In our world of prep basketball, the top three feel-good stories of the year are:
1) The job that North Chicago High did in hosting the North Suburban Conference Boys Basketball Championship Game. From the live music to keep fans entertained who were sitting in the stands 2 hours before game time, to the halftime entertainment, it was a first-class effort by a school that’s busting tail to show that it’s every bit as first class as the other school in the conference.
2) Lakes High’s girls basketball team winning its first game after 84 consecutive losses. They celebrated that night at midcourt like they’d just won the state title. They deserved to. You’ve got to give the senior players a ton of credit for sticking it out for three long years of losses.
3) It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s going to happen at about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15. That’s when the Zion-Benton High boys basketball captains receive the state-championship trophy and hoist it into the air and point it toward their student-fan section (The Swarm) in Peoria after becoming the first Lake County team to win an IHSA state title in boys hoops.
Let's hope you haven't jinxed the Bees by saying that.
I'm a big ZB fan, even 2 years after our daughter graduated. I remember 2003 when someone decided to order t-shirts that said "State Bound" on them. We all know what then happened at Loyola. Please...don't order the t-shirts early this year!