By Max Olsan
Medill Reports
The Kenwood High School men’s basketball team is having one of its most successful seasons in recent history. They beat powerhouse Simeon for the first time in school history and even won the Red South Conference. Yet the job is not finished, as they still feel they have more to prove.
TRANSCRIPT:
[Crowd cheers after made basket]
MIKE IRVIN, head basketball coach: Mike Irvin, head basketball coach Kenwood Academy. We got first place in the Red South Conference, probably the toughest conference, definitely in the state of Illinois, and probably one of the toughest conferences in the country. So, to finish up first in the Red South is big because that’s hard to do.
[Crowd cheers after made free throw]
CALVIN ROBINS JR., Kenwood junior: It means huge things, like you said, it’s the first time it has ever happened in school history. Being able to knock off Simeon who has won the Red South so many consecutive times is a great feeling.
[Music playing]
IRVIN: It means a lot to the school in general. That means we are going in the right direction. We’re winning. So, anytime you are finishing first, kids got an accomplishment, and you got something to point to, so the school loves it. There’s energy here, there’s energy in the building so that just keeps it going.
[Crowd cheering during a timeout]
ROBINS: We learned that we can battle with the best teams in the country. We got three seniors, a lot of juniors, and a couple of freshmen and sophomores. Just being able to know everybody’s game like that is really cool, to know each other and know how everybody plays.
IRVIN: When you think back to this season when it’s all over? State championship, we won it. City championship, we won it. Because, like I’m telling the kids, once you win a city or state championship, that team will be remembered forever. So what do you want everybody to remember you as? A winner. So, when I think back, I just want to think about winning, you know, holding that trophy up, saying we won, we did it, all the hard work paid off.
Max Olsan is a sports media graduate student at Medill. You can connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
