McLegends: ‘Foreign Connection’ quite a pair
By Tony Baranek tbaranek@southtownstar.com April 3, 2011 8:34PM
Yolanda De La Torre (42), who will play for the Girls High School All-Stars in McLegends X, averaged 9.6 points, 10.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game for Hillcrest last season. | Art Vassy~Sun-Times Media
McLegends X
When: April 16
Where: Thornton High School, 151st and Broadway, Harvey
Time: 11 a.m. Game 1 featuring the Beggars Pizza Lady McLegends vs. the 2011 High School All-Stars. 2 p.m. Game 2 featuring Coca-Coca McLegends vs. the 2011 High School All-Stars
Admission: $7
Tickets: Available after 9 a.m. Mondays through Fridays at Thornton High School, through the athletic department. For information, contact Bill Mosel at (708) 225-4122 or Phil Arvia at (708) 633-5949.
HOOPLA: The McLegends X Pre-Party
When: 4 to 10 p.m., April 15
Where: Lincoln Oasis (over I-294 in South Holland, east of Halsted St.)
What: Silent auction of sports memorabilia; games and giveaways for the kids; music by the Southtown All-Stars, and Julian Keyz; and more.
Article Extras
Updated: January 23, 2012 2:08AM
One of the more interesting combinations on the court for the High School All-Stars in their game against the Beggars Pizza Lady McLegends on April 16 at Thornton High School is the guard/forward duo of Lockport’s Gintare Surdokaite and Hillcrest’s Yolanda De La Torre.
As teammates on their AAU team, the Illinois X-Citement, Surdokaite has been on the receiving end of many of De La Torre’s jaw-dropping no-look passes and turned them into baskets.
“She is the one player I like to play with the most,” Surdokaite said. “You never know when she is going to pass. You always have to be ready for the ball because she passes at some of the weirdest times. She knows that I can make the basket, and she trusts me.”
Trust this. At some point in the sixth meeting between the women and the girls, the crowd will be gasping, and then applauding, at what almost looks like a mirage.
“I really don’t know how it happens,” De La Torre said. “I guess it all plays out in my head. I just assume — and I guess that’s not always good — that people are going to cut to certain places and I pass it.
“It just happens. I don’t know how. But I do love hearing the crowd react to it.”
De La Torre led Hillcrest to a second-place finish in Class 3A for the second consecutive season. She averaged 9.6 points, 10.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. She will be attending Robert Morris University.
Surdokaite led the Southland this season with 75 3-pointers. She averaged 16.2 points and 6.0 rebounds and will be playing college ball at Binghampton University.
Surdokaite and De La Torre are this year’s All-Star team’s “Foreign Connection.”
Surdokaite was born in Lithuania. She and her family moved to the United States when she was 10 years old.
Up until then she had little basketball experience.
“None, really,” she said, laughing. “We usually just played soccer or dodgeball in the street. We didn’t have a basketball hoop or anything. We would just pretend shoot at our garage in an imaginary hole.”
Surdokaite said her older brother Arnoldas was key in her picking up the sport after she came to America.
“We were living in Hinsdale when he started playing in this Lithuanian basketball league,” she said. “I always did what my brother did, so I went with him there because it seemed like something to do.”
Just before sixth grade, the Surdokaite family moved to Homer Glen and she began playing club basketball. By then it wasn’t a case of tagging along after her brother.
“I wouldn’t say he encouraged me more than he pushed me,” she said. “He wanted to see me succeed. He wanted to be proud of me.”
Surdokaite spent her freshman season at Lockport on the sophomore team. The idea was to put her in the middle and develop her into a post player. But on her AAU team, she was a guard, and shooting the lights out.
As a varsity player, Surdokaite became one of the area’s most potent outside shooters.
“All it comes down to is practice,” she said. “You can have the worst form, the worst everything, but if you practice the same way all the time, every day, you’re going to become accurate.
“And it’s not just about the shooting. It’s about not being afraid to shoot when someone is in your face. It’s about not being afraid to step up and shoot.”
De La Torre is a first-generation American. Her parents, Ramon and Raquel, came to the United States from Mexico at a young age.
Yolanda grew up in a household where Spanish was the spoken language.
“I actually learned English from TV shows and from my older brother (Ramon),” she said.
De La Torre serves as an interpreter for her parents at gatherings where English is spoken, including any meetings they might attend at Hillcrest High School.
“It’s kind of funny because at first they start talking directly to my parents,” she said. “Then they realize that I have to translate for them, so they switch over to me and start talking to me.”
De La Torre picked up basketball skills as easily as she did English, starting in the seventh grade.
“No one pushed me to do it. I just tried out and I liked it,” she said. “I saw how so many opportunities opened up to me. I continued in high school, and it worked out even better.”
De La Torre became one of the premier passers in the state and one of the best all-around players in the Southland. During an incredible performance in the Class 3A sectional semifinals against Rich South, she finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, nine steals and seven blocks.
During the state playoffs, her heroics prompted her Hillcrest classmates to bring out a new cheering aid — the rally sombrero.
“They knew that I like to represent Mexico,” she said, smiling. “They brought sombreros to the games because they thought I’d like it. That was nice.”
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