Ikenn Collars Coach of the Year Award

Grayslake Central principal Syd Klocke watches plenty of sporting activities during the school season. Prior to becoming principal, she was a coach at Antioch High School.

So when she approved the hiring of Steve Ikenn as the new girls basketball coach, she was curious to see what the girls basketball players thought of him.

"I remember after hiring Steve that I was talking with some of the girls over the summer,'' Klocke said. "They were so excited because he made us work hard.  We learned a different side to the game namely defense.  They asked if they could get shirts saying, “We’re liken Ikenn."

The Ikenn experiment seems to be a roaring success. After his first Rams team won 28 games and reached a supersectional, Ikenn has been selected IBCA Girls Basketball 3A/4A co-coach of the year.

"Steve Ikenn is a phenomenal trainer, encourager, and influence for our team,'' said Central center Rebekah Llorens. "After playing for him over the summer, the whole team could not wait to work with him every single day of the season. He wanted us to be our best, and as time progressed and he learned what our best was, he pushed us to it every day in practice."

A year ago, he was toiling in obscurity helping out the sophomore girls basketball team at Stevenson. He had studied under the likes of some talented coaches, however, like Frank "The Wizard" Mattucci, Trish Betthauser and Tom Dineen.

And then all of a sudden, his first varsity team is winning 22 games in a row at Grayslake Central. It's not quite a rags-to-riches tale but it's close.

"You couldn't have asked for a better season than that,'' Ikenn said. "That was about as good as it gets. I know a season like that doesn't come around that often."

Ikenn, a math teacher by trade, was not thinking about all the good players coming back to the Grayslake program. He really didn't know what to expect when summer basketball came around.

"We hit it off rather quickly,'' he said. "They were buying into my program. It started feeling right. They were playing hard. They wanted to play defense."

Ikenn wondered what was up with this team when the Rams posted a 78-32 win on opening night. The Rams moved right into the Buffalo Grove Tournament in November. It was loaded with talented teams.

The Rams dropped a few games at the tourney and were handled by a Libertyville team that won 29 games in a row this year.

"We had a long talk after that Libertyville game,'' Ikenn said. "And then, we went on our 22-game winning streak."

The winning streak took the likes of Llorens, Alex Scarbro, Maddy Miller, Skyler Jessop, Kat Dickson, Roxy Acoff, Claire Brennan and others through the regional and sectional. Only state champion Montini stopped the Rams on the way to the state tournament.

"In all, Mr. Ikenn led our team to do incredible things through his powerful leadership,'' Llorens said.  "He would say that it wasn't so much his coaching as it was our hard work, but we girls loved playing for him, and we did our best to make him proud, because we knew he cared for us. Every one of us feels honored to have participated in this year and our accomplishments under him."

Ikenn is well aware he took part in something special.

"On June 1, I didn't know any of these girls,'' he said. "And on March 1, I'll never forget any of them."

Evidently, Klocke and company plucked a good one from the Stevenson building.

"Steve has been a huge asset to our school,'' Klocke said. "He is a great teacher, a great department chair and a great coach."