Hardwood history

Jerry Kreig came to Northern Illinois' media room after St. Charles East - in its first year of existence - dropped a 63-59 heartbreaker to West Aurora in the 2001 Class AA supersectional in DeKalb. "We talked all week about West Aurora's mystique," the Saints' current athletic director and then boys basketball coach said that night. "It carried a lot of weight tonight."

West Aurora, the defending state champion in boys basketball that season, was making another trip to the Elite Eight.

"I remember it like it was yesterday," Kreig said. "Besides the final score, everything was great. It is one thing I will always carry with me was how much fun it was to play (West Aurora). It was the type of program you wanted to be like."

Disciplined, mentally impregnable and unrelenting in its pursuit, the 1999-00 West Aurora squad captured its final 22 games en route to the state championship.

With 14 career appearances in the state quarterfinals, not to mention four losses in the Sweet 16, West Aurora had a pedigree few could match.

But after four state-championship losses, West Aurora finally discovered the promised land with a one-two knockout blow against East St. Louis and Westinghouse 10 years ago this weekend to deliver its first state title.

"I would imagine there must have been a sense of relief," said former Glenbard North coach Bob Miller, a Batavia resident. "They had come close so many times before."

To the other local coaches who faced or witnessed West Aurora 10 seasons ago, it was possibly the best team the far western suburbs have ever produced.

"You had the feeling you were watching the team that was going to win the state championship," Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton said of the Blackhawks' 20-point thrashing of archrival East Aurora at the Wildcats' sectional final. "They've had more talented teams before and since, but none of them played as well as a team as that one. It was a thing of beauty to watch."

"They were so well balanced and moved the ball so well offensively," retired Naperville Central coach Bob Sterr said. "They were just so disciplined offensively and defensively."

"I was one of the first to say (West Aurora was) a championship-caliber team," former Naperville North coach Mark Lindo said. "They were as cohesive a team, as unselfish a team as you will find. They were so focused and so locked in."

The genesis of the Blackhawks' championship season was shaped by two events: a bitter loss to East Aurora on a last-second shot the season before and the players' commitment during the summer before the 1999 school year began.

"Hunger is everything," said Austin Real, the Blackhawks' senior center that year. "(The loss to East Aurora in the sectional semifinals the previous season) was probably the biggest motivating factory. We flew under the radar all summer."

"I think that summer, after we lost that game to East High, we never wanted to have that feeling again," said starting point guard Mike Fowler. "None of us played AAU; we were all there that summer."

For the West Aurora seniors on the team memories of their predecessors of three years earlier when the 1997 squad lost to Peoria Manual in the state championship were equally potent.

"That team really took us in," Real said. "We saw the level of play it would take to win a state championship."

During the regular season that year, West Aurora was virtually invincible.

The Blackhawks ran the table in the DuPage Valley Conference; no team from the league came within single figures.

Joliet handed the Blackhawks what proved to be their only loss in the quarterfinals of the Pontiac Holiday Tournament.

Against longtime rival Lockport on the Porters' notorious confined gym late in the season, starting forward Kevin Jenkins was injured.

"It did put us into a little bit of a bind," West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman said of Jenkins' ankle injury."

But in the end it provided Derik Hollyfield the opportunity of a lifetime.

The junior was installed into the starting lineup, and his downstate wizardry from beyond the 3-point arc became the stuff of legend.

Hollyfield drained 12 3-pointers, against a pair of misses, in the Blackhawks' four state-tournament games.

"Everybody remembers the state tournament, but (Hollyfield) was ready the whole year," Real said. "When he got his opportunity, he was ready to go."

West Aurora ended the regular season on a 14-game winning streak, and its preliminary postseason dominance was personified at DeKalb when the squad limited Glenbard South to a mere 2 first-half rebounds in yet another resounding win.

The Final Four beckoned after the Blackhawks dispatched Gordon Tech in the quarterfinals.

But East St. Louis, which featured Darius Miles - the third pick in the NBA draft only months later - was a fearsome opponent.

"We actually didn't focus on Miles individually," said Jamaal Thompson, the Blackhawks' standout small forward. "We would collapse, force him to give it up or take a bad shot. It was a benefit for us."

West Aurora overcame a 9-point third-quarter deficit to earn a hard-fought 43-39 victory and a date with Public League powerhouse Westinghouse in the championship game.

"I had never been on a court where there had been that much speed before," said Real.

"(Westinghouse) just ate people up with their quickness," Kerkman said. "We only turned the ball over four or five times (in the final). Against that Westinghouse team that was quite a feat in itself. I think they were ranked No. 2 in the country."

Louis Smith and Fowler, the Blackhawks' starting guards, were impervious to the Warriors' athleticism; Fowler hit a shot just inside the timeline to give West Aurora a 45-34 lead after three quarters.

"(Assistant coach Curtis Shaw) actually substituted me back into the game with about five seconds left (before the third-quarter buzzer)," Fowler said. "I was just trying to get a shot off. It gave us some momentum heading into the fourth quarter, which we needed against Westinghouse."

Real had the Blackhawks' lone fourth-quarter field goal, but clutch free-throw shooting, particularly from Thompson, enabled West Aurora to deny the Warriors' inevitable surge in the 60-57 triumph.

"I was never a person who shied away from a situation like that," said Thompson, who hit 4 free throws in the final 30 seconds to secure the win. "Those types of moments you dream of."

"(Thompson) had ice water in his veins," Kerkman said. "They were all heady players; that's why they won the state championship."

The victory also eased the burden of past disappointments at the state tournament as the eight combined second- and third-place trophies were supplanted by the most treasured prize - as well as the most difficult to attain - in the land.

"It was a great feeling of pride for the community and the district," said Bob Hawkins, former West Aurora principal and district director of personnel. "After we won it was just unbelievable. (The state championship) was just a constant reminder of the success and the tradition."

"It's so hard to put that moment into words," Real said. "Not relief, but a feeling of accomplishment. We did it the right way. We had accomplished something that no other (West Aurora) team had done, even though some of them probably deserved (a state title). It was just a special group of guys, and we had a great coach."