Girls basketball: Romeoville Christian claims first IACS state championship

ROMEOVILLE – Several years ago, Randy McCammack coached a boys basketball powerhouse at Ridgewood Baptist Academy on the east side of Joliet.

Among the players on McCammack’s 2009 Illinois Association of Christian Schools state championship team was his son, Ethan.

Ethan caught the coaching bug from dad.

Two weeks ago, his team reached the summit as the Romeoville Christian Academy girls won the IACS high school state championship for the first time in the 45-year history of the school.

Not that the Lady Kingsmen had not been on the brink. They were the state runner-up the previous three seasons, losing twice in the championship game to host Schaumburg and last year losing to Downers Grove Marquette Manor.

Turnabout was fair play. Romeoville Christian beat Marquette Manor, 28-24, in this season’s title game as tournament MVP Jessie Perez scored 24 points.

That was after she poured in 32 points in a 42-38 semifinal win over Rockford Cathedral Baptist.

“Jessie really carried us at state,” said Ethan McCammack, who has coached the Lady Kingsmen varsity girls the last five seasons. “She’s been our starting point guard since she was an eighth-grader. She is getting some college looks. We’re hoping she plays somewhere in college. That’s the plan.”

The Lady Kingsmen’s other senior, Nicole Peterson, also was a key to the title. She was named to the all-tournament team.

Romeoville Christian, which finished 19-4, won three games at state, including a quarterfinal victory. Nine Christian schools from around the state chose to participate in the girls’ postseason tournament.

“We’re a real small school,” said McCammack, who works in information technology full time and coaches part time. “We have only about 40 kids in our high school, and roughly half are boys. So depending on the talent level and interest, occasionally we have junior high kids with us.”

During the Perez and Peterson era, the Lady Kingsmen have piled up victories.

“Jessie’s freshman year we went 21-2,” McCammack said. “The next year we were 20-3. Last year we were 16-5. And we lost the championship game each of those years.

“We lost one senior and one kid transferred out after last year. But we returned the two juniors, Jessie and Nicole, and they were our core this year. We were only about six deep. So the girls were used to playing all game every game.”

Other than Perez and Peterson, Romeoville Christian was young.

“We were very old but also very young,” McCammack said. “We had two freshmen and a seventh-grader in our top six. They played a ton of minutes.

“We do have a lot of talent coming up in our freshman class. Things could be rough the next couple years, but if the young kids take over the leadership and progress, we could be good again in a couple years.”

The Lady Kinsgmen did not necessarily enter the state finals on a roll, having suffered two losses in the ICC conference tournament.

“After those tough losses, our team seemed to wake up and realize nothing was going to be handed to us,” McCammack said. “Our motto for the last few weeks became ‘Play until the clock says zero,’ and we pushed ourselves to employ that principle.

“We had the tools to win and in the end, I believe it was our attitude of never taking our foot off the gas that helped us to the championship. I am proud of this team and how much maturity and poise they showed even when things did not go as planned. This is a special group of girls, and it is a bittersweet feeling that this season is over.”

The Lady Kinsgmen’s roster, in addition to Perez and Peterson, included Tessa Byers, Elliana Van Tassel, Marissa Langnickel, Norma Perez, Emily Loder, Alex Soncek, Rachel Scott and Bethany Soncek. Assistant coaches were Micah Peterson and Zack Menard.