By Jeff Vorva
Ahmad Henderson had a huge freshman year playing basketball at Niagara University but is coming home to the Chicago area. The Crete native and Brother Rice graduate is transferring to the University of Illinois-Chicago and announced his decision shortly after the Flames named Rob Ehsan as its new head coach last week.
At Niagara, Henderson was named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Rookie team for 2023-24. He was named the league’s Rookie of the Week four times during the season.
Henderson averaged 11.9 points per game, 2.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists. He had a career-best 28 points November 11 against Bucknell, which was the program’s best freshman performance in a home debut. He also had a 27-point effort against Siena on January 15.
He opened his college career November 6 hauling down seven rebounds against Notre Dame and was the first member of the Purple Eagles to make the league’s All-Rookie team since 2014-15.
Warriors volleyball plays on
The cold and rainy weather made a mess of things last week with postponements and cancellations galore.
The four schools in The Vedette’s coverage area do not have spring indoor sports, such as badminton or water polo. Only Crete-Monee has a boys volleyball program, so the Warriors were able to get in some action and had wins over Thornton Fractional United on March 26 and Joliet Central on April 3. They also dropped a match to Oak Lawn on April 2.
This is the second year for the Warriors program and finished with an 8-7 mark in its first season in 2023.
Coach Barb Belin said 10 players are back, including Jayde Tomblin, who verbally committed to St. Xavier University. Carlos Zaldarriaga and Gabe Chapmen are also on college radar.
Crete-Monee could be a team on the rise, as it had 50 players try out, and the school was able to field a junior varsity squad.
Big week for Dralle
Manteno softball standout Alyssa Dralle committed to Millikin University last week, while all of the weekday softball action at her high school was postponed.
But on April 6, Dralle and her teammates finally got back out on the softball diamond and enjoyed their home opener,and she had a walk-off hit and pitched the victory in a 7-6 triumph over Peotone.
Jazmine Manau had two hits, including a double and two runs, while Macy Iwanus had three walks, a hit, plus scored a pair of runs as the Panthers improved to 10-0.
Boley on a roll
Beecher graduate Maddie Boley earned the Midwest Conference Women’s Track and Field Performer of the Week for Monmouth College on April 2.
Boley was second in the discus and shot put at the 15-team Dutch Invitational, hosted by Central College in Pella, Iowa. The junior’s shot put throw of 13.47 meters (44 feet, 2.3 inches) is the eighth best in school history.