Antioch Honors Basketball Legend and IBCA Hall of Famer Dale Barnstable
Hoop Notes on Sequoits, Grayslake North, Barrington, Schaumburg, MSL Boys Title Game, Jason Mead Milestone; Remembering Mat Legends Phillips and Lovelace
NOTE: One correction - Dan Issel attended Batavia and not Geneva. Thanks for faithful reader Al Cosentino for the heads up!
A lot of die-hard University of Kentucky basketball fans are probably familiar with Dale Barnstable’s place in the program’s storied history.
How many Illinois high school basketball fans know success started for Barnstable in Antioch is another story. Barnstable was an all-state basketball, football and track and field athlete who was inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame in 1996.
Now Barnstable, who passed away on January 26, 2019 at 93, and longtime event worker Chuck Haley will be Antioch High School’s first inductees into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Hall of Fame with the Class of 2025.
It was great to see them recognized in an on-court ceremony before Friday’s game with Grayslake North with Barnstable represented by his son Dale Jr., and brother Jim. Kudos to fourth-year Antioch head coach Sean Connor, who learned more about Barnstable going through old school yearbooks, and then pushed for his Hall of Fame induction to IBCA Hall of Fame and Basketball Museum chairman Bruce Firchau.
Barnstable playing a major part in Kentucky’s first 2 of 8 NCAA men’s basketball championships in 1948 and 1949 is remarkable at a time when most collegiate athletes stayed in-state or close to home.
Legendary head coach Adolph Rupp did have Illinois ties by taking the Kentucky job after leading Freeport to third place in the 1930 state tournament. One of his greatest players was Batavia’s Dan Issel and one of his last recruits in the early 1970s was Wheeling 7-footer Roger Wood. Rupp also made an unsuccessful recruiting trip to Palatine in the 1960s for Northwestern star and future pro Ron Kozlicki.
Barnstable’s “recruiting” was different because he was drafted from Antioch to go to Europe and fight in World War II for three years. In a story on the Kentucky website after his passing, and according to his daughter Barbara, Barnstable was in the 71st Infantry Division that walked across Europe to Austria and helped liberate a European concentration camp.
When the war ended Barnstable stayed in Europe to help with a stabilization effort and played on an all-star basketball team there. He connected with former Kentucky player Milt Ticco, a successful banker in Lexington, who encouraged Barnstable to try out for the Kentucky team when he came back to the United States.
“Where’s that?” was what Barnstable recalled telling Ticco in an interview for a 2015 story by legendary Kentucky hoops scribe Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Barnstable’s mom didn’t want him to go so far away from home for college but a tryout was set up for Rupp. He was sold on the 6-foot-3 Barnstable shortly after seeing him duck in a small doorway at the old Alumni Gym, according to Edelman.
“I think you’ve got what it takes,” Rupp was quoted as telling Barnstable in the obituary story. “You’ve come highly recommended so I’m going to offer you a scholarship.”
Barnstable played 129 games and scored 635 points as Kentucky went 127-13 in the four years he was on the roster and won four Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular-season and tournament titles. He was the sixth man on the 1948 championship team dubbed the “Fabulous Five” and started and was a third-team all-SEC pick on the 1949 championship team. One of his biggest roles was defending top perimeter players like Hall of Famers Bob Cousy of Holy Cross and Paul Arizin of Villanova.
He was an alternate on the 1948 Olympic gold-medal team coached by Rupp and was on the school’s golf and track teams. As for the challenge of playing for Rupp?
"Someone asked, was he tough?" Barnstable told Tipton. "No. I served in World War II under Gen. George Patton. If you want to know a guy that's tough, Patton was really tough. George Patton was one of those guys (that believed) there was no such thing as standing still. You had to go forward."
Barnstable would go on to become a successful high school coach at Louisville Manual and receive induction into the school’s Hall of Fame. Life was not perfect in the early ‘50s as Barnstable allegedly participated in a point-shaving scandal that rocked the college basketball world and he received a suspended sentence.
But as Connor mentioned after the Grayslake North game, and you wouldn’t get an argument here, in a world now consumed by gambling and college athletes no longer needing to scrape around for an extra buck, it’s a minor blip what was truly a special life. Barnstable would go on to become a successful businessman, family man and amateur golfer who became the first Kentucky amateur player to qualify for and play in the British Senior Open.
Dale Barnstable’s place in Antioch and Illinois basketball history could have easily been brushed aside since his glory days were generations ago and it has been six years since he passed away. Thankfully, the school and IBCA have made sure his legacy won’t be forgotten.
Sequoits on Another Late-Season Surge
Antioch’s recent tradition of playing its best basketball at the end of the season may not be enough to share the Northern Lake County Conference championship again.
The Sequoits (14-13, 10-3) have won 8 of their last 12 going into Tuesday’s NLCC finale at Round Lake (1-22, 0-12). To grab half of this year’s title, they’ll need some help from District 117 rival Lakes (7-19, 4-9) when it visits Grayslake Central (20-9, 11-2) on Tuesday. Antioch, Central and Lakes were tri-champs last year.
But senior guard Teddi Wetu likes the Sequoits’ upward trend going into a final week of the regular season that includes a trip to Chicago against Sullivan (Thursday) and a visit from Woodstock North (Friday). They have won their last 11 home games dating to last season.
“One hundred percent - the best of each other is coming out to end the season,” Wetu said after Friday’s 54-38 win over Grayslake North. “We’re happy right now.
“When we were in our slump in early January we definitely had to make some changes. As the season is coming to a close we’re at the peak of our ability and we can still get better. We’re peaking at the right time.”
Which the Sequoits did going into the postseason by winning 5 of 6 last year and 13 of 17 in 2022-23. They started their rebound this year from a 1-6 stretch and 5-game losing streak with a 43-42 win over a 24-4 Geneva team that has clinched a share of the DuKane Conference title even though Wetu and Marshall Gehrke were unable to play.
A big reason the Sequoits don’t have gaudy records is a daunting schedule put together by fourth-year coach Sean Connor. They’ve also faced perennial state power Benet, Fox Valley Conference co-leader McHenry, 23-4 Kankakee, 22-win St. Viator and other bigger Class 4A schools.
They also had to adjust to the late return of Gehrke, who originally wasn’t going to play to focus on his success as a competitive BMX bike racer.
“It took this group a little longer to fit together but these guys seem to have found themselves,” Connor said. “We’ve hit our stride right now and we’re playing our best basketball. It’s all part of the process and we’re still in year four (of a new program), but all the kids have bought in to this point.”
Along with Wetu and Gehrke, who is 20 points from 1,000 for his varsity career, senior Jason Lee has been double-double trouble for opponents inside and junior Mark Render is an outside scoring threat. Six-foot-6 senior Jack Majerowski showcased his all-around game against Grayslake North with a 3-pointer, 2 dunks and a lot of disruption atop Antioch’s 1-3-1 zone that forced 17 turnovers parlayed into 18 points.
“He’s really good at using his hands and mimicking where the ball is going to go,” Wetu said. “That causes him to get a lot of deflections.”
Connor said Majerowski benefited from watching Joel Bulka in that role the last couple of years.
“As the season has gone on Jack has gotten better and better,” Connor said. “He’s had more steals and more deflections. He’s able to play the angles and deflections and he’s very smart.”
Now the Sequoits hope another late-season run and their challenging schedule pays off in the postseason after getting the 12th seed in their 3A sectional. They travel to Niles on Feb. 26 to face sixth-seed Notre Dame for the third consecutive year.
“We’ve had good games and battles with them the last few years,” Connor said of 47-40 and 48-35 losses.
Grayslake North Looks to Continue Success
Grayslake North (16-13, 8-5) is having its best season under fourth-year coach Josh Feinzimer going into Tuesday’s visit from Grant (15-11, 8-5) to determine who finishes third in the NLCC.
A win in their regular-season finale would give the Knights their most wins and highest finish in a season with a full NLCC schedule since 2018-19 when they were 17-13 overall and took second in the league.
“When we’ve had our best moments this season we’ve been really good on both ends,” Feinzimer said, “and we’ve had multiple guys step up and make plays.”
The Knights did get some of that in a 54-38 loss where Antioch’s defense and health issues limited leading scorers Jayden Hunt and Uros Mitrovic to 6 combined points. Senior Brady Ballentine has been a big scoring threat lately and led the way with 13 points and 3-for-5 3-point shooting. Six-foot-6 freshman Jared Van Donselaar had 8 points on 4-for-5 shooting and Feinzimer likes what he’s seen from senior Tyler Morgan inside.
“I have a lot of confidence we can be the team we’ve shown we’re capable of being on the big stage coming up,” Feinzimer said. “We’ll try to build on it and shift our focus to the playoffs.”
Grayslake North got the 10th seed in the 3A Antioch sectional but is hosting a regional and will open with crosstown rival and No. 5 seed Grayslake Central on February 26. The Rams won both meetings 49-35 and 45-42.
Gray Scores Big Points in Different Way for Barrington
Barrington coach Bryan Tucker saw his team’s 54-50 win at Schaumburg as a case where junior standout Oliver Gray doesn’t have to go off to be on for his team offensively.
Gray had 9 points on 3-for-10 shooting, missed his last 5 shots and scored only 1 point in the final 14½ minutes. But Tucker saw a lot of little things from Gray, who recently passed the 1,000-point mark, that opened up the offense for others. Particularly Bruce LeBlanc as he scored 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to join Gray, Chris Tacher and Ian Tepas with 20-point games this season.
“Everybody knows about Oliver Gray, but Oliver understood I’m screening and getting people layups,” Tucker said. “It was really unselfish for him to play that way. It was a dominant performance without him being the one putting the ball in the basket.
“When you get players that talented who have that light switch go on it’s really scary.”
Barrington also got some solid inside play from 6-7 Daniel Shackleton and 6-5 Gus Edstrom and strong defense in the second half from Adam Baird to contain AAU teammate Jordan Tunis of Schaumburg to 5 of his game-high 25 points.
The Broncos’ (17-7, 7-3) comeback from a 5-point deficit with 4½ minutes to play was their eighth win in nine games. They got the fifth seed in the Schaumburg 4A sectional and will host a regional where they open with No. 12 Dundee-Crown on February 26.
“We’ve gotta get rolling real quick here to try to make a run in the postseason,” LeBlanc said. “This is a good momentum-builder and last week with Maine South (75-72 on Gray’s buzzer-beating 3). We’ve got some confidence to get rolling here.”
Barrington will be trying to win a fourth consecutive regional title for the fourth time in program history. It won five in a row from 1957-61 and four in a row in 1951-54 and 1977-80.
Schaumburg Hopes to Add to 20 Wins
A 20-point first half by Jordan Tunis and a 5-point lead with 4½ minutes to play had Schaumburg in position to add to its first 20-win season since 2020. But the Saxons (20-10) had to wait for another shot at win No. 21 after Barrington rallied for a 54-50 victory.
“I felt cautiously optimistic but that’s a very good basketball team over there,” said Schaumburg coach Jason Tucker, “and in my opinion the best coach in our conference at the defensive end of the floor (Bryan Tucker).”
But the Saxons’ defense of seniors Ray Black and Javonte McCoy in holding Barrington junior 20-point averager Oliver Gray to 9 points on 3-for-10 shooting is another reason Jason Tucker is optimistic about his team that is 12-5 since Dec. 30. The losses were to Barrington twice and conference champions in Fremd, Evanston and Benet.
“I think we’re playing very well and we’re proud of getting 20 wins so far,” Tucker said. “We are completely bought in.
“At the start of the season we thought we were better than we were and teams were gonna give us wins. Now we’ve done a better job executing game plans. We’re playing well enough to possibly win a regional.”
Schaumburg is seeded sixth in its own sectional and opens with No. 11 Prospect in the Stevenson regional on February 26. A win and the Saxons likely would face the third-seeded hosts in the title game.
MSL Boys Basketball Title Tidbits
Some bits and pieces ahead of Wednesday’s 55th Mid-Suburban League boys basketball championship game when West champion Fremd (24-2) visits East champion Rolling Meadows (25-4) for the third time with the title on the line:
In 1989, Meadows won the first matchup 65-60 behind future NBA veteran Aaron Williams (17 points, 6 blocks), Mike Lipnisky (12 points) and Brad Martin (11 points). Todd Leslie had 28 for Fremd.
In 1998, Fremd won 60-51 behind Eddie Hebert (21 points, 8 rebounds), Andre Duncan (13 points, 8 rebounds, 6 steals, 6 assists) and Brian Duncan (11 points, 4 assists, 3 steals, 3 rebounds. Rob Garnes led Meadows with 22 points and 9 rebounds. Ironically, just like this year, it was a final matchup before realignment from North-South to East-West.
The West leads the East 20-6 in title matchups. The North-South finished at 14-14.
Fremd is tied with Conant at 7 overall MSL titles behind Prospect (11) and Schaumburg (8). Meadows is tied with Buffalo Grove, Hersey and Arlington at 4. That includes championships in the pre-division era.
Fremd is also tied at title-game wins with Conant at 7 behind Prospect (9) and Schaumburg (8). Meadows, BG and Hersey are even at 4.
Meadows and Fremd are tied with BG for the third-most title-game appearances (11) behind Prospect (21) and Schaumburg (12).
Meadows now shares the most consecutive title-game appearances at five with Schaumburg (1999-2003) and Prospect (1982-86).
Meadows’ Kevin Katovich is tied for fourth-most coaching title game trips at 6 with George Zigman (Arlington), Mo Tharp (Fremd) and Don Rowley (Hersey). They are behind Prospect’s John Camardella (9), Schaumburg’s Bob Williams (8) and Conant’s Tom McCormack (7).
Fremd’s Mike Brown will be the sixth first-year head coach in the MSL title game with Rich Roberts (1985 Buffalo Grove), Fred Bryant (1988 Hoffman Estates), Dave Brown (1990 Rolling Meadows), Dominic Cannon (2001 Prospect) and John Camardella (2008 Prospect).
Hoffman Grad Mead Takes Long Road to Milestone
It wasn’t an easy road for 2003 Hoffman Estates grad Jason Mead to get to his 200th career coaching victory Friday night when Glenbard South beat Fenton 54-38.
In fact, Mead joked about what was ahead when he took on a major rebuild for his first head coaching job at Dixon in 2011.
“The first road I see is Bloody Gulch Road,” Mead laughed about his first visit to Dixon. “What am I getting myself into?”
Year one at Dixon produced only one of those 200 wins for Mead and that number tripled in year two. But that made the success that much sweeter as his next three teams went 23-7, a school-record 28-2 and 25-4 with Isaiah Roby, who starred at Nebraska and played in the NBA with Oklahoma City and San Antonio from 2019-23. His third team ended droughts of 28 years since a regional title and 46 since a 20-win season.
He took on another rebuild at Waubonsie Valley in 2016 and won a regional and had a pair of 27-5 seasons before stepping down after the 2021 COVID season. But he returned to the sideline at Glenbard South last year and went 18-14. This year’s team is 14-14 after a 2-6 start.
Mead didn’t play as a junior at Hoffman, but was a reserve as a senior on the 2002-03 team led by his brother Bryan and Jonny Reibel that lost in the Class AA sectional final to Glenbrook North and Jon Scheyer and went to the Elite Eight the following year. Jason Mead spent a year on Lou Wool’s staff at Wheeling and four years as an assistant for Hall of Famer Bill Wandro at Hoffman.
Remembering Two Area Wrestling Legends
When I saw longtime Elk Grove teacher and coach Britt Farroh and his wife Barbara at the Barrington-Schaumburg basketball game Thursday they both admiringly referred to longtime area teachers and wrestling coaches Darryl Phillips and Norm Lovelace as “characters.”
Phillips, who was a standout athlete at Arlington and Prospect and a coach and teacher at Forest View, Prospect and Elk Grove, passed away on Sunday, February 9 at 82. Lovelace, who also coached and taught at Elk Grove but was best known for his success with the Harper College program, passed away on November 12, 2024 at 80.
Phillips was a two-time state qualifier and quarterfinalist at heavyweight at Arlington as a sophomore in 1959 and then went to Prospect when it opened and returned to state as a senior in 1961. He also started on Bill Beckman’s second football team at Prospect that went 8-0 and included Fred Lussow (Indiana), Bill Zadel (Navy) and George Pomey (Michigan basketball). He played at Evansville and coached two years in Indiana before returning to District 214 and the MSL.
Phillips built competitive wrestling programs as a head coach at Prospect and Elk Grove during a time where Conant had one of the state’s best programs. He also coached football and badminton. A visitation was held for him last Thursday in Huntley.
Lovelace was a two-time state qualifier at Pekin who played football and wrestled at Western Illinois. He was the head wrestling coach at Elk Grove for three years and took over the program at Harper in 1974.
Harper became a national wrestling power during Lovelace’s head coaching career that concluded in 1998. His 1994 team won the NJCAA non-scholarship national championship.
Lovelace was inducted into the NJCAA Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials (IWCOA) Hall of Fame in 1997.
A Celebration of Life was held for Lovelace on January 24 at the Itasca Country Club and Harper hosted the inaugural “Stormin’ Norman Memorial Tournament” on January 25. Dan Loprieno, who wrestled for Lovelace at Harper and was his assistant coach, has led the program since Lovelace retired in 1998. Lovelace was also a longtime football coach at Elk Grove.
Hersey Bowling’s Rolling
Hersey’s girls bowling team, coached by alum Mark Gunther, won its third consecutive sectional title at Hoffman Estates on Saturday and will make its fifth consecutive state tournament appearance (not counting 2021 since it wasn’t held because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The outlook now and in the future looks bright for the Huskies. Junior Lizzie Waltz (1,147), who was second to Schaumburg’s Addison Rathmann (1,216), sophomore Abby Stonequist (1,033) and junior Analyse Johnson (1,024) as their top three in the sectional.
Hersey is the fifth MSL team to win three consecutive sectional crowns with Prospect (1986-88), Palatine (1990-92), Hoffman (2005-07) and Schaumburg (2014-16).
With five consecutive state tourney trips the Huskies join Forest View (1974-78), Conant (1998-2002), Palatine (2001-05) and Hoffman (2005-09 and 2014-18), behind 7 from Schaumburg (2013-19) and 6 by Prospect (1998-2003).
The state tournament is Friday and Saturday at the Cherry Bowl in Rockford.
Coach Phillips was an outstanding shot and discus coach at Forest View during his ciaching career as well, Marty. He was an integral part of the Falcon teams that won 5 straight indoor and outdoor MSL championships in the 70's. His personality was even bigger than he. I can remember Art Mugalian writing that we got "surprise" points from the field on numerous occasions, however to those of us on those teams it was no surprise. RIP Coach!