For Joyce

The Schloss-Blog doesn't usually go off the rails like this, not in this direction, especially, but today's post is about one thing, one person and is my honor to do so.

She just might scold me for this, she's so selfless, but that's in good part why I'm doing this.

On Saturday, May 2, Buffalo Grove's Joyce Gallagher becomes a member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Hall of Fame, player wing.

The only reason I know is because she took the time to let me know when she got notified of the honor back in November. The banquet honoring this year's inductees is at the home of the Hall in Normal, Illinois. She told me she was nominated by Carol Plodzien, who coached rival William Fremd at the time of Joyce's career and took them to a third-place finish in the state tournament.

Joyce (I know, journalists are supposed to use last name as reference after full name is mentioned, but Joyce is special) is flying in from Philadelphia, where she lives now with her very special partner and has carved out a nice career for herself.

When she informed me of the honor being bestowed upon her, she mentioned that I was in good part why she got nominated in the first place.

She couldn't be more wrong, but I was just as honored to write about her and her teammates' exploits 40-plus years ago as I am happy for and proud of her now for this honor. She thought the countless mentions of her and her team in the weekly Countryside Reminder-News, where I worked at the time, was in good part a reason for her current renown.

She has no idea.

It was my first full-time job in journalism and I was excited to go to every game I could fit into a week's schedule. I covered three schools - Buffalo Grove, where Joyce played, Wheeling, a northwest-suburban, Mid-Suburban League rival out of which Buffalo Grove HS was carved in good part, and Stevenson, now the state's biggest school but just a hole in the wall back then you could fit in its entirety into nearby BG's fieldhouse.

Joyce always played with heart, with passion and with, as I've told her many times since she and I reconnected via social media these past few years, the sweetest jumper.

Ever.

I loved covering girls basketball. Title IX was in its infancy and girls athletics was growing, slowly but surely, from settling for Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons for home games to today's Friday-night doubleheaders, sharing double billing with the boys varsity teams and equal time in the main gym for practice instead of being relegated to the rock-hard fieldhouse floors.

Never heard Joyce complain. She just showed up and played. She had many great teammates, too many to mention here, and some great competitors in the day, including one I will mention, Sandy Rainey of Wheeling, who would go on to play pro ball briefly. Joyce probably relished the opportunity to go against the likes of Rainey.

Joyce remained as soft-spoken then though as she is now. She hasn't boasted about the honor she is getting on May 2 and she was probably halfway reluctant to share it with me. That's just who she is.

So why am I dedicating all this space to someone who had the sweetest jumper?

Ever.

Maybe because she hasn't gone out of her way to brag about this honor, although she has every privilege to.

Maybe because she took the time to tell me, almost six months ago, not only about it but that I was in good part one of the drivers for it, in her opinion.

Maybe because I can hardly ever remember being at a BG game in which she played that her parents, from whom she clearly got her selflessness, went out of their way to give me a polite greeting (all high school-athletes' parents always find the beat writers, regardless of the sport - not all of them are as selfless). 

Or maybe it's because when we finally reconnected after all these years, she went out of her way to tell me that she and her teammates couldn't wait every Thursday when the Reminder-News was published, to see, as I recall her words when we spoke by phone - "...what (I) had written about them."

I had no idea. Really.

She has made as indelible an impression on me now as she did then, now with her kind words, then with her focused play.

And that sweetest jumper.

Ever.

I can still see her launching it now. 

And I am as proud now to have covered her then as I am proud now of the honor being bestowed upon her.

One she so dearly deserves.

Does. She. Ever.

***

Good night, Carol Plodzien. Here's to you, Joyce Gallagher.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.