As the 2024-2025 season for Dee-Mack girls basketball approaches, expectations are higher than ever before, with 3 HOIC championships in the past 3 years along with 2 regional championships from the 22/23 and 23/24 seasons, as well as last year.
The former Dee-Mack Junior High basketball coach Joni Nightingale will be headed into her 4th year of coaching at the high school level. Since 2021, the girls basketball program has improved significantly, from breaking season records, to making it into the top 16 teams 2 years in a row. The team has had so many great players coming in and out who have stepped up and made amazing efforts to push the team to their best ability, but we also must credit Coach Nightingale for recent success as well. As a coach and an athlete, it’s difficult to be able to adapt to the level of intensity you face when moving from facing girls that are the same age, to potentially facing more experienced players who are up to 4 years older than you. Coach Nightingale shares, “The time commitment is huge at the high school level and that is the first noticeable difference. I think the biggest change for me, though, was the ability to connect with high schoolers. Our athletes have a lot going on in their lives: academics, home lives, jobs/internships, other sports/activities. I enjoy getting to know these girls off the court, too, and really just supporting them in their lives.”
The team has had a couple of tough losses against Peoria Notre Dame in the final round of sectionals the past couple of years, which has proved to be a hard way to end the season. That being said, they have come a long way in terms of skill as they continue to improve more and more every year. As for possibly facing PND for a third time, the coach says that “They are returning a lot of talent and always prove to be a formidable opponent. They are known for their defense and full-court pressure. If we hope to win, we have to be able to handle the pressure better than we did last year–composure, take care of the ball, move the ball.” It obviously won’t be easy to navigate around the pressure some of the girls might be facing, but we are hopeful that the hard work that the girls and coaches put into this team will make the seniors’ last season, as well as the girls they have grown up playing with, worth every minute spent on the court.
