About

The High School of St. Thomas More opened it’s doors in August of 2000.  With an enrollment of just under 400 they compete at the IHSA 2A level.  The rise of the girls basketball program has been a steady growth since the schools inception.  The program’s overall record thru 2010-11 season is 193-85.

2001-02 marked the first year of varsity competition playing a shortened schedule and having a record of 10-3.  2002-03 was the first year the program qualified for the state IHSA playoffs with a full schedule going 7-18, seeing loses like 12-44 to Unity, 34-74 to Monticello, 16-70 to Bloomington Central Catholic, and 26-59 to Danville.

In 2003-04 Scott Easton took over the program.  Scott came to the program with a long resume of basketball experience at various levels, most notably having the opportunity to work under “Coach K” (Mike Krzyzewski - the present head coach at Duke University) during his time at Army.  The program put together a 21-9 record, advancing the team to a state regional final appearance, and laid the foundation for a winning tradition at STM.

Billy Dreher came on to the scene at STM for the 2004-05 season building off of Coach Easton’s hard work.  Dreher played his college basketball at Oklahoma State, and then graduated from California-Berkley as their all-time leading 3pt shooter.  He had stints at the Division I level at Fresno State as well as playing/coaching overseas, before being on staff for the USBL franchise out of Florida.  Dreher led the program to a 22-9 mark, and to another state Regional final appearance.  The season was highlighted by a 4 overtime victory over PBL and a seven game win streak.

2005-06 saw Chris Mennig join the program and come on as the Co-Head Coach with Dreher.  Mennig came to STM from just down the road at the Univ. of Illinois where he was part of Hall of Famer & former Olympic coach Theresa Grentz’s staff.  The program won it’s first ever conference title, as well as the conference tournament championship.  Setting a program record 26-4 record with a 14 game win streak during the season.  The season ended with yet another state regional final defeat.

2006-07 Mennig took over the reigns, and started to upgraded the strength of schedule of the program by adding the likes of Urbana, Sacred Heart Griffin, St. Anthony’s, and Prairie Central to the schedule.  The regular season was highlighted by a 72-56 victory at Sacred Heart Griffin, and a 50-54 OT lose to eventual state finalist St. Joseph-Ogden.  It was evident at that time with 1 senior, 1 junior, 2 sophomores, and 1 freshman on the floor that this program was going to be a force in the future.  Leading the program to  their first ever Regional Championship with a 21-10 record, a new bar for success was established.

In Mennig’s 3rd year with the program the strength of schedule increased yet again by adding the State Farm Holiday Classic to the schedule - an invite only event showed the direction that this program had made.  Despite losing to #2 state ranked Pana & #10 ranked Sterling Newman, the girls defeated #12 ranked Camp Point and for the first time received state recognition and cracked in to the state AP rankings.  Another SVC Conference Championship & Tournament Championship were added, but the girls were upset in the Regional Semi-Finals of the state playoffs.

2008-09 brought unprecedented success to the Saber program.  Receiving their highest state ranking ever at #5 in the state the team went on to a 25-6 record that included a 10 game win streak.  The team had their first ever undefeated season in conference play and brought home yet another conference tournament championship.  Again taking hard loses to #3 ranked Sterling Newman & #1 ranked Bloomington Central Catholic, the girls had their first victory over a Top 10 opponent defeating #5 ranked Bismark-Henning.  Another state regional championship was won by the Sabers and the season came to a close after a hard fought sectional-semi final game.  Mennig was named as one of Champaign’s News-Gazette’s Top 20 ‘coaches of the year’ for all sports in the area.

Just went we thought it couldn’t get any better 2009-10 took the program to yet another level.  Starting out the season ranked #8 in the state the girls the girls won the Blue Star Country Classic Tournament defeating Rantoul, Mahomet-Seymour, Urbana, and both Centennial & Central who were ranked in the Top 20 in 3A at the time.  The team again was undefeated in SVC play extending their conference win total to 33 straight games & winning the conference tournament championship for the third straight year.  Another state regional title was won marking the third one in four years, but this one was even more special as the girls were able to cut down the nets on their home court.  The girls closed out the season with a 24-6 record with all the loses coming to Top 15 ranked teams in the state.  Mennig was named the IBCA District 13 Coach of the Year as well as one of Champaign’s News-Gazette’s Top 20 ‘coaches of the year’ for all sports in the area for the 2nd straight year.

2010-11 brought about a new era for the Sabers as the entire starting lineup from the year before had graduated or moved to another state (we’ll miss you Miss. Becker).  “Mennig’s Mighty Mites” as coined by many in the building; took the floor and showed their opponents an entire different look.  Without a player taller than 5′10 - full court pressure and more backdoor movement in the half court became the model for this new group of Sabers.  But winning was still a constant as they finished the season 18-11, finished 2nd in the SVC conference (conference win streak ended at 37 straight), and won the conference tournament for the fourth straight year.

With a record of 132-43 under Mennig over a six year span, the foundation for this program has been layed, as the steady rise of this program to state recognition in less than 10 short years is staggering.  A fast break style of offense on both mades & misses, combined with various full court pressure defenses mixed in with multiple half court defensive looks has created a fun and exciting time for STM Girls Basketball.