feed him the ball," Holmberg says, "that's for sure."
At halftime, Central's cheerleaders and poms will take center stage along with a cheerleading squad made up of about 30 staff members in sweats and T-shirts who have prepared their own choreographed performance.
If a few of them throw a couple of flips down the sidelines, don't say we didn't warn you.
'A really nice feeling'
When they're standing at the edge of the court Tuesday night, waiting for the game to start and looking up at a gym full of people, both Kaisling and Holmberg will know they've accomplished their shared dream of creating an event that not only brings the Central community together, but also helps folks in need.
"It's a really nice feeling" Holmberg says.
That would make for a nice Hallmark-card ending if not for one minor detail: They still want to give the student teams a good old-fashioned whomping.
It's not that they're still smarting from that one night a few years ago when that 7-6 kid got lucky with a couple dunks. It's not that they're keeping track of their won-loss record. And they'd certainly never engage in any trash talking.
Except for maybe the sign Holmberg placed over his classroom door to remind students about the faculty's recent string of victories. You know the one: "It's a simple matter of history repeating itself."
If you go
What: Staff vs. Students charity basketball game
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Naperville Central High School, 440 W. Aurora Ave., Naperville
Tickets: $5 with proceeds going to fight ALS
Info: (630) 420-6420