The Marist RedHawks are back in season and are off to a great start after winning the 32-Team
Crimson Classic at the Great Lakes Center in Aurora over Labor Day weekend. The RedHawks
went undefeated and played some of the toughest teams in the state, including the Lockport
Porters, who are currently ranked 6 in the state, and placed 3rd in the IHSA State Finals last year.

“We have a lot of returning players on the team who have already been to this tournament and
just kind of understand how these tournaments work,” said Marist head coach Jordan Vidovic.
The RedHawks have 11 returning players from their state championship team, 7 of which are
seniors.

“We learned that we can rely on our experience, and we’ve got some great seniors and they did a
great job of pulling us through,” said Vidovic.

While the Redhawks did take home some hardware from this tournament, they ended up taking
home a lot more than that in the form of friendships.

“Since I’m a rookie this year, it’s been really important to like, bond better as a team,” said junior
Evelyn Slattery. “You’re with your team for a long time on and off the court so it really builds a
connection and helps you fix what you didn’t do in the last game and carry that on to the next.”

The Crimson Classic is not the only tournament that the RedHawks will compete in this year. On
September 19 and 20, the RedHawks will take a trip to the west coast to compete in the Durango
Fall Classic in Las Vegas.

“This will be on another level with some of the best teams in the country and the biggest names
in the country,” said Vidovic. The Durango Fall Classic has 64 teams competing, making it a
whole other level of competition.

Although this tournament will be a challenge, they are far from unprepared. They attended the
Durango Fall Classic last year so they have an idea of what’s to happen. In the time between the
Crimson Classic and the Durango Fall Classic, the team has been constantly working and getting
better.

“We’ve practiced a lot of, like, tight game situations because that’s probably gonna be the case
when you’re playing teams that are this good,” said Vidovic. “It’s really only going to come down
to a couple points here or there.”

Regardless of the results, the RedHawks will use this tournament as a learning experience to help
them through the rest of their season.

“It’s just a cool, unique setup. It’s a really well run tournament and it is by far the most
competitive in the country, so we’re grateful for the opportunity and we’ll come back knowing a
lot more than we did,” said Vidovic.