When high school basketball fans think back to the 1980s, programs like Quincy, Providence St. Mel, East St. Louis Lincoln and the arrival of city powers King and Simeon are easy to think back on.
The 1990s brought us memorable basketball giants in Peoria Manual and Thornton, a few steamrolling Proviso East teams and the continued dominance of King.
The first 10 years of the 2000s included Glenbrook North, Peoria High and the beginning of a Simeon juggernaut.
Now, with the calendar inching closer to wrapping up an unforgettable 2020, the end of this month closes out another decade. And it’s another high school basketball time period to look back on.
Earlier this year we broke down the decade’s best teams and best players. Now, with every season of the past decade complete, it’s time to look at the Chicago area programs who won the most.
This list is comprised of the 50 winningest programs over the past 10 years, starting with the 2010-11 season and concluding with the 2019-20 season. Every team in every class throughout the Chicago area will be broken down in a variety of ways. But total wins, with winning percentage used as tie-breaker, determined the rankings.
We present No. 32 Bloom today and will add one program a day going forward.
32. BLOOM: 204-84
Decade’s biggest storyline: The Blazing Trojans ended the decade with a bang. Coach Dante Maddox’s team took the floor with the most talented and exciting team at Bloom in years. This was a must-see team this past season with it’s superior athleticism, above-the-rim excitement and Division I talent.
Bloom, which entered the season with huge expectations and ranked No. 1 in the preseason, finished the year with a 28-6 record following a sectional loss to Marian Catholic.
Underrated highlight: While the highly entertaining 2019-20 team was a bigger-named team and the decade’s biggest storyline, the 2011-12 team brought back some hardware from Peoria and can’t be forgotten.
Led by point guard Donald Moore and a tight defense — that team allowed just 35 points a game — Bloom finished fourth in the state. The Blazing Trojans lost to both Simeon and Rockford Auburn in Peoria and wrapped up the season with a 28-5 record and the first trip to state since 2000.
Player of the Decade: Dante Maddox, Jr. (2020)
All-Decade Team: Donald Moore (2012), Jamal Parks (2016), Dante Maddox (2020), Keshawn Williams (2020) and Christian Shumate (2020)
Other decade highlights:
-Bloom won six Southland Conference championships in the decade (2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2020) with a combined conference record of 61-5 in those title years.
-The 2019-20 team produced five Division I players: Keshawn Williams (Tulsa), Dante Maddox, Jr. (Cal-State Fullerton), Christian Shumate (Tulsa), Martice Mitchell (Minnesota) and Donovan Newby (UW-Milwaukee).
-The Blazing Trojans won five regional championships in the decade.
-Dante Maddox, Sr., a 1993 Bloom graduate, took over the Bloom program as the new head coach in 2015.
