By Andy Amey
TERRE HAUTE — Apollo Conference rivals Robinson and Paris took decidedly different paths toward what both their coaches hope to be a third meeting of the season Friday.
If the Maroons and Tigers meet again, that would mean they’ve advanced to the championship game of the Illinois Class 2A Effingham St. Anthony Sectional, where Robinson plays Tolono Unity tonight and Paris takes on slightly favored Teutopolis on Wednesday.
Robinson, led by 7-foot Illinois recruit Meyers Leonard and two other stars in Ben Jones and Derek Hannahs, was expected to be where it is right now. Paris, beset by coaching turmoil and in a regional with defending sectional and super-sectional champion Marshall, probably wasn’t.
Longtime Paris assistant coach Jim Virostko became the Tigers’ third coach in about a week near the midpoint of the season, and the 14-15 Tigers have won 10 of 17 since then.
“[The players] responded pretty rough at first,” Virostko told the Tribune-Star earlier this week.
“It was a new system, and I coached different. But they caught on pretty good; I would give them good marks [for handling] a situation that was not real good.”
In the second half of the season Paris defeated two Apollo foes that had beaten the Tigers handily earlier, and avenged a regular-season loss to Marshall to win the regional championship — something that impressed Virostko.
“I have nothing but respect for [coach] Tom [Brannan] and Marshall,” he said. “To beat Marshall, you’ve done a heck of a job.”
Beating the fifth-ranked Wooden Shoes on Wednesday would qualify as the same kind of job.
“Them and Robinson tend to be the favorites,” Virostko said. “T-town plays 10 kids and they’re all about the same [in skill level], which makes it really hard to match up. We’ve been playing pretty good man-to-man defense … but the kids have got to keep their focus.”
Robinson lost a close game to Teutopolis back in November, and beat Tolono by nearly 20 points — at St. Anthony, coincidentally — in a holiday tournament.
“[Unity] is playing really well right now,” coach Bob Coffman of the Maroons cautioned this week. “They went to the state in football, and when we played them they might not have had the football out of them yet.”
Coffman’s team gave Marshall one of its biggest tournament scares a year ago in sectional play, and would like nothing better than to be the Wabash Valley team to make a long tournament run in 2010.
“We’ve faced some pretty good competition, and we’ve played really good at times,” Coffman said. “The key is for us to play at our tempo, get the ball up and down the floor.”
Friday’s winner will travel to Springfield for super-sectional play early next week.
Class 2A Effingham St. Anthony Sectional
Today — Robinson (22-5) vs. Tolono Unity, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday — Paris (14-15) vs. Teutopolis (25-3), 7:30 p.m.
Friday — Championship, 7:30 p.m.
All times CST
