Kingsley Junior High School celebrated its state champion seventh grade basketball team on Friday.
The Cougars won the seventh grade class 4A state championship in Morton on Thursday. They beat St. Jacob Triad, 31-21, to finish off a second-straight undefeated season.
It marked the seventh time a Normal middle school team has gone undefeated — and the fourth time that a Kingsley team has done so — dating back to 1986 when the Illinois Elementary School Association [IESA] first separated seventh grade teams from eighth grade. The Cougars also did so in 2010, 2011 and 2023.

“They were able to come in this year, and kind of take what they learned and experienced last year and then apply that to this year's team,” said Roger Nalewajka, assistant coach for the seventh grade team. “And so not only did they make significant contributions towards our championship, but also helped develop our sixth grade players.”
Other local schools also found success this season. In seventh grade, Normal Epiphany earned fourth place in the class 1A tournament. Bloomington Corpus Christi earned third in 2A. Corpus Christi and Normal Parkside also earned a spot for the eighth grade tournament that starts Saturday, Dec. 14.
“It was a more challenging atmosphere to be in,” said Amelia Nalewajka, guard for the Kingsley Cougars, about the state championship game. “Everyone else was cheering, and then you have the opposing team side, who honestly, in my opinion, had a little bit more fans than we did, so it was definitely a lot louder on their part.”
Athletes from the team paraded Friday through the halls of the Unit 5 school, giving students and teachers a chance to take a break from class and celebrate the accomplishment.
“It was really fun to see everyone there. And it was also, like, really fun to plan, because, like, we've worked up for it, like we earned all of it,” said Maizie Olson, point guard for the Cougars.