Pride for a moment, promise for long term

A week ago the young people at Althoff Catholic High School pulled off a historic achievement when the boys basketball team won a state championship. It took the efforts of five Belleville high schools playing more than 7,800 games during 99 seasons to yield the goal, making it all the sweeter.

Althoff coach Greg Leib recalled the moment he took over for the man after whom Althoff named its gym.

“When Coach (Glenn) Schott hired me 18 years ago, I remember walking in the gym and saying ‘it’s kind of sparse in here.’ He said ‘the only thing we hang up here is state championships.’ I said ‘OK, I guess I’ll try to get us one,’” Leib said. “Our guys embody Belleville... They represented their city really well today.”

Indeed they did.

But our community would be remiss if we didn’t also take this moment of local pride to reflect on the many successes we’ve seen produced by our local high schools. The public high schools were just lauded by Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner for excelling on state tests, and that long-term focus on academic excellence helps explain the litany of success stories.

We have federal judges, pro sports stars, Broadway notables, an astronaut, surgeons, test pilots, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a former U.S. senator. We have many more respected members of our community who helped build this area into a good place to live.

That shiny trophy certainly gave local folks a bright moment. The potential of our high schoolers gives our area a promising future.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Pride for a moment, promise for long term."