After a season of triumphs, Collinsville’s state title dreams ended off the court
Ray’Sean Taylor watched during last year’s high school version of March Madness as seniors EJ Liddell of Belleville West and Terrence Hargrove Jr. of East St. Louis led Southwestern Conference rivals to Illinois state basketball championships.
He thought it was be his turn in 2020.
A 6-1 senior guard at Collinsville High School, Taylor was the best player on one of the best teams in the state this season. Like Liddell and Hargrove, Taylor was the leading scorer on his team and capable of taking over a game on any given night, as he did with a record-breaking 53-point effort against St. Louis Trinity Catholic in late January.
But after helping to lead the state ranked Kahoks its first outright conference title since 1996 and first IHSA regional crown since 2015, Collinsville and the rest of the state’s championshp hopefuls had their seasons come to an end when the IHSA canceled the remainder of the playoffs over concerns about the spread of coronavirus.
Last Friday afternoon, Collinsville coach Darin Lee met with his team in its locker room to try and explain the decision. After taking a few pictures, team members, some in tears, left to try and make sense of it.
“It hurts a lot. Especially since we had a legitimate chance to win it. To bring a championship back here (Collinsville), to cap off my career here like this ... it just really hurts,’’ Taylor said. “I can understand why the decision was made, but I just feel like we should have had the opportunity to play.
“Moments like this don’t come along often. I’m a senior. I’ve watched the top players lead their teams to the state tournament their senior years. I wanted to be the next one.’’
Instead, Collinsville, one of the winningest high school basketball programs in the nation, finished one its season with a 31-3 record and still looking for its first state title since 1965.
Lee, who took over the Kahoks’ program in 2009, also was having trouble understanding the decision. At the time, the Missouri State Tournament was still scheduled to be played. It since has also been cancelled.
“I really didn’t know what was coming. Missouri was still playing Missouri and if Missouri was still playing, you would hope that we would too,” Lee said on Friday. “That was probably the hardest part to swallow. With the NCAA Tournament being canceled, that certainly had something to do with it.
“Its just a very hard pill to swallow. We certainly realize that we aren’t the only team effected by this decision. There were several other teams who are in the same situation that we are in not being permitted to compete.’’
Earlier on Thursday, it appeared the state tournaments in Illinois would be played.
The IHSA announced that each of the remaining teams would be given 60 tickets to be distributed to its players and fans for sectional championship and state tournament games.
Madison, in Class 1A, and Class 2A Mater Dei were scheduled to play in the state semifinals on Friday at Peoria Civic Center, while East St. Louis was playing Chatham-Glenwood at the Mount Vernon Sectional and Collinsville was to play Normal West in the Pekin Sectional final.
“ I’m sure they (the IHSA) have legal counsel and I am sure they are getting direction from certain state legislature I’m not sure how much authority the IHSA board felt that they had. I don’t what they were hearing from the state in Springfield,’’ Lee said.
“It’s safe to say -- and I think I speak for all the public schools that were still playing that are going through this -- you can be angry and disappointed with the whole situation because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that these kids and the community are losing.’’
As Lee saw it, Collinsville, which was ranked among the top six in the Associated Press Class 4A state poll all season, would have been tough to beat the rest of the way.
““This group of of kids is just tremendous. That’s why they had the success they’ve had. Because of how hard and how enthusiastically they practiced. I mean our practice on Thursday was just incredible. I mean we were ready. I would not have wanted to play against that team on Friday night,’’ Lee said.
“We had that little stretch there when we hit a few bumps, had some kids banged up a little bit. But right now we were healthy,we were hungry and we were ready to go.. I’ve had some good teams in 31 years, but this group ...These kids love to play the game of basketball.’’
