BRADLEY — It’s been about 20 years since Darla Moldenhauer retired from coaching volleyball at Bradley-Bourbonnais, but her presence once again was noticed at the school where she spent her entire career teaching.

On Saturday, six area teams participated in the 35th annual Moldenhauer Classic, which returned to BBCHS after the school last hosted the event in 2019 at Adventure Commons in Bradley.

“It’s great to be back at Bradley-Bourbonnais,” Moldenhauer said. “We have a great program and a great tradition, and so I'm very proud of everything that’s been built here over the years. ... It’s very rewarding to come back and see good volleyball hosted by the Boilermakers after not having a chance to hold the tournament last year due to COVID-19.”

Moldenhauer was the first female coach in program history after the government's passing of Title IX in 1972, which prohibited discrimination based on gender in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. A little more than 10 years into her tenure that began in 1973, the school began hosting the big tournament that was held at multiple spots across town. After Moldenhauer’s retirement in 2004, the tournament was given a formal name: the Darla Moldenhauer Classic.

“What keeps me coming back after all these years is the fact that I love volleyball and Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School,” Moldenhauer said. “I taught here my entire career, and I coached 30 seasons of volleyball, and so it’s special to me because I was the first coach after Title IX legislation.”

Despite her passion for Bradley-Bourbonnais volleyball, Moldenhauer noted she no longer has an opinion when she gets a chance to spectate the Boilermakers from the sidelines.

“I watch now as a spectator with no opinion of who they play, how they play or what system they play, but I know our team has a lot of passion,” Moldenhauer said. “And anybody who watches our team or coaches can certainly see the passion they have.”

<strong>Bradley-Bourbonnais takes 3rd for best local finish</strong>

Kankakee, Bishop McNamara, Manteno, Wilmington and Momence participated in the event, but it was the Boilermakers who wound up securing the best area finish.

After a morning of pool play — four pools of three teams — crossover games were played between all the schools that had the same finish in their respective pools.

Bradley-Bourbonnais and Manteno were the two local teams to win their pools after each started the day 2-0. In bracket pool play, the Boilermakers fell to the eventual second-place finisher, Newark, in their third match, and the Panthers dropped their respective third match to the eventual tournament champions, Belleville West.

This put Manteno and Bradley-Bourbonnais in a head-to-head clash for the third-place match, and the Boilermakers wound up on top with a 25-16, 25-15 straight-set victory.

“We played Manteno earlier in the year in the regular season where we lost in a third-set tiebreaker, and so we focused on having a sense of urgency and beat them in two,” Boilermaker head coach Leigh Reiniche said. “... It was a good end of a day to be able to end in a win and take third overall.”

Reiniche said being able to play against some new competition while having to come up with new game plans on the spot not only helped her team but also better prepared her squad as postseason play approaches soon.

“This competition here, this close to regionals, is awesome,” Reiniche said. “... Having competition like this that's new and to be able to kick-in a game plan immediately is great practice for us for the upcoming postseason.”

That preparation for the postseason was especially nice given the fact the Boilermakers got a chance to get it on their home court with only have one more regular season match against Lincoln-Way West at home for senior night at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“It’s good to be able to host the tournament at our home gyms again,” Reiniche said. “It’s nice to be able to divide and conquer and let some people play in different gyms, especially some other teams we haven't seen before. I think it was great competition for us and other teams that decided to come to the tournament.”

<strong>Prepping for the postseason</strong>

With the postseason fast approaching — regional play begins Oct. 25 — Saturday was the last day for most teams in the state to play in major tournaments.

Kankakee finished the tournament 2-2, including a forfeit victory from Chicago Hope after they had to withdraw from the tournament because of COVID-19. The Kays' performance was good enough to take sixth place out of 12 teams. Although they only secured one true victory during the tournament, Kays' first-year head coach Kristin Madorin was happy to see her squad get a chance to better prepare for the postseason by playing stiffer competition.

“We’ve been playing well against teams, but we haven't seen real tough competition here in a couple of weeks, and so it’s kind of hard to see the things that we really need to work on until we get into some tough competition,” Madorin said. “So, I was really excited coming into the tournament knowing we were going to have some tougher games. ... It gave us an eye opener of things that we need to focus on before the postseason comes.”

Bishop McNamara finished the tournament 1-3 with a win against Joliet Central in its second pool play match, giving the Irish an eighth-place finish for the tournament.

Despite not picking up as many wins as they would have liked, Bishop McNamara did get a chance to face a potential postseason opponent in Wilmington, which they lost to in a close third-set tiebreaker (23-25, 25-14, 13-15).

“Wilmington is the team we would play if we win the first round of our IHSA Class 2A Regional Quarterfinal match against Central,” Irish coach Ryan Thomas said. “We have experience playing them now, which is always a plus.”

Other local teams who rounded out the tournament were Manteno (2-2), which finished fourth; followed by Wilmington (2-2), which took seventh; and Momence (1-3), which finished 10th overall.