ALTON – Alton High School's athletic legacy has meant much to the history of the school and to the city Alton. Many great athletes and teams have left their mark on the school and the city over the years.
Five individuals and two teams were inducted into the AHS Athletic Hall of Fame for their contributions and achievements over the years in a halftime ceremony of Wednesday night's Redbird boys basketball win over Riverview Gardens at the Redbird Tip-Off Classic.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Those inducted included Robert Asthroth, Larry Jeffries, Gerald “Scooter” Wilson, Lindsay Kennedy, Kavon Lacey, the 1969 880-yard track and field relay team of Wilson, Jim Scruggs, Oscar Wilson and Argalious Murphy and the 2000-01 boys basketball team that reached the Elite Eight of the IHSA Class AA tournament that year.
“We're all like brothers,” said Myron Baker, who played on the 2000-01 team that reached the state tournament in Peoria before being defeated by Chicago Morgan Park in the quarterfinals. “It was just all about us; when we played, it wasn't about one person, it was about the team. When we were in eighth grade, we saw the (1996-97) team when they were a game away from going to state (the Redbirds fell to Mount Vernon in the Carbondale Supersectional at SIU Arena); that put it in us to want to go to state.”
The experience at the state tournament at the Peoria Civic Center was something Baker and his teammates have never forgotten. “It was great,” Baker said of the state tournament experience. “It was something totally different; we loved it. We wish we would have won; we had the confidence in ourselves to make it there. At the beginning of the season, we weren't being picked to win certain games.
“We used that as the fuel to fire us up. That was our motivation.”
“It's been great to see so many of the guys back,” said Mike Brey, who today is an assistant principal at Alton High who coached that state tournament team. “It brings back a ton of memories and a lot of really good memories. The thing about (the Redbirds that year) is that they were so physically and mentally tough; they were always in such good shape.
“We were able to use our depth and our conditioning and our toughness to just wear people down. That was something that just got better and better as the year went on. It paid some big dividends in the postseason that year.”
The Redbirds had their share of difficult games throughout the year; just being in the Southwestern Conference that year provided many challenges. “We were tied for second in (the SWC) with Collinsville; we were both 12-2 and Belleville West was 14-0 in the conference that year,” Brey said “West was a really, really outstanding team. We felt like we matched up very well with them; it was going to be a dogfight whenever we played them.
“We played them four times that year and we won the one that mattered the most, in the supersectional. They won the two in the conference and we won one in the Centralia Tournament. The game at Carbondale, we played so well down there and had a lead most of the game. They battled back and cut (the lead) down. They made it close at the end; it was a three-point margin at the end and they had the ball for a three-point shot. We were able to challenge the shot and forced a miss. That was the difference in who was going to go to state that year or not.”
Kennedy, now Lindsay Kennedy-Eversmeyer, played for the girls soccer team and graduated in 1998 and scored 47 goals her junior year in 1997, which remains the single-season school record, being named to the All-State, All-SWC, All-Metro, All-Area and All-Sectional teams throughout her high school career, going on to play at Kansas and Harris-Stowe State in St. Louis before playing for the second incarnation of the St. Louis Steamers indoor soccer team.
Today, Kennedy-Eversmeyer owns and coaches the semi-professional Fire and Ice women's soccer club of the Women's Premier Soccer League; they play their home matches at Belleville West. She is also the high school girls technical director for the Gateway Rush soccer club.
“It was fun; it was high school, the teammates, the camaraderie – the good times,” Kennedy-Eversmeyer said. “You always had someone there for you.”
The growth of the women's game, both domestically and internationally, gives Kennedy-Eversmeyer much to be proud of. “It's about time,” she said. “I feel like women's soccer offers something different than men's soccer does; it's finally nice for women's sports to be recognized. It seems like it's almost on an even-level playing field.”
The growth of soccer overall in the United States means much to Kennedy-Eversmeyer, with the recent developments concerning a potential Major League Soccer franchise in St. Louis. “It's someplace I can take my kids to watch; I always believe that watching the game, you can learn so much more from it than if you're playing it. You can see what's happening from the mistakes, the buildup and the tactical side of it.”
Being inducted into the AHS Hall of Fame is a great honor for Kennedy-Eversmeyer. “It's an honor,” Kennedy-Eversmeyer said. “It's been around for five years and the fact that I've been inducted into an early class, it's an honor to be recognized.”
The new members will have plaques recognizing their achievements placed on the Hall of Fame wall at the AHS gym.
More like this:
