John Olejniczak’s senior year has not gone anything like he hoped.
But for a few seconds on Feb. 6, he had something to celebrate.
Olejniczak is a three-sport star for Oak Lawn who is headed to Division II Wisconsin-Parkside to play baseball.
In his first football game last fall, Olejniczak tore his right ACL and was sidelined for the season. That also knocked him out for basketball — until last week.
Oak Lawn coach Jason Rhodes and Reavis coach Nick Bouhoutsos talked before their South Suburban Red matchup in the Spartans’ gym about making the night special for Olejniczak and Blake Stefanek of the Rams. Stefanek suffered a broken hand in the first week of basketball practice, returned to action and broke his left leg the first week of January.
Rhodes and Bouhoutsos agreed that Olejniczak and Stefanek — wearing a walking boot — would start and score the game’s first two baskets before leaving the court. Oak Lawn went on to win 60-29, clinching its fifth straight South Suburban Red title, but the night meant even more to Olejniczak.
“John was a really important player for us last year,” Rhodes said. “He was our sixth man. … He’s a great kid, he’s essentially become our manager. He’s at every practice if he doesn’t have rehab. very enthusiastic on the bench, super engaged in everything that we do. So he deserves to at least score one bucket his senior year.”
“(Rhodes) asked me if I would do that for him and I was like, ‘Hey, as long as you can do it for me, too,'” Bouhoutsos said. “I thought that was a pretty cool thing. And they’re both great kids.”
Jack Dempsey hit five 3-pointers and scored a game-high 17 points for the Spartans, who knocked off Riverside-Brookfield the next day for their 12th straight win. Also hitting double figures for Oak Lawn (22-6, 10-2 SSC Red through last week) were Ben Delberto with 14 points, Marc Harvey with 13 and Omar Saleh with a double-double of 10 points and 14 rebounds.
Nick Pryor and Dylan Arocho both scored six points for Reavis (7-17, 1-10).
“That was the last time I was gonna be on the (basketball) floor because I’m going to college to play baseball,” Olejniczak said. “So it’s just like all those memories of basketball ever since I was a little kid, shooting in the backyard, running with my brothers, playing H-O-R-S-E and all that — it’s just all those memories (flooding) back.”
Olejniczak is working hard on rehabbing his knee, going to physical therapy three days a week, with an eye to the spring.
“My doctor said I should be able to at least pitch in baseball, at least for some conference games,” he said.
The Spartans had a breakout year in football, going from 0-9 to an IHSA playoff berth, and are enjoying another successful basketball season.
“It’s very tough,” Olejniczak said of watching from the sideline. “But staying around the guys has helped kind of keep me fresh. I’ve had Jack (Dempsey) with me since I was 4 years old. Me and him have been buddies for a while, so it’s just been a ride with him.”
And they shared another special moment last week.