The Decade of the 2010's

This is the last in a series of articles about the great players, coaches, and teams in Illinois high school basketball over the last seven decades. I began this series back in June with an article entitled The Forgotten Era: Illinois High School Legends Before 1950. It has been a challenge to find facts and stats on players, coaches, and schools over this 70-year period. I have enjoyed “most of it” and have gotten a lot of information from several newspapers through out Illinois, especially the Champaign News Gazette and the Chicago Tribune. Thanks also to the Basketball Museum of Illinois at Bedford and the IHSA.org website.

As I have mentioned in several my articles if you missed any of the decades on players or teams you can go to my website thebasketballgoat.com and find them all.

It is so ironic that I intended to do this series of articles about the All-Decade players and follow it up with the series about the All-Decade teams several months before the NBA Finals. The irony is that the most talked about basketball player in the world, right now, is Jalen Brunson. Brunson just happens to be the main reason that Lincolnshire Stevenson was one of the best high school basketball teams in Illinois during the 2010’s. Stevenson won the state tournament in ‘15, finished 3rd in ‘14, and was runner-up in ‘13. Brunson captured several scoring records during this 3-year run in the state tournament. Chicago Young won a state title in ‘17 and finished 2nd in ‘18. Young won over 209 games during this decade. I say over 209 because records for ‘15 and ‘16 are missing. Chicago Simeon continued their dominance in 4A with a 2nd place finish in ‘17 and 3rd place in ‘18. Their decade record was 229-30 for the 8 years that were reported. But the team that stole the spotlight this decade is 3A Chicago Morgan Park. Coached by Nick Irvin, the Mustangs won state tournament trophies in ‘13, ‘14, ‘17, ‘18 and a 3rd place trophy in ‘15. They were 256-54 for the decade. Irvin finished a 12-year career at Morgan Park with a 301-70 record. Another 3A team that has a standout decade was Centralia under the guidance of longtime coach Lee Bennett. The Orphans had a 2nd place finish in ‘11 and 229-88 for the decade. Evanston was 214-93 in the decade with a 2nd place finish in ‘19 (32-5) after a 3rd place finish in ‘18. Mike Ellis was 342-123 in his coaching career at Evanston.

Woodlawn, Nokomis, Harrisburg, Nashville, and Okawville continued to lead the way among the smaller schools in the state. Woodlawn, led by Coach Shane Witzel, won 253 games and lost only 62 in the decade. They won a state championship in ‘12 and finished 3rd in ‘11, as well as a 4th place in ‘16. Nokomis continued their winning ways with a 3rd place trophy in ‘10. The Redskins were 212-85 in the decade. Harrisburg, who once played in the South Seven, won a state championship in ‘13 in Class 2A. Nashville continued to excel on the hardwood under the guidance of Brad Weathers during the 2010’s with a 2nd place finish in the state in ‘14 and ‘19. They were 238-83 in the decade. During the 10’s under Jan Kraus at Okawville won 243 games, including a 3rd place finish at state; they only lost 89 games in the decade. Benton, still recognized for their standard of excellence on the basketball court over 117 years, had an impressive 1,888-1,310 record at the end of the decade.

Two coaches that some of you who are astute high school basketball fans have probably noticed that have not been mentioned are Gene Pingatore at Westchester St. Joseph and Joe Hosman of Metropolis/Massac County. Pingatore and Hosman have coached for almost a century, as in 100 years. Hosman, who began coaching in ‘79, is still on the sidelines where he has won 877 games. Coach Pingatore coached for 50 years, all at St. Joseph. His teams were 250-44 in the ‘80’s, 225-58 in the 90’s, 216-71 in the ‘00’s, and 224-61 in the ‘10’s. They won a state championship in ‘99 and in ‘15, they finished 3rd in ‘87, 4th in ‘84, and 4th in ‘16. Coach Pingatore is the winningest high school boys coach in Illinois’ high school history with 1,035 wins. In the 50 years he walked the sidelines Pingatore came up short only 383 times.

Joe Hosman, Metropolis/Massac County — Coach Hosman has been coaching since 1979. His teams have won over 877 games.

Gene Pingatore, Westchester St. Joseph — Coach Pingatore recently retired after coaching 50 years, all at St. Joseph. His teams won over one thousand games.

My apologies to any coach or team that I overlooked; it was certainly not intentional. Coaches often get too much credit when they win and certainly get too much blame when they lose. But there is no disputing the impact they have on the lives of those they coach, that is why most of them are so dedicated to their job. I coached for 22 years and understood the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” But the victories we cherish the most, as coaches, are not on the court.