Hochman: Collinsville hoops is a community, a culture and even a lifestyle - STLtoday.com

Hochman: Collinsville hoops is a community, a culture and even a lifestyle - STLtoday.com

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Collinsville player RaySean Taylor waits for a pass in Friday's game against host O'Fallon. Tim Vizer/Special to STLhighschoolsports.com

COLLINSVILLE — It was unclear during the amputation of the old point guard’s toe – or during the amputation of a second toe — if the doctors spotted any purple blood. But Jerry Soehlke’s family knew it was in there.

Back in 1963 and 1964, Jerry played for Collinsville High School varsity. His daddy was the team’s official scorekeeper for five decades. His daughter has been the scorekeeper the past two decades. And the omnipresent purple-clad fan became such a part of the Collinsville hoops community, Jerry was inducted, in 2016, into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame as a “Friend of Basketball.”

But now, his whole leg needed to come off. An infection from his diabetes had spread. Jerry was 73 and stuck in a hospital bed, when the current Collinsville point guard arrived. Along with a shooting guard and a forward.

“I can’t even begin to describe the way his face lit up when those kids walked in that room,” said his daughter, Stacey, as her voice trembled.

This is Collinsville basketball. More than the current No. 1 team ranked by this newspaper, Collinsville hoops is a community, a culture and for some of the purple hearts, even a lifestyle. The present players feel a connection to their predecessors. The games are events. Stories of lore lure, and they’re shared like family heirlooms.

“From generation to generation,” said Todd Duke, who broadcasts the games on kahoksports.com, “the passionate people pass that passion down.

“People in this town have been basketball crazy since the ’40s and ’50s, when Vergil Fletcher was hired as the coach here. Then it became kind of an institution. Vergil Fletcher was almost like a demigod around this town here. You were either afraid of him or you respected him, or maybe a little of both. I remember him being a gym teacher of mine when I was a freshman — he was intimidating! But he started the culture here.”

Fletcher’s Collinsville Kahoks (rhymes with Jayhawks) won the Illinois state title in 1961. And then again in 1965. And now, inside Vergil Fletcher Gymnasium right off Vergil Fletcher Drive, it feels like this year is yesteryear.

Coach Darin Lee’s team is 23-1, bolstered by seasoned seniors. The Kahoks last advanced to the state semifinal round in 1992, back in the days of coach Bob Bone and McDonald’s All-American Richard Keene. Last season, the Kahoks watched as two teams from their own Southwestern Conference won state titles — East St. Louis (3A) and Belleville West (4A). But 55 years after Collinsville’s last state title, this year’s team yearns to drive north on Interstate 55. Will they play in Peoria? That’s the site of the 2020 state championship.

With Ray’Sean Taylor, it sure seems like anything is possible.

He’s a magic maker. Like an opera singer with an extra octave, he plays basketball with extra octane. One of Jerry Soehlke’s daughters, Sara, saw it when Taylor was in fifth grade. She was an assistant principal. Told Jerry about it. He was skeptical. A fifth grader? How can you tell? But then, when Jerry saw him play as an eighth grader, he told his daughter: “‘You’re right!’” Now a senior, Taylor averages 25.3 points per game and 5.1 assists per game. He can create space for a shot any place he dribbles.

“And the best thing about Ray’Sean,” Duke said, “is he is very humble.”

Last season, after Taylor scored his 1,000th career point, fans posed for pics on the court. But Jerry’s body wasn’t moving too well, so he watched the postgame fun from the stands — until Taylor himself went up the bleacher stairs to get a pic with Jerry. And Taylor was one of the three players who visited Jerry in the hospital last May, along with Lorent Dzeladini and Cawhan Smith, who everyone calls “Skeet” except Jerry, who coined his own nickname for the beloved Kahok: “Smitty.”

In the most-recent game, Taylor reached yet another milestone. It was a pretty good crowd for a Saturday, the Fletcher Gym stands sardined with people in purple pullovers, sweatshirts and hoodies. Everyone from kids’ grandmas to Instagramming kids. In the student section, the teenagers playfully read newspapers while the visitors were announced, and then cheered wildly for the home starters, some fans even hoisting enlarged cutouts of Taylor’s head. And in the 54-35 win against Normal Community, Taylor’s 24 points put him ahead of Richard Keene for second-most in school history (1,971). He trails only Tom Parker (2,041), the local legend who became a Lexington legend, winning the Southeastern Conference player of the year in 1972 for Kentucky.

‘High school basketball junkie’

About two hours after Saturday’s game, the locals were doing shots at the Horseshoe. From his barstool, Bruce Helmkamp recreated the shooting motions of great Collinsville players from over the years.

“I’m a high school basketball junkie,” said Helmkamp, a retired mailman.

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When Helmkamp first became a fan, Tom Parker was the team’s best player. Helmkamp has seen them all. Really, they’ve all seen them all. Many alums don’t leave Collinsville, raising their own families on Kahok hoops.

After the game, a bunch of purple-clad fans arrived at the Horseshoe, but a couple hours later, only a handful remained — including coach Lee and some of his family. They like Lee around here, even though he’s not from here. Winning helps. But there’s something else to Lee. He’s a sponge. Jerry noticed it and pointed it out to Stacey. Coach Lee just loved learning about Collinsville hoops history. At the Horseshoe, his purple tie undone, suit jacket still on, Lee spent some time chatting with Helmkamp and some fellows.

“You guys have given me a lot of my knowledge over the years,” the coach told the old timers.

Lee was authentically touched when he received an email from former Kahok great Fred Riddle in Iowa. And he reveres Bogie Redmon, who played with Riddle on the famed ’61 team that went undefeated — and was declared national champions. During the season, Lee invites Redmon to speak to the current team.

“I’m older than a lot of their grandpas,” said Redmon, 76, who played college ball at Illinois. “Oh, the kids are so great. They’re so personable and they play very hard and gosh darn they’re fast.”

Redmon said he’s “blessed” to be from Collinsville — and to play for Fletcher. The old coach was as tough as his teams would become each year. But Redmon never heard the man cuss. And Jerry would tell Stacey the story about going undefeated in ’64 … until losing to rival Centralia in the “Super Sectional.” There were tears in the losing locker room. But coach Fletcher sat down next to Jerry, put his arm around him and said: “If you go through life and you win 28 times and lose only once, you’re going to have a great life.’

Pack of purple

At the Highland Basketball Shootout last month, a pack of purple sat behind a basket, cheering on Ray’Sean and “Skeet,” while occasionally informing the referees of some visual deficiencies.

The game was close — Collinsville 47, DeSmet 47 — and Taylor had the ball on the last possession. He penetrated the lane, drew another defender and, with just two seconds left, he … passed it?

Yep. Cawhan “Skeet” Smith caught the ball in the left corner and drained the game-winning 3.

Taylor and the Kahoks mobbed their sudden hero, while in the stands, Stacey used her dad’s nickname for “Skeet,” shouting loudly: “I see you, Smitty!”

After the game, numerous kids — and even some adults — asked Taylor for his autograph. His mom, Nakisha Johnson-Mayes, watched in awe of her young son, who is a hoops star and also a strong student.

“We talk about it a lot at home — he doesn’t like the attention,” she said. “Ray is like, ‘Mom, I don’t understand it.’ But he does it, he signs for the kids and takes pictures with them. But he’ll say, ‘They act like I’m LeBron or something, but I know I’m not.’ And I’m like, ‘Hey baby, you’re like LeBron for your area, apparently. So just enjoy the ride. Do what you do. … But you’ll go a long way just having that humble spirit.’”

Last season, in the early winter of 2019, Taylor and the Kahoks played a tournament in Jerseyville. Jerry and Stacey were driving home, “and he got a little emotional,” his daughter said. “‘Stacey, I don’t want this to end, I just love watching these kids play.’”

The season ultimately ended with a loss, as most do for most teams.

In April of 2019, the infections forced Jerry to lose the two toes. By May, the leg was next.

“It was a Wednesday the boys came to see him in the hospital,” Stacey said. “And then he passed away the next Monday.”

Maybe, just maybe, this season won’t end with a loss?

Jerry will surely be watching from what Stacey calls “the best seat in the house.”

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2020-02-03 05:15:00Z
https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/benjamin-hochman/hochman-collinsville-hoops-is-a-community-a-culture-and-even/article_f5dfe0e4-44da-597f-bd53-05d6069022d6.html

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