CHAMPAIGN, IL–High school sports, for the most part, are about accentuating the positive. It’s a forum to celebrate the hard work and talents of the students.
So sometimes that great player you read about all season is quite a bit more flawed than anticipated when you see him in person.
That was not the case for Steeleville coach Aaron Fiene on Thursday.
“[Jaden Schutt] is as good as publicized,” Fiene said. “A lot of people get a lot of hype. He’s a stud.”
Yorkville Christian dispatched the Warriors 70-27 in the Class 1A IHSA state semifinals at State Farm Center.
Schutt’s talents were on display immediately. The Duke recruit opened the game with two three-pointers. Then he had a dunk. Then another three. The rest of the Mustangs started to get involved at that point.
Steeleville trailed 21-2 before it could even get its bearings.
“They are still kids, there are nerves,” Fiene said. “I was nervous too. [Yorkville Christian] probably had them too.”:
If the Mustangs had them it didn’t show. Senior KJ Vasser said that he was awake at 5 a.m. and eager to get going for the 10 a.m. start.
Schutt’s play showed that he wasn’t at all bothered by the stakes or the environment. The state’s best three-point shooter wouldn’t entertain any nonsense about different shooting backgrounds or a big arena impacting his game.
“The rim’s 10 feet,” Schutt said.
Schutt was 4 of 5 from three-point range. He finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists.
Junior Brayden Long led Yorkville Christian (24-13) with 23 points and sophomore Jehvion Starwood added 10 points.
“We talk about ‘shock and awe’ as a slogan,” Mustangs coach Aaron Sovern said. “We have a reputation among the Class 1A community that we can get after it and we want to show that we can actually do that. It’s not just a myth.”
Yorkville Christian has steamrolled all the competition in the Class 1A state playoffs. The Mustangs’ average margin of victory in their seven tournament wins so far is 44 points.
“After the tough games against the New Trier’s and the St. Rita’s we reminded them that our goals have not changed,” Sovern said. “We are going to keep pushing forward and getting better. Credit to these guys, they have stuck with it. The senior leadership has been tremendous.”
Zach Mevert led Steeleville (29-7) with 10 points and Carter Wasson, the primary defender on Schutt, added eight points. He also believed that the Duke recruit lived up to his hype.
“[Schutt] was just ridiculous,” Wasson said. “He’s a great player.”
Steeleville is about 60 miles southeast of St. Louis. The school has 151 students. The Warriors’ overall mood in the postgame press conference was positive. There were no tears.
“It was just a great experience for these guys to go out and compete with the type of talent we were competing against,” Fiene said. “They did a real good job and made everybody proud. This is something these guys can talk about when they are our age. They can sit around and say we played a kid going to Duke and we battled with him.”
Yorkville Christian now has a day off before facing Liberty in the Class 1A state title game at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
“We are going to try and keep things as normal as possible,” Sovern said. “We’ll have practice tomorrow and there is an e-learning day at school.”
