Jacie Hild is a fifth-grader in Tremont and is determined to play basketball at the high school. However, she is in the midst of a major fight with a rare form of cancer called Ewing Sarcoma.
“She’s battling and things are going very well for her,” Tremont High School girls coach Justin Wahls said.
Ewing’s Sarcoma involves a cancerous tumor that grows in a person’s bones or soft tissue around the bones, according to webMD. It affects around 200 children in the United States — mainly ages 10-to-20.
This season, the Tremont girls basketball teams are wearing special blue shirts that read “Friends don’t let friends fight cancer alone.” The lettering is akin to what you would find all over Disney World with Mickey Mouse ears on the front and Cinderella’s castle on the back.
“Really, these girls look up to her with what she’s had to go through she always has a smile on her face,” said Wahls. “When you ask how did things go, she’ll say ‘Oh hospital food wasn’t really good.’
“If that’s what she’s complaining about, that shows how tough and awesome of a girl she is.”
Hild is very much a part of the team. She shows up to practices and games when she can make it. Trading in the traditional maroon warm-ups for blue T-shirts is all to rally around a future Turk.
“She’s like another assistant coach or manager with us,” Wahls said. “She loves being with us and we love having her."
JEMS connections
Over the summer, Illini great Jonelle Polk McCloud said her AAU program, the JEMS, is about more than basketball. That has proved true over the past week.
Dunlap post Christina Britter knew she was playing in a big game on Tuesday against Richwoods, but not necessarily because of all the talent on the court.
“This game, to me, is very important,” Britter said. “These are girls (who) I played with growing up and it’s always a competition when I play them.”
The Northern Illinois recruit doesn’t forget where she learned the basics of basketball.
“They really, really helped me get to where I am today just with the fundamentals and branching out to other teams I was able to show what they taught me,” Britter said.
Seven of the nine JEMS 17-Under players last season were from Richwoods or Manual, where Polk McCloud played in the '80s. One week ago, the two programs combined to raise $1,374 for Susan G. Komen and team Ronda Guyton, who is a breast cancer survivor.
Manual assistant coach Holly Nelson organized the event. She also coaches within the JEMS program.
Midwest Central adds late-season addition
Sophomore guard Taylor Smith has returned from a torn ACL injury, which sidelined her for eight months.
Smith returned on Saturday and scored eight points in Midwest Central’s win over North Fulton. She also played in a 61-58 win over Pleasant Plains, which is ranked No. 8 in Class 2A by the Associated Press.
She averaged 4.8 points and 2.3 rebounds per game and was an honorable mention-ICAC selection as a freshman.
The Raiders have played a tough schedule and have managed a 13-7 record entering Thursday’s game against Farmington. MWC has quality losses to Illini Bluffs (57-46), Brimfield (53-49 and 57-54) and Lewistown (53-52), which is ranked fifth in Class 1A.
A strong win came early in the year at the Brimfield Turkey Tournament 56-55 over Illini West, which is second in Class 2A. In fact, that’s one of two losses the Chargers have had all season.
Young Turks
Tremont starts two freshmen and a third comes off the bench. That’s a change for Coach Wahls, who is used to starting mostly upperclassmen.
He said his team is unselfish and only wants to win. The team doesn’t care where the points come from, like last Friday night when freshman Abby Scott led Tremont to a win at Dee-Mack.
“Good things to look forward to in the future but they’re showing that they’re not playing like freshmen now.”
Aaron Ferguson is a reporter at the Journal Star. He can be reached at 686-3207 or aferguson@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sports_Aaron.