Burlington Central Hall of Fame welcomes Brett Porto: Northwest Herald boys basketball notes

Burlington Central senior Jake Johnson knows ball. Basketball, for sure. Baseball, oh most definitely.

The 6-foot-4 catcher, who is committed to play Division II baseball for Missouri Southern State University, may wear the tools of ignorance, but he’s no dummy when it comes to his crafts.

Johnson is playing his fourth basketball season on the Rockets' varsity team and will play his fourth season of varsity baseball this spring.

He knows his high school basketball coach, Brett Porto, may be – with all due respect to former Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks – The Professor. Porto, a former guard for Central who’s been the coach at his alma mater since 2009, surpassed 300 career wins [most in Rockets history] early last season.

On Friday night, Porto (Class of 2003) was inducted into Central’s Hall of Fame in between the varsity girls and boys basketball games against Huntley.

“He knows more about basketball than anyone I’ve ever met in my life,” Johnson said. “I’m a baseball guy, and I feel like I know a lot about baseball, but he kills my baseball knowledge with his basketball knowledge. He always understands what to do. He’s just a great coach.”

Central’s other Class of 2025 HOF inductees included Maggie Gannon (2010), Clint Kliem (2012), Ray Hunnicut (2012), Austin Macias (2018), Jordan King (2018), Zach Schutta (2018), Nick Termini (2019), the 2012 boys track and field 3,200-meter relay (state champion) and the 2017 girls soccer team (third place at state).

“It is a tremendous honor to be a part of the Central Hall of Fame as an athlete and to be able to join a group of such accomplished athletes,” Porto said. “I am extremely fortunate to be able to have had so many great teammates and coaches along the way. I want to thank all my family, friends, teammates and coaches for all their support over the years.”

Porto’s Rockets (19-8) are one win shy of their ninth 20-win campaign in the past 10 seasons under him. The only time the Rockets have not won 20 games in a season since 2015-16 was 2020-21, when they went 16-1 in the abbreviated COVID-19 campaign.

Following Friday’s 73-70 win against Huntley, Central has four games left in the regular season. The Rockets visit Prairie Ridge on Tuesday.

“They just play hard,” McHenry coach Corky Card said after his Fox Valley Conference-leading Warriors beat Central in overtime last week. “They’re super scrappy. They take the ball right at you.”

Return of Anwar coming? McHenry played its 11th game in a row without injured star Adam Anwar (19.3 ppg, 7.5 rpg) on Saturday when the Warriors hosted Antioch in a nonconference game.

McHenry (22-4, 13-1 FVC) is 9-2 without its 6-foot-7 junior forward and is one game up on Crystal Lake South (23-4, 12-2) in the FVC standings with four conference games left for each team after Friday’s 61-48 upset loss to Prairie Ridge.

McHenry will host a Class 4A regional, which will feed into the Waukegan Sectional. Whether the Warriors will have Anwar for the postseason remains to be seen.

Card said last week that Anwar is expected to see his doctor this week.

“We’ll get the prognosis then,” said Card, whose Warriors host Dundee-Crown on Tuesday. “There’s still a chance he can come back by the end of the year.”

Anwar, who broke his left wrist Jan. 10 against Prairie Ridge, has been participating in drills at practice using his right hand and also has been participating in pregame warmups with his left wrist wrapped.

Is the coach optimistic about Anwar’s return to the court?

“If they say he can play,” Card said, “I’m definitely not going to tell him he can’t.”

Earning “the belt:” Richmond-Burton’s players no longer wear the gaudy boxing championship-looking belt to school, but they do take it home with them before returning it.

For the past 16 years, ever since former coach Brandon Creason started the tradition, the Rockets award the leather belt – complete with studs and engravings – to a player after every game. The “plus-minus” system is based on several categories that have a point value based on what each player does positively or negatively during a game.

Senior forward Ryan Wisniewski has earned the belt several times this season. He had another strong performance last week in R-B’s 57-48 win over visiting Woodstock, scoring seven points, including a buzzer-beating jumper that put the Rockets up 26-25 at halftime.

“He’s our team leader almost every game in plus-minus,” second-year coach Rich Petska said.

Junior guard Dane Gardner had a team-recording plus-minus rating against Harvard on Jan. 31. Sophomore forward Jace Nelson won the belt for his effort against Woodstock.