Tales From Tabor

Cutter's Log - Stardate 2102.80.10
Current Song - Around The World (Daft Punk)

St. Bede boys basketball coach Mike Kilmartin said it best after his team lost to the Rock Falls Rockets in Saturday's Rock Falls Shootout at Forrest L. Tabor Gymnasium.

"It feels good to play at home," said the Bruin coach, who also coached at Mendota for a number of years.

And the Abbey is a tough place to play in itself.

Kilmartin, who once served as athletics director at Mendota, came to the six-game Shootout a little earlier than his team did, hanging out with Rock Falls athletics director Rich Montgomery for most of the time. Their two schools were long-time rivals in the North Central Illinois Conference. Kilmartin was there for all four of the varsity games on Saturday's docket.

I'm a little crazier ... I watched eight (yes, 8) games at Tabor Gymnasium (not to say that "Killer" is crazy himself) on Saturday.

At 9:30 a.m. the Rock Falls and Princeton freshman teams played in a non-conference game. The two former NCIC rivals have had the first-Saturday-in-January date for a while now. I have a friend who is the freshman coach at Princeton, so my yearly sojourn to the Rock Falls Shootout (or Sauk Valley Bank Shootout, or whatever it is called) starts with a game that is not technically part of the Shootout.

Freshman games are usually played in almost-empty gyms, and this freshman tilt was indeed the case.

You want to know what gives Tabor Gym the atmosphere is is revered for?

Officials have claimed that the Gym is one of the most difficult places to work a game at. Of course, most of the sentiments are coming from experience working varsity games. However, the visual aspects of the Gym are so unique that it gives officials a difficult time to make calls.

And when calls are difficult to come by, coaches will get mad.

And when gyms are empty, coaches angers are especially noticed.

After taking in eight games at the Shootout, I came home and tried to take a nap. I couldn't. The noises of screaming coaches, the crowd pop of a Rock Falls three-pointer and Daft Punk in the pregame were still resonating inside my head.

While others will complain that it gives people headaches, this is why I love covering the Rock Falls Shootout. Furthermore, this is why I love covering games at Tabor Gym (notice I did NOT say I love covering Rock Falls sports ... doing so would be a breach of journalism bias).


About the Green Forrest

The main competition gymnasium of Rock Falls High School was not part of the original building complex, which was built in 1921. The original gym is located on the second floor of the main school building, and is still used for underclass games on occasion. Tabor Gym was part of an addition made to the school in the 1955.

So while Tabor is not as old as Moline's Wharton Fieldhouse (1929) or as big as Rock Island's "Rock Garden" (1958), it has a mystique of its own.

However that came in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Rock Falls boys basketball only had a few regional titles up until RFHS alum Thom Sigel started his coaching career back home. Sigel gradually built a strong program that won regional after regional, sectional after sectional, and eventually a Class A state championship in 1999.

As Rock Falls started to enjoy its newfound successes, more and more people started coming to the games.

Tabor Gym was barely big enough to hold such a strong following. Six rows of plastic bleachers on both sidelines, and another ten of wooden bleachers on the balconies above them. The south baseline is only a few feet from a wall, and the north baseline is only a few feet from the stage. The sideline space is even smaller. Plenty of people packed in such a small gym creates the tough visuals that some officials still can't master.

Then there's that pocket in the northwest corner of the gym, the one with all of the Rock Falls students in it. When regional titles were won on a consistent basis, the students in this section were known as the "Rocket Rowdies." Perhaps it was the antics of these students themselves that gave Tabor Gym its environment it is known for.

Student sections came to be naturally. But simply cheering wasn't enough. The extravagance - the wardrobe form - and the clever chants were enough to draw the ire of players, coaches and officials alike. Over time, the students from opposing schools would make the drive to Rock Falls simply to try to out-do the Rocket Rowdies - and thus adding to the high-octane environment.

I started going to Rock Falls games during my freshman year in high school (it should be noted that I went to Sterling all of this time). Some games when Rock Falls was not playing Sterling, I would attend a Rocket game and sit with friends in the student section. I won't forget the usual chant when Rock Falls got "screwed" on a call: Seth Wade would yell out to the rest of the student section, "Boo Those Refs!" and everyone else would follow suit and yell, "BOOOOOOO!" I'm not sure what happened with this after he graduated.


The Light Show

Rock Falls boys basketball was as exciting to watch at Tabor Gym as the Chicago Bulls were at the United Center during the days of MJ. The Bulls had a light show, and this was concept was brought over to Rock Falls.

While Quincy and its dancing Blue Devil (flame and all) is a circus act, Rock Falls is a rock concert.

The gym's lights will all go off and a moving spotlight will make figure-eights around the gym. All to the tune of the introduction of Europe's "Final Countdown." When the climax of the intro music hits (the beating of the drums), the players will run out from an awning, that leads from the locker room, onto the court. Led my someone with a large "RF" flag, they'll circle around the gym and eventually wind their way to a center-court huddle.

The pregame announcements (sportsmanship, intro of officials, etc.) are all done with the lights off. Then Daft Punk's "Around the World" will start to play as the starting lineups are announced. Originally, the music would reduce in volume and still be lightly heard, when the opposing players were announced. Today, the volume is turned to zero when opponents are introduced.

After lineups the National Anthem would start to play, with the spotlight fixed on the flag next to the student section. As the Anthem played, the gym lights would gradually turn back on to a fully-lit gym. Nearly a full minute would go by until the gym was fully lit.

Former Dixon coach Steve Sandholm once quipped, "I wish the school would start paying it's ComEd bill."

Because of the light show the Rocket Rowdie student section would also bring glowing green lights of some kind, to make it look cool.


Tabor Today

In the past couple of years, Tabor Gym has gone through several rehabilitations.

The lights have since been replaced, and the pregame darkness ends with a flip of a switch - creating havoc on the eyes. The original brown plastic bleachers have been replaced by newer green ones, and the players bleacher now has back rests. The floor has been re-done. The sports-themed painted artwork, painted on the concrete walls in 1991 (there was a drawing of Andre Dawson in a Cub uniform), is gone. The pennants of the fellow conference schools are also gone, but only because of the recent conference affiliation switch.

But more importantly, the Rocket Rowdie student section isn't what it used to be from back when I was in high school (2001-05). A recent emphasis on sportsmanship has curbed the practice of upstaging opposing fans. However that hasn't diminished the mystique of Tabor Gym, still a difficult place to play in.

Teams are only allowed so many games in a season, and thus so many home games. Scheduling Rock Falls in out-of-conference games is tough to do, but the yearly Rock Falls Shootout gives teams an opportunity to compete in a tight environment.

The Shootout is over 10 years old, and brings in teams from all over northern Illinois. The furthest attractions range from Pleasant Plains, St. Joseph-Ogden and Milwaukee South Division. Teams such as Rock Island, Minooka and Hinsdale South have moved from large venues to the tight quarters of Tabor.

It's best game was a few years back, when Erie defeated West Carroll 80-78 in double overtime. It's best year was during the Mike Winters era when several Division-I recruits played: including East Aurora's Ryan Boatwright, DeKalb's Jordan Threloff, Rock Island's Chasson Randle, Sterling's Joseph Bertrand, and several others.

I was told that there is still an opening for a team to come and play next year. I'd love to see a junior-laden team (of this year) such as Hinckley-Big Rock, Kaneland or even Winnebago come over.

Speaking of Winnebago, the Rockets travel up there on Tuesday for the rekindling of what I call the "Cyberseries". Both teams had epic supersectional games that sparked a rivalry between the two. The two teams haven't played since 2006.

When Winnebago comes down to Rock Falls on Jan. 27, Tabor Gymnasium should be buzzing like never before.

I hope.