Area Players, Coaches, Friends Enter IBCA Hall of Fame Saturday

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Published on April 28 2016 10:07 am
Last Updated on April 28 2016 10:07 am
Written by Millie Lange

Several area players and coaches earned Illinois Basketball Coaches Association honors recently and will be honored Saturday at the Bone Center on the campus of Illinois State University.

Entering the Hall of Fame will be players, coaches, friends, media, officials and teams. Junior high, high school and college coaches of the year also will be honored.

Several coaches are entering the Hall of Fame. Lori Blade from Carrollton, Edwardsville brought a 21-year record of 594-82 into this past season including a 223-27 mark in eight years at Carrollton. She led Carrollton to Class A state titles in 2001 and 2002 and a runner-up finish in 1999. Her Edwardsville teams were 361-55 in 13 years prior to this season. Included were a 4A state runner-up finish in 2012, nine elite eight appearances, 12 regional and 10 sectional titles.

Tom Brannan of Marshall has been with the Lions 23 years and had just one losing season. He has a record of 460-187. Tom's 2008 team won the Pizza Hut Classic championship. He guided Marshall to a 32-1 record in 2009, earning a spot in the Class 2A Final Four. The Lions finished third.

Former high school players honored will be Teutopolis' Amy Niebrugge and Maria Niebrugge. Amy scored a school-record 1,438 points at T-town including a 41-point game. She was an All-Stater and finished her career with 792 rebounds and 127 blocked shots. She became the all-time leading scorer at McKendree University with 2,245 points and grabbed 1,107 rebounds. She holds season records for points, rebounds and field goals. She led McKendree to two NAIA National championship appearances and was an NAIA All-American.

Maria set the career record for rebounds at T-town with 1,027 and also made school-record 284 field goals in a season. She was selected to All-State teams by the IBCA, UPI, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. Maria was an All-Area selection by the Decatur Herald & Review and Champaign News-Gazette and named the Effingham Area Player of the Year. She went on to play at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Dick Tolliver attended North Clay High School and scored 771 points in just 26 games as a senior. He led the Decatur Herald & Review area in scoring that season, the first Midland Trail Conference player to earn that honor. He scored 1,526 career points including 51 in one game his senior year. He was MVP of the Effingham Holiday Tournament, averaging 33 points per game and later played three years at the University of Tulsa.

Going into the Hall in the Friends category is Chuck Fritcher of Dieterich. If you need to know the score or how much time is left in a Dieterich basketball game, Chuck is your man. For more than 30 years he has been keeping the scorebook and running the clock at Dieterich Junior High and High School basketball games. Chuck has done both of those jobs at boys and girls games. He also has helped for 25 years as the unofficial tournament manager for the Dieterich Tournament.

High school boys coaches of the year are Jason Hanson at Teutopolis, Cody Rincker at Effingham St. Anthony, Jeff Staser at Dieterich and Randy Bishop at Lawrenceville.

High school girls coaches of the year are Bart Wiedman at Effingham St. Anthony, Laurie Thompson at Teutopoils, Todd Countryman at Flora and Dan Kueper at Centralia Christ Our Rock Lutheran.

Junior high boys coaches of the year are Kent Niebrugge at Teutopolis and Doug Smith at Teutopolis..

Junior high girls coaches of the year are Steve Fritcher of Teutopolis and Blain Mayhall of Charleston.