Steve RobinsonLast year, El Paso Gridley High School’s Special Olympics basketball team members, in their debut season under head coach Cindy Martorana and assistant coach Carter Tria, had a little luck come their way in an effort to qualify for Special Olympics State Basketball Tournament. Although they lost the only game of their regular season, their scheduled opponents for the district tournament forfeited. As a result, the Trojans made it to State.

This year, EPG having gotten to this year’s district tournament last weekend at Shirk Center on Illinois Wesleyan University’s campus by posting a 1-5 record in the regular season knew full well no forfeit would be forthcoming this time around.

In fact, at first glance, it might have appeared the obstacle facing EPG’s trying to earn their next shot for getting to State were bigger than their desire to get there. We’re talking in terms of size at least three of the opponents from Kankakee High School being at least a set of head and shoulders taller than EPG’s players. The tallest player on EPG were roughly around 5 foot-5.

At first glance, it had to feel like a daunting task for EPG, right? Yes. A little intimidating? Certainly. But in a small side gym, with moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and siblings watching, EPG’s troops showed no signs of letting the size difference bother them.

Knowing they needed two wins to get to State, the Titans went right to work, outpacing KHS 14-4 in the first quarter of game one. KHS was a little better at rebounding but trailed at halftime, 18-10. EPG did have one combination play that, in the words of one player’s grandfather, “the high school kids don’t even try.”

That play is a three-quarter court pass between Jordan Peacher and Andrew Hartman. This play doesn’t just happen once a game. It’s a regular feature every game.

“On a regular basis, you don’t see that kind of play in a high school varsity game,” Bill Peacher, grandfather of Jordan Peacher said.

Typically, it’s Jordan to his buddy, Hartman, and from there, someone on the Trojans finishes the play by putting up points for EPG, delighting their fans and stymying the opponents.

And KHS was stymied but recovered in the second half, but it was EPG who won the first game, 28-24. One win down, one to go. One more victory and EPG would earn a gold medal and be off to State.

Peacher the high school student and Hartman, a sixth grader at the local grade school, developed the play with help from Tria. “I put the ball up high to get to Andrew so the other teams can’t get it,” Peacher explained. It was as simple as that.

It’s a tactic that would help make Hartman “happy if we get to go to State,” he said.

In addition to Peacher and Hartman, EPG’s team includes Zoey Slightom, Caleb Turner, Brady Neill, Geneva Powell, and Courtney Adkins.

Bill Peacher gave credit to Martorana for everything she has done to have the team working as well as it does, but it was Tria, a former EPG varsity player for the Trojans’ boys’ team a few years back, who worked on the two boys’ razzle-dazzle maneuver.

In addition to that play, the team collectively has a name for a specific defensive posture they put up against opponents. Neill is usually the one taking a lead for that, calling for the team to “make our wall.” That’s the signal for the team as a whole to try keeping opponents coming down the court out of the paint. On this day, in both games, the tactic worked.

With Game 1 in hand, a second victory would assure the Trojans of a trip to State. But Game 2 was a closer affair, with EPG leading 10-9 after one quarter and 16-13 at the half. But EPG outscoring KHS 10-5 in the third quarter helped ease the team into a 34-26 second victory.

EPG, now proud possessors of a 3-5 record after their triumph at District, will again get back to SOI State Basketball Tournament when it tips off on Friday and Saturday, March 17 and 18 at Horton Field House on Illinois State University’s campus.

To anybody else, it may not seem like a winning record when you look at it as a statistic on paper. But if you consider the effort and continual improvement these kids have made as a result of their being on this team, you come to realize they’re looking to earn wins – both on and away from the basketball court – every day.

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