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38 | February 14, 2019 | The tinley junction sports tinleyjunction.com It was an early morning shake-up call Titans earn first conference crown in 27 years after Lemont victory JEFF VORVA, Sports Editor Sometimes you have to get up early to make history. Players on Tinley Park’s girls basketball team got up early to get to school to get on the bus to head to Lemont High School for a 9 a.m. game against the Indians. They also got up early in the game. Kayla Serafini scored the Titans’ first seven points to help her team get off to a 16-5 lead after the first quarter. The Titans never let up and pulled off a 52- 32 victory on Saturday, Feb. 9 in a South Suburban Conference Blue contest to win a share of the conference title with Oak Forest. Both finished with 10-3 records. It was the first time in the 14-year history of the SSC that the Titans won a title and the first time since 1992 that they won a conference crown, back when they shared a title with Bremen in the South Inter Conference Association Central. Coach Ryan Honan was 5 at the time. The players had not been born. “I’ve never experienced an accomplishment like this in basketball,” Serafini said. “Being a senior and doing this is amazing.” In recent years, it’s been hard enough picking up a win as the Titans averaged four victories a season the past four years. Now, they won some hardware. “We talked in the summer and I was very confident we were going to have a good year,” Honan said. “The validation of winning a It was a contrast in atmospheres as Tinley Park’s Brooke Davis walks off the court near the Oak Forest student section after a loss on Thursday, Feb. 7 (left photo) and she dribbles in a near-empty gym in the fourth quarter of a win in Lemont two days later as the Titans won their first conference title since 1992. PHOTOS BY JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA conference title is good for them.’’ The 9 a.m. start was the finish of a wild week for the Titans, who finished the regular season with a 15-11 mark. This Lemont game was supposed to take place on Feb. 5 but it was postponed because of the forecasted ice storm, which didn’t occur. On Thursday, Feb. 7, the Titans went into the unfriendly confines of Oak Forest on the Bengals’ senior night and trailed 21-10 at halftime, cut the deficit to two in the second half but fell 39-29, putting huge significance on the Lemont game. Hundreds of fans, mostly from Oak Forest, rocked the gym on Thursday, which was quite a contrast from the Lemont game, where less than 50 people were in the stands for the National Anthem, and that included eight members of the Lemont band. But that didn’t stop the Titans from dominating as Serafini, who averages eight points a game, scored 11 in the first quarter. The Titans rarely played this early in the morning. “It does feel weird and I was scared because the last early game we had [in a holiday tournament at Hillcrest] wasn’t the best,” she said. “We were a bunch of crabby girls that day. This time we were excited. And the coaches gave us breakfast.’’ After eating some bagels and fruit in assistant coach Maggie O’Connor’s office, the Titans left Tinley Park at 7:45 a.m. and nearly three hours later they were posing for photos at Lemont as cochamps. Emily Kleffman had 16 points and 13 rebounds, Autumn Jones had nine points and Brooke Davis Tinley Park’s Kayla Serafini (left) scored 11 first-quarter points to help her team beat Lemont to earn a share of the South Suburban Blue title. had eight. Endya Robinson, Theo Jones, Lauren Berry and Jaedyn Wayne also contributed for the Titans, who have just eight on the varsity roster. The Titans were scheduled to open play in the Illinois High School Association Class 2A Thornridge Regional against the hosts on Monday, Feb. 11 and hoped to advance to the semifinals against Chicago Noble/Butler on Wednesday, Feb. 13. The championship is at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 15.
tinleyjunction.com sports the tinley junction | February 14, 2019 | 39 fastbreak THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK There were 21, er 22, ex-Bulldogs in sectional action PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 1ST AND 3 WITH GIRLS GYMNASTICS, WRESTLING AND GIRLS BOWLING STATE TOURNAMENTS TAKING PLACE THIS WEEKEND, HERE ARE A FEW NOTES 1. Last wrestling championship The last area wrestling champion was Tinley Park’s Eric Schultz (ABOVE), who won the 195-pound division in Class 2A in 2016. 2. Last bowling champ The area has no individual champ but Andrew’s team won a state title in 2012. 3. Last gymnastics champion Andrew’s Heidi Heimke won the vault in 1980. Jeff Vorva j.vorva@22ndcm.com You know you have a pretty darn good wrestling club when you tweet out to the world that 21 of your former athletes have qualified for the Illinois High School Association sectionals at their respective high schools and then you find out you miscalculated. Tinley Park Bulldogs wrestling coach Mickey Griffin was pretty pleased with the 21 and tweeted all their names but he missed a kid. There were 22. “His dad made sure to remind me,” Griffin said. Hey, when the numbers get that high, it’s easy for one to slip through the cracks. So 22 wrestlers qualified from their regionals and scattered and battled on Friday, Feb. 8 and Saturday, Feb. 9 at Joliet Central, Bolingbrook and De La Salle. In all, there were 12 schools represented and 13 weight classes Closest to home, Andrew’s Joey Roti (106 pounds), Luc Valdez (113), Kyle Silzer (120) and J.P. Migawa (170) plus Tinley Park High School’s Jeremy Kelly (126) and Jose Marban (170) were in sectional play and are Bulldogs alumni. A few miles away, Sandburg had four by-products of the Bulldogs wrestling machine - Tyler Milani (120), Jimmy Ferguson (126), Sam Wojcikj (145) and Mike Bosco (182). Good ol’ School District 210 - the Lincoln-Way district - picked up some pretty good ex-Bulldog performances during the regionals, Lincoln-Way East’s Jacobs Abeja (132) and Dominic Adamo (152), Lincoln-Way Central’s Mason Sargent (195) and Michael McCormack (220) and Lincoln-Way West’s Javen Estrada (126) all made it to the sectionals. Oak Forest, a heated rival of Tinley Park High School, benefitted from the Bulldogs as Julian Ramirez qualified for the sectionals at 195. Mt. Carmel is having a monster of a season and in a few weeks could be your Class 3A team champion. The Caravan is fueled in part by past Bulldogs Connor Gaynor (138) and <strong>TP</strong>HS’s Jose Marban was one of 22 former Tinley Park Bulldogs to wrestle in sectional action and he is one of 10 state qualifiers. JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA Andrew Mulay (152). Montini is also having a monster season but might not be able to overtake Mt. Carmel in the team competition. But the Lombard school has a former Bulldog in Patrick Peters, who made it to last weekend’s round. Providence’s Ryan Boersma (220), Brother Rice’s Nathan Chirillo (126) and Marist’s Owen Dunlap (106) round out the 22. “We are overwhelmed with pride about the number of former Bulldogs that qualified for the IHSA sectionals,” Griffin said. “It is a credit to the hard work these young men put into the sport, and to the program here at the Bulldogs. Knowing these youngsters, they are not satisfied with only qualifying for sectionals. They want to get down to the state tournament...I’m just very proud of these Bulldogs. Griffin said he was on “pins and needles” over the weekend hoping to find out how many of the Big 22 would qualify for Champaign and the program hit double figures in that category. Valdez, Migawa, Marban, Adamo, Sargent, Estrada, Boersma, Dunlap, Chirillo and Ramirez will be at the State Farm Center in Champaign starting Thursday, Feb. 14. The club was established in 1961 and has programs for those from kindergarten through eighth grade. The organization boasts of being named a top 50 club nationally for the past five years by USA Wrestling. Now this. It’s safe to say, the Bulldogs have success in a headlock right now. Listen Up “I’d go through a wall for this team, bad game or good game.” Mario Lawrence — <strong>TP</strong>HS basketball player who crashed through a table in a game at T.F. North WHAT 2 WATCH Wrestling, girls gymnastics and girls bowling, various times, Thursday, Feb. 14 through Saturday, Feb. 16 • The state championships in these three sports will take place in Champaign, Palatine and Rockford respectively. Index 34 - Golf show 34 - Athlete of the Week Compiled by Sports Editor Jeff Vorva/J.VORVA@22ndcm.com
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