2001 Trojans best boys team of 2000s

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The votes are in; the fans have been heard.

The Northwest Herald Tournaments of the 2000s has crowned its two champions. Cary-Grove’s 2001 boys team and Johnsburg’s 2007 girls team are the champions in the tournaments.

The teams were selected by the Northwest Herald sports staff, then readers voted online during the past two weeks, first for the girls champion, then for the boys.

Johnsburg’s 2007 girls team senior trio Paige Fiedorowicz, Jenny Turpel and Mallory Scharf, along with junior Michelle McDonald led the way.

That Skyhawks team finished 28-5 and lost to Warren in the sectional championship game on a last-second shot. Fiedorowicz was the Northwest Herald’s Player of the Year and eventually the Female Athlete of the Year.

McDonald took both honors the next year, leading the Skyhawks to a Class 3A supersectional. Turpel scored 17 points in the sectional title game, and Fiedorowicz added 13 points and nine rebounds.

Johnsburg 2007 finished with 38 percent of the votes in the final four, edging out C-G 2008 with 36 percent. Hampshire 2004 received 22 percent and Hampshire 2003 got 4 percent.

Cary-Grove’s 2001 boys team finished 26-5 and nearly became the first area boys team to make it to the Class AA State Tournament. The Trojans lost to Moline, 45-42, in overtime at the Moline Supersectional.

Moline narrowly lost its next game, and with most of the state tournament games ending with close margins, C-G, with a couple breaks, might have been playing on the final day of the season. Two years later, Johnsburg’s boys team, one of the other four finalists in the Tournament of the 2000s, did break through.

The Trojans played some of their worst basketball of the season at the Jacobs Holiday Tournament, losing two games, but they did not lose again until their trip to the Mark of the Quad-Cities. They rolled through the Fox Valley Conference while setting the school record for victories.

Dan Evans, Kevin Cooper and Chris Frosaker were the leaders for a veteran, tall C-G team, which also had two 6-foot-8 players, Andy Hill and Jason Murren.

C-G received 69 percent of the 331 votes from those participating. Dundee-Crown 2009 (11), Johnsburg 2003 (10) and Johnsburg 2006 (10) rounded out the final four.