Putting the 'Mac' in Lady McLegends game

In retrospect, we don’t know how the marketing team missed it for the first three years of Lady McLegends games.

But, when the fourth edition of the Aurelio’s Pizza Lady McLegends basketball team meets the 2009 High School Girls All-Stars on April 17 at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, there will be a new look to the women’s roster.

Let’s just say we’re finally putting the “Mac” in “McLegends.” As in Mighty Macs.

Marking the first time their school has been represented in a McLegends contest, Mother McAuley alums Anne McDonald-Lotito, Kristyn Corley, Katie Boyce and Bridget Boyce-Schreiber will be on hand to help the McLegends avenge last year’s 93-79 loss. The girls, whose predecessors lost the 2006 and ’07 games, may have their hands full.

McDonald-Lotito was the Daily Southtown Player of the Year in 1995, when the then-senior led McAuley to a second-place finish in the state. Corley and Katie Boyce, both 2001 grads, played on McAuley’s 2000 state volleyball champs and, along with Boyce-Schreiber (Class of ’02), were on McAuley’s 2001 sectional hoops finalists.

“I have always been a competitive person and still love to play, so I am just really happy any time I get a chance to play,” said the 32-year-old McDonald-Lotito, who also helped the Macs to a fourth-place finish in ’94 and twice was a state tennis medalist in doubles.

McDonald-Lotito went on to play college basketball at DePaul and is now a math teacher at Marist, where she coaches the sophomore girls basketball team with Katie Boyce.

Boyce, 26, played college ball at Saint Mary’s in Notre Dame, Ind. She shared the backcourt with her sister.

“At first, I just thought the McLegends game was going to be pretty laid back,” Boyce said. “I didn’t realize how serious everyone is taking it. More than anything, it’s fun to play again and to be on the same team with a lot of people you played against in high school.

“Also, it’s for a good cause.”

Proceeds from the McLegends games benefit the SouthtownStar’s Project Share and Ronald McDonald House.

Corley, 26, who works as a second-grade teacher at Central Park School in Midlothian and coaches freshman volleyball at Mother McAuley, went on to play four years of college basketball at St. Joseph’s in Indiana. Her mother, Peg, is the athletic secretary at Mother McAuley.

“It’s going to be interesting playing against 17-year-olds who are getting ready for their college career,” Corley said. “I play in three volleyball leagues, so I’ve tried to stay in shape. When I’m in the game, I want to play smart and take good shots.”

Boyce-Schreiber, 25 and a business consultant at Accenture, suspects all the Lady McLegends will play that way — especially under coach Bob Hallberg’s leadership.

“I think we will come out with a competitive spirit, hoping that our experience pays off even though our bodies are telling us to slow down,” she said. “I’ve never played for coach Hallberg, but I was lucky enough to attend his summer camps when I was in grammar school and high school. When I was at Saint Mary’s, we played against his St. Xavier team. He is one of the best coaches I have ever played against. He pushes his players to do their best, both on and off the court.”

Not that Boyce-Schreiber needs a coach to push her as long as her sister is around — though, to hear Katie tell it, the Boyce sisters didn’t so much push as they pulled for each other.

“I was really lucky to have someone so close in age to always play sports against,” Katie said. “I think competitiveness was always within us, no matter what we played, but not always necessarily against each other.

“We never played sports because someone was making us. We played because it was fun. I think when you are doing something you enjoy, you just naturally want to get better at it.”

Alan Macey can be reached at amacey@southtownstar.com or (708) 802-8834.