When high school basketball fans think back to the 1980s, programs like Quincy, Providence St. Mel, East St. Louis Lincoln and the arrival of city powers King and Simeon are easy to think back on.
The 1990s brought us memorable basketball giants in Peoria Manual and Thornton, a few steamrolling Proviso East teams and the continued dominance of King.
The first 10 years of the 2000s included Glenbrook North, Peoria High and the beginning of a Simeon juggernaut.
Earlier this year we broke down the decade’s best teams and best players. Now, with every season of the past decade complete, it’s time to look at the Chicago area programs who won the most.
This list is comprised of the 50 winningest programs over the past 10 years, starting with the 2010-11 season and concluding with the 2019-20 season. Every team in every class throughout the Chicago area will be broken down in a variety of ways. But total wins, with winning percentage used as tie-breaker, determined the rankings.
We present No. 21 Homewood-Flossmoor today and will add one program a day going forward.
21. HOMEWOOD-FLOSSMOOR: 213-75
Decade’s biggest storyline: Consistency. Maybe in a spotlight piece with “decade’s biggest” attached to the idea of consistency may sound a bit boring. But under both coach Jim McLaughlin, who stepped down in 2014, and current coach Marc Condotti the Vikings were a steady, consistent winner.
McLaughlin, whose teams averaged 22 wins a year in his nine seasons as head coach, won 23, 22, 21 and 17 games to start the decade. Condotti took over and won 20, 22, 19, 21, 23 and 25 games.
Underrated highlight: The Vikings didn’t get to Peoria or end their sectional drought, but the decade was littered with championships. H-F won eight Southwest Suburban Blue Conference championships –– two shared and six outright –– and claimed seven regional titles.
H-F’s dominance in the league, where it won six outright titles and shared two others, was impressive. In those eight championship years the Vikings went a combined 89-9 in league play.
Player of the Decade:Tim Williams (2012)
All-Decade Team:Tim Williams (2012), Maurius Hill (2013), Tai Odiase (2014), Kendric Pryor (2016) and RJ Ogom (2020)
Other decade highlights:
-During the 2015-16 season the program secured its 1,000th basketball win all-time.
-The 2013-14 team was one of seven that won regional championships. But it was also the least likely to do so and advanced to the sectional championship game where it lost to Tyler Ulis and Marian Catholic. But that Vikings team was a No. 6 sectional seed with just a 14-11 record heading into the postseason.
-The Vikings have played in the championship game of the Hinsdale Holiday Classic in four of the five years of the tournament Last season H-F beat DePaul Prep to win its first title.
