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.
John Emmett Seery A native of Princeville, John Emmett Seery played in four different major leagues during a nine-year career from 1884-1892. An outfielder with a career .252 batting average, 300 runs batted in and 27 home runs, Seery played for Baltimore and Kansas City in the Union Association League; St. Louis, Indianapolis and Louisville in the National League; Brooklyn in the Players League; and Cincinnati in the American Association. |