St. Pat's Historic Boys Basketball Run a Blast for Cannon
Smith Wins 400th for Benedictine Baseball; Four Harper College Coaches Receive NJCAA Awards; Giusti's Longevity Legacy at Prospect; More Perfection for Fahey
The last couple weeks around St. Patrick and the basketball program have been a real blast for Dominic Cannon.
The 1980 Fremd graduate and former Prospect head coach just finished his 13th season as an assistant to head coach Mike Bailey. It was a season unlike any other at the school on Chicago’s Northwest Side as the perennially successful Shamrocks broke through to the state tournament and returned from Champaign with their first state basketball trophy.
And the celebration of St. Patrick’s big day in finishing in third place in Class 3A continued past its namesake celebratory day.
“It kept building and building,” Cannon said. “We had a huge crowd at the super (at UIC). We had a big crowd at Champaign and there were Shamrocks everywhere.
“The support is second to none. We had a pep assembly Wednesday that was so much fun. It’s all still alive and so fresh. The place has been electric.”
It was also a big moment for a trio of Hall of Fame coaching “lifers” in Bailey, Cannon and Al Biancalana in their first trips to the state tournament. And they’re all intertwined in the arrival at Belmont and Austin of Cannon, who played for Mo Tharp and assisted Ed Molitor at Palatine and Glen Elms at Prospect before taking over the Knights’ program in 2000.
Cannon was at Prospect until 2007, where he won a Mid-Suburban East and regional title. He spent a year as an assistant for Molitor at Palatine and then went to York for two years to work for Biancalana. After Biancalana moved to UIC as an assistant, Cannon went 19-8 as York’s interim head coach in 2010-11, but the school hired current DePaul Prep head coach Tom Kleinschmidt as its full-time head coach.
After Cannon left York he was contacted by Biancalana.
“‘Coach B’ calls and says, ‘Hey, are you working anywhere,’” Cannon said. “I told him I wasn’t and he said, ‘Coach Bailey wants to talk to you.’ I had seen his teams play when I was scouting and I was impressed with what they were doing.”
Cannon joked about two Irishmen getting together at Harry’s in Arlington Heights and talking for hours about basketball. Cannon started at St. Pat’s as a freshman coach and ultimately became more than just a varsity assistant for Bailey.
“Now he’s one of my best friends,” Cannon said. “We just hit it off. We’re passionate about basketball and kids and we want to win and compete.”
The latter two had not been an issue in the 65 seasons before this one at St. Pat’s. The legendary Max Kurland won 658 games in 35 seasons. Bailey came in after successful head coaching stints at St. Gregory and Dundee-Crown and his first season with the Shamrocks is his only one with a losing record.
The signature win and trip to state had been elusive, however. Kurland’s 1962 team lost in the supersectional, when it was the Sweet 16 and the tournament was one class. Last year was Bailey’s fourth trip to a supersectional when it lost an overtime heartbreaker to Mt. Carmel at UIC.
But the same place, opponent and time had a different result this March as St. Pat’s opened up a late lead and held on for a 1-point win over the Caravan.
“I’m really happy for coach Bailey especially and the boys and the school,” Cannon said. “It’s a big deal and so I’m happy for them. Mike deserved this more than anybody.
“You’re working with legends and it’s important for the school and important for Mike. He’ll never tell you that but I”m so impressed with him and the boys and the school. I’m very fortunate.”
The Shamrocks looked like they might be playing for a state title when they look a late third-quarter lead in the semifinals. But DePaul Prep used a big run to win 48-33 and beat Brother Rice in overtime for its third consecutive state title and second in 3A.
And while it wasn’t a perfect ending for the Shamrocks, it was a happy one as they put together a big second half to beat Chatham Glenwood 50-28 in the third-place game.
“Our fear as coaches … we wanted to win it all badly, but if you lose (in the semifinals) you don’t want to go 0-for-2,” Cannon said. “They rallied.”
St. Pat’s has also become more than just a place to coach basketball for Cannon. After he retired in 2021 as a special education teacher at Prospect, he was hired by then-principal Jon Baffico to start a similar program at St. Pat’s. His current principal is former Rolling Meadows teacher and assistant football coach John Harrington.
Cannon has also gotten involved in the Special Olympics at St. Pat’s and helps run the unified sports program. He said the wheelchair basketball team also took third place and developed a lot of camaraderie with the boys team.
“I’m so honored and grateful,” Cannon said. “I was in the right spot at the right time and the boys and coaches worked so darn hard.”
Benedictine’s “Smitty” Hits 400 Milestone
Adam Smith, a 1994 Schaumburg graduate, played in one of the MSL’s top baseball programs for the late Paul Groot. Then he went to Carthage to play for the legendary Augie Schmidt, who has won more than 1,000 games in 38 seasons in Kenosha.
Smith has carved out his own successful college coaching path since 2011 with no losing seasons at Concordia in River Forest and Benedictine University in Lisle. On March 16, Smith picked up his 400th career head coaching victory in a 10-6 win over Millikin in Decatur. Ironically, the winning pitcher for Smith’s milestone was Schaumburg grad Steven Byrne with 2 innings of hitless, scoreless relief.
“I just want to thank everyone for the texts and calls,” Smith wrote on Twitter/X. “It means so much to me. None of this happens without my wife and kids, the best assistants, former and current, and of course all of the past and current players that mean so much to me. Thank you all!”
The victory was Smith’s 220th at Benedictine since he took over in 2016 and is second in program history. Last year’s Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) tournament title was its first and it was also the program’s first Division III regional appearance since 2013. He won 30 games in all five of his seasons in charge at Concordia.
Four Harper College Coaching Legends Honored by NJCAA
John Eliasik (football), Dan Loprieno (wrestling), Jim Macnider (men’s and women’s cross country) and Renee Zellner (men’s track and field) are synonymous with success and providing opportunities with Harper College athletics. They are among the nearly 200 honorees to receive the inaugural National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Coaches Legacy Awards.
The NJCAA Coaches Legacy Awards celebrate coaches who have left an enduring mark on their programs and the NJCAA. The criteria is 200 victories for football and three national titles for wrestling, cross country and track and field.
Eliasik is the winningest football coach in NJCAA history with 249 victories in 35 seasons at the program he founded. He led Harper to back-to-back NJCAA championships in 2003 and 2004 and set the foundation for many players to go on to success at four-year schools and for future NFL players such as Tim Tyrrell, Steve Matthews and Steve Octavien.
Loprieno’s wrestling teams have won five NJCAA national titles and produced seven individual national champions and 39 NJCAA All-Americans in 27 seasons. He wrestled at Harper in the 1980s and was an assistant to the legendary Norm Lovelace when the program won its first national title in 1996.
Macnider came to Harper in 2011 after leading the Schaumburg boys program to three state titles. Macnider’s Harper teams have won nine men’s and five women’s national championships and he has coached four individual NJCAA champions.
Zellner was an assistant coach from 1980-90 at Harper before taking over the track and field program for 26 years. She led the men’s program to five national titles in a six-year span from 2007-12 and she returned in 2018 as an assistant to Macnider.
They will be recognized at an awards ceremony June 17 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Giusti’s Prospect Legacy Includes Longevity
Ross Giusti said “it’s an honor to replace him” when it was announced in mid-June 1996 that he would be taking over the Prospect baseball program for the retiring Larry Pohlman. Nearly three decades later, Giusti has started his final season before he retires in what has been one of the MSL’s most stable athletic programs.
Here are the 13 baseball coaches with at least 20 years in charge of a MSL program or programs. The asterisk is for the 2020 season that was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
29 - Larry Pohlman (Prospect, 1968-96)
28 - Paul Groot (Schaumburg, 1985-2012)
28 - Ross Giusti (Prospect, 1997-2025)*
27 - Mike Fritz (Conant, 1978-2004)
26 - Paul Belo (Fremd, 1998-2002; Palatine, 2003-24)*
26 - Jim Koller (Palatine, 1977-2002)
25 - Ron DeBolt (Wheeling, 1969-93)
24 - Larry Peddy (Elk Grove, 1968-88, 1995-97)
23 - John Wendell (Buffalo Grove, 1986-2008)
23 - Bob Huber (Hersey, 1995-2017)
22 - Kirby Smith (Barrington, 1977-98)
21 - Chris Piggott (Fremd, 2003-25)*
20 - Terry Gellinger (Palatine, 1965-66; Fremd 1967-84)
More Perfection for Hersey’s Fahey
As a Hersey senior, Mary Kate Fahey earned Daily Herald All-Area girls basketball honorary captain honors by leading Mary Fendley’s team to a 16-0 season, MSL title and No. 1 ranking in Class 4A during the COVID-shortened 2021 season.
The perfection continued Saturday for Fahey as she helped New York University to a second consecutive undefeated NCAA Division III title with a 77-49 win over Smith College. NYU finished 31-0 for the second consecutive year and became only the third D-III women’s team to win back-to-back undefeated titles.
"We have an incredible group of seniors who are moving on, so our team will look very different as the streak continues next year," said NYU coach Meg Barber on the school’s athletic website. "This program is forever changed because of this class. It is historic. It's GOAT-level. Belle (Pellecchia), Natalie (Bruns), Chloe Teter and Mary Kate Fahey are the reason that we are in this position and I couldn't be a prouder coach."
Fahey was the Violets’ top scorer off the bench as she played all 31 games and averaged 7 points and 14 minutes. She was third on the team in 3-pointers with 52 at an amazing 50.5 percent clip. She had 2 points and played 7 minutes in the championship game.
On the men’s side, Washington University (St. Louis) lost in the D-III semis to NYU 72-60. Freshman Connor May (Palatine) had 10 points and 6 rebounds in 29 minutes and junior Will Grudzinski (Barrington) had 7 points in 25 minutes as WashU finished 23-7.
May was the No. 3 scorer (11.9) and rebounder (5.8), No. 2 in 3s (55) and percentage (42.0) and had a team-high 20 blocks. Grudzinski was fourth in scoring (7.4), fifth in rebounds (3.3) and third in assists (52) and 3s (50). Freshman Yusuf Cisse (Conant) also played in the semifinal and 15 games.
MSL Sports Records
One of the long-term projects for Mid Suburban Legends and Beyond is putting together records for all sports in the MSL. In case you missed some of these, you can click on the button below for some that have been recently added or updated:
Second Annual Chicagoland Jewish Basketball Showcase
Palatine head coach Eric Millstone and Rolling Meadows senior Aaron Kossack will participate in the second annual Chicagoland Jewish Basketball Showcase, according to a report by Eric DeGrechie of Patch. The event will be held April 6 at 3 p.m. at Ida Crown in Skokie.
Coaching with Millstone are Wheeling assistant Andrew Braverman, York assistant and former Stevenson assistant J.J. Pearl and Bulls College Prep head coach Jacob Goldstein. Other players include Stevenson’s Atticus Richmond and Grant’s Brandon Wolkowitz. The players will be split into two teams for the game according to the Patch report.
Central Illinois Girls Coaching Legend Retires
Bob Becker, one of the most successful girls basketball coaches in state history at Morton just east of Peoria, announced his retirement this week on Twitter/X. Becker won four Class 3A titles (2015-17, 2019), eight state trophies and finished with a record of 629-183 in 26 seasons. He had nine 30-win seasons and the Potters won 13 Mid-Illini Conference titles.