Lady Bruins Christmas Classic ‘has always been competitive’

Five years after starting the girls basketball program at St. Bede, Don Carlson was looking to find more games for his Lady Bruins.

“I was the coach and athletic director,” Carlson said. “At the time, you could have 18 games and two tournaments. The year before, we had gotten into the U-High tournament over Thanksgiving, but there were hardly any holiday tournaments around for girls (near Christmas). We weren’t in a conference, so we didn’t have a conference tournament.

“I wanted to get the girls in another tournament, so I got on the phone with Jim Campbell at Putnam County, Mary Stephenitch at Mendota and John Smith at Princeton and said, ‘I think we can run one at St. Bede.’ ”

So the Mid I-80 tournament was born.

“Our players and myself just enjoy being in the gym watching or playing basketball around the holidays.”

—  Mitch Neally, Fieldcrest High School

It eventually was renamed the Lady Bruins Christmas Classic in 1997 and still is held each December at St. Bede.

“For me, it’s the fact that I get to sit in the gym and watch basketball all day long,” St. Bede coach Tom McGunnigal said about why he likes the Lady Bruins Christmas Classic. “I could do that almost every single day. I like the fact we get four to five games in a relatively short amount of time. Sometimes it’s a bit of a strain physically on the team, but it’s always nice to have something going on around the holidays. In the past, some girls have had family in town, and it gives (family) the opportunity to see them play.

“It’s always been competitive. I enjoy seeing the different players, and it’s nice seeing different teams all come together to play.”

In the first version of the tournament in 1986, each team played two games. Carlson said initial matchups were drawn out of a hat.

The next year, La Salle-Peru and Hall joined the field, and the tournament was bracketed with two teams receiving byes.

In 1990, the tournament expanded to eight teams and remained a bracketed tournament through Carlson’s tenure.

The tournament became an eight-team tournament with pool play, then a 10-team tournament with pool play and currently is an eight-team tournament with pool play followed by crossover games on the final day.

“We’ve always enjoyed going to St. Bede for their Christmas tournament,” Fieldcrest coach Mitch Neally said. “We’ve had some opportunities to go to other tournaments and have turned them down because we appreciate the tournament and its history. It’s nice to be able to play some teams from that area that we normally don’t play during the season.

“One of my favorite parts of the tournament is the Saturday of it. I enjoy starting to scout/watch games beginning at 9 a.m. and not leaving till 9 p.m. It’s good to see your team’s mental toughness on a day like that, playing two games in one day. Our players and myself just enjoy being in the gym watching or playing basketball around the holidays.”

Former Hall coach Pat Cinotte said he felt the tournament was extremely competitive during his time taking the Lady Red Devils to it starting in 2005.

“I thought it was one of the strongest ones in the state at the time, because us, St. Bede, IVC and Princeton were always very good,” Cinotte said. “One year, Princeton, us and St. Bede were all close to being undefeated where we couldn’t even seed the teams because of the talent in the tournament.

“It was such a strong local, regional tournament. It had a huge fan base back in the day because of how strong it was.”

TOP TEAMS

Mendota has claimed the most Lady Bruins Christmas Classic championships with nine — coming in three three-peats.

Under coach Randy Weibel, the Lady Trojans won titles from 1987-89 and 1991-93.

“When Randy Weibel came to Mendota, they dominated the tournament for quite a while,” Carlson said.

Mendota’s most recent three-peat came from 2012-14 behind twins Abby and Ally Bromenschenkel and Amy Devitt.

“The run Mendota had with the Bromenschenkel girls, those were some high quality teams,” McGunnigal said.

Eureka has dominated the tournament in recent years with titles in 2011, 2015-16 and 2018-19. The Lady Hornets also reached the title game in 2017 against Fieldcrest, but the game wasn’t played due to inclement weather.

IVC also had five titles, while the host Lady Bruins have claimed the top prize six times while appearing in the championship game 15 times – five more appearances than any other school.

L-P, Princeton and Bureau Valley have captured two titles each, while Hall and Putnam County each have one.

BACK-AND-FORTH GAME

One of the most memorable games in tournament history was the 2005 championship game between rivals St. Bede and Hall.

The Lady Red Devils finished the 2005-06 season 29-4, while the Lady Bruins went 27-6.

Hall advanced to the Class A state tournament, beating St. Bede in the Mendota Sectional final along the way.

On Dec. 30, Kailey Klein scored 33 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Hall to a 62-60 win over St. Bede for the Lady Bruins Christmas Classic title.

“It was just an unbelievable back-and-forth game,” Cinotte said. “It was Kailey Klein and her crew against Katie Carls and her crew. It was a standing-room-only crowd. It was a great atmosphere.”

Carls poured in 36 points for the Lady Bruins, but a late bucket by Klein gave the win to Hall.

“I still contend Kailey Klein stepped out of bounds on that baseline drive for the winning bucket,” McGunnigal said with a laugh. “That was a classic our-best-player-against-your-best-player matchup. They could have played a one-on-one game and it would have been enjoyable, but it was great to see it five-on-five.”