Standing above the rest

Mike McCurdy never sought the spotlight.

The spotlight sought him.

After Cully Payne -- the honorary co-captain of the 2006-07 Daily Herald All-Area team -- transferred unexpectedly to Schaumburg last August, McCurdy's role on the Burlington Central boys basketball changed instantly from being just one of the guys to being "the guy."

But the Rockets hadn't just lost Payne. They also graduated 1,000-point scorer Brad Porto along with contributors like current Elgin Community College players Corey Rau, Chris Parks and Nick Nohling.

In their absence McCurdy was encouraged by coach Chris Payne to become the driving force behind Burlington Central's offense.

You could say he accepted the challenge.

After averaging 2.4 points as a sophomore and 8.4 points as a junior last season, the 5-foot-11½, 160-pound senior guard was elevated to the role of primary scorer and playmaker for the Rockets, and he finished his senior season as the area's scoring leader for a team that finished 22-7, repeated as Big Northern Conference East Division champions and won a Class 3A regional title.

How prolific a scorer did McCurdy become?

His 24.7 point-per game average (716 points in 29 games) ties him for 49th place in state history with Brown County's Josh Babb, according to statistics reported to the Illinois High School Association.

"Michael might not have been the most talented player in the area, but I think he had the best year out of anybody," Central coach Chris Payne said. "He went from thinking he was going to be a role player to all the sudden having to be the guy. I think he did a great job of handling that. He took that on as a challenge.

"When he found out he was going to be the guy, he wanted first of all to make sure our team did well because he's a team guy. Number two, he wanted to prove to some people that he was pretty darn good also."

For giving area fans an improbable season to remember, McCurdy has been named honorary co-captain of the 2007-08 Daily Herald Fox Valley All-Area boys basketball team.

McCurdy, co-captain John Moran of Jacobs, the rest of the all-area team and the players of the week will be honored at the Daily Herald All-Area recognition awards dinner on Sunday at Stonegate Conference & Banquet Centre in Hoffman Estates.

McCurdy attempted 223 more shots than his next closest teammate this season, all-area pick Jason Wagner. However, few of those shots were ill-advised, a fact proven by his stellar shooting percentage.

The rural St. Charles resident knocked down 241 of the 546 shots he attempted from the field this season (44.1 percent) and he sank 63 of his 199 attempts from 3-point range (31.7 percent).

"I couldn't ask for anything more except to still be playing," McCurdy said this week. "But our goal was to win the regional and the conference and we did that. We had a really good record. Personally, I couldn't ask for anything more."

Scoring a lot of points can sometimes be seen as a selfish act to outsiders, but that was never the case this year at Central, where coach Payne insisted McCurdy take the shots he did in order to generate points.

And when the game was on the line, there was little question who would be handling the rock for the Rockets. Central won two games at the buzzer this year with McCurdy's assistance.

The Rockets defeated Sterling in the regular season when McCurdy drove the length of the court with 8 seconds left and hit the game-winning layup at the buzzer.

They also defeated St. Charles East at the buzzer when McCurdy threw a long pass to sophomore Shane Larkin, who buried the clutch shot to beat the visiting Saints.

McCurdy also took and missed a last-second shot on the road that would have given the Rockets a victory over St. Charles North.

Win or lose, everyone in the gym understood the ball would go through McCurdy's hands in the final seconds.

"His mentality was that he wanted to go out at the end and win it for us, but at the same time he wasn't afraid to go out there and fail," Payne said. "That's something you can't coach. He just had it in him. He just said if we're going to win, it's going to be because of me and if we're going to lose, I'll take that for the team."

The seventh of 13 siblings and the fourth of eight boys, McCurdy maintains a grade-point average of 3.8 on a 4.0 scale and has already been accepted as a student at the University of Illinois.

But his amazing senior season opened the eyes of some college coaches. As a result, opportunities to continue his playing career at the next level have developed late in Mike McCurdy's senior year.

He is considering Augustana and Elmhurst College, among others, and intends to make official visits to each before committing to his future path.

"I always wanted to (play in college), but I didn't have a whole lot of options," McCurdy said. "Before the summer it probably wasn't really even in the back of my mind to play in college. But after this year… I mean, I always wanted to, but I just never thought I could, really."

Funny what a year in the spotlight can do.