One Weekend, Two Big Basketball Wins for St. Thomas of Villanova

It was a winning basketball weekend January 11-13 for St. Thomas of Villanova.

The 8th Grade Vikings Boys Basketball team took first place in the St. Alphonsus ‘A Soldier’s Journey Home’ Tournament, while the 6th Grade Viking Girls Basketball team came in third place in a tournament at St. Emily in Mt. Prospect.

Coached by Todd Hill, Matt Hamilton and Mike Nix, the 8th Grade Boys Basketball team started the tournament off by winning 51-39 against Our Lady of Perpetual Help. In game two, they beat St. James 59-33, followed by the championship game against St. Alphonsus, where they dominated with a final score of 59-45.

"All the boys played well and came together as a team,” said Coach Hill. “It was exciting to watch."

The 8th Grade Boys Basketball roster includes Kyle Bargowski (#34), Joey Bowling (#21), Sammy Hamilton (#20), Aaron Hardy (#35), Aiden Hill (#31), Logan Hill (#25) Tony Iliopoulos (#19), Andrew Jordan (#28), Michael Nix (#24), and Tyler Quinn (#15).

St. Raymond, St. Emily, St. Colette, and St. Zachary also participated in the tournament.

Meanwhile, the 6th Grade Girls basketball team took 3rd place in the St. Emily tournament the same weekend.

Coached by Mike Murphy, Garth Martino, and Scott Holmes, the team beat St. Francis in game one, but lost to St. Raymond in game two. This pitted them against Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the 3rd place game, in which they went into double over-time to win 24-22.

The 3rd place trophy was a real triumph in light of a player injury during game one, when Emily Murphy (#25) unfortunately broke her wrist.

The 6th grade Girls Basketball team roster also includes Madalyn Chambers (#45), Serena Cumaranatunge (#49), Karolina Giba (#53), Bree Holmes (#18), 12 Elise Martino (#12), Kara Rady (#20), Trinity Reyes (#15), Katie Seligmann (#22), and Jackie Westfall (#21).

Other teams participating in the St. Emily tournament included St. Theresa, St. James and St. Joseph of Libertyville.

St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic School serves students in preschool through 8thgrade and offers no cut sports programming beginning in fourth grade. The school is located at 1141 E. Anderson Drive Palatine, IL 60074.

See what the school has to offer at two upcoming Open Houses: Sunday Funday, featuring Wonder Woman and Spider-Man, on January 27 from 11am-2pm; and STEAM Night & Science Fair, featuring Dave DiNaso’s Traveling World of Reptiles, January 31, 6-7:30 pm.

Over $150,000 of scholarships funds are specifically earmarked for St. Thomas of Villanova through Empower Illinois. For more information, call (847) 358-2110 or visit the school’s new user-friendly website, www.stvschool.org