The honors continue to roll in for the Homewood-Flossmoor boys basketball team.
Coach Jamere Dismukes was named Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year, the school announced Friday. He led the Vikings to a 34-4 record, a share of the SouthWest Suburban Conference Blue championship and the Class 4A state title.
“The important thing is we accomplished what I wanted to accomplish winning state. Coach of the year is fine but it’s just sprinkles on the top of the ice cream,” Dismukes said. “It’s cool. I like it. It adds to the resume and I appreciate it. But what I really wanted to accomplish, we got that on March 9.”
One aspect of the award that Dismukes said he especially values is that it came from other coaches. He said he hopes it means they recognize how hard he competes and that he does things the way they should be done.
“When it comes to your craft, I think you always want to be respected by your peers,” he said. “It means a lot. It means these guys think that I can coach and I’m a good person, so it means a lot coming from them.”
The Vikings beat Normal Community 60-48 to win the school’s first state championship. It was only Dismukes’ second season at the helm at H-F after stints at Rich East and Hyde Park.
“I know what it feels like to not be in this position, to be in the total opposite position,” he said. “I just wanted to always make sure I’m doing things the right way and I think winning comes from that. I think getting kids to college comes from that. I am who I am and I don’t try to change my confidence when I’m coaching even though I’m one of the younger coaches in the state.”
Dismukes said he was recently looking over the 2023-2024 schedule, still marveling at how much the Vikings were able to accomplish. In-season tournaments like the Big Dipper, the SWSC Blue crown and the postseason route to state loaded the Homewood-Flossmoor trophy case.
“They literally won everything, everything possible to win inside of a season, they did it,” he said. “They accomplished literally every team accolade and team goal that they could and that’s insane.”
Players named to all-state teams
A pair of Dismukes’ players were named to the IBCA all state teams.
Senior guard Gianni Cobb was named first team All-State. The SWSC Blue player of the year and Columbia commit also received votes for Mr. Basketball.
Joining Cobb on the list was junior Bryce Heard on the second team. Carson Brownfield was a special mention.
On the girls side, senior Jaeda Murphy was third team All-State and Layla Pierce was a special mention.
