Rhaising the bar for a coach and a program that has accomplished what Gene Heidkamp and Benet have over the last 17 years is no easy task. It’s nearly impossible, really. But the 2024-25 Redwings did it with their state championship.
This is a coach and program that had done everything imaginable from a success standpoint, including being the winningest program in the state since Heidkamp’s arrival in 2008 with 421 wins.
The elevation of the program over the years included big-time schedules and high-profile victories with 25-plus win seasons the norm. There was the school-record 35-win season in 2022-23 and frequent East Suburban Catholic Conference and regional championships to go with six sectional titles.
There were the three previous trips to the IHSA State Finals (2014, 2016 and 2023), which included three championship-game losses before this year’s run to the title game.
And Benet did it all with just a small sprinkle of Division I talent.
Benet had done everything but win a state championship. For Heidkamp, a title was all that was missing from what has become a legendary coaching résumé.
The journey to finally getting over the hump included some roadblocks and heartbreak.
There was the crushing double-overtime supersectional defeat in 2010 when Simeon’s Brandon Spearman sank an off-balanced three-pointer just before the buzzer to send the game to overtime and, ultimately, a win and trip to the State Finals.
The very next year, the 2010-11 team led by Dave Sobolewski (Northwestern) and Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin) was as discussed and as memorable as any Benet team. The Redwings entered the postseason a perfect 27-0. They were the top-ranked team in the state, ranked No. 7 nationally and, most importantly, looked nearly unbeatable heading into the postseason.
“That team set the bar high and set a culture for those that followed that has stood the test of time,” Heidkamp proudly said.
But that team was stunned by Ryan Boatright and East Aurora in the sectional semifinals.
“It was amazing but heartbreaking,” Heidkamp said of the early years of success. “At that time, I was thinking it was going to be really difficult to ever get downstate.”
But the turning point, Heidkamp said, was the come-from-behind victory against Glenbard North in the 2014 supersectional. That led to the first of three championship-game losses to Young, Curie and Moline.
While the second-place state trophies were impressive, the elusive holy grail for any program and coach — a state championship — was still missing.
Whether fair or not, those past Benet heartbreaks would have been emphasized and highlighted even more if it were to have added another near miss in 2025.
But this unique, extremely balanced team, where so many different players stepped up in different games all season, ended all the conversation of being the best program and coach without a state championship. Heidkamp ascended the final step of the ladder. The long-awaited state-title breakthrough was complete.
Heidkamp admits “there was definitely relief” and an “overwhelming feeling for everyone” — past and present — when the buzzer sounded. All the emotion he felt went beyond the three title losses; it extended to all the players who helped build the program but who also went through the heartbreaks with him.
“To be where we were and to cross the finish line feels pretty good,” Heidkamp said. “It’s obviously a great feeling, and I’m so thrilled for our kids.” V