Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Assistant Executive Director Jim Tracey of Reavis High School presents Mike and Tina Small with the Chuck Rolinski Lifetime Achievement Award at Illinois Basketball Coaches Association annual banquet at Illinois State University on Saturday, April 27.
Former Regina Dominican basketball coach Mike Small and his wife Tina were honored with the prestigious Chuck Rolinski Lifetime Achievement Award at Illinois Basketball Coaches Association annual banquet at Illinois State University on Saturday, April 27.
“When you think of girls’ basketball, you think of Mike and Tina Small, who have put such extreme selfless efforts behind the scenes to make girls’ basketball in Illinois what it is today,” said Bob Reczek, longtime basketball official and Girls Catholic Athletic Conference Hall of Fame member.
While coaching junior high football in 1970, Small was asked by a group of girls to start a basketball program. At that time, girls played by six-girl rules, which only allowed two girls to cross the half-court line.
In response, Mike and Tina Small founded the Girls Chuck Basketball League in 1971, which required five-person rules on both the elementary and high school levels. It quickly became the largest girls basketball league in Chicagoland and put pressure on the high schools to switch to five-person rules. The league lasted for more than 25 years.
While becoming the winningest basketball coach at Regina Dominican High School. He organized and put pressure on the IBCA to accept girls and women coaches into the organization. With the encouragement of Rolinski and the board of directors, female coaches were welcomed into the IBCA in 1985.
Mike Small was given the title of girls’ chairman and Tina assumed supportive, extensive time-consuming responsibilities, including the selection of all-state teams, organizing IBCA banquet awards, and accepting Hall of Fame nominations.
“With every innovation, hard work for change, and demand for equality that Mike has pushed for over his long and successful career, Tina has been the engine that made it possible,” Reczek said. “That is why they deserve the award as a team. They are a single unit that worked together to accomplish what they could have only hoped for on their own.”
At the same ceremony Saturday, former Simeon star Ben Wilson was posthumously inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame.
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The Sandburg and Providence boys volleyball teams will play at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8 at Lewis University to benefit the family of the late Sandburg athletic director Bruce Scheidegger. Scheidegger, 54, died in a single-car accident on February 9 in rural Carroll County, Illinois.
Scheidegger taught and coached at Prophetstown High School, Dixon High School and Sterling High School before coming to Sandburg in 2007. He was a member of the Illinois Athletic Directors Association and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
Admission to the game is $5. All Proceeds will go to the Scheidegger Family.
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Neuqua Valley senior setter Alex Coyne was named the MVP of the eighth annual Benet Invitational after leading the Wildcats to victory over St. Francis in the championship match Saturday in Lisle.
Also named to the all-tournament team were Jeremy Royko (Neuqua Valley), Robert Smith (St. Francis), Jeff Jendryk (St. Francis), Jacob Stone (Glenbard West) and Andrew Roberts (Glenbard West).
Also, Sawyer Yeazel (Benet), Mike Jurkash (Benet), Jon Chiczewski (Naperville Central), Brendan Surane (Providence), Tyler House (Waubonsie Valley and Andrew Franco (Morton).
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What if?
The announcement of the all-tournament team at Benet Saturday was a reminder of what might have been at Waubonsie Valley this season.
Ten of the 12 players named to the all-tournament team in 2012 were seniors. The two non-seniors were sophomore outside hitter Mike Simmons and junior setter Luke Furman of Waubonsie Valley, who led the Warriors to the tournament title.
Both players have been sidelined by injuries this year.
