Wheeling girls author their own saga

Not a month goes by without 100 scripts like it.

They arrive in Hollywood with little fanfare and are discarded with equal contempt.

The implausible is welcome, the absurd met with disdain.

It’s problematic because we know Cinderella made it to the dance and won big, and we’ve already seen Gene Hackman capture the Indiana state tourney.

So what do you do with the Wheeling High School girls basketball team?

Well, first you celebrate the improbable, laugh at the odds and then look both ways before crossing a tight-knit group of young women who don’t believe anything about their story was crafted by Grimm, Afanasyev or Spielberg.

“Honestly, this is where we thought we would be when the season started,” said Wildcats second-year coach Julissa Hernandez. “It may not have happened quite the way we had it planned.”

Not unless this terrific young coach thought her team would start the season 1-14 — due in part to injuries and youth — win a Libertyville regional play-in game as the No. 14 seed in a 19-team regional, and then go on a run with 5 wins in 10 days.

With a heart-thumping, final-minute victory over Zion-Benton at the Palatine sectional on Thursday, the Wildcats (15-18) have become the first girls team in IHSA state tourney history to bust into the Elite Eight bracket with a sub-.500 record.

And they will again be huge underdogs when they face Loyola (25-7) in the Stevenson supersectional Monday at 7:30 p.m.

“Every gym we walk into we hear, ‘When’s it gonna end? You can’t win again.’ That fuels us because we believe we belong here,’” Hernandez said Friday. “Before the season started we instilled in them the belief that once the tourney starts, nothing matters; not records or seeds or name recognition.”

It begins with the direction of a coach who doesn’t perform as though she’s looking for an Oscar nod, and with no Division I egos on the floor it’s an unselfish group of players who seem to really care about one another.

“Nothing makes you feel better than when you see all the hard work pay off for the coaching staff and the kids,” said Wheeling principal Lazaro Lopez. “No way we were expecting this so soon, but it really is a ‘team’ with a deep bench and Julissa isn’t afraid to use them all.”

Peel the onion and you find a school unspoiled by irresistible wealth and opportunity, grateful for the thrill of victory and the injection of soul into a student body thirsting for gratification.

“It lifts up the school and you see it in the halls,” Lopez said. “It’s been a rough few years. We’ve had some success with water polo and wrestling and we’re very proud of that, just as we are with the debate team, but having success with basketball or football really improves the spirit and brings a school together.”

With a large minority population and 40 percent of the students on free or reduced lunches, it’s no easy task becoming prolific in the big-ticket sports.

“Many of the parents don’t have access to the resources for club sports or feeder teams,” Lopez explained. “In most cases both parents work and some of them work two jobs. A lot of kids are responsible for their brothers and sisters after school or work to support the family financially.

“But we have a lot of dedicated parents and athletes, and we are developing the belief that we can compete with anyone at anything, and academically we’re proving that.”

And now along comes this unlikely run by the girls basketball team, including a victory over a much bigger and more physical team from Zion-Benton that tried early and often to intimidate the Wildcats.

Jessie Zuba took a shot to the head, Deanna Kuzmanic an elbow to the eye and her sister Kellie Kuzmanic was run over in the lane.

“Their composure is a tribute to our girls,” Hernandez said. “We don’t call fouls in practice — ever. The girls get mad but they’ve learned to play through the rough stuff and the pain.

“They pick themselves up and they pick each other up. It’s what we do.”

And to an outsider, it’s all rather amazing.

“Not to us. We don’t think we’re special. We don’t think this is a big deal,” Hernandez said. “We’re just playing a quarter at a time, with focus and with heart.

“The big picture is fun to think about, but we don’t have time for that.”

It’s for the rest of us to ponder the possibilities, and this is the time of year for it.

The top team in the area all season — Bartlett — is 30-1 and also a victory away from going downstate after an overtime win Thursday, and while many expected to see the Hawks at ISU, the same can’t be said for Wheeling.

But the Wildcats have already accomplished so much. They have built bridges, fostered hope, discovered laughter and triggered tears.

They have written their own script, traveling from the very bottom and now traversing the rocky landscape among the best remaining teams in Illinois.

One more win or loss will not do much to alter their place in folklore.

As for hearts and minds, those they have already won.

brozner@dailyherald.com

Ÿ Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score’s “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM, and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.