Bailey Begins 32nd Season at St. Patrick

SPORTS SPOTLIGHT BY JOHN MONTGOMERY

Mike Bailey is a self-described gym rat at 71 years old who loves the game of basketball. He is addicted to watching basketball games and practices. Bailey also enjoys everything that takes place off the court, like recruiting and game planning and summer basketball. Most of all, he loves teaching the game to his players during practice sessions. And he has no intention of doing anything else.

“I am not retiring at the end of the season,” Bailey said, putting an end to rumors to the contrary. “I’m just getting started.”

“Mike Bailey has all the qualities that you are looking for in a head coach,” said former Weber and Elgin basketball coach Jim Harrington, who had Bailey on his staff at both schools. “He is hard working, loyal and dedicated. Whether Mike is young or old, he is always trying to get better as a head coach.”

Bailey, who began his hjgh school coaching career with Harrington at Weber in 1979, will begin his 32nd year as head coach at St. Patrick in the Shamrocks’ annual Thanksgiving tournament. He has won 583 games at the school on West Belmont and one of his goals is to surpass the record of 658 victories established by his predecessor, the legendary Max Kurland.

“I just keep going,” said Bailey, who recently underwent hip replacement surgery. “As long as I have energy, enthusiasm and health, I will keep coaching. I don’t think I would have retired if I had won a state championship last year. A lot of people ask me that question. Honestly, if we had won, I wanted to come back and coach this group of kids because I had promised them and their parents that I would be their coach. I think that I am a better and more prepared basketball coach now at this stage of my life.”

Last season, Bailey guided St. Patrick to 29 victories and third place in the Class 3A tournament. The Shamrocks lost to Brother Rice in the semifinals, then came back to rout Chatham Glenwood for third place.

“It was probably the most proud I have ever been of any team I have coached, to come back and win third place after losing 24 hours earlier,” he said.

Twelve players return from that 29-8 squad, including starter RJ McPartlin. The Shamrocks will begin their quest for a return trip to Champaign on Monday, November 24, against Chicago Public League power Dyett, the defending Class 2A champion.

“This team knows how to win basketball games,” Bailey said. “It expects to win. They are very motivated to get back Downstate.”

The road back to Champaign won’t be easy. It became more difficult when the Illinois High School Association placed St. Patrick in Class 4A with defending champion Benet and neighborhood rival DePaul Prep, last year’s Class 3A champion, which also has been moved up into Class 4A tournament. St. Patrick might have to beat both schools to reach the championship game.

Meanwhile, Bailey has been proud to follow in Kurland’s footsteps. Kurland built the Shamrocks into one of the state’s most successful programs at St. Patrick playing his signature 1-3-1 zone defense. St Pat's always fell short in conference play, finishing second to coach Gene Pingatore’s St. Joseph teams. The one thing that Kurland couldn’t do was advance to the state quarterfinals and gain ticket play to at Assembly Hall in Champaign. Kurland retired in 1994 after losing to Lyons Township in the York sectional championship.

“It was an honor to be chosen to replace Max Kurland at St. Patrick,” Bailey said. “Max was very nice to me when I came to St. Patrick. I didn’t replace him. I followed him.”

Bailey has a different philosophy playing strictly man-to-man defense.

“Max Kurland was one of the greatest guys in the coaching profession. He had a heart of gold,” Harrington said.

Bailey, a graduate of Gordon and DePaul University, joined Weber in 1979 as Harrington’s sophomore coach. He was head coach at St. Gregory in 1984-1986, then head coach at Dundee-Crown in 1986-1990. Then he went to Elgin to assist Harrington in 1990-94. In 1992, when Steve Pappas left Gordon to become head coach at Deerfield, Bailey applied for the job.  Rich Kolimas was hired to replace Pappas. When Kurland retired in 1994, he brought his expertise to St. Patrick.

After losing four times in the supersectional round before finishing third in the Class 3A tournament last season, marking the first time that the Shamrocks have qualified for the Final Four. The achievement isn’t lost on Bailey or his staff. Why retire when you still have goals to accomplish?

“It means the world to advance to the state finals for the first time in school history,” he said.

Basketball is a family affair in the Bailey household. Mike’s daughter Kelly is the official scorer for the Chicago Bulls while son Brandon is an assistant coach for DePaul’s men’s basketball team after spending time with the Boston Celtics in the NBA.

After the upcoming Thanksgiving tournament, St. Patrick will open its regular conference season in a televised matchup against Notre Dame of Niles. This is the last season of the ESCC in basketball. The Chicago Catholic League has merged with the East Suburban Catholic. Next season, St. Patrick will join Marist, Benet, DePaul Prep, St. Ignatius, Mount Carmel, Loyola, Brother Rice and Fenwick in a new and very competitive conference featuring three divisions.

Mike Bailey can’t wait to be a part of it.

Hanson Stadium Reopens

By John Montgomery

Hanson Park Stadium, more commonly known as Hanson Stadium, will never be compared to famous venues such as the Rose Bowl, Wrigley Field, Chicago Stadium or Fenway Park. But it has been a staple for sporting events since it was built in 1939, at Fullerton and Central, on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

It has been home to varsity football teams from Weber, St. Patrick, Prosser, Foreman, Steinmetz and Kelvyn Park High Schools, semi-pro football and Chicago Public League track and field championships. Built to accommodate crowds of 2,200 people, it generally hosted seven football games a week. After a thorough four-year renovation, which included new seating, locker rooms, scoreboard and press box, Hanson is back in business with the beginning of the 2025 football season.

“Hanson was their home,” said former Weber associate athletic director Mary Mitchell, recalling outstanding Red Horde teams that played there until the nearby school closed in 1999.

“Every Sunday we played at Hanson Stadium,” said former Weber football manager Gil Sanks. “The place was packed and we had tremendous teams (Prep Bowl champions) in 1961 and 1964.”

Hanson also hosted events for the Pan American Games, the Special Olympics, many city and state high school football playoff games and was the original home of the Public-Catholic All-Star Football Game.

“We are very excited,” said former Chicago Public League sports director Dave Rosengard, who spearheaded efforts to upgrade facilities at several city parks besides Hanson.

“Playing at Hanson was like playing in a college stadium,” said former St. Patrick and Notre Dame football player Dan Santucci, who also played in the NFL and now is principal at St. Patrick.

Hanson brings back fond memories to me, too. The first high school football game I ever covered for the Sun-Times was in 1984 at Hanson Stadium. It was a matchup between Bogan and Tilden. From 1984 to 2010, I covered games at Hanson for the Sun-Times and Tribune. It was fun covering two of the most competitive rivalries in the Chicago area, Gordon Tech vs. Weber and St. Patrick vs. Notre Dame.

“Hanson Stadium meant a lot to the Northwest Side schools,” said former Prosser basketball coach and athletic director John McEleney. “The beauty of Hanson was that it was not just for football.” Add soccer and girls’ flag football to the list of events that experience the new turf at Hanson. Steinmetz, which now plays football on its own field, will meet Kelvyn Park for the inaugural soccer game at Hanson.

It will be football when Foreman hosts Kelly for the first game of the 2025 season and Prosser returns by entertaining basketball powerhouse Proviso. 

The new Hanson Stadium will undoubtedly create memories for today’s young athletes.

CPL’s Hanson Stadium. Photo credit Chicago Public Schools.

DePaul Prep Wins Pontiac with 59-56 Victory Over Benet

DePaul College Prep Rams beat both Curie and Benet on Saturday afternoon and evening to win the 93rd Pontiac Holiday Tournament in their first appearance. They weren’t the typical Rams’ victories. The Rams battled, struggled, endured and ultimately prevailed over two of their toughest opponents this season. They survived Curie 68-64 in afternoon semi-final and edged Benet 59-56 in the late evening championship game.

In a larger sense, the arrival of the DePaul Prep Rams (14-1, 1-0), probably new No. 1 ranked team and back-to-back state champion, at Pontiac this year might well signal a change in the tournament. It might be a little early for a '“private school takeover narrative,” but this is at least a little historic. Either Simeon or Curie has won Pontiac every year since 2008. For the first time ever, two private Catholic schools meet in the championship. After a contentious, back-and-forth, up-and-down semi-final between Benet and Simeon, Sun-Times reporter Michael O’Brien reported that Simeon coach Tim Flowers said that Simeon will not be back at Pontiac. Without Simeon next year, who knows what happens.

“Kind of like that fact that there is some teams other than Simeon and Curie,” said Red Folktstad from Braidwood. Mr. Folktstad attended his first Pontiac Tournament in 1980 and has missed only a few since.

Rams 68, Condors 64.

First things first, the semi-final. The Curie Condors were the Rams’ second toughest opponent to that that point in the season. Only No. 1 Kenwood, their only loss was a tough game. The game was exhausting. At a point in the third quarter, a Curie player stood near this reporter with a look of shear exhaustion on his face. After the game, Curie head coach Mike Oliver was overheard saying, “We just ran out of gas.”

Curie employed a full court trapping press all game long. Despite the pressure, DePaul Prep slowly built 35-28 lead by half time.

There was one play late in the second quarter that epitomized the extra effort that it took to win. At a 3:13 mark in the second, junior guard Rykan Woo put up a three-point shot that was short. He followed his shot, got the rebound and laid it in before Curie could react.

“That’s more of a hustle play. I could tell that the shot was a little off, a little short. My guy did not box me out. I just ran to the rim and the ball just happened come in my hand,” Woo said.

Ya! That’s the kind of hustle play by Woo and the rest of Rams that provided the edge necessary.

Curie is the second-best team that the Rams have faced to that point. The first being Kenwood. The Condors are big, athletic and very active. Active to a fault. Midway through the third quarter, the author studied one of the Condor guards. He was gassed. The Condors shooting in the third suffered. They managed only eight points with 2:15 left in the quarter.

Despite being gassed, the Condors played remarkable pressure defense. With under a minute left and down six points, Curie pressured the Rams inbound passes for at least one turnover and two time-outs.

The Rams survived a furious full court press in closing minutes with some key free throw shots by Rob Walls.

Rashaun Porter lead all scorers with 18 points. Rykan Woo had 17, Makai Kvamme 14 and AJ Chambers with 10.

Rams 59, Redwings 56

Having won the 1:00 p.m., semi-final, the Rams advanced to play the Benet Academy Redwings in 9:00 p.m., championship game. Benet (12-2) somehow survived a game with Simeon that defies description.

One thing was sure from the outset, for a first time forty years, a private school would win Pontiac. Only two private school teams had every won Pontiac; Weber, a now closed Resurrectionist high school formerly located near Riis Park on Chicago’s northwest side, in 1976 and Providence-St. Mel, another Chicago Catholic League school on Chicago’s westside, in 1984.

This DePaul Prep v. Benet game can be described as close. Really close. DePaul Prep never lead by more than seven and then only for a couple brief periods. In a mercifully quick game, it was tied at 48 points each going into final quarter of basketball in the tournament.

After trailing the Rams by a few points most of the fourth, Benet brief took a 56-54 lead with 3:48 to play on Blake Fagbemi midrange jumper. Those would be the last points the Redwings would score.

A Benet turnover at 2:47 led at Makai Kvamme layup to tie. Another Benet turnover on a shot clock violation lead Rams’ senior center Rashaun Porter back down the lane against Benet’s 7-footer Colin Stack only to miss a hook shot. He got the rebound and put it back. Still no. Finally, a tap in for two points and the lead, 58-56 with 1:58 to play.

Rashaun Porter added a free throw to make it 59-56. That’s where it ended when Blake Fagbemi missed a three-pointer to tie.

The significance of winning Pontiac was not lost on the Rams. Rams’ head coach Tom Kleinschmidt told his players “[Pontiac is] the top Christmas tournament in the Midwest. To win it is a priviledge and an honor. We’ve gotta be tough. Every game is like a state final or a super[-sectional.] We’ve got to be ready.”

“We would miss an opportunity if we didn’t use our experience that we have had the last couple years in the state tournament. We still have some guys back off that team. So I said, let’s take advantage of the experience we have and I think we did that,” Kleinschmidt said.

“We have too many weapons. If you take out one person, it leaves so many other people open. If a team tries to take me out, everyone else has chances,” Woo said after the game.

Rashaun Porter lead the Rams with 17 points, Rykan Woo had 14 and Rob Walls with 10.

Benet’s Blake Fagbemi has 20 points and won the A. C. Williamson award as the most valuable player in the tournament.