Can't beat the $5 you'll spend for Night of Hoops
One of the best things in Jim Roberts' life isn't free, but it's pretty darn close.
"I think the neatest thing, for me, is having a group of teams come into our gymnasium that people can see for a relatively inexpensive evening of high school basketball," Batavia's head boys basketball coach said of his 17-year-old creation, the Night of Hoops.
"It's not in some large auditorium," he said. "It's high school basketball, played in a high school gym. It's not something that is an exorbitant cost, it's a five-dollar ticket for all day - if you choose to, to see six games. I don't know if there's a better ticket going."
There used to be. A ticket for Batavia's Night of Hoops - this year's sophomore-varsity tripleheaders start at noon Saturday within Batavia's refurbished campus - was $4 when it began in 1994.
So things change a little. But not so much on the hard court itself, where St. Joseph coach Gene Pingatore will lead his Chargers into the 7:30 p.m. finale of the six-game feast against Roberts' Bulldogs.
Pingatore was there at the start.
"It's so good, I hope we get invited back," said the legendary St. Joseph coach, who'll enter with 855 victories, tops in Illinois prep history. (Rockford Boylan's Steve Goers is right behind at 850.)
St. Joseph has been invited to Batavia for many a two-year contract, through good times and a "bad memory."
"We got killed by East Aurora two years ago," said Pingatore, who can simultaneously sound deadly serious and dryly comic.
"For the most part all the games have been very, very good with rare exceptions, and that's what you go for," said Pingatore, 3-0 vs. Batavia at Night of Hoops.
"We love it because it's a great high school basketball atmosphere," he said. "The atmosphere for playing is outstanding - a great crowd, enthusiastic, great teams, and run great. Jim Roberts does a great job.
"This year, to make it ever more so is the fact that we're playing Batavia. I'm sure that'll be a great game."
If Pingatore and St. Joseph represent Night of Hoops veterans, St. Charles North is the rookie. This is coach Tom Poulin and the North Stars' debut appearance, following the lead of St. Charles East.
"I had heard so many great things about it from the St. Charles East people, and parents. They talk about what a great experience it is," said Poulin, who begins Saturday's varsity slate at 4:30 p.m. against Jacobs.
Poulin said St. Charles North players and fans would finish their own game on that particular Saturday night then flock to Batavia to see the likes of Simeon or West Aurora - who happen to be playing in this year's 6 p.m. game.
Poulin had inquired before the 2008-09 season about securing a slot in Night of Hoops. He had sought "a larger stage" for the North Stars of Nick Neari, Jon DeMoss and Zach Hirsch but had to be satisfied with appearances at Loyola University and Joliet's Martin Luther King confab.
This year's North Stars are in, another exciting group featuring Josh Mikes, Beau Blakeley, Kyle Nelson, Chris Conrad, David Johnson and friends.
"Coach Roberts was nice enough to save us a spot and we jumped at the chance," Poulin said.
Roberts, whose clubs have gone 7-9 over the years at Night of Hoops, is known as a basketball history buff. He highlights some of the great players who have played at Night of Hoops - West Aurora's Dameon Mason, Crane's Will Bynum, King's Imari Sawyer, Proviso East's Dee Brown and Shannon Brown - and marvels at its origins.
"The ironic part of how it got started," Roberts said, "was it came about from two guys talking who never participated in it."
Bill Hitt, coach of "Three Amigos"-era state champion Proviso East, spoke at a Batavia basketball camp in 1992. Hitt and Batavia star Corey Williams discussed renewing the on-court fireworks the teams shared in the 1960s.
They went their separate ways, but Roberts and Batavia athletic director Mike Gaspari, who Roberts credits highly, got the ball rolling. Roberts makes sure his own players appreciate the history.
"We're very fortunate," he said. "A lot of people who have been coming to games at Batavia have been coming long before these kids have been born.
"We try to explain to them the reason they get some of these opportunities is because of the players who came before them - and hopefully they'll leave something for the players that follow them."
Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke saw some of the best athletes this state has produced, even rubbed elbows with a few.
A sixth-generation Batavia resident out of Batavia's Class of 1967, he was a classmate of NFL star quarterback Ken Anderson and a year behind NBA Hall of Famer Dan Issel and Major League pitcher Bruce Von Hoff. In 1970 Schielke and Anderson even got sworn into the National Guard together.
"I was not an athlete, but I was always a fan and in the stadium," said Schielke, who is this year's Night of Hoops honoree, Roberts' annual toast to Batavia history and Night of Hoops supporters.
Past honorees have included Pingatore, West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman and, last year, Maureen Bryant, grandmother of former Bulldogs David and Kevin Bryant.
"Today, I'm really very proud of the Batavia High School athletic program. And I have to say certainly with Mike Gaspari and Jim Roberts the program is riding as high as it ever has," Schielke said.
"What's beautiful about those guys is they really pay heed to the traditions of the programs, and they have built programs around the community."
Schielke said other mayors have expressed their "awe" of Batavia athletics. Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Schielke said, never failed to rattle off the uniform numbers of Anderson and Issel.
Batavia's mayor, off whose tongue Bulldogs sports lore flows freely, said he's "not one to make a big hoopla" out of Saturday's Night of Hoops tribute. On the other hand, he is "obviously deeply honored."
"This is about the program, not about me," Schielke said. "I'm just a fan who is very proud to be able to sit in the stands and cheer the program on, because there's just so much to be proud of."