Seton writes another winning chapter

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PEORIA — Last year, the Seton boys basketball team won its first regional and made history. This winter, the Sting has rewritten history by winning the school’s first state championship.

Before Friday’s first Class 2A semifinal tipped off, the question at Carver Arena was ‘‘Who’s Seton?’’ After about five minutes, a state-wide television audience knew who Seton was and that question was replaced with “Why Seton?’’

‘‘It’s not me, it’s the kids,’’ Seton principal Norma Guzman said. ‘‘It’s a collaboration. We move as one. Coach K [Ken Stevenson] spends time with the kids. He brings them to his house and it is way above and beyond what he has to do. He has known some of these kids since they were in third grade.’’

Six years ago Stevenson took the reins at what was an all-girls school.

‘‘I was an assistant at Whitney Young and we played a game against Thornwood,’’ Stevenson said. ‘‘The Thornwood coach at the time, Bob Curran, mentioned that Seton was going to have boys and was looking for a coach. It piqued my interest. I met with their athletic director [Laurie Jakubczak, now at Mother McAuley] and told the administrators that I had a five-year plan to build a program. I guess they were impressed. I told them that after five years, we’d get close.’’

But did Stevenson even dream of what Year 6 would bring?

In the preseason, Seton was No. 11 in the Chicago Sun-Times Super 25. The question was, how would the transfers from Hales Franciscan — point guard DJ Cooper and forward Jordan Walker — mesh with their new teammates? The answer is that Seton was playing in a state championship game.

‘‘These kids like each other,’’ Stevenson said. ‘‘I was concerned at the beginning and wondering if there would be ego issues. We had a team meeting and from Day 1 every kid put their ego to the side because all they wanted was to win. This is a very unselfish group that really cares about each other and not who scored the most points.’’

The holdovers include four-year performer Tony Nixon and Stevenson’s junior son Kenny.

‘‘I knew Coach K growing up and I’ve been with him since I was a freshman,’’ Nixon said. ‘‘I figured that one of these years we’d break through. It’s been a lot of fun.’’

‘‘I can’t express how amazing this has been,’’ Kenny Stevenson said. ‘‘We’ve gotten great support from everyone around us and all of South Holland. Everyone on this team is a good fit.’’

Another piece of the puzzle has been the explosion of Corbin Thomas, who was barely a blip on the radar coming into the season, but now has Stevenson’s phone ‘‘ringing off the hook.’’

‘‘He has a certain ‘wow’ factor,’’ Stevenson said. ‘‘Corbin hurt his back in the [2007] AAU season and then hurt his knee the third game of last season and we didn’t get him back until the playoffs. When we started the season at St. Rita, I had people asking me who he was and if he was another transfer. Now my calls start with, ‘Coach, please tell us he hasn’t committed.’ ’’

‘‘The injury humbled me,’’ Thomas said. ‘‘I knew when DJ transferred that we could be special. We’re a family. Everything we do on the court is a team effort and we’re all on the same page.’’

A Seton starter who hasn’t received a lot of attention is guard Khameron Harper, the only junior in the starting five.

‘‘I went to Simeon my freshman year but I liked Seton and I liked coach and my mom and dad made it happen,’’ Harper said.

‘‘Last year, people started to know our name. We opened some eyes. I always dreamed about playing in a state championship, but I honestly never knew if it was possible. And with nine juniors back, we’re not going away.’’

A lot of the credit for the great chemistry on this Seton team still goes back to the unselfishness and team-first attitudes of Cooper and Walker.

‘‘I get a good education and a good coach who is a people person,’’ said Cooper, who is headed to Ohio University.

‘‘Everybody here wants the same team and we have chemistry as a unit.’’

“When we first got there I could see that everybody works together,” Walker said. “It was like me and DJ have been playing with these guys all four years. Getting to the championship feels amazing. And for the seniors, it’s not just our last chance, it’s our last game. I will play harder than I ever have.”

I wonder what Stevenson has in mind for Year 7.