North Stars making history, and making it look easy

Pressure?

What pressure?

When you are making history like the St. Charles North basketball team is - each win this time of year is another first for the school - it isn't supposed to be this easy.

So much for the survive and advance mantra in March. Unless you count trying to hold onto a 20-point lead surviving, the North Stars aren't having much trouble in what already is their best postseason in school history.

And that best postseason fits the theme of the year for this senior-dominated group, who already holds the school record for wins with 22.

"We're just rolling right now, I can't explain it," St. Charles North senior Jonathan DeMoss said. "We thought this team (Rockford Auburn) was going to be real good, we came in knowing we had to play defense and rebound and that's what we did."

Usually when a team makes a long postseason run, it needs a game that it catches a couple breaks, makes a miraculous last-season shot, somehow wins a game it maybe should not have.

At least one win when the game is on the line in the fourth quarter and your nerves are tested.

So far St. Charles North has a 12-point win over Larkin (in a game they led by 20), a 22-point victory against South Elgin and now a 16-point blowout over Rockford Auburn.

Not that they feel that easy to coach Tom Poulin.

"We were up 17 with 2 minutes and I felt like it was a 1-point game," Poulin said. "I'm new to it, going this far as a coach. They feel a lot tighter. I understand now when I hear coaches in the past say 'I wasn't comfortable with a 15-point lead with three minutes left in the fourth.'"

While the North Stars haven't caught a break in winning a tight game, maybe their break came by the way the tournament is playing out. Rockford Auburn upset No. 1 seed Rockton Hononegah. St. Charles North won't have to play Jacobs, who has been a thorn in their side at the last two Christmas tournaments, in the sectional championship.

Or maybe this group of seniors is just this much better than the rest of the sectional field, ready to cap their milestone-filled year with one more. Poulin can't say enough about his seniors, led by DeMoss, Nick Neari, Zach Hirsch, Mike Kastel, Mike Leflestein and Jake Juriga.

"We're very fortunate to have the leaders, the seniors and the captains, the guys that take control of our team when I can't be out on the court," Poulin said. "All of them, we've got a special group of guys that are mature, that are calm in the middle of all that chaos. They tell me to relax sometimes. It's a great group and they deserve this."

St. Charles North isn't just making history for its school, the North Stars are trying to get St. Charles basketball where it hasn't been in 8 years. In 2001 St. Charles won the last of its four sectional championships, joining previous teams in 1995, 1984 and 1927.

Despite some excellent teams through the years, St. Charles never got one to state. Then again, two weeks ago, the Geneva girls basketball team had never been to state.

Why stop with one Tri-Cities state basketball team this winter?

"It would be really nice to have a sectional championship but hopefully we can go farther," Neari said.

First things first, and that means either Dundee-Crown or McHenry Friday night.

"We don't have a lot of tradition right now, we're just trying to build it," Hirsch said. "It (a sectional title) would mean a lot."

jlemon@dailyherald.com