DePaul College Prep aiming for 4th consecutive IHSA basketball championship

Led by a coach who is also one of the program's all-time great players, DePaul College Prep is trying to etch its name among the best in Illinois high school basketball history.

The Rams' top two stars are hoping to lead them back to the top of the mountain for a rare fourth consecutive year.

DePaul College Prep is putting in the work.

"Practices is harder than games, because of how hard we go and how hard we rep," senior Rashaun Porter said.

Head coach Tom Kleinschmidt said everything revolves around practice for the Rams.

"If we can make it challenging for them and make them comfortable in uncomfortable situations, we feel confident," he said.

"We've got to have good practices, man. If we don't have a good practice, it usually doesn't connect to us having a good game," senior Rykan Woo said.

They hope the effort in the gym now pays off with some history in March. The Rams are trying to become the third team to ever win four straight IHSA boys basketball state championships.

"We have two goals every year, and that's to win the Catholic League championship and a state championship, and that's been the same for 14 years when we weren't good. So we don't talk really about four-peats or anything like that. We try to block that noise from the outside," Kleinschmidt said.

The Rams are led by a pair of Division 1 commits; Woo, who's headed to Brown, and Toledo-bound Porter, who has developed into one of the area's – if not the entire state's – best big men.

"He's great. I've played with him my whole high school career. He's dominant. That's the only way to explain him. He's athletic. He's smart. He's a great player," Woo said of Porter.

"It's fun, man. Just got a person who, anytime the ball goes up, I just turn around and just get back on defense just knowing it's going in. He's fun to play with. That's my guy," Porter said of Woo.

Kleinschmidt said both players are tireless workers on and off the court.

"You can see it how they perform on the floor. But I'm really most impressed with leadership in practice and how they prepare for practices," he said.

Kleinschmidt has established a winning culture at DePaul College Prep. To lead a successful program on the same court where he was a standout high school basketball player himself is pretty special.

"It's great. I've been coming to this gym since 1980. Great memories with my teammates, Coach Pappas, some of my best friends in the world I still talk to. So it's a privilege to coach here in this building and this gym with the guys I have now. It's pretty cool,"  he said.

Kleinschmidt was a star on the same court for what was then Gordon Tech before going on to be an All-American at DePaul University.

Do his players know he was a pretty good player himself?

"They're reminded once in a while. I think they're tired of it, so I try to stay away from it, but every once in a while, I'll throw a jab," he said.

"Oh yeah, he doesn't talk about it too much, but I've seen some highlights," Woo said. "I looked it up on YouTube. It's there. It's on some VHS tape or something."

If the Rams complete the four-peat, the highlights of that will endure, no matter the video format.

The 20-3 Rams are chasing a four-peat in their third different IHSA classification. They've moved up to 4A after winning the last two 3A state titles and a 2A championship in 2023.