Willen competes in basketball all-star game

SPRINGFIELD — Ryan Willen, a key player in Notre Dame's championship runs in soccer and boys basketball, sat in the stands behind home plate to watch the Bulldogs try to extend a similar run in baseball, a sport in which he admittedly does not excel.

But Willen had a game of his own Friday night in Springfield — the Missouri Basketball All-Star Game.

The event, four games for boys and girls in various classifications, was played at Baptist Bible College. Willen played for the "rural" team (players not from St. Louis or Kansas City) in the game for classes 4 and 5, which was to begin at 8:30 p.m. Scott County Central's D.D. Gillespie played in the game for small school boys.

Paul Hale, the Notre Dame athletic director who gave up the coaching reins after the championship season, was coaching for the rural team.

"It's going to be fun," Willen said. "There's going to be a lot of good players in there. It's fun to try to school people and maybe make a good play."

He was entered in the dunk contest, though he said he was impressed with the competition during the scrimmage and practice.

Junior Austin Greer, who played basketball with Willen and is a member of the baseball team, said he was planning to attend and hoped to come out of the audience to help Willen in some capacity in the dunk contest.

Willen, who is playing college basketball at Lafayette College after earning all-state honors in soccer and basketball, played on the golf team for the first time this spring as his sport of choice. The highlight of his season on the junior varsity — other than free golf — was a 47 for a second-place finish in a meet.

— Toby Carrig