Boys basketball: Father-son LePages relish their remaining time together at Crystal Lake South

Crystal Lake South boys basketball coach Matt LePage has tried to keep things simple with his son, Cooper, throughout his high school career.

Cooper often heard two requests from his coach and father: “Play harder than anybody, and be a great teammate.”

“Everything else will work itself out,” Matt LePage said.

The LePages’ four-year run together will be over within a few weeks, but a lifetime of memories will be left as Cooper heads off to play next year at NCAA Division II Northern Michigan, where both of his parents, Matt and Marisa, played basketball.

“It’s been a special four years. It has its pros and its cons, but I’d say the pros outweigh the cons a lot more,” said Cooper LePage, who recently passed 1,000 career points. “I definitely have to take some criticism, but that comes with it. It’s been very fun, and I’m sad that it’s coming to an end.

“We’ll always look back on things and say, ‘Remember this? Remember this?’ It’s been a really cool experience that many people don’t get to experience in their entire life.”

Matt LePage knew his son belonged on varsity when he came in as a freshman, something his assistant coaches and seniors solidified.

“It’s been a heck of a ride. A lot of good times, some stressful times, but overall it’s been a joy to see him develop and get better,” Matt LePage said. “It’s definitely been a fun ride, that’s for sure.

“Am I harder on him? Yes. But we try to leave it at the gym as much as we can. We have to move on and go home.”

South (21-7, 11-4 Fox Valley Conference) is having its best season of Cooper LePage’s career, and he is playing a lead role, averaging 16.5 points and 6.9 rebounds a game while hitting 58 3-pointers. LePage dropped a career-high 31 points with six 3s in a dominant performance Friday for a 61-52 FVC win over Huntley.

Matt LePage remembers, as Crystal Lake Central’s girls coach, taking young Cooper to practices with him. Cooper vaguely remembers that but better recalls the South days, starting around the time Austin Rogers and Colin Wagner were playing for his dad.

In third grade, Cooper played with South’s feeder league team one grade up. He was seasoned and ready for varsity as a freshman in most aspects. There was, however, the chants from opposing fans such as “Daddy’s boy! Daddy’s boy!”

“He was getting those chants when he was a freshman,” Matt LePage said. “That’s a lot to take on then. Now he’s 18 and laughs at it and moves on. He kind of became numb to it, and it motivates him.”

That could have served as some motivation Friday, since Huntley’s section chanted that in the teams’ first meeting at Huntley, a 62-48 Red Raiders victory.

“Earlier in my career, I was 15, and it happened at Crystal Lake Central, and I was scared to death,” Cooper LePage said. “Now that I’m older and it’s happened many times, I’m immune to it now.”

Having his son in this senior group makes this team a little more special for Matt LePage.

“Whenever we had him playing, park district and feeder basketball, he started playing with his buddies who are still on the team today,” Matt LePage said. “Brady Schroeder, Zach Peltz, Cam Miller and those guys. He early on had that fire. So he’s been playing for South for a long time in his eyes.”

Cooper LePage is the third family member to reach the 1,000-point club. Matt and Marisa both did it in high school. Marisa was 2002 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year and was inducted into the NMU Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.

“They’ve taught me everything about basketball,” Cooper LePage said. “Seeing how to improve my game came from them. Where I am today is a big shoutout to them and the guidance and drive they have given me to get this far.

“It’s really, really special. That was one of my biggest factors in going to Northern Michigan. I want to follow their legacy and do something special there.”

First, the LePages will try to help the Gators to their first regional title since 2002. South will be one of the top teams in Sub-Sectional B, which feeds into the Class 3A Burlington Central Sectional.

“I think it has [been everything we hoped for],” Matt LePage said. “We’re not quite done yet. This group of kids he’s come up with and he’s played with a good chunk of his career have made it enjoyable. When you’re with a group of people like this it makes it more enjoyable.”