Walk into New Trier on a Wednesday evening between December and February and you’re bound to hear basketballs bouncing, music blaring and basketball being played on every court in the school.

No we’re not talking about Scott Fricke or Teri Rodgers’ varsity teams. Or even any of the other school affiliated teams.

We’re talking about the New Trier Night League, a league of over 650 students who come to play for a total of seven weeks. Night League is divided into five divisions: freshman boys, sophomore boys, junior boys, senior boys and a girls division of all ages. The freshmen and sophomore boys play at the Northfield campus, while the others play at the Winnetka campus. Between the junior and senior boys and the girls divisions, that meant 25 games a night and 14 games a night at the Northfield campus.

The league concluded on Feb. 20 with the semifinal and championship rounds at the respective campuses.

At the end, the winners of the golden shoe — the trophy given out to the winners — the Tune Squad was named champions of the girls division, The Uncle Squad the champions of the senior boys gold division and The Silly Sea Monkeys the winners of the junior boys gold division,

The Uncle Squad went undefeated throughout the entire season and avenging the squad’s loss in last year’s title game by a single point. The team walked away with a convincing 46-29 win this time around.

“We’re the redeem team,” all of them said together.

For The Uncle Squad, a group of friends that has played together since the fourth grade, ending their New Trier Night league careers with a win was something that they said they’d always remember.

“This is something we’ll definitely cherish,” team member Brendan Lennon said. “All we really do is play basketball, it’s a lot of fun.”

Like The Uncle Squad, The Tune Squad also went undefeated, but for the third season in a row. The title marked the third consecutive season that the team had won the title and was a squad made up of varsity athletes from all different sports throughout New Trier. This year’s squad won the title by defeating Slambalam 20-13.

Making it through the season unscathed wasn’t easy though.

“We all work together, we all have a good time,” Rane said. “We don’t really play basketball. We’re all natural athletes and like to have fun.” 

Rane, a coxswain on the New Trier rowing team, really enjoyed playing with her teammates because it helped her spend time with some classmates she normally wouldn’t have had the chance to.

“We don’t really get to see each other in school a lot, so this is a good time to get together and get some energy out after a long school day. Playing for the shoe is everything. It doesn’t mean anything but it means everything at the same time.”

Three members of this year’s boys basketball varsity squad —  Chuck Sweat, Ryan Toth and Adam Bulwa — actually played in last year’s Night League, showing that a player should never give up on their dreams of playing for their school squad even if they get cut.

Night League is one of five intramural league sponsored by the New Trier Booster Club, which is made up of 40 parent volunteers. Other intramural leagues the booster club sponsors includes golf, tennis, paddle and volleyball. 

The booster volunteers that ran the Winnetka divisions were Doug Ackerman, Kelly Sweat and Kurt Schmelter. Northfield volunteers were Chip McColl, Dave Gibson and Sean O’Grady

Members of The Uncle Squad were: Teddy Smith (captain), Brendan Lennon, Ryan Kelly, Ryan Haggerty, Brooks South, Quinn McClamrock, Jack Seminetta, Scott Buzzard and Zach Baj.

Members of The Silly Sea Monkeys were: Jack Miller (captain), Sam Dorfman, Peter Avery, Steven Preston, Ben Akason, Will Birck, James McColl and Nick Karas.

The Tune Squad was made up of: Rachel Rane (captain), Marne Sullivan, Holly Fessler, Millie Winter, Kelly McNulty, Katie Stearns, Izzy Goldman, Maddie Mateug, Sofie Solomon, Lucy Murray and Lizzie Kenter.