It was 11 years ago at Carver Arena. Manual won its last state championship. Sergio McClain was there and Frank Williams – and so was the Rams' 6 year–old ball boy, Paris Gulley.

"I’m very excited to get to this point because when I saw them I just wanted to work even harder. When I saw them win that championship I said, ‘I want a championship too.’

Gulley's alll grown up now, inspired to duplicate what his boyhood heroes accomplished back in 1997 – because when you grow up in Peoria and wear a Manual uniform the state tournament is like a right of passage. Just ask head coach Derek Booth, who played in a state final when he was at Manual.

"Everyday in practice they see the pictures on the wall. They see the state champions, they see Sergio, Marcus and Frank. But they want to make their own make in Manual’s history."

Senior Cortez Augusta says that history is part of what motivates him.

"When you say Manual you think of Frank Williams and Marcus Griffin – people like that. Tough guards, tough big men, just tough period. That’s a lot to live up to, so I guess we’ve got to come here and bring it."

On one of the walls of the gym at Manual High School, lined up in a row, are pictures of each of the Rams' state championship teams. Next to those team pictures is an empty space. Augusta and the Rams are here to fill that space.

"We were in practice and we looked at the walls and saw all of the pictures from four years in a row. One of the students in our class came in and snapped a picture and asked, ‘How would it feel to have your face in this spot?’ That’s what this is about right here."

If they win two more games the Rams will be picture perfect.