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32 | March 22, 2018 | The highland park landmark Sports
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Girl’s Basketball Coach of the Year
Lake Forest’s Wilhelm
chosen for inaugural honor
Brittany Kapa, Sports Editor
Coaches are often the
needle on a compass that
points players in the right
direction during a long
season.
They string different
players, personalities and
skill sets together into one
cohesive unit. When done
right, the season often
ends in success.
Kyle Wilhelm, the head
coach of Lake Forest High
School’s girls basketball
program, guided a team
punctuated by talented
underclassman and players
who stepped up in the
wake of injury.
The Scouts finished the
season with a 22-10 overall
record and a playoff
run that ended with a loss
to Lake Zurich in the regional
final. Because of his
efforts, the sports staff at
22nd Century Media chose
Wilhelm as the inaugural
Coach of the Year for girls
basketball.
“I was not expecting
this,” Wilhelm said. “I’m
honored and surprised.
I’m surprised in the sense
that I really respect a lot
of the coaches that I coach
against. I see the time that
everyone puts into preparing
and to be named Coach
of the Year is an honor.”
Wilhelm, who finished
his seventh year as the
Scouts’ head coach, has
seen his current group of
players grow. The seniors
came into a program that
only won eight games prior
to their freshman year.
In four years, the Scouts’
program is a far cry from
where it began — their
success includes a 2017
Lake Forest coach Kyle Wilhelm (middle) led a young
girls basketball to a second-consecutive season
winning 20-plus games. 22nd Century Media File Photo
regional championship.
“This group, the seniors
in particular, should really
be looking back on their
career and the mark that
they left,” Wilhelm said.
“They just finished (with
season) wins of 17, 13, 23
and 22.”
Wilhelm built his program,
with assistant coach
Reanna Perera, by harnessing
the skills of individual
players and rolling
that into success at the
team level.
Wilhelm had two major
challenges this season.
The first was making up
for the two key players
who graduated. The success
of the season prior
acted as motivation for this
year’s squad and Wilhelm
saw evidence of that this
past summer.
“I think the big thing
was ... they came in really
focused this summer and
really determined to meet
and exceed last year’s performance,”
Wilhelm said.
The seconds, unfortunately,
was making up
for Maeve Summerville’s
absence. Summerville suffered
a season-ending injury
at the end of the summer
session. Wilhelm had
to figure out how to make
up 25-27 points per game
from losing those three
players.
“As the season started,
it was really just challenging
those players to fill the
void that Maeve was leaving,”
he said. “We really
talked about how it wasn’t
going to be one person to
do that. It was really going
to have to be collective effort,
and everyone was going
to have to step up.”
They didn’t disappoint.
Sophomore point guard
Halle Douglass was one
of the team’s top scorers.
Seniors Jen Whittington
and Audrey Kaus stepped
up in a big way and even
Summerville’s younger
sister, Finola Summerville,
helped fill the gaps.
“We started picking up
those signature wins and
every signature win you
get you kind of see the belief
and the expectation of
the team,” Wilhelm said.
“They raised the expectation-level
themselves.”
Full story at HPLand
mark.com
Boys Basketball Coach of the Year
Teamwork key for
Giants’, Harris success
Brittany Kapa, Sports Editor
Simply put, coaches
champion their players.
In a season filled with
inevitable ups and downs,
it is the coach’s job to keep
their teams on task.
When looking at who
did that the best this season
across 22nd Century
Media area teams it was
a hard decision. Programs
like New Trier and Loyola
Academy stand out as having
coaching staffs that
are undoubtably talented.
However, the sports department
looked deeper
into regular-season play
and chose a coach that
helped lift his team from a
shaky start to a team that
finished the regular season
with confidence.
Highland Park High
School’s Paul Harris was
chosen as the inaugural recipient
for the 2018 Coach
of the Year.
Harris, who just completed
his 19th year as head
coach with the Giants, led
his team to a 15-11 overall
record and an 8-2 Central
Suburban League North
conference finish after a
0-4 start.
“Our mindset as coaches,
and as a program, was
to try and get the guys to
focus on improvement and
get them to remember that
past success doesn’t guarantee
future success,” he
said.
The team’s start didn’t
define the Giants’ season,
and Harris even celebrated
a personal accomplishment
in January after nabbing
his 300th career win.
Highland Park coach Paul Harris (middle) helped lead
his team out of an 0-4 start to finish the regular season
15-11. 22nd Century Media File Photo
However, none of those
accolades are more important
to Harris than the
growth of his team from
summer 2017 until the end
of the season this year.
“When I think about the
season as a whole, I’m just
really proud of how we
competed,” he said. “This
was a group that set high
standards for themselves.”
Slowly, the Giants’
came together for some
big wins during the season.
“They showed tremendous
resiliency,” Harris
said. “With playing a tough
schedule, we weren’t going
to go undefeated this
year. We knew that wasn’t
going to happen.”
Part of that bounceback
was the willingness of the
group to work as a team,
Harris said. The team
didn’t care who was the
top scorer of the night, as
long as they won.
“We had a group of
guys that just wanted to be
successful,” Harris said.
“That’s fun to be around
and that’s a credit to their
character.”
Part of the joy of Harris’
job is watching players
develop over their careers
and over the course of a
season. However, part of
the challenge of coaching
is helping players reach the
next level of their game.
“It’s really rewarding to
see players get out of their
comfort zone, because
that’s how they grow,” he
said.
There have been concepts
that the Giants’
coaching staff will work
with players during practice
and to see that translate
on the court during a
game is another highlight
for Harris.
“To see players trust the
coaching that they’re receiving
– that feels really
good,” he said.
Editors Note: Coach of
the Year was chosen by the
Sports Department at 22nd
Century Media. The decision
was made on regular-season
play and the development of
the team from the beginning
of the regular season until
the conclusion.