On and off the court, Sandburg boys basketball had a successful weekend before Christmas.
The Eagles won twice in less than 24 hours, edging District 230 rival Andrew 49-46 on Dec. 19 before knocking off Lyons 57-48 the next afternoon in Sandburg’s Shot Clock Charity Shootout.
For the third straight year, the event supported a charity — this time, Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago — through the sales of tickets, concessions and raffle tickets.
Lurie was selected by the family of Bob Fabrizio, who was being honored at the event. The longtime Stagg athletic director and coach died in July.
Fabrizio spent many years working for several local schools in many roles. His impact is still felt around the state.
“He was a great human that was in it for the right reasons,” Stagg coach Marty Strus said. “He was a tremendous leader, not only of the students but of the coaches. I will never forget him reaching out in the more trying years and reminding me that if you are doing this for wins and losses, you’ll drive yourself crazy.”
Like Strus, current Sandburg and former Stagg coach John Daniels learned a lot from Fabrizio.
“I am today the parent, the dad, the husband, coach (I am) because of Bob Fabrizio,” Daniels said.
While working together for many years at Stagg, Daniels often brought up ideas to try out and Fabrizio was willing to hear them.
“Bob really supported me,” Daniels said. “Whenever I had a crazy idea, he always listened to me. It was always about the kids and Bob really supported me as an administrator, but also did it as a coach himself.”
An important part of this event for Daniels is to show his team important life lessons,
“I can teach my players to give back and that they are blessed with their health — that’s a powerful thing that everyone takes for granted,” Daniels said. “If I can get them to understand how blessed they are and to give back to the community, it’s a positive.”
Another positive was Sandburg’s play over the weekend.
“This was probably our best win of the year so far,” senior Malachi Perkins said of the win over Lyons. “The way we fought and played team defense, we were in it from the start. We never backed down and wanted what was in front of us.”
“It was our best complete game this season,” Daniels said. “As a coach, you want to win every game. But if we would’ve lost that game, it was (still) our best complete game.”
Perkins came up in critical late-game moments, making the extra pass and also scoring at times. He had eight of his nine points in the final quarter.
“He’s our captain,” Daniel said. “He’s taken a huge step.”
“If the team needs a basket, I am going to be there for them, no hesitation,” Perkins said. “But I am also not afraid to dish it out to all my teammates because I know they’ll step up and be ready, too.”
Will Johnson had a team-high 18 points for Sandburg, which finished the week at 7-3 overall and 3-2 in the SouthWest Suburban. Johnson’s twin Jonah was also in double figures, finishing with 10 points.
“I thought Will Johnson had a really nice game,” Daniels said. “And they were really concentrating on Will, which helped open the lane for Perkins.”
Grant Smith had a game-high 20 points to pace the Lions (7-2). Owen Carroll had 10 points to go along with four rebounds and two blocks in the loss.