If you watched on the TV what some have called one of the best prep football games, last weekend's Antioch versus Glenbard South thrilling overtime game, you heard one of the announcers time after time mispronounce Sequoits as Sequats --- even after he was corrected by his fellow broadcaster.
Perhaps the pronouncer was confused between Sequats and Sasquatch, those mysterious manimals that supposedly reside in the wilds of Oregon, Washington State and northern California. We know better and know that such creatures do not exist along Sequoit Creek.
It matters little if the Antioch squad are called Sequats or Sequoits. The Hound predicts they will be victorious against a tough and nimble Lemont team known by the not-so-politically correct moniker of Indians. It will be a tough-fought battle and close, but the Sequats, er, Sequoits will make the championship game against Springfield Griffin, which The Hound is also picking to beat Providence.
Antioch defeated Glenbard South 28-27 in that overtime game and has a 12-0 record going into today's game at Lemont. How about a good baker's dozen of victories to take into the 6A championship game?
It can be done and most Sequoit fans will be there to see it as they travel well, even though it is a trek to Lemont. Isn't Kankakee the next stop down that way?
The Hound expects to see a rabid Sequoit defense attack the Lemont Native Americans and stop them in their moccasined tracks. Be prepared for that victory convoy, folks, because The Hound says: Antioch 20, Lemont 14.
The not-so-politically correct moniker of Indians? I Thought The Sequoits are so named after the Sequoit Indian tribe?
THE HOUND SEZ: John-John, we hardly knew ye. There is no Sequoit tribe, argal, Lemont might have won Saturday's showdown, but their moniker remains politically incorrect.
Here's the lowdown on the Sequoit name, right from the horse's mouth, i.e., Antioch High:
"There is no Native American tribe named “Sequoit” (pronounced see-kwoyt) or any Native American word for that matter. Though the word “sequoit” has Native American origins, the story behind the name is a complicated and confusing one. Fred Willman explained in his in-depth book examining Illinois high school nicknames, “Why Mascots Have Tales”, “The word Sequoit is a form of spelling of the Iroquois Indian word Sa-da-quoit, which was the name the Iroquois Indians gave to a stream that flows through Oneida County in New York state. In the Iroquois language, Sa-da-quoit literally means ‘smooth pebbles in the bed of a stream.’ When white settlers moved into Oneida County, they modified the spelling and pronunciation of the stream to Sauquoit Creek.
"Antioch’s first settlers, Darius and Thomas Gage, traveled west from Oneida County, and named the stream that ran past their land “Sequoit Creek” because it reminded them of Sauquoit Creek back home."
So actually, a Sequoit is a creek or pebbles in a creek --- not a tribe.