Girls basketball notes: Lake Park hosting special family affair for good cause on MLK Day
When it comes to family affairs in high school sports, it doesn't get much better than the one to be featured at the Coaches vs. Cancer event at the Lake Park West campus on Martin Luther King Day.
Within a radius of 15 miles, there are six head girls basketball coaches who grew up either with the last name of Kuzmanic or Reibel.
Next Monday they will bring their teams to Roselle for a three-game shootout.
Three are sisters — Stephanie Kuzmanic (New Trier), Deanna Tuttle (Maine West) and Kellie Brasse (Wheeling),
Two are brothers Brad Reibel (Hoffman Estates) and Bobby Reibel (Lake Park) while the other is their cousin Jonny Reibel (Jacobs).
The matchups will be Jacobs vs Wheeling (11 a.m.), Hoffman Estates vs Maine West (1 p.m.) and Lake Park vs. New Trier (3 p.m.).
When Stephanie Kuzmanic was hired as the girls basketball coach at New Trier, she and her former Carthage women's basketball teammate Drewann Pancratz (whose husband is Brad Reibel) joked about doing a sibling rivalry tournament.
"From there, Brad (Prospect 2012 Male Athlete of the Year ) and I began to brainstorm how we could make this opportunity a reality," Kuzmanic said. "Obviously, it is a great opportunity for our families, but it is bigger than basketball. We wanted to make a positive impact on the community, so we made it a Coaches vs. Cancer event to raise money and donate to cancer research. All six of us hopped on a call before the start of the season and have worked closely together to bring this idea to life."
All six schools are teaming up to raise money for all types of cancers (each school will represent a different type). Games will consist of 50/50 raffle and halftime games as well as donations to team fundraising pages.
Kuzmanic is excited to share the gym with her sisters.
"I am not sure how many trios of siblings can say they are all head coaches at the same time," Stephanie said. “And I am so proud of them. Basketball has been a large part of our family since I can remember — my parents ran the Wheeling Feeder program for a decade."
Kellie and Stephanie played together in 2009 on Wheeling's only girls basketball team to compete in the state finals, finishing 32-2 and third in Class 4A.
Deanna and Kellie then won a sectional together in 2012.
All three sisters went on to play in college. Deanna played professionally in Puerto Rico.
"We have had a lot of memories of playing together or watching each other play, but to have the opportunity to share this experience of coaching together means a lot to me," Stephanie added. "The Reibels are great coaches and even better people. I am glad that we can all share this experience together, and bring together our programs to help out a great cause."
"I thought it would be great to be able to put something like this together and have a little fun with it," said Jonny Reibel, a Rollins College hall of famer who scored 490 points at Hoffman Estates during the 2003-04 season to help Hawks advance to the state quarterfinals.
Sure enough, it came to fruition.
'"We're looking forward to it, and I know our girls and the other teams are excited to be a part of it as well, and hopefully it continues year to year," Jonny added. "Our plan is to kind of rotate each year to different hosts and then make it more of a bigger thing, probably tied into community work and try to make it bigger and better each and every year."
Bobby Reibel, whose 16-2 Lancers took third place in the Komaromy Classic at Dundee-Crown, is excited.
"I mean it's crazy unique," Bobby said. "It just kind of worked out on everyone's end and we were all able to find a date that worked. But I've never seen anything kind of like it, especially with three family members on each side. Hopefully it's going to be a fun event."
Bobby Reibel, Jonny Reibel and Stephanie Kuzmanic attended the wedding of Brad and Drewann two years ago.
"One of my best friends is Drew's older brother Zach who I played basketball against at Schaumburg," Jonny added. "The Pancratz family has been friends with the Reibel family forever so we were at the wedding. It was great to be there and see everyone, like Drewann's brothers and their parents who are still good friends with my parents."
For Deanna, who starred at Alabama-Birmingham, she loves being at an event with her sisters.
"Personally, I am also looking forward to this shootout to be able to cheer on and support my sisters," Deanna said. "Growing up, I always looked up to my sisters on the basketball court. My love and understanding of the game developed by watching them. It's fun to compete against each other now as coaches, but even more than that, I love getting to be their fan and cheer on their teams like I always did growing up."
Deanna watched Stephanie, who scored 1,060 points at Carthage, help lead Wheeling to the state finals. Then she watched Kellie play on Wheeling's team that made a Cinderella run to a 2012 supersectional before collecting 776 points, 497 rebounds and 305 assists at Cornell College in Iowa.
"I am really excited for the family shootout," Kellie said. "With all of us coaching in the same season and same sport, it is not often that we get to watch each other's teams unless we schedule a non-conference game. This gives us the opportunity to watch our teams compete."
In addition, Kellie said the girls from all three of the sisters' teams have formed friendships throughout the years from playing against each other during season and summer league.
"Now they also get the opportunity to see those friends play throughout the day," Kellie said. "It should be a fun day of basketball for everyone involved"
Deanna, who scored 1,736 points at Wheeling and 1,536 Alabama-Birmingham, can't wait.
"We are excited for the opportunity to support and play for a cause that impacts so many of us coaches and players on a personal level,“ she said. "It is a blessing to be able to use our platform and the sport we love to bring awareness and hopefully funds to support the battle against cancer."
Maine West: For the first time since Jim O'Boye renamed his long running shootout, now at 36 years, to Kipp's Hoopsfest in 2017, the event will be held at Maine West where the late Derril Kipp was the hall of fame girls basketball coach.
"This is our first time hosting this event (this Saturday) and we are honored to host it in memory of coach Kipp," said Warriors coach Deanna Tuttle, whose team will play Waterloo West High School (Iowa) at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Other matchups with area teams include Maine South vs. Nazareth (9:30 a.m.), Rolling Meadows vs. Downers Grove South (11 a.,m.) and Prospect vs. Batavia (8 p.m.).
Buffalo Grove: With a 76-26 over Streamwood (11-5), the Mid-Suburban West leading Bison (5-0) moved to 13-6 on the season, earning one more win than last year's total while winning its fifth straight game.
The Bison finished the game on a 64-6 run.
"We had great defense,," said BG coach Martha Kelly.
Ava Antonopoulos led BG with a career-high 14 points and 7 rebounds. Hannah Weber added 13 points and 14 rebounds followed by Annie Sadowski (10 points, 6 rebounds).
Friday's 34-30 win over Schaumburg completed a 5-0 first-half Mid-Suburban League record.
Olivia Hill led BG with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Kayla Daugird had 6 steals and Hannah Weber pitched in eight points.
The five-game winning streak includes wins over Stevenson on the last day of the Dundee-Crown tourney, a win over Downers Grove South at Grow the Game, and a MSL West win over Hoffman Estates.
Annie Sadowski (10 points), Hannah Weber (11 points, 8 rebounds) and Olivia Hill (8 points) led the offense while Amanda Kowalski returned to the starting lineup in a good way getting 4 steals.
Leaders against Downers Grove South were Hannah Weber (13 points, career-high 17 rebounds), Litsa Karavitis (10 points), Olivia Hill (10 points, 12 rebounds) and Kowalski with another 4 steals.
Daugird (14 points), Sadowski (14 points, 8 rebounds), Karavitis (12 points), Olivia Hill (11 points, 8 rebounds) and Hannah Weber (8 points,11 boards) were leaders vs. Hoffman.
Over the 5 games, the Bison averaged 55 points and gave up 33. Weber averaged a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Hersey: The Huskies went 2-1 last week, defeating Palatine on Senior Night, 60-33, losing to Prospect 46-36, and defeating Huntley, 44-37, at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates.
Emily Hany has been a constant for the Huskies, scoring 10 points vs. Prospect and 9 vs. Huntley.
The Huskies are in a three-way tie for first in the MSL East.
Road teams have been quite successful so far among the leaders: Prospect defeated Hersey in Arlington Heights, Fremd defeated Prospect in Mt. Prospect and Hersey defeated Fremd in Palatine.
Fremd: Coach Jim Weaver's Vikings had two of their highest individual scoring performances in two of their last games. Greta Thomson had a career-high 32 points, including eight 3-pointers (one the game winner) at Prospect where the Vikes won 45-42. Thompson also led the team in rebounding.
In the game before, junior Gracie Todd tossed in a game-high 26 vs. St. Charles East.
Fremd has won 10 of its 11 games heading into this week.
Rolling Meadows: Rolling Meadows placed fourth at the Loyola Christmas tourney where Abby Ramel was selected to the first team all-tourney team. Nellie Osterhues was named to the second team.
On Thursday, coach Ryan Kirkorsky's Mustangs host Fremd, which is currently tied for first in the MSL East.
The Mustangs are coming off a 58-27 triumph over South Elgin. Leading the way were Ramel (15 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals), Osterhues (9 points, 2 steals), Riggi (8 points 2, rebounds), Dalia Grandberry (6 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks), Iris Jordan (6 points) and Maggie Schoessling (6 points, 2 rebounds ).
Prospect: Zoe Black was named the Player of the Game when the Knights closed out the Montini Christmas tourney with a 3-1 record after a 54-38 win over St. Charles East.
Conant: Coach Todd Strauch's Cougars went 2-1 last week with wins over Hoffman Estates and Wheeling and a loss to York. During those three games, Gianna Fresso averaged 8 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists while Lyla Clifton averaged 12 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists.
Arianna Dugo has taken a big step the last three weeks, averaging 8 points and 4 rebounds over that stretch.
Maine East: Maine East picked up its second win in the CSL North with a 43-32 win over visiting Niles West.
Junior Arabella Silva scored 17 points while converting 11 of 12 free throws for coach Lance Newman's Blue Demons, who also received 10 points from Heidi Cortez and 8 from Cumiyah Priester.
"Bella did an incredible job distributing the basketball for us and really got her teammates going," said Maine East assistant coach Evan Rabens. "The first half was by far our best half of the year and thankfully we held on."
Leyden: When the Eagles faced Maine East, the nonconference game featured two girls who have scored more than 1,000 points in their careers.
And both had their scoring prowess on display as Bella Silva went for a school-record 42 points while Leyden’s Missouri Baptist pledge Katherine Macleod led the Eagles with 17 points.
The Eagles won 63-59 as they rallied from a 27-19 halftime deficit.
Leyden turned it around with better defense and key shooting in the second half according to its coach Tony Smith, who guided his team to 21 wins a season ago (11-10 this season) and currently has it at 4-2 in the West Suburban Gold.
"We were down eight at half and just talked about how we need to continue to play at our fast pace for four quarters," he said. "We tried to keep that pace up. And we changed a little bit defensively, trying to limit her (Silva's) touches on the offensive end.
"And then we had to do a lockdown job on their other four players and things started going our way a little bit. We got out in transition. We started hitting 3-pointers and I think that's what really pushed us over the edge."
And the fans were on edge of their seats.
"Katherine (Macleod) had just got her 1,000th point and then we have Silva here, who everybody knows about," Smith said. "Just to have two of the top players in the area on the same court competing is always fun to watch."