T
he proverbial references are about water,
or blood. As in, “There must be some-
thing in the water in that town.” Or,
“
Basketball (or football, or pick your sport) is in
that school’s blood.”
But something — or more often, someone
—
has to get the juices flowing to create a high
school sports dynasty, a perennial power, the
kind of program that competes for, and wins,
state championships in multiple decades.
The Peoria area has a number of such pro-
grams, many of which jump instantly to mind.
Metamora football. Manual basketball. Central
basketball. Richwoods football. Notre Dame
soccer.
Peoria and its surrounding communities also
claim a number of once-dominant programs that
either have fallen on hard times or at least have
been thrown back among the general popula-
tion. Manual baseball. Limestone girls basketball.
Manual track and field. Richwoods swimming
and diving. Pekin wrestling. Morton softball.
Then you have the quieter long-term excel-
lence in sports that grab fewer headlines. Cross
country at Notre Dame, Elmwood, Brimfield
and Metamora. Boys tennis and girls basketball
at Morton, Metamora. Notre Dame swimming.
Richwoods girls basketball. The bat-and-ball
sports at Limestone. There are many more.
Why do some engines just keep humming
along while they sputter at certain schools, in
certain sports, year after year? What are the win-
ners’ secrets?
“
The secrets are simple,” said Chuck Westen-
dorf, assistant coach for six large-school basket-
ball championships over a decade (1994-97 at
Manual and 2003-04 at Peoria High). “Get a lot
of talent.”
“
Westy” quickly conceded he was being
mostly facetious and he cited a variety of factors
that were repeated by a host of coaches, from a
broad spectrum of sports, from throughout the
area.
THE PRESENT
HERE’S TO THE WINNERS …
AND THE SECRET TO THEIR SUCCESS
BILL LIESSE
18
THEPEORIAN.COM
