TriCounty For Manual High School basketball coach Wayne McClain it is three-for-three in Tri-County Male Coach of the Year honors.
In an unprecedented success story, the long-time former Manual assistant coach has been head coach for three seasons and has won three state championships!
Each of the first two won him Tri-County honors and so has the third, the first time anyone has been honored three years in succession.
The 1996-97 season saw Manual go 31-1 to raise McClain's three-year record to an amazing 94-4 (he was 32-2 and 31-1 in his first two seasons). The Rams were 15-1 against ranked teams from eight states.
In the state finals Manual whipped Chicago Young 51-46 in the first round, staged a brilliant rally to down Harvey Thornton 65-62 in the semi-finals and wound up the second state finals played in Peoria with a 47-43 win over Aurora West.
Manual was named the No. 1 team in the nation.
Guy Hoffman![]()
Guy Hoffman, who showed scouts a major league arm while pitching for Bradley University, had an amazing jump to the big leagues. In June of 1978, after graduating from Bradley, he was pitching in Peoria's venerable Sunday Morning League. |