‘This is a new adventure for us’
Southland College Prep hosts its first-ever home game at new field house
Alaya Cherry jumped out of her seat and yelled after senior Kwabena Robinson hit a 3-point basket on Wednesday night.
It was the first basket by a Southland College Prep varsity boys player in the first true home game in the history of the school.
The bad news is that it came with 7 minutes left in the second quarter and the Eagles were already down 30-0 to visiting Eisenhower.
Eisenhower went on to win 67-19 in the nonconference battle and may have stolen the show in this historic debut, but didn’t steal the enthusiasm those on Southland side have about a new 36,000-square foot field house.
It didn’t steal the enthusiasm of Cherry, of University Park, or her friends Maya Foulks of Matteson, Laila Johnson of Richton Park or Kami’yelle Carter of Park Forest, who were yelling, laughing, cheering and having a good time despite the score.
All four said they would have not gone to this game if it wasn’t on campus.
“I think this will lift school spirit because this is a really prestigious thing,” Cherry said. “It’s nice to have stuff we can do and enjoy on campus.”
“This was an amazing experience even though we lost,” Carter said. “We’re here for the fun.”
Sports will be a big part of the field house’s use but officials also plan on holding graduation ceremonies, holiday concerts, programs, special meetings and other big events that the school in Richton Park could otherwise not host.
Blondean Y. Davis, the superintendent of Matteson School District 162, has plenty of academic, band, college acceptance and other success to brag about at Southland and now athletics will be a part of that equation.
“Since we built this facility, 104 of our 580 students tried out for basketball,” she said. “We have three competitive teams and for the first time, we have a girls basketball team. This is a new adventure for us. Our goal is to be as competitive athletically as we are academically.”
There were a few hundred people in attendance for the opener but Davis predicts when COVID-19 threats are over, the place will be packed. Cherry, Foulks, Johnson and Carter are also on the new girls basketball
team and Cherry yelled “We’re also making history, baby!”
The school plans to make bids for Illinois High School Association postseason play, such as regional and sectional tournaments.
Southland College Prep was established in 2010 and before it had the new facility, the basketball team played and practiced at either at O.W. Huth Middle School or other off-campus facilities including the Southland Center in Lynwood.
“Since freshman year, I’ve been dreaming of having a home gym,” Robinson said.
“We would have to go to practice on a bus and sometimes the bus wouldn’t show up and if it did, it would be 30 minutes taken out of our practice time. We didn’t have a place to call home.”
The school’s most noted basketball player in school history is Tim Barnes, who went to Beloit College and is now playing professional ball for Ararat Yerevan in Armenia. He is the school’s all-time leading scorer.
He has some time off and said he was happy to be able to come home and catch the first home game.
For the past three years, he has donated scholarship money for students at Southland and he helped fund the team’s new jerseys.
“It’s a beautiful gym, man,” Barnes said. “Anyone who went here loves it. I think it’s the best gym in the area. It’s great that they built this. When I was here, we didn’t have anything like this.
“We played at Huth and the Matteson Recreation Center down the street. We played games everywhere but here. It’s good to have home games at home. When we played, it definitely didn’t feel like a home game — it felt like a neutral game between two high schools.”
Coach Christel Allen digs the new digs.
“We want to hit the floor running here,” she said.
“It’s awesome because for practice, this cuts out an hour of our time getting there and coming back. Having our own gym is really helpful.
“We like having our fans here and we are proud and appreciative.”