LOCKPORT – Denise Hadley admitted that Saturday’s Lockport Invitational was emotional.
After all, it was the last of the quality meets and one of the final events that the longtime Porters badminton coach will host. She’s retiring this year, her 32nd at Lockport.
Hadley, who also enjoyed a successful stint assisting Julia Hudson with the Porters volleyball program, has led her squads to three state trophies, including the 1995 championship. Since that season, Lockport has won 15 sectional titles.
“We have a good, solid coaching staff, but the problem is that we’re all done after this year,” Hadley said. “I’m not worried about it, but I’d like to see someone take over that knows badminton. It’s a great sport and we’ve got a good program, and I want to see it continue. I was Miss Hudson’s assistant coach for 18 years, and she showed me a lot of things about coaching. You want the kids to know what they need to expect to happen for them to win.
“We have a well-blended team with eight seniors, seven juniors and one sophomore. They’re a work in progress as far as understanding the concept that we’re trying to do, especially in doubles. This tournament gets them started in understanding that and trying to make it work. They’re hard workers, just like all of my teams, and they know what the expectations are.”
In Saturday’s 12-team invite, TF South and Buffalo Grove tied for first with 27 points, but the Rebels won the title on a tiebreaker for having one more first-place finish. The Porters edged Bradley-Bourbonnais 24-23 for third place while Lincoln-Way West (18), Lincoln-Way Central (15) and Lincoln-Way East (12) were next in the event.
Lockport received a first from Jenna Franzen at second singles while Hannah Burke took second at first singles. The Porters also were second at third doubles behind Jessica Sterna and Clare Kolacki and at fourth doubles with Scout Bauer and Hailey Ledbetter. They took third at first doubles with Jessica Miller and Haley Egelhof and placed fourth at second doubles behind McKenzie Ebel and Alexis Duda.
Franzen was thrilled about picking up her initial first-place showing in a varsity tournament. She beat Lincoln-Way East’s Alyssa Kandow 21-8, 21-19 for the second singles title.
“I was proud of myself because I only played two games in each match and this was the first time that I placed first in a varsity tournament and this is my first year on varsity,” Franzen said. “We’ve been practicing really hard and focusing on specific shots that we need to work on. We’re all pretty dedicated, and we don’t give up, we all get along really well and like to have fun. We want to perform our best so that coach Hadley can go out with a bang.”
Leading the way for Lincoln-Way West were Cassie Ruettiger and Grace Monti. Ruettiger beat Lockport’s Burke 21-14, 21-6 for the title at first singles while Monti won, 21-13, 21-18, over Buffalo Grove’s Sarah Altieri for the third singles title. Also for the Warriors, Megan Smalter took fourth at second singles.
“I think that I’m doing pretty good since I’ve only lost twice so far,” Ruettiger said. “I did some offseason stuff and that’s paid off. Last year I got knocked out on the first day at state so I want to make it to the second day. Our team started off a little slow, but we’re getting into it by learning more of the basic fundamentals. I like how our team jokes around all of the time.”
Warriors coach Donna Thompson was happy with how her team fared in the tournament.
“The girls played great,” Thompson said. “We’re on spring break and were missing people, so we had to pull up in front of someone’s house and honk the horn to get her on the bus. Even though the kids played in different positions, they all battled super hard and competed. And I was really proud of Cassie for being the singles champ against all of these tough schools.”
For the Knights, Kaitlyn Forsythe placed fourth at first singles while the first doubles squad of Lili Newtoff and Alyssa Boisvert also took fourth.