History-making volleyball team takes New Trier court again on 50th anniversary

In 1974, volleyball became the first girls sport in Illinois to get a state tournament. How the inaugural season would turn out was anyone’s guess.

But if guesses were to be had, New Trier East’s team captain Janet Roberts (now Janet Roberts Black) had one about her team’s chances.

“Yes, very much so,” Roberts Black said about if East believed it could be the first state champ. “When we found out there would be a state tournament, I believe we found that out the year before, I think that desire to actually achieve was instilled in us.”

The desire became reality in 1974, and on the 50th anniversary of New Trier East’s championship season, Roberts Black and company were back at New Trier in Winnetka on Monday, Sept. 16, to celebrate the milestone.

Eleven members of the 1974 title team were on hand Monday for a ceremony featuring the school’s athletic department, girls volleyball program and Trevians fans prior to a New Trier-Maine South match. The honorees reunited on the court and watched a highlight video of their championship season. Then, each was coronated with an IHSA state-championship medal, a state tradition that was not yet installed in 1974.

To cap the ceremony, current New Trier girls volleyball players presented the 1974 players with hand-written notes.

“It was wonderful,” Roberts Black said of the festivities. “It was a really great experience. I really enjoyed the reception we got and the effort that went into it.”

The 1974 team’s head coach Bonnie Beach and assistant coach Lee Kennicke, both of whom are in the New Trier Athletics Hall of Fame, were on hand. Beach said, coincidentally, she and Kennicke helped New Trier hire Augie Fontanetta, now the school’s athletic director, in 1994. She praised Fontanetta, also an IHSA board member, for masterminding Monday’s ceremony.

Beach said reuniting with the 1974 team was “heart filling,” and they deserve to go down in IHSA history.

“The women on this team, I can’t even begin to describe,” she said. “They were everything we ever could have wished for. … Their sportsmanship was beautiful, their play on the court was amazing, they were kind and sharing.

“They were wonderful to coach.”

In 1972, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act became a federal law and prohibited gender discrimination of any public educational program and activity. The law paved the way for the expansion of women’s athletics nationwide, including in Illinois.

New Trier East was one of 481 schools that participated in girls volleyball’s inaugural IHSA season in 1974. Roberts Black said her experiences during this time at New Trier shaped her future.

“It really gave me a very positive outlook in terms of teamwork, working together and having the confidence in my own abilities,” she said. “During the time we started this, sports were pretty lacking in many ways, so the program here and the direction Title IX sent sports into was really meaningful for women’s sports.”

New Trier East finished 1974 with a record of 16-1, the only loss coming against Oak Park during the regular season.

East bested Rockford West (15-10, 9-15, 15-3) and Rose Bud (15-6, 15-8) to advance to the state championship bout, where it topped Rich East 15-10, 6-15, 15-3 in Lantz Gymnasium on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. It is the only state championship in New Trier girls volleyball history.

Beach and Kennicke’s roster featured Roberts Black, Lisa Marder, Ingrid Miller, Kathy Stazy Skalski, Donna Stuhr Hatfield, Jessica Binkley, Lauren Goebel Keller, Carolyn Bunting O’Connor, Karen Raggi Keefe, Sarah Badger Brown, Katie Drohan Hodal and Beth Kincaid. The team’s trainer was Marty Drake.

“They were all pretty talented, but what really made them work together is they talked together all the time and they believed in each other,” Beach said. “When they were down, they were never down. They might have been down on the scoreboard but they were never down in terms of one another or how they were going to conduct things.” 

Since winning the state’s inaugural title, the New Trier program has gone on to become a state power, ranking No. 48 in the IHSA’s list of top 50 girls volleyball programs. The Trevians have won 34 regional/district titles, 14 sectionals and made eight appearances in the state finals, winning two other state trophies (2012: second; 2013: third).

The 1974 team got to see how far the game has come on Monday and also witnessed a familiar sight: a victory, New Trier on top of Maine South 25-21, 26-24.

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