March 19, 2025
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McNamara basketball celebrates historic boys, girls success

Fightin' Irish see furthest postseason runs by both teams in same season

By Mason Schweizer
Bishop McNamara's Trinity Davis hoists the IHSA Class 2A Herscher Sectional championship plaque as the student fan section joins the team to celebrate on the court following the Fightin' Irish's 69-38 victory over Watseka-Milford on Thursday, Feb. 27.

Bishop McNamara's Trinity Davis hoists the IHSA Class 2A Herscher Sectional championship plaque as the student fan section joins the team to celebrate on the court following the Fightin' Irish's 69-38 victory over Watseka-Milford on Thursday, Feb. 27. (Tiffany Blanchette)

When the seniors on the Bishop McNamara boys and girls basketball teams began their careers, they didn’t exactly have the most confidence that their teams would progress well through the varsity ranks.

“Our freshman year we were all worried,” boys senior guard Trey Provost said. “We didn’t think we’d be very good, didn’t think we’d win games. It did not look good.”

Trinity Davis and Leigha Brown transferred to McNamara from Bradley-Bourbonnais ahead of their sophomore years. They were surprised to go to a program that was much smaller than they were accustomed to and were aware that the proudest program in the area had fallen on some of its toughest times.

“From the looks of it, I didn’t really have faith in our team,” Brown said. “We had a small team and a lot of inexperienced girls.”

But now, as the seniors on the McNamara basketball teams have began reflecting back on their careers, they couldn’t be happier to have been wrong.

This postseason, the Fightin' Irish were the lone area school to win regional plaques, both doing so in Class 2A. The girls earned an additional plaque, the 10th sectional title in school history, while the boys' final win made school history in two ways. It gave the boys their most wins in a season (26), and also gave both the boys and girls teams trips to the Sweet Sixteen in the same year for the first time.

Over a few weeks between the end of February and start of March, the two teams grinded through their postseason brackets. And while scheduling practice time around other sports and activities meant they couldn’t always attend each other’s games in person, the winning vibe was definitely felt around the school.

“It was a lot of mixed emotions knowing it could be our last game,” Brown said. “But I really liked that we’d have a game and then the next day the boys would have a game. It gave us a lot to look forward to.”

The girls team finished 27-8 which included the program’s 27th regional title, 10th sectional championship and a perfect 7-0 run through the Chicagoland Christian Conference. Conference Player of the Year Trinity Davis and her 20 points per game led the Irish for most of the season, but Davis pointed to the person on the sideline, head coach Khadaizha Sanders, for the team’s success.

Sanders, who led the program to its lone state championship in 2015, returned to her alma mater after her career at Rutgers ended, taking over as head coach three years ago. That’s the same year Davis and Brown transferred over, and Sanders, affectionately known as KK, is why Davis had confidence they could turn things around.

“I feel like I wouldn’t believe it, but I would,” Davis said of their accomplishments. “Because KK, she’s a great coach. She helped us get to where we are now.”

Great coaching is something the boys program also enjoyed on their way to a school-best 26-8 season that included a 13-0 start and the program’s 26th regional title. With a staff comprised of three coaches with more than 50 years of combined head coaching experience – head coach Adrian Provost and assistants Jerry Krieg and Alex Renchen – senior Cole Czako said the team didn’t just learn how to win basketball games but how to be better young men.

Bishop McNamara's Trey Provost drives to the basket under pressure from Bismarck-Henning's Micah Stanford and Chaz Dubois during the Fightin' Irish's 52-49 loss in the IHSA Class 2A Peotone Sectional championship on Friday, March 7, 2025.

Bishop McNamara's Trey Provost drives to the basket under pressure from Bismarck-Henning's Micah Stanford and Chaz Dubois during the Fightin' Irish's 52-49 loss in the IHSA Class 2A Peotone Sectional championship on Friday, March 7, 2025. (Tiffany Blanchette)

“They taught a lot of discipline, how to do things right, make sure you listen,” Czako said. “They’re just a great group and they taught me a lot.”

The teams also credited their chemistry, both the way their games fit and the way they bonded off the court, for being able to do what they did. And that extended to managers and waterboys, something Trey Provost said was evident when the boys team went to watch one of their waterboys, Lincoln Schultz, play in his youth league game last week.

“That just shows even though the season is over we’re still together,” he said. “It shows how much we liked being around each other.”

Whether it’s current young fans like Schultz who may grow up sporting Fightin' Irish colors or future generations, the boys and girls basketball players of the future at McNamara will always look to emulate the success and recognition that this year’s teams had. And that’s something that Brown and her classmates will forever be proud of.

“A lot of pride,” Brown said. “How KK and [2019 graduate] Ali [Berg]‘s names are brought up, now I feel like hopefully in the future we will be.”