Former Schaumburg greats still find time together on the court

Even 30 years later, Kim Connell still has the mentality of a point guard.

"My job," Connell remembers the Waubonsie Valley girls basketball coach, "was to get her the ball."

"Her" is Kim Wallner, whom high school sports fans in DuPage County now know as veteran basketball coach at West Chicago. Kim Connell is a new face in the area, moving to Waubonsie this season from Rockford Boylan.

But old-timers in Schaumburg might recall Kim and "Kimmie" (as Wallner calls Connell) as stars on successful Saxons field hockey, basketball and softball teams in the late 1970s. The two teamed up on Schaumburg's state championship field hockey team in 1977, and Connell went on to play field hockey at Indiana University.

Wallner, one year her senior, later played basketball at North Central, winning a Division III national championship in 1983 and graduating as the school's all-time leading scorer.

Best friends in high school, the two Kims first met playing together on the Schaumburg Spuds slow-pitch softball team. Fast-pitch leagues were scarce in those days, and Wallner joined the Spuds as a 12-year-old on a team of mostly 16s. Connell, who lived across the street from Campanelli Elementary School not far from Wallner, later joined the Spuds. They worked and coached alongside each other for the Schaumburg Park District.

As unique as three-sport girls athletes were, so were that lefties Wallner and Connell played catcher and third base, respectively at Schaumburg High School.

They used it to their advantage.

Connell recalled a pickoff play they cooked up where Wallner would remain in the crouch position and fire behind the batter to Connell. The play caught many baserunners napping - and an off-guard Connell in the chest once.

"It literally knocked the wind out of me," Connell can say now with a laugh.

Connell was the defensive back in field hockey, Wallner the team's scorer. Connell was the point guard in basketball, setting up shooting guard Wallner.

"Kimmie was probably the quieter one," Wallner said. "She was the ideal athlete; she didn't say a lot, she just got the job done."

"We didn't have a favorite sport," Connell said. "I was kind of in her shadow, which was fine. We complemented each other. There was never any rivalry."

In fact, Connell and Wallner's parents grew to be close friends over the years.

Their best season in basketball was 1979-80, Wallner's senior year, when Schaumburg went 19-3 under coach Joe Breault and won conference and regional titles before being upset by Hersey in a sectional semifinal.

"I remember quite a bit those long bus rides for field hockey to Homewood-Flossmoor and New Trier and Lincoln-Way," Wallner said. "We just got crazy and silly and made up songs. Things I would never let my kids do now."

Wallner went to the West Chicago school district and into coaching right out of college. She would often run into her old high school teammate at the state basketball tournament. Connell and Wallner got back on the court for a few years in the Hen Hoopers Classic hosted by Fremd.

West Chicago and Boylan even played each other twice in the late 1990s.

"She'd say 'you need to come to the suburbs and make more money,'" Connell said. "Kim was always looking out for me."

Now the two are successful coaches at schools just a short ride down Route 59.

Just like Wallner's connection to Lyons Township girls basketball coach and North Central teammate Dawn Schabacker, it's a special bond.

"With Dawn at Lyons and Kim it's the same way," Wallner said. "We can talk shop, but still talk about the old times. It's fun to have people you played with also in the same profession."