Illinois Bobcats

Coach Jack Solomon, program director and founder of the Illinois Bobcats sat down with us to discuss his Chicagoland program. An older program, the Bobcats began 15 years ago in 2005 focusing just on their high school aged boy’s teams. To date, they now offer 12u – 17u teams for both boys and girls.

At the disposal of their kids is much more than the opportunity of simply playing basketball. Since the program’s inception, the Illinois Bobcats have partnered with institutions and organizations that’ve given over $1,000,000,000 in scholarship monies to Chicago student-athletes. The Illinois Bobcats are an organization that pride themselves on shaping kids that take their responsibilities as students just as seriously as their responsibilities as athletes, which has played a large part in their ability to assist their kids in footing college tuition. Along with that, the Bobcats offer 1 on 1 training sessions to their kids allowing them to hone in specific skills that will allow them to transcend their games to the next level.

As a program that trains and plays from March to August, Coach Solomon makes sure his teams are playing 50-60 games a season at the very least to keep the sharp all the way up until their high school season starts up. Solomon explains how the ‘icing on top of the cake’ for them as a program is every single time a player of theirs receives any type of scholarship. To them that represents a culmination of the collaborative efforts of the student, parent, and coaches to make sure their academics, character, and athletics are where they need to be.

Solomon recognizes that none of their steady 15-year history would have been possible without the efforts of his coaches, parents, players, and administrative teams. The Bobcats will be sending all of their teams to Chi-Town to compete against the best of the best again this year at the ZG Classic! We’re excited to have them back and expect them to be a team to watch out of the Mid-West Region!

Instagram: @illinoisbobcatsbasketball