Galesburg Silver Streaks Girls Basketball: 2026-27 Schedule and History
Galesburg Silver Streaks · Galesburg, Illinois · Western Big 6
Coach: Lexi Demott · 2025-26: 27-5 · All-time: 1,103-445 (.713)
Galesburg girls basketball has the best winning percentage of any programme in this coverage area, in any sport, and for forty-six of its fifty-four seasons it had the same man in charge.
Evan Massey, 1978-79 to 2023-24
Forty-six seasons. 1,018-399. A .718 winning percentage. All at one school.
The IHSA ranks Evan Massey third in Illinois history for career girls basketball wins, behind Dorothy Gaters and David Power, and second all-time for wins at a single school. In a state with more than 700 programmes, that is not a local distinction.
He took Galesburg to seven state finals and came home with five trophies:
- 1998-99 — second in Class AA, 33-2
- 1995-96 — third, 29-6
- 1996-97 — fourth, 33-2
- 1999-00 — fourth, 34-4
- 2000-01 — fourth, 31-8
- 1997-98 — qualified, 27-6
- 2002-03 — qualified, 32-4
Five state finals in six years between 1996 and 2001, with an aggregate record across those seasons that barely dips below thirty wins. Then a seventh trip in 2003.
A record-keeping note: the IHSA’s all-time coaching page prints Massey at 1,018-397; the Galesburg school page prints 1,018-399. We summed his forty-six season rows and got 399, so we are using the school page’s figure.
Lexi Demott has not missed a beat
Following a forty-six-year tenure is among the harder jobs in coaching. Lexi Demott has gone 24-8 and then 27-5 — 51-13, a .797 clip — with Class 3A regional championships in both seasons.
That is a better two-year start than the raw numbers suggest, because it came with the whole town making comparisons.
The trophy case
Across 54 seasons since 1972-73: 29 regional championships and 10 sectionals. The sectionals are concentrated — nine of the ten fell between 1994-95 and 2002-03, the Massey peak, with one more in 2010-11.
The regional run is remarkable for its consistency rather than its peaks: eighteen in the nineteen seasons from 1987-88 to 2004-05, then further titles in 2006-07, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2021-22, 2022-23 and both of Demott’s years.
What the record does not have
No state championship. Seven finals appearances, one runner-up finish, three fourths and a third — and no title. The 1998-99 team at 33-2 came closest.
It is worth putting alongside the boys programme, which won the state championship in 1913 and has not been back to a final since 1998. Galesburg’s two basketball programmes have between them thirteen state finals appearances and one championship, and the championship is 113 years old.
The Western Big 6
Galesburg are the only area school in the Western Big 6, playing Alleman, Moline, Quincy, Rock Island, Sterling and United Township. Their postseason runs through the large-school classes, which is why a Galesburg Class 3A regional is a different achievement from a Class 1A regional at any Lincoln Trail school.
2026-27 schedule
Galesburg have one of the fuller schedules posted in the area — around thirty games, running from November 17 to mid-February. IHSA girls practice is scheduled to open Monday, November 2. November 17 is the earliest game we have found on any area schedule, boys or girls.
We will publish the full schedule on this page as soon as it is posted, and update results through the season.
What we are still chasing
- The 2026-27 roster, which has not been posted publicly
- Confirmation of the IHSA practice and first-contest dates
- March 2027 state series dates and assignments
- Whether Evan Massey remains involved with the programme in any capacity
Every championship year
State finals appearances (7): 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03.
Sectional titles (10): 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2010-11.
Regional titles (29): 1977-78, 1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2006-07, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2024-25, 2025-26.
Look at the sectional list and the shape of the programme becomes obvious: nine sectional titles in nine consecutive seasons, 1994-95 through 2002-03. Galesburg did not merely reach the sectional round in that stretch, they won it every single year. Five of those seasons ended at the state finals.
The regional list is the more remarkable one for its length — eighteen in the nineteen seasons from 1987-88 through 2004-05, and titles in each of the last two years under a new coach. Twenty-nine regional championships in fifty-four seasons of existence.
The two Galesburg programmes, side by side
It is worth setting the girls record against the boys, because the comparison is not what most people assume.
| Girls | Boys | |
|---|---|---|
| All-time record | 1,103-445 | 1,915-1,125-1 |
| Winning percentage | .713 | .630 |
| Seasons | 54 | 123 |
| Regional titles | 29 | 42 |
| Sectional titles | 10 | 19 |
| State finals trips | 7 | 24 |
| State trophies | 5 | 7 |
| Most recent state trip | 2002-03 | 1997-98 |
The boys have more than twice the history and roughly twice the hardware — but the girls have won a markedly higher proportion of their games, and in barely half the time. A .713 programme is rare at any level.
Both have been away from Champaign and Normal for a while now. The girls last reached a state finals in 2003, the boys in 1998.
Where Galesburg Silver Streaks rank in the area
Across the fourteen girls basketball programmes we cover, Galesburg Silver Streaks sit first by all-time wins (1,103), first by winning percentage (.713) and first by regional championships (29).
No area girls basketball programme has won more. The next is Wethersfield Flying Geese, on 824.
Galesburg Silver Streaks have converted ten of those 29 regional titles into a sectional championship, losing at that stage nineteen times.
The five state trophies in the cabinet are among only twelve won by area girls basketball programmes in total.
Full comparisons for every programme, plus conference structure, season dates and how the Illinois postseason works, are on our area girls basketball guide.
By the numbers
| Games on record | 1,548 |
| Recorded seasons | 54 |
| Average wins per season | 20.4 |
| Average games per season | 29 |
| Regional titles | 29 |
| Share of all area regionals | 25.9% |
| Years since last regional | 0 |
The most recent regional title is the freshest in the area — a live piece of form rather than history.
Send us results
Rosters, schedules, scores, corrections, photographs — send them and they go up with credit. We correct errors the same day we learn about them.
All-time record, championship years and state finishes from the IHSA’s per-school record page at ihsa.org, with the school total arithmetically verified against its individual season rows — the 34 coach subtotals sum exactly to 1,103-445 across 54 years. Coaching and schedule detail from MaxPreps team pages, retrieved September 2026. Corrections posted the same day.
