The Heart of Illinois girls basketball program is entering its 10th season and as the milestone hits, one thing is certain: The trajectory is pointing up.

“We’re just at a really, really good point right now,” program founder and director Riley Gardner said. “In terms of the type of kids we have in the program – on every level, from academics, people, multi-sport and they’re crazy good basketball players right now. A lot of these kids have been with us for many, many years.”

Gardner is seeing the fruits of her labor, which began in 2009 when she sought to fill a hole – for a high-level, competitive AAU-type travel team – with the initiation of the club. She had a goal of starting with four teams – and ended up with 10. Last year they had 13.

“It exploded fast,” Gardner said. “We took a lot of beatings early, I’ll be honest. Our girls program has gone from kind of getting killed a little bit at the AAU level to having been to AAU nationals for the past six years. We’ve got two national championships and a third place. We’re starting to get two teams in each age group for girls. That’s huge for us. Ten years ago you couldn’t even find one team in these age groups to play at an AAU level.”

Heart of Illinois’ growth is at least partially rooted in its fundamental approach to development. Regardless of an athlete’s ability level, the overriding goal is to achieve improvement. Consistent improvement.

“That’s the thing we talk about the most,” she said. “Obviously we have kids who come to us and want to play college basketball, which is great. But our main concern is that when you come here, you improve. We take pride in that. People should be able to tell that you’ve spent time with us.”

Gardner’s program is based in the Peoria, Ill., area, though it attracts athletes from across a large swath of Illinois. It appeals not just to kids who are seeking to play at the highest level collegiately.

“We’re not a program that’s going to tell you Division I or bust,” Gardner said. “We’d love to have every one of our kids play Division I basketball but that’s also not the goal for every one of our kids. Whatever their goal is, we want to help them achieve that, but continuing to grow as a person and as a player is our No. 1 priority.

“We have a lot of kids in our program that are academically very smart and their goals are different. I’ve got a kid right now that’s a 2022 and her ultimate goal is to go to an Ivy League school. So that’s what we’re focusing on with her.”

A couple years ago Heart of Illinois experienced a bit of a lull, and Gardner made plans to return the program to its previous prominence. She placed her emphasis on working with the 2022 class.

“If you don’t have a core base of kids that grow up playing together, it’s really hard to put together teams that have a sense of loyalty or commitment to each other. So I went back down there and started with our ’22 class – they were in fifth grade – and fully built it up,” she said. “Part of the reason we have so many in that class is because we’re really good. Our ’22 kids are just really good so we’re attracting more and more talent because of them.”

HOI’s ’22 class is large and talented but it isn’t the only class that has key figures. Here’s a look at some players Gardner highlighted:

Mackenzie Northup (2019; 5-9, Keokuk, Iowa): “She’s already hit 1,000 points. She was really high on Truman State and something fell through scholarship-wise, so she’s a bind right now. She’s a great kid, a great athlete, she would be a steal for any Division II program or a low Division I program. She’s crazy smart, great teammate, very hard worker, and we’ve loved having her on in our program. I would put her at a 2-(guard). The kid can flat-out score. Putting her at point guard probably takes away her biggest strength which is to put the ball in the hoop.”

Derria Edwards (2020; 5-2, Peoria): “Super quick kid. She’s been with us since fifth grade, a great kid. She does very well in the classroom. Great leader. She is a true point guard. Great defender. She is extremely fast. She’s got a great handle. Her personality is huge.”

Katie Krupa (2022; 6-0, Morton, Ill.): “She’s been getting interest from college coaches, and I think she’ll explode really soon. She’s been with us since third grade, great work ethic, very high academics. Valedictorian of her eighth grade class. Multi-sport athlete, she just finished starting on the varsity volleyball team. I don’t think we’ve seen what she can do yet. She can handle the ball, she sees the floor, she can shoot. She can put her back to the basket and be a post player if she needs to be.”

Delaney Cook-Burton (2022; 5-9, Dunlap, Ill.): “Crazy fast, very athletic, she looked like a completely different person when we finished the summer. She worked out all the time, in the gym all the time, in the weight room all the time. She spent a lot of time working on her shot, working on her ballhandling. She has progressed a lot in the offseason heading into her high school season and I can’t wait to see what she looks like coming into April of next year. A really good kid, high academics, just works hard in every area.”

Denali Craig-Edwards (2023; 5-10, Peoria): “She’s the younger (half) sister of Derria Edwards. Denali is probably the strongest player — as a ’23 – that we have in the program. She’s a guard, a shooter. She can flat-out shoot. But she can also go in the post and just bang. She’s another one that in the last couple months has completely morphed into another kid because she’s in the gym all the time. It’s a matter of time before she explodes. She’ll likely be the valedictorian of her eighth-grade class.”