A look at untimely injuries that might have denied 3 Rockford state basketball titles

The greatest players find a way to be great. Even at their worst.

Adam Awender does so many things for Class 1A state runner-up Eastland. Blocking shots isn't normally one of them. Except when Myles Zimmerman stole the ball from him in the backcourt in the state semifinals and went in for what appeared to be an easy layup. Awender chased Zimmerman down from behind, stuffed him and started a fastbreak the other way that gave Eastland an eight-point lead midway through the third quarter. Peoria Christian never got closer than eight points again.

“I really don’t like when people steal the ball from me,” Awender said. “Whenever that happens, I work my hardest to make sure they don’t get anything from it.”

But what if you work your hardest — and still can’t do anything about it? No Rockford-area school has won a state boys basketball title since Rockford West in 1955 and 1956. Eastland is now the seventh team since then to finish second, joining Guilford (Class AA in 1993), Mount Carroll (Class A in 2003), Winnebago (Class A in 2004 and 2005, Class 2A in 2018) and Scales Mound (Class 1A in 2023).

Three of the best Rockford teams that could have won state were shot down by a cruel injury at the worst time: Rockford Lutheran in 1992, Eastland in 2010 and Pecatonica this year. Here is how it felt. And here is how they have gotten over bitter memories that are hard to shake. As another one of our almost-champions knows well.

“Forever. You remember those things forever,” said former Boylan coach Steve Goers, whose 1992 team lost in the Class AA state semifinals by one point when a shot at the buzzer by Tim Hobson rolled off the rim. That Boylan team beat a Chicago King team with two 7-footers ranked second in the nation, but lost NIC-10 all-time leading scorer Lee Lampley before the playoffs because of a school suspension. “All you can do is try to turn the page and move on.” Goers added. “The problem is you have another year to coach, but some of your players are never coming back.”

The three stars who were hurt were never coming back. They all missed the final game of their high school career with an injury. All were convinced they were going to win state before they were sidelined out of nowhere.

Here are their stories:

Pecatonica’s Cooper Hoffman in 2025

Hoffman is Pecatonica’s all-time leading scorer. He was one of five players named first-team Media All-State in Class 1A last year and should be a repeat choice this year. He’s also the all-time passing leader in the NUIC as a star quarterback. His team was ranked No. 1 most of the year. He went down with a broken foot and ruptured ATFL ligament in his right ankle with Pecatonica leading Eastland by a point in the third quarter of the sectional championship game. Pec lost 36-31.

It seemed so unfair — even to some of Eastland’s most ardent fans.

“My wife and I both had a tear in our eye when we heard Cooper got hurt. It brought back some tough memories,” said former Eastland coach Tony Dunlap, Sr., whose Cougars might have won state in 2010 if his son hadn’t separated his shoulder at the end of the third quarter in the state semifinals.

Hoffman is the most accomplished of all three lost injured stars. And so was his team. People were saying the state title was Pecatonica’s to lose all year. Pec’s only losses all year were to 29-6 Class 3A Burbank St. Laurence and to 20-win Class 4A Neuqua Valley. Pec had beaten Eastland five times in a row the last two years.

Yet people didn’t talk about Hoffman’s injury the way they talked about Guse and Dunlap being sidelined. Hoffman’s injury turned into a brief aside to the main story line, dealt with and gone in one sentence before returning to what everyone was really talking about. Eastland slowed the game down against the highest-scoring 1A team in the state, standing and holding the ball near center court for virtually the entire first quarter, which ended with the score 1-0. That made national news, getting featured on the web sites of USA TODAY and Sports Illustrated, among others.

“They had a game plan they thought would beat us and it did,” Hoffman said. “It was crazy for us. We saw it in a Bolingbrook game, but never thought it would happen to us. We all sat back and watched as the first quarter got away. It was all crazy.”

Still, Pecatonica led by one point in the third quarter when Hoffman shot a floater in the lane and came down on someone else’s foot. His foot twisted awkwardly. And he ended his career on the bench. Just watching.

“That sits with me the most,” Hoffman said. “You worked so hard to get to the point where you are at, then not even having the chance to do anything on the court. Just sit there. That’s what stung the most. Injuries happen, but it happened at the wrong time.”

Eastland’s Tony Dunlap, Jr. in 2010

Eastland has now long established itself as a state power, winning at least 22 games in 14 of the last 17 seasons. The Cougars have had other close calls. In 2008, they lost in the supersectionals to eventual state champ St. Anne. In 2013, they lost in the state semifinals by a single point. In 2014 they lost in supersectionals to a state champion Mooseheart team led by three refugees from South Sudan who stood 6-7, 6-10 and 7-feet. The next year the IHSA adopted stricter rules regarding the eligibility of international students which would have kept the three Moosheart stars from playing.

But 2010 was the roughest. Eastland was at state. And it led by five points after three quarters in the semifinals against No. 1-ranked Catlin Salt Fork.

But the Cougars went into those final eight minutes without the coaches’ son. Tony Dunlap, Jr., had made a record nine 3-pointers in Eastland’s supersectional win. He may have been even hotter in his next game; he had 19 of Eastland’s 21 points at halftime against Salt Fork.

But he separated his shoulder diving for a loose ball in the final seconds of the third quarter. Eastland scored only four points in the final quarter without him.

“It was awful,” Dunlap said. “You feel you are in such a good spot — and then it’s just a shock. You don’t even know what’s going on. You just know something ain’t right and you need to get it back and go out there. But you can’t do anything to help. You are just stuck.”

Dunlap, the best man at current Eastland coach Tyler Zumdahl’s wedding, still lives in Lanark and follows Eastland basketball closely. But he seldom reflects on his injury.

“I don’t give guys what they want,” Dunlap said. “I don’t do the What ifs? If you think too much about it and let it set in, then you go into a hole and go crazy. I let other people do it who talk about you.”

Lutheran’s Tom Guse in 1992

No Rockford team in 50 years has had more big names than that 1992 team. Lutheran returned four starters from its 1991 Class A state quarterfinal team: 6-9 Eric Clark, 6-7 Andy Jameson, Guse and Ehren Jarrett. Clark would go on to lead Rutgers of the Big East in rebounding three years in a row. Jarrett is the superintendent of Rockford Public Schools. And Guse has returned to coach his alma mater to three state trophies and five sectional titles in 15 years.

That Lutheran team also had the biggest regional win in area history. Lutheran played an undefeated Winnebago team that coach Joe Murphy says was even better than his three state runner-up teams and won 70-69 in overtime in a sold-out regional final that has been picked as the No. 3 boys basketball game in Rockford-area history.

“It was an unprecedented atmosphere. … I still almost get chills,” Jarrett said for a story a couple of years ago.

And then, after Lutheran won its first game at sectionals, Guse came down with appendicitis. Surgeons began operating on him at roughly tip-off time for Lutheran’s 75-73 sectional finals loss to Elgin St. Edward on a tip-in at the buzzer. Chris Payne, who later coached that state runner-up Mount Carroll team, made nine 3-pointers and scored 39 points for St. Ed.

Lutheran needed Guse, on defense as well as offense.

He said he could have played three days later at supersectionals, that he was back pitching for the baseball team only a couple of weeks later. But not that day. And there were no more days after that day.

“That’s part of the reason I stayed in the game and coached,” Guse said. “In the back of my mind, I think maybe I can finally accomplish that dream some time.

“It was really tough. But it was a life lesson. I had to learn from it and try to make something positive out of it. That seemed impossible at the time, but I’ve been able to help some of the kids I’ve coached who have lost a season to a knee injury or something. It’s kind of my calling.

“Even with Bane (Workman), Guse said of a current Lutheran player who is recovering from cancer. “I can give advice and help them understand it’s going to get better and there are positive days ahead.”

What’s next?

That could be true of both teams involved in this year’s untimely injury game. Pecatonica (33-3) has broken the school record for wins four years in a row.

"When Eastland kept winning, we all imagined what it could have been like if we got past that game," Hoffman said. "But we didn't take care of business. We're all going to dwell on it for awhile. But we also are going to have a ton of good memories. We were first in the state. All the good stuff. Injuries are just part of the game. Sometimes they just happen at the worst time."

Eastland (34-5) also set its school record for wins this year, joined Mount Carroll and Scales Mound as the only NUIC schools to reach the state title game and brings back star junior big men in Parker Krogman and Zyacn Haverland.

“Eastland basketball should be held in high regard in the state of Illinois,” Tony Dunlap, Jr., said. “After losing the title game, you can’t help but think, ‘Dang, that was close!’ But you should also think you can get there again. Any alumni that went through Eastland should be ear-to-ear smiling.”

Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Pecatonica joins Eastland & Lutheran as injury-cursed state contenders

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A look at untimely injuries that might have denied 3 Rockford state basketball titles

Pecatonica’s Cooper Hoffman in 2025

Eastland’s Tony Dunlap, Jr. in 2010

Lutheran’s Tom Guse in 1992

What’s next?

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