"At the time it was really hard to get Lutheran players and their film, the more we watched him, and give credit to Will Jenkins of course, he made all the decisions and I knew how much he liked him, but I just think it was like the fearlessness, at such a young age." Seamus McCarthy said.
"I was on a couple AAU sqauds, and I felt like my potential wasn't being used to the max, and people began to think that I was getting over confident in my own ablities, so I decided that I was going to be a starting point guard, and for a team I knew I could help." McCaffrey said.
Conor McCaffrey joined Springfield at the age of 12 back in 2017, after spending 3 years with the Predators Elite program, where he scored a total of 200 points in 3 seasons and started just 4 of the 99 games he appeared in. Coach Will Jenkins and manager Timothy Allen decided to take a massive gamble on an unknown basketball prospect from the Lutheran Sports Association, who began his professional AAU career with a bang.
"The first time we saw him was when he played in the Nike Hoops Summit, and he would have just been turning 12. If you split the Illinois AAU teams in half, there were probably half of the teams who were willing to give him a chance, and half of the teams that weren't." Manager Timothy Allen said.
"We had him come in for a workout, Timothy and I were so excited, we had never seen him play in person." McCarthy said.
"My first workout didn't go very well, I had just gotten back from Florida and gotten off a flight just a couple hours earlier, and I was sluggish to start off." Conor said.
"We had coach Jenkins kid, who was a couple years too young to play for our team, but he was always around. Anyways he beat the crap out of Conor in that workout, and it wasn't the thing we wanted to see." Allen added.
"My very first impression was that he was maybe not as tough as he needed to be." Coach Jenkins said.
"Coach Jenkins didn't want to see me again, he just thought I was too soft and that I wasn't going to make it, that I just didn't have what it took to make it, and Timothy really insisted that he wanted to see me a second time. Because Timothy and Seasmus where the ones who watched me play in the Hoop Summit and saw my film, and I'm not even sure Coach Jenkins even watched the film." Conor said while laughing.
"I think Timothy was so disappointed, because he really liked Conor." McCarthy said.
"Seamus and I were big fans, and the day of the first workout, it went so poorly, that I was beging Conor's father Sean, saying we need to get him back in, we will schedule the sunday before the season begins. Anyways he gets injured and he misses a couple of teams workouts, to where only ours is left. Somehow Sean sent him back to us and he was just amazing, even though he was really banged up." Timothy Allen said.
"He able to convience me after a workout or two that I was totally wrong." Coach Jenkins said.
"After the workout ends and Conor leaves. We were standing in the parking lot, Timothy, myself and Coach Jenkins. We were just kinda looking around and just waiting for someone to say something, because I think we all realized what we saw." Seamus said.
" Coach Jenkins walks outside, grabs Seamus and I, and says 'That kid is a starting point guard in the AAU'" Timothy Allen said.
"We spent the whole week trying to convience others that Conor wasn't ready for these other teams, because we knew that we needed him on our team." Seasmus said.
"I was very close to going to HOI, it was almost a done deal, but at the last minute, I decided against it." Conor said.
"My first impression? Skinny little white kid, who could shoot and having him call plays, in his first ever real season and real AAU action caught me off-guard." longtime teammate Chandler Dawes said.
"Back then, AAU players had very little respect for players who were playing the Lutheran Sports Association, it was considered childish basketball, at the time." Conor said.
"Having to deal with Coach Jenkins, at that age, in that role, running the whole offense at that young of an age with the lack of experience, he took it and he grew, and he became a leader and he slowly became a star, its a remarkable story." Teammate Paul Hammond said
"That might just be the most remarkable thing about Conor, I mean you can see his talent and his knowledge for the game, and how he shoots and finishes at the rim, and his hard work effort, but his maturity level was off the charts, and he knew how to handle himself off the court. He was able to handle critcism, because I was very very tough on him, and he just took it all in and got better and better, and got tougher and tougher, and at that young age, he was pretty remarkable." Coach Jenkins said.