Three Rockets and a Cardinal named to IBCA Hall of Fame

Three area basketball players have been named to the were named to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame Class of 2022.

Jonathan Schneiderman, a former standout on the Cardinals’ basketball team, and Jorge Acosta and Bryan Boerjan of Rock Falls will be inducted together at the IBCA banquet in April.

Acosta, Boerjan and Rockets teammate Brian Vance – all of whom were on the 1999 Class A state title team for the Rockets will join Schneiderman bringing back even more memories of a stellar 1999 season around the Sauk Valley.

“Bryan and I grew up together, going back to our very first YMCA team, and to be able to grow up together, go through the ups and downs, learn the game together – and now go into the Hall of Fame together – is just awesome,” Acosta said. “I know what he put into it to become the player he was, and to go in with one of my childhood best friends is really fun. It just makes it that much sweeter.”

“Jorge and I were very close growing up, and I really respected and admired – and was in awe a lot of the time – of his athletic ability,” Boerjan said. “We played so many different sports together, so many games together growing up, and he helped elevate me and pushed me to work harder and be a better player every step of the way. To share this experience with him is special.”

The 1999 Rock Falls team was inducted as a group a few years back, and now three of its members are going in as individuals. Acosta and Boerjan both thought that it was past time that Vance, who was a couple of years older than them, was inducted as an individual.

Of course, one can’t talk about the local lore of high school basketball without speaking of Vance, who hit a game-winning 3-pointer in the 1999 Class A state championship game to lift the Rockets to a 45-43 win over Waterloo Gibault.

These days, Vance lives in Fort Myers, Florida, where he works in sales. He married wife Brittany in 2018, and they have a daughter, Addison, who will turn 1 on Friday.

Vance was thrilled to see Schneiderman’s name on the list, as the two became good friends while playing one summer of AAU ball together before their senior year of high school.

Schneiderman also remembers some of the key moments from that winter of 1998-99. Most of them he looks back fondly upon, but he also still thinks about what might’ve been.

“I just remember that run we had through the postseason; it could’ve ended at any time,” said Schneiderman, who helped lead Forreston to the Sweet 16 in 1999. “We had Malta, Byron, Stillman and us in the regional – with 100 wins between us. We could’ve lost in the regional semifinals to Stillman, when Mitch McCracken went for 37. We could’ve lost to Malta in the regional final, when we were down 10 with two minutes left.

“In the sectional, we beat a Kaneland team that had P.J. Fleck on it, then a Rockford Christian Life team that had a tremendous junior class who my cousin Nick and I had played against in AAU. But then we lost by three to Plano in the supersectional – and I still think sometimes that the three-quarter-court shot I took to tie the game at the end was going in. It’s just a lot of great memories with that ‘99 group.”

Schneiderman was quick to give credit to his coaches, starting with his father, Fred, and going through the different levels until playing for Mark Hansen at Forreston. Now the principal at Forreston Elementary School, Schneiderman coached at the high school and junior high levels after his playing career at Illinois-Chicago, and is now coaching youth ball.

He and wife Laurie are parents to 10-year-old twins Lucy and Sullivan, and he coaches his son’s team with two of his teammates from that 1999 team who also have sons who are now Sullivan’s teammates.

“It’s fun to see our own kids playing together, and it makes you look back at your own basketball career,” Schneiderman said. “You think about all the coaches you had when you were growing up, and I still think about how lucky I was to have the coaches and influences that I did.”

Like the others, Schneiderman was quick to point out that “you don’t get individual awards unless your team had success,” and he was grateful to have had the teammates that he had throughout his entire career.

He was also amused to see the Rock Falls names on the list of inductees this year, and appreciates the level of talent and success those Rockets teams had.

“All we ever heard about was Rock Falls, and rightfully so; they were really good,” he said. “If we had kept winning, we would’ve gotten a chance to play Rock Falls in the semifinals – Plano beat us, then Carmi-White County in the quarterfinals before losing to Rock Falls in the semis – and that was the only time we would’ve gotten to play Rock Falls.

“But I remember playing against Brian and Jed Johnson in the Telegraph All-Star game. They already had their state championship, so it wasn’t as big a deal for them to play against us, and my cousin Nick and I were named co-MVPs, which I thought was pretty cool at the time.”

Vance said being inducted with his former teammates – both high school and AAU – helps drive home the point of how good you had to be to get a nod into the hall of fame.

“It just solidifies to me that you have to be a really darn good player, because this is the hall of fame and that’s how it should be,” he said. “You can’t discount what it takes to be elected, and these guys are the perfect example of what hall-of-famers should be.”

Boerjan agreed, saying the level of talent he knows the other familiar names on this year’s list possess makes it more special. But he also knows some of the legends that he and his buddies will be joining, and it blows his mind a little bit.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Boerjan said. “When you look back at the history of Illinois basketball, I’m just honored to be a part of that and become part of that hall-of-fame group. I think it validates everything we did, and helps us recognize all the hard work and the people who were with us along the way and cared about us and continued to help us develop – family, coaches, friends, teammates – and really make you realize that we really had some special careers.”