No more hoops: Lebanon cancels girls basketball season
Seven years since establishing themselves as one of the top Class 1A girls basketball programs in southern Illinois, the Lebanon High School Greyhounds 2019-20 season is over before it started.
Lebanon Athletic Director Chad Cruthis confirmed Wednesday that because of a lack of athletes in the program, the decision has been made to cancel the season.
“I talked to the community, I talked to the administration and we had meetings as far back as three to four years ago and kind of prepared people that when we got down the road in a few years that this was a real possibility,’’ Cruthis said. “In soccer we had to get kids out of the hallways so we could have a team this year and we had to do the same for soccer last year.
“Baseball we’ve been close with nine or 10 kids. I think they had 10 last year. Basketball, we knew it was going to be close if a couple of players chose not to come out. Well a couple of them chose not to come out.’’
Lebanon has been one of the most successful girls Class 1A programs in the state in recent years. After winning regional titles under coaches Doug Schieppe (2012) and Melody Evans (2013), the Greyhounds won five more regionals under Cruthis who resigned following the 2018-19 season.
Led by sisters Kendra and Krista Bass, Madison Schoenfeld and sisters Emily and Abigail Reinneck, the Greyhounds went 131-25 from 2014-19. The 2017-18 team, which finished 32-2, placed third in the Class 1A state tournament. Kendra Bass and Emily Reinneck went on to become first team all-state selections.
But with the graduation of the Reinneck sisters this spring, the numbers ran short. Cruthis said he wanted to have eight girls in the program to compete this season.
He said Lebanon currently has about 140 students in the entire high school.
“If we would have gotten eight ... we would have tried it,’’ Cruthis said. “We had six the first day of practice then one decided not to come back the second day. We had two girls who went and talked to the coach about coming out so that we would have a team. They had never played basketball before and one girl was going to be away a lot on trips.
“I hate having to do that to schools because now they have nobody to play.. We were either going to have enough players to start or we weren’t going to play this year.’’
Cruthis said the past two years that Lebanon didn’t have enough players to field a complete junior-varsity program. To keep interest up in the program, junior-varsity players would combine with varsity players to play a half of a game following the regular varsity game.
Cruthis said participation at the junior high level has fallen as well.
“We had only two eighth graders last year and they came out for the high school team this year,’’ Cruthis said. “We hired Josiah Munton to be the coach. He had practice last week and then last Friday we decided to shut it down.”
Cruthis said that he has contacted a couple of schools about possibly forming a co-op in the future but that would take time.
“We have a couple of home schooled girls who are in the eighth grade who want to play basketball next year, so we’re hoping this is just a one year thing,” Cruthis said. “You’re looking at 10-11 girls next year, but then when the three juniors graduate, you’re back down to seven again. It’s a tall task. It’s not something anyone wants to have to go through.”
Though Lebanon won’t have a team this season, Cruthis said Wednesday that the annual 16-team Christmas Tournament will still be played.
“We’re going to have it this year and try and find somebody to replace us. I don’t want to do that to 15 other teams who are planning on playing in a holiday tournament,’’ Cruthis said. “We’ll have it one moire year and then dissolve it.
“I know Centralia Christ our Rock Lutheran has talked to me about picking up some of the teams and starting one of their own next year. Some coaches told me we didn’t have to do it, but we wanted to. I just felt like it’s the right thing to do.’’
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 3:23 PM.
