‘So many epic games’ Montini Christmas Tournament has brought out the best of the best over the years

For many reasons, this is a very different holiday week for Jason Nichols.

He no longer calls a high school gym home, for starters. Nichols, for 17 seasons the head coach at Montini, is in his first year as women’s basketball coach at Morton College. With Illinois’ high school season on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, Nichols can’t even get to a game as a fan.

And the tournament he created is canceled.

The Montini Christmas Tournament, in what would have been its 12th edition, is one of many events on pause until 2021 because of the pandemic.

“I had some free time in between recruiting and being on campus planning and for whatever reason I was like ‘Holy cow, last year we would be playing Naperville North at this time,’” Nichols said. “It is strange, yeah, really weird for me. I would probably have one thousand more emotions if the high school season was going on. It hasn’t really hit me yet.”

While the lights are off in Lombard this week, there is no dimming the star power that’s taken the court there over the years.

In all but one year, an eventual state champion played at the event, including four-time state champ Montini, two-time champs Benet and Geneva, Marian Catholic and Fremd.

Every Most Valuable Player went on to play collegiately for a Division I program, household names like Whitney Holloway of Montini and Margaret Whitley of Geneva. Benet’s Kathleen Doyle, MVP in 2014, is now a rookie with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.

“It is a great tournament to see where you’re at,” Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. “If you win your first-round game, you’re guaranteed three more games that is at least the quality of a sectional championship or supersectional or better. You’re playing a state tournament type game, in a state tournament type environment at midseason.”

The genesis of the tournament was Nichols’ childhood back yard.

A Lyons Township graduate, Nichols grew up going to the Proviso West Holiday Tournament. He remembers watching stars like Kevin Garnett and Ronnie Fields at Proviso, for a long time the jewel of holiday tournaments in the Chicago area.

Nichols wanted an event like that on the girls side.

He approached then-Montini athletic director Don Riley with the idea, and it got off the ground in 2009, an eight-team round-robin tournament. Montini beat T.F. North in the first championship game. Montini’s Michala Johnson, who went on to play at UConn and Wisconsin, was the first MVP.

“It took off from there,” Nichols said. “The credit to the tournament’s success goes to all the coaches who bought my sales pitch and made it a powerhouse girls basketball tournament. It was the connection I had to those guys and girls, and then a leap of faith.”

The tournament stayed at eight teams for three years, until Nichols set his sights on something grander. Inspired by a game with Bolingbrook at the then-McDonald’s Shootout in 2011, a matchup of defending champions that drew more than 3,000 fans at Willowbrook, Nichols expanded Montini’s tournament to 16 teams in 2012.

Soon, Montini’s tournament became an event, a who’s who of the area’s best teams. Fans stuffed the stands in the small gym. College coaches made it a regular stop.

In the first year of the 16-team event, Montini beat then-unbeaten Rolling Meadows and MVP Jackie Kemph in the final, a matchup of teams that eventually took third and second, respectively, at state.

“We played Bolingbrook [at Willowbrook] and the place was sold out; we had to wait 10 minutes to start the game because people were still filling in,” Nichols said. “I thought ‘this is what it’s about. This is what I want to create.’

“The crowds were amazing and I just remember grueling game after grueling game. It wore the heck out of you but it really prepared you.”

That is what led Huntley and Geneva to join the tournament, in 2013. Geneva had young building blocks like Whitley, Stephanie Hart and Grace Loberg that eventually became the foundation of state champs in 2017 and 2018.

“We made the move because the best teams were there,” Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. “I wanted to know where we stood. Many years we were the best of the worst at Montini. The goal of that tournament was to win the first game and move to the right in the bracket.”

Huntley in 2013 was fresh off a fourth-place finish at state, and had the Andrews sisters, Ali and Sam, back in the fold.

“It provided us with opportunities to play great teams and assess where we were at,” Huntley coach Steve Raethz said. “With the quality of competition at Montini, there were times that we went into the tournament undefeated or with just one loss, and still was a six or seven seed with the quality teams there. The goal was to win the first game and get in the winner’s bracket, because you knew you’d see elite teams then. For us it was a springboard into the second half of the season.”

It was a springboard for Benet in its first year at Montini, in 2014. The Redwings beat Trinity in the final, and went on to win the Class 4A state title a little over two months later, led by a precocious junior guard named Doyle.

“That Montini tournament, that was her coming out party,” Kilbride said. “Even some of the kids on my team didn’t realize how good she was until that week. She was spectacular in that tournament. That tournament, and our success there, showed us we could play with anybody.”

The spectacular, and dramatic, became the norm at the Montini tournament.

In a 2015 semifinal, Whitney Young’s Kiara Lewis hit two 3-pointers in the final eight seconds, the second a 24-footer at the buzzer, to beat Benet. In the 2017 final Montini’s Sam Mitchell hit two free throws with 1.9 seconds left to beat Geneva. The Vikings got their revenge just over two months later, beating Montini in the Class 4A state championship.

“I think it was really just good for our kids to play in that atmosphere,” Meadows said. “There were so many good teams at that tournament and so many people there and in that gym the fans, they’re on top of the floor,” Meadows said. “It allowed our kids to see where they were, and what they needed to get better at.”

In the 2018 final Nazareth’s Annie Stritzel hit a game-winning shot with eight seconds left, and blocked a shot at the buzzer to beat Montini by one. Earlier in the tournament, Fremd beat Benet in triple overtime with the help of a halfcourt shot at the buzzer.

“There were so many epic games,” said Nichols, whose Montini teams won it seven times. “Us and Geneva in the finals, no seat to be had, we beat them on a last-second foul, Hart gets revenge in the state championship. You look at the track record of the tournament – every year teams were playing in the supersectional or downstate. That was the part I loved. We had a mini state tournament in December.”

Nichols looks forward to moving that tradition to Morton next December. He already has a loaded 16-team field, including Bolingbrook, Fremd, Benet, Geneva and Homewood-Flossmoor.

“It was my dream to have it [at Montini] when I first approached Don. Just because I’m at not at the high school level anymore doesn’t mean I can’t have one,” Nichols said. “It’s going to be awesome. College campus, new gym. It is piped. It will be big-time.”