South Central Conference Named an IBCA Organization of the Year

The South Central Conference has been honored as one of three 2026 Organization of the Year award winners by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association. During the SCC athletic Director’s meeting last Wednesday in Litchfield, Steve Allen, IBCA Special Awards Chairman, presented SCC President Jeremy Smith of Gillespie and Ads from the nine other SCC schools with the award. In a release, Allen states “it is our great pleasure to honor the South Central Conference as one of our 2026 Organizations of the Year. The South Central Conference has historically been and continues to be one of the most competitive small-school athletic conferences, not only in Central Illinois but throughout the state. Any organization that lasts 100 years must be doing something right. All of you here and everyone preceding you, have built that legacy. That is why the South Central Conference is being honored.” Joining the SCC as this year’s Organization of the Year award recipients are “the Sangamon County Tournament – celebrating their 100^th tourney, and the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference (GCAC) – which is the oldest girls conference in the state at 54 years of existence.” The SCC and other award honorees will be recognized at the 54^th IBCA Hall of Fame Banquet held at CEFCU Arena at Illinois State University on Saturday, May 2. In speaking of the SCC, Allen also mentions in the award information release that at the banquet, “four others with South Central Conference ties will be inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame: Coaches Darrin DeNeve – Carlinville HS Girls; Ray Mulholland – Greenville College Women; Todd Cantrill – Greenville HS Boys; and Ron Deabenderfer of Hillsboro as a Friend of Basketball.”