The pall that shrouded St. Gregory High School early last week lifted Thursday when the results of X-rays taken of Kevin Footes` injured backside were negative. He had not suffered the fractured tailbone that surely would have sent St. Gregory`s basketball fortunes into a tailspin.
”The whole school breathed a sigh of relief,” said Mike Bailey, basketball coach and athletic director at St. Gregory, a coed school with an enrollment of approximately 500.
Footes, a 6-foot-3-inch senior point guard, had entered the week as the second-leading scorer in the Chicago area. He was averaging 27.4 points a game. He has risen at a remarkable rate in the eyes of recruiters, who are intrigued by his statistics, impressed by his quickness and bewildered by his absence from the summer camps.
”He has kind of exploded on the scene,” says Bob Voight, an assistant coach at Marquette who has watched Footes play and promises another look.
”If you don`t go to the camps, you get passed over,” says Jim Yeakel, an assistant at Western Illinois. ”Especially when you`re in his situation, being at a small, private school that doesn`t get much ink. If he were not scoring the points he is, he still wouldn`t have the exposure.”
St. Gregory has stepped into the limelight with Footes. The Greyhounds are 16-6 after a 75-54 nonconference victory Saturday over Aurora Central Catholic.
”Everyone on the teams knows Kevin is the one they`re coming to see,”
said Brian Houston, a 6-3 senior forward who also is being noticed by scouts. Bailey said St. Louis is interested in both.
Shortly before Footes bruised his tailbone during practice Tuesday evening, Houston said sense of anticipation had enveloped him and the school. ”I think something good`s going to happen to this team,” Houston said.
Something good always has been just around the corner, just out of reach, for Houston and St. Gregory, a Class A school.
The Greyhounds have played second-fiddle to fellow Chicagoland Prep Conference rival and state power Providence-St. Mel. Friday`s 84-75 loss to St. Mel was especially frustrating for Houston, who scored a career-high 38 points against the defending Class A state champions. He lives four blocks away from St. Mel and could have attended the West Side school and played on the basketball team, just as his cousin, Doug Johnson, had done.
”My cousin has been Downstate three times,” Houston said of Johnson, who graduated last year from St. Mel. ”He`d look at me and say: `Brian, see what you could have done? See what you missed?`
”But my parents wanted me out of that area, so I would get used to different environments. I see what they meant now. If I had gone to school in that area, I wouldn`t have come this far as a person.”
Houston first enrolled at Gordon Tech, a Class AA athletic power in the Catholic League. Feeling like ”just another face,” he transferred to St. Gregory, where he had to sit out his sophomore season because of Illinois High School Association rules regarding transfers. As a junior, he averaged 14.2 points and 8.3 rebounds.
”The attitude is we, the seniors, want to win something before we graduate,” Houston said. ”The conference, the regional, something. Kevin has been here for four years, and he wants it just as bad as everyone else.”
Footes was 5-5 when he graduated from La Salle Language Academy, a grammar school.
As a 5-10 sophomore, he started at guard on the varsity. As a 6-1 junior, he averaged 18.3 points and 4.5 assists a game, statistics that went virtually unnoticed, as did his play in the adidas summer league at St. Benedict. Footes did not go to summer camps because he was working to earn money to pay for St. Gregory`s tuition.
”I really don`t know why more people don`t know him.” Bailey said. ”If he would have had the opportunity to go to camp, his name would be known more. But after what we`ve done the last two years, you would think more people would know about him. We won 19 games last year, we were the only Class A team to give St. Mel competition, he was all-tournament at Jacksonville, he was the leading scorer in the adidas summer league at St. Benedict.”
”I guess it`s because, basically, St. Gregory hasn`t been, in the past, a basketball school,” Footes said. ”I just thought it was a matter of time. I knew it had to be coming, I just didn`t know when.”
This year, Footes is hitting about 62 percent of his shots from the floor and 71 percent from the free-throw line. He also averages about 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 4 1/2 steals a game.
Scouts from Marquette, Iowa State, Western Illinois, Southern Illinois, St. Louis and Northwestern have come to see Footes play. Bailey has received inquiries from California, Iowa, Georgia and Cincinnati, among others.
”It`s like a dream come true,” Footes said. ”All these schools you see on television and read about in the newspapers, and now it`s like they want you next. It`s like a dream.”
Footes` grades may force him to enroll in a junior college, a situation that has caused some big Division I schools to shy away. Bailey said school officials believe Footes will have the necessary grade-point average if he does well his final semester.
The scrutiny on the court is even more demanding.
”People are watching me, seeing if I`m going to slip up or anything,”
Footes said. ”Just every game, there is going to be somebody watching.”
”St. Gregory really hasn`t had a player of his ability,” Bailey said.
”A lot of people at Gregory are looking for him to get cocky around school. It all came on kind of quick. I think he`s handling it very well.”
Houston looked for similar signs of ego emerging in his friend.
”I`ve been waiting for that, but it hasn`t happened yet,” said Houston, adding that he and his teammates aren`t jealous. ”Kevin is a very unselfish player to be averaging 27 points. Whatever happens to Kevin, he has it coming to him.”
Bailey believes Houston deserves more publicity than he has so far received.
”Footes is a great player, but the main player on our team is Houston,” Bailey said. ”He`s the straw that stirs the drink. The kid should be playing outside, and he`s made the ultimate sacrifice by going inside.”
Houston is averaging more than 20 points a game, shooting close to 55 percent from the floor and 74 percent from the line. He averages about 8 rebounds a game.
”I do kind of wonder where I`m going to be next year,” Houston said.
”I know I can play with these kinds of people. It`s been the story of my life. It always seems like I`m coming from behind.”
