‘They are all so unselfish’

The St. Joseph-Ogden Girls Basketball team is going to make history this weekend by bringing home a State trophy.

And Spartan fans have a good idea why.

School board member and SJO parent David McDermott said the team is filled with good kids and is led by good coaches.

“Good attitudes equal winners,” McDermott said.

It sure does.

The Spartans go into tonight’s game 7:15 p.m. game against Teutopolis (32-4) with a (28-4) record and have not lost a game in 2019.

SJO previously faced Teutopolis this season when the Wooden Shoes handed the Spartans their first defeat of the season, with Teutopolis winning 72-39 on its home court on Dec. 6. But since the Spartans lost 50-46 to Kankakee Bishop McNamara on Dec. 29 in the third-place game of the small-school State Farm Holiday Classic, second-year coach Kevin Taylor’s program has won 15 straight games.

The Spartans defeated Chicago Christian 58-35 to win the Class 2A Pontiac Super-Sectional, clinching the program’s second-ever trip to the state tournament, but also securing the program’s first-ever state trophy in the process.

The 2006-07 team advanced to the state quarterfinals in Class A during the last year of the two-class system, but lost 56-39 to eventual state champion Breese Central in the Elite Eight. The 2018-19 team will come home with no worse than a fourth-place trophy once the season concludes on Saturday night.

And the accolades are well deserved according to senior Angela Palmer’s dad Gregory.

“(They are) good kids,” he said. “(They have) great teamwork and are very unselfish.”

SJO fan Lana Wolken agreed.

“My favorite thing about the SJO Girls Basketball Team is their team work and unselfishness,’ she said. “I love their hustle. Coach Taylor seems to have them prepared for each game.”

Depending on the outcome of today’s game, SJO will play either in the third-place game or in the state championship game.

SJO ticket taker and fan Carla Reese said the team is a family.

“They care about each other and the fans,” she said. “They have a good work ethic.”

School board president Jim Rein agreed.

“They are fun to watch, they are all so unselfish and they encourage each other from the bench to the court,” he said. “They have a great team chemistry.”