By Matt le cren
For the Bugle
www.buglenewspapers.com
Jim O’Boye never intended to be the impresario of the most prestigious high school girls basketball shootout in the Chicago area.
He just wanted to give his twin daughters, Shannon and Jackie, some exposure to college recruiters. They entered high school in the fall of 1990 and played at the now-defunct Immaculate Heart of Mary in Westchester.
Plainfield resident Jim O’Boye (right) chats with fans and coaches from his court-side seat at the Coach Kipp’s Hoopsfestat Willowbrook High School. This is the 29th year of the shootout O’Boye started. (Photo by Mark Gregory)
“I went to the summer league at Maine West and watched what Coach (Derril) Kipp was doing during the summers,” O’Boye said. “I thought, ‘geez, I wonder if we can do something in the middle of the school year that would attract coaches.
“My daughters were basketball players and I told myself, ‘maybe they can get recruited.”
Thanks to O’Boye, who has resided in Plainfield for the past 10 years, thousands of high school girls have gotten that opportunity. The 29th edition of what is now called Coach Kipp’s Hoopsfest was staged last weekend at Willowbrook High School and consisted of 16 games spread over two days.
The first shootout was hosted by Northwestern in 1991. It moved to DePaul for three years and has been played at Willowbrook since 1995.
O’Boye watches all of the games from a comfortable courtside seat, greeting high school and college coaches as well as members of the media, many of whom he has known for decades. His is a familiar face even though he originally planned to make himself scarce once his daughters, who played in the first four shootouts, graduated.
“I told Derril Kipp and (current Fenwick coach) Dave Power that I’m done,” O’Boye said. “I’m not a shoe company; I don’t have any interest in it.
“They said, ‘well, there’s no one else doing this. It’s the only one of its’ kind, you’re getting all the top teams and you’re getting really good out-of-town teams. This is good for girls basketball. You can’t quit.’”Power and Kipp, who passed away in 2016, are Hall of Fame coaches who played a huge role in building girls basketball in the Chicago area through their high school and AAU teams. They succeeded in getting O’Boye to help their cause.
“I said I’ll do it for a couple more years and then it just kept going and going and here we are in Year 29,” O’Boye said. “I’m planning on Year 30, then I don’t know. I take it year by year right now.”
O’Boye, 71, regularly pairs top Chicago-area teams with elite teams from surrounding Midwestern states, mainly from Indiana. Though crowds have dwindled in recent years, fans regularly packed the gym to see players such as Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika and Tauja Catchings, Erin Lawless, Tricia Liston, Devereux Peters and Jewell Loyd.
Legendary DePaul coach Doug Bruno is a fixture at the shootout. The majority of his players hail from the Chicago area and many have played at the shootout, including Megan Lucid, who played in the first edition for Mother McAuley and was the Illinois Miss Basketball in 1992. Lucid’s daughter, Marist freshman Mary Clare Brusek, played in this year’s shootout.
“What Jim O’Boye has done for women’s basketball and girls basketball in the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago has just been magnificent,” Bruno said. “This tournament has been a staple since the early ‘90s and it’s just a great opportunity to come out here and see so many teams.”
College coaches do the bulk of their recruiting during the summer league season and AAU tournaments, but O’Boye’s event gives them a rare in-season chance to evaluate top players in one place.
“During the season the NCAA only lets us go out a certain amount of time,” Bruno said. “So to be able to go out on one day and see 16 teams like I’m going to see today, in the middle of the season, is a very beneficial event for all college coaches but specifically for those of us recruiting Chicago players.”
The showcase also benefits high school coaches and players. Coaches like it because it prepares them for the playoffs and players enjoy the atmosphere and challenge of playing unknown opponents.
“This is why we come here,” Wheaton South coach Rob Kroehnke said after his team beat Trinity on Monday. “It gives you a different atmosphere because you’re not playing the teams you normally see.
“We’ve played Hillcrest, Bolingbrook and New Trier. We’re not going to see those teams in our sectional or conference.”
Wheaton South senior guard Mira Emma played in the shootout for the fourth consecutive year. But she was a spectator before that.
“I remember coming back when Meghan Waldron [a former Wheaton South star who played at DePaul] played, so I would always come to this game because we had the day off school and I had nothing to do,” Emma said. “The gym was packed.
“It’s nice to get a different experience and environment to play in, see teams that you might see in the playoffs down the road.”
Kroehnke said fans can see some really good players, who of course are the stars of the show. But he credits O’Boye for putting it altogether.
“He does a real good job of organizing it,” Kroehnke said. “It’s a full day but everything runs smoothly.”
O’Boye, who oversaw the IHSA’s television coverage for 20 years, is officially retired but gets help in running the shootout from his wife, Jonlyn, who edits the official program and takes care of all the secretarial work. After nearly three decades, he’s got a process worked out.
“It takes planning, but now I start way in advance,” O’Boye said. “I’m already working on next year’s out-of-town teams.
“The hardest thing for me is you end up making friendships with the coaches and then you have to disinvite somebody. Everybody thinks their team will be good, but (we need) to have star players and star teams. That’s what shootouts are supposed to be.”
But Coach Kipp’s Hoopsfest has also been a family affair for O’Boye, who keeps busy by driving a school bus for special needs children in District 204 and just completed his 35th season as the public address announcer for St. Rita football games.
O’Boye has 13 grandchildren, including two granddaughters, Kaitlyn and Dana O’Boye, who played in the shootout four times for Plainfield North.
“That was a thrill,” O’Boye said. “I never thought I’d see that day, but as they got closer to playing basketball in high school, I could see that they were interested in it.
“It was fun. I’ve got maybe one more (grandchild) coming along (who may play) in a few years.”