Henricksen: A night out with the Chicago Elite Classic coaches

The Chicago Elite Classic, set for Dec. 4-5, will once again bring local and national talent together for two days of high-level basketball.

Last week, the Chicago Elite Classic brought together 10 local high school coaches, thanks to John Rogers, Chairman and CEO of Ariel Investments, who opened up the company’s suite at the United Center for participating coaches of the Chicago Elite Classic to take in the Bulls-Thunder game.

Malik Murray, Ariel’s Vice President of Institutional Marketing and Client Services, played host, along with the Classic’s co-organizers, Simeon coach Robert Smith and Young coach Tyrone Slaughter.

“This was part of our vision, to make the Chicago Elite Classic one of the best events in the entire country,” said Smith of the idea to bring participating coaches together in this type of setting.

In addition to Smith and Slaughter, the group of coaches included Evanston’s Mike Ellis, Loyola Academy’s Tom Livatino, Maine South’s Tony Lavorato, Marian Catholic’s Mike Taylor, Larkin’s Deryn Carter, Fenwick’s Rick Malnati, Riverside-Brookfield’s Tom McCloskey and Oak Park-River Forest’s Matt Maloney.

The impressive lineup featured coaches who have all won 20-plus games within the past two years. They have led teams to multiple state title game appearances (Smith, Slaughter and Ellis), made numerous trips to the state tournament in Peoria (Smith, Slaughter, Ellis and Malnati) and it included six coaches who have won at least one sectional championship in recent years (Smith, Slaughter, Ellis, Livatino, McCloskey, Taylor and Lavorato).

But this wasn’t a night of comparing résumés and accomplishments. This was about enjoying a night out with coaching colleagues from city and suburban schools, both private and public.

Yours truly was also able to enjoy the coaching camaraderie shared among all these coaches, and it was a memorable night in that highly competitive coaches let their guard down. There was a mutual respect for one another in that suite, with laughing, good-natured ribbing, debating and sharing of so many basketball stories and opinions.

“It was a pretty unique night,” Loyola Academy coach Tom Livatino said of the United Center coaches gathering. “It was a chance to get together socially with so many quality coaches and talk about on and off-the-court topics, laugh, have fun and get behind what is really a terrific event.”

Evanston coach Mike Ellis, whose team will square off with Morgan Park in the Chicago Elite Classic and will be a preseason top 10 team, enjoyed spending time away from the gym with these coaches.

“First, I was just very appreciative of the Chicago Elite Classic committee hosting all of us in a suite at the Bulls-Thunder game,” says Ellis. “Having competed against so many of those coaches, it was a great experience to be able to casually compare different things with them.”

For Slaughter, who has been at the forefront of the Chicago Elite Classic since day one, the success of the evening was twofold. Yes, it was a chance to see coaches come together and socialize, but as Smith stated, it was also a sign of how far the event has come in four years.

“So many of us there have had competitive games against one another, and to laugh and joke about those games, even after some difficult losses, says a lot about the individuals that were there,” says Slaughter. “It also showed to me the evolution of the event, how it’s grown, along with the quality of coaches and programs we have been able to attract.”