Local Champions

Last March, Addie Hefel and Taylor Burchard of Galena helped the Pirates win the IHSA Sectional Championship over Whitney Sullivan and her Orangeville Broncos. But the area athletes who were rivals that day, happen to be teammates on the Rockford Heat Elite 17U club basketball team. And over the Fourth of July week, they claimed the championship of one of the largest basketball tournaments in the country at McCormick Place in Chicago.

The Nike Tournament of Champions featured several Division I players from across the country, including a loaded Kingdom Hoops team from Missouri. But the compet...