Thanks for the memories

However long Aurora Central can keep its season alive - and the Chargers hope to win their second straight title tonight at the Class 3A Oswego regional - coach Nate Drye is going to have some tough goodbyes pretty soon.

Four-year varsity players Anthony Kelley and Mike Adams have been part of a two-year stretch of excellence that has revitalized the Charger program. They are joined by seniors Nick Czaja, Mark Brauweiler, Brian O'Donnell, Matt Wagner and Tom Barkei - many of whom suffered through an 0-9 football season when the school simply didn't have the numbers to compete - but have again emerged as the class of the conference on the basketball court.

From the bottom half of the Suburban Catholic Conference their first two years, these seniors will always have a special place in the school's history books.

This is the last year for the SCC, and the records will always show Aurora Central as the last two champions. The 6-foot-3 Adams, 6-5 Kelley and 6-6 Czaja have made their impact on the league, going 13-1 this year after 12-2 as juniors.

"They have some nice athletes, nice basketball players," St. Francis coach Sean Healy said. "They are big, they are strong, they are long. They are an impressive group for sure."

Drye brought Kelley and Adams up to varsity from Day 1 as freshmen. Brauweiler has been on varsity since the start of his sophomore year, O'Donnell came up halfway through that season and Czaja at the end of it.

In their four years, Aurora Central went from 15-15 to 12-20, and now 25-5 and 23-3 the past two seasons. The Chargers were just 2-12 in conference their sophomore year; now 24-3 the past two seasons.

"I didn't really think about how good these kids were eventually going to be when we moved them up," Drye said. "I just thought they could help us win at the time. I'm a big believer in getting kids and shaping them while they are young. Upperclassmen who have topped out can cause problems. It is much better to play young kids than to lose with older kids."

What's really exciting is what this group's success is doing for the program's future. This year's Charger freshman team won conference. The sophomores finished third.

The younger kids want to dunk like Kelley, or be the all-around force like Adams. It bodes well for the Aurora Central teams to come in the new Suburban Christian Conference.

"I would say these guys have set the bar very high," Drye said. "They have generated a lot of interest in the program. We play an exciting style of basketball and we usually get a couple of dunks a game so that helps as well. I think the great success that they've had has definitely helped us as far as reaching out to kids in the community."

Kelley in particular has taken his game to another level this year, going from a 7.4 scoring average last season to over 19 this year.

In his final home game against South Elgin on Feb. 21, he put the exclamation point on his career with a 4-second flurry to beat the Storm. You could watch basketball games from now until Kelley has grandchildren and not see this ending again.

Down 4 points with 4 seconds to go, Kelley hit a 3-pointer. ACC fouled, South Elgin missed, and Kelley got fouled with just .3 left. It was Adams who grabbed the rebound and hit Kelley with the perfect outlet pass or Kelley would never have been fouled in time.

The senior drained both shots - giving him 5 points in the final 4 seconds - and an incredible 44-43 win.

But that's what opposing coaches have come to expect from Kelley.

"He's a pretty good player for our conference and I think he's going to be a good player when he goes to the next level because he's so long," Marian coach Curtis Price said.

"The kid is an outstanding player," Aurora Christian coach Marc Davidson said. "And you can't focus solely on him because they have a lot of weapons."

Skinny and sometimes pushed around while playing against older varsity competition, Kelley took his share of lumps. But oh how times have changed.

"He's always had it," Drye said. "With Mark (Adams) last year he kind of deferred a little, There weren't as many shots.

"This year was his turn to take a more assertive role, and he's improved to, there's no doubt. He's always been a tremendous player. He's always been good but this year it seems like everything is clicking."

Kelley's future is still up in the air. He hasn't taken the traditional path to college basketball - no AAU team in the summer - which has made him a bit of a late bloomer to recruiters.

"We're just trying to play out the year and then decide about college after that," Kelley said. "That's the downside, I never got hooked up with a (AAU) team, went to state with track so I can't be upset about it but when it comes down to college searches everyone is asking (where I played AAU, and I say) 'uh, I don't play.'

"All my buddies who play AAU are signed or committed or getting looks by those bigger colleges. As the year has gone on the D3 and now the D2 and a now a few D1s are starting to poke around. We'll see what happens. It doesn't matter where I go I just want to play."

The same goes with Adams, who Drye said would average a lot more than his 12 points a game if he wasn't so unselfish.

Adams hit a big 3 late in last year's regional championship game when Glenbard South had the momentum. Other games he can change the outcome with his rebounding, or a key assist, maybe a timely block.

"Mike also has a knack for hitting big shots," Drye said. "He also brings a lot of our toughness. Mike has tremendous game but has remained underrated because he willingly concedes the spotlight to other players."

Adams often has found himself in the shadow - his older brother Mark graduated last year, sometimes this year to the high-flying Kelley, but all he does is go out and give Drye whatever the coach needs.

"The best thing about Mike was during his sophomore year he was our only post player for most of the year and he just continually went toe to toe with bigger, older players and by the end of that year he and we were pretty good," Drye said. "Being the sole post player as a sophomore was not easy but he never complains and just does his job."

There's going to be a lot of seniors who will be missed by their coaches this year - a slew of them Tom Poulin has at St. Charles North, David Bryant's four-year run coming to an end at Batavia, Kevin Senechalle's dominance for Brian Clodi at St. Charles East - but it would be hard to find any whose impact will be felt more than Kelley, Adams and this group at Aurora Central.

"I love coaching both of these kids because they both show up, work hard, listen to what we tell them and they're both very good," Drye said.

jlemon@dailyherald.com