By Alan Macey When I walked into the new Crete-Monee High School gymnasium Friday night, my first thought was that I was at the wrong gym. The small audience for the Class 3A girls basketball regional championship game between Crete-Monee and Hillcrest left me feeling bad for the players. Hillcrest and Crete-Monee entered the contest with a combined 40 victories, which means they deserved to be in the spotlight and performing in front of many more adoring fans than the 150 who were in attendance on that cold night in February. Crete-Monee's "Magnificent Seven" upset Hillcrest to win a regional title.
(Carol Dorsett/SouthtownStar) Girls basketball has been on an interesting quest to attract big crowds since the first Illinois High School Association girls state tournament was conducted in 1977. When you watch the state tourney games on television, you can always see rows and rows of empty seats at Redbird Arena in Normal. On the other end of the attendance spectrum, there are no empty seats when Mother McAuley and Marist meet in basketball and volleyball. They are pure instant box office. The same could be said for Sandburg and Stagg in their basketball heydays. The two Lincoln-Way schools, East and Central, have also had their fill-the-gym moments. A caring athletic director, Oak Forest's Sue Bonner, a former head coach in the sport, has tried to elevate girls basketball games to the prime-time slot on Friday night. Alas, even this kind of bold move hasn't been enough to excite the populous and "pack the place" for the girls. When it comes to supporting your local high school girls basketball teams, there is a lot of apathy in our communities and in the student populations. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by what I witnessed yet again, this time in the Crete-Monee gym. As it turned out, the students and backers of Crete-Monee missed a magical moment that doesn't come along too often. It was a game that should be packaged and presented to every Crete-Monee student for safekeeping. It was 90 minutes of gallant efforts, never-say-die attitudes and incredible spirit. The underdog Warriors beat the heavily favored Hawks 57-47. When the final buzzer sounded, 10 members of the Crete-Monee boys basketball team raced onto the court to congratulate the victorious Warriors - all seven of them - who found a way to slay mighty Goliath and win a regional title for the first time since 1982. How big was this Crete-Monee upset? Consider the fact Hillcrest entered the game with a 24-3 record and has averaged 23 wins for the past 14 seasons. Crete-Monee, directed by first-year coach Mike Pope, is a long way from those kinds of numbers. As the small celebration continued, I kept thinking what this gym would have looked like with 1,500 screaming Crete-Monee fans rushing the court to embrace their new heroes. Isn't that what we see on television after every upset in college basketball? Crete-Monee's "Magnificent Seven" wore big smiles on their faces as they hugged the small gathering of family and friends. Kristina Smith pointed to the gym wall, where the years of all Crete-Monee sports team champions are listed proudly. "2008 regional champions, Crete-Monee," Smith said, as she firmly held the regional trophy. The "Magnificent Seven," known by their Crete-Monee classmates as Kristina Smith, Loretta Burton, Tracea Smith, Natalie Morgan, A'Kira Jones, Shantika Ford and Tishauna Franks, advanced to the Hillcrest Sectional, where they lost to Washington, 56-45, on Monday. The Warriors finished their season with a 17-11 record. The seven girls on this Crete-Monee team should always be remembered for creating a magical moment for their high school. I just wish a few hundred more people were there to witness the happiness. | 
