Stating their case: How the Althoff basketball family brought home a championship

In 1992, Greg Leib was a rookie coach who guided the Roxana Shells basketball team to a 9-18 record.

Twenty-four years later, Leib was carrying the state championship trophy around the Carver Arena court in Peoria as coach of the Althoff Crusaders.

“My old athletic director at Roxana, Pat Hamm, the guy that gave a kid with absolutely zero experience a chance to coach basketball, sent me a great text message congratulating me and saying how proud he was,” Leib said.

It wasn’t the first message Leib got following Althoff’s 62-37 dismantling of Lincoln-Way West in the Class 3A state title game — and it certainly won’t be the last.

“When I was young we went to the state tournament,” Leib said. “There were some really great teams up there and watching those guys play, then us being one of those teams ... it almost didn’t seem real.

“I didn’t get very emotional until I saw Coach (Glenn) Schott, who hired me to go to Althoff. That was a special moment.”

With a huge lead in the fourth quarter, there was no drama surrounding the first state basketball championship in Belleville history. That didn’t stop Leib from soaking everything in.

“I tried to take a moment to look in the crowd and understand what it meant to them and for me, I tried to remember what it meant to my players. How much fun it was, how much joy there was.”

SEASON RECAP: Game-by-game retrospective on a championship season

Leib still hasn’t stopped smiling, but with Althoff being kicked up to Class 4A next season because of the Illinois High School Association’s “success factor” rule, he realizes with so much returning talent another big trophy will be expected.

“Win that and they’ll make us go go the NCAA,” cracked Leib, whose quick wit and ready smile make him right at home back in his beloved Clay County and Flora High as well as listening to popular team manager Nate “The Great” Brutto discuss the latest WWE pro wrestling feud.

Leib said the Crusaders were intensely motivated to bring home the state’s biggest prize.

They finished second at the 3A state basketball tournament last season, then many of the same players were football starters on the Althoff team that was drilled by Chicago Phillips in the 4A state title game last November.

“Going through the heartache and disappointment of last year was big,” Leib said. “Having everybody back and having everybody understanding what they went through and not wanting to go through that again ... that was probably the biggest driving force.

“When they needed to, they turned it on and got things done.”

In the semifinal win over Westchester St. Joseph and title game victory over Lincoln-Way West, Althoff junior all-stater Jordan Goodwin piled up 34 points and 25 rebounds and hit 18-of-29 shots.

He was in beast mode and his teammates fed off of his energy.

“I’m tired of getting second place,” Goodwin told his teammates in the locker room before the state title game.

“To a man, every one of them had that look in their eye that ‘OK, we’re going to get it done this year,’” Leib said. “We draw our strength from not wanting to let our teammate down. I’ve never coached a group of guys that have enjoyed each other’s company and the camaraderie as much as these guys.”

The championship game was close for a quarter, then Althoff used a 22-8 run to build a 32-20 halftime lead. There was no drama after that except determining who was getting their picture taken first with the state championship trophy.

This was an unselfish team, one that always shared the basketball. Everyone had huge games throughout the season, no one seemed bigger than his teammates.

Goodwin sometimes got more attention, but two other Crusaders (Brendon Gooch and Tarkus Ferguson) will be be playing Division I basketball next year with a few more coming down the road.

It was a team of brothers. A basketball family. They had their share of haters in the metro-east and elsewhere, but seemed to thrive off that negativity.

“We know who we are and our main focus is our relationships with one another and not what people are saying about us or against us,” Leib said. “They get fired up every once in a while when people talk noise on them.”

As he made each step of the journey toward getting that championship medal around his neck, Leib’s own basketball past kept flooding back toward him in waves.

His family had their own chants at Peoria. At the Highland Sectional win over Centralia, Leib got to talk with his old seventh-grade coach from his days in Flora, Coach Patrick.

He also got a congratulatory message from his old high school coach at Flora, Hall of Famer Tom Welch.

Leib’s own children were as much a part of the Crusaders as anyone, given all the time they spend in dad’s gym.

When it came time to take a ride down Main Street in Belleville for the state championship parade, Leib made sure his children were surrounding him.

It’s a memory that will last a lifetime.

“I got to have my kids up on the fire truck and just seeing their faces, how much they enjoyed it and the memories that they’re building, it was so much fun,” Leib said.

Few coaches in this state have won a state title. Even fewer are able to drop in references to “Hoosiers,” “Rocky,” “Hee Haw” and John Wooden during one media interview.

That’s Greg Leib, the man who once said “I’m trying to get out of that cornfield on `Hee-Haw’ where they are spitting on each other worrying about bad luck.”

Another old Leib quote ended up being extremely prophetic.

“You’ve still got the thrill of a boy, a ball and a dream. As long as that’s there for me, I’m still at it.”

Like the Crusaders, Leib’s dream of a state title is fulfilled.

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Stating their case: How the Althoff basketball family brought home a championship."