Sports: November 2008 Archives

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.

From the looks of the story The Hound read in the paper, any hope for supporters of Orchard Hills returning as a golf course next year are slim and none. As Dan Rather said in 2000 during election night as Al Gore's hopes vanished: "Slim just left town."

The Waukegan Park District is seeking bids for the first phase of the planned sports complex and they're due early next month. R.I.P., Orchard Hills. The first phase will be preparing the land for the multi-use fields at the site off Green Bay Road. Work begins in earnest come spring with an opening expected in about a year.

If duffers still bemoaning the fact of the golf course's demise need any reminder of why Orchard Hills is being turned into a soccer/baseball/football field destination they got one recently. Bloomberg News Service reported last week that the U.S. golf industry is facing a sense of "urgency" and has embarked on a five-year plan to entice beginners to the game in the midst of an economic downturn.

Part of the lure, Bloomberg says the World Golf Foundation is undertaking, is to have 5,000 golf course across the nation offer $99 introductory packages that include golf lessons, coaching, etiquette of the game, etc. They hope to find 700,000 new golfers to play 5.7 million rounds of golf.

Bloomberg also notes golf participation in the U.S. fell to 26 million in 2005, a four million count drop from 2000. This according to the National Golf Foundation, which also determined about three million golfers quit playing each year and several hundred of the 3,000 new golf courses building between 1990 and 2003 have closed.

Is there any wonder, then, that Orchard Hills was given a death sentence? Oh, and if you want a good fish fry, try The Shanty in Wadsworth. The Hound chews on the bluegill.

In the middle of prep football playoffs and girls' volleyball playoffs, The Hound learns there is a prep bass fishing tournament for high school anglers. Huh? What's next, hunting tournaments?

Perhaps The Hound is old school, but what gives with this Illinois High School Association sanctioning bass fishing. Must have been a big lobbying push by the downstate schools near those big impoundments of Rend Lake or Carlyle Lake. What else could be behind this?

OK, The Hound knows California high schools have surf teams and schools in Wyoming, Montana, Texas and other Western states have rodeo teams which compete in tournaments. Some Western colleges even offer rodeo scholarships.

But bass fishing? This sounds fishy, yet Antioch, Grant, Grayslake North, Warren, Lakes, Libertyville, Wauconda, Waukegan and Zion-Benton are fielding bass fishing teams. Betcha that letterman's sweater is tough to come by.

And what happened to Mundelein High? Diamond Lake has plenty of fish for practice sessions. Or it used to.

The IHSA says 214 school across Illinois have signed up for next spring's bass tourney. Start practicing now, folks, and sharpen those hooks. The Hound knows some preps who might like to see fish finders under the Christmas tree. Even so, it's still fishy.

The Hound surely likes prep football as well as any other mutt, but this football playoff system is causing a case of the fantods. This system is dragging out longer than the NBA playoffs. Or worse, the NHL playoffs. At this rate, Antioch's fine Sequoit squad might be playing in December for the 6A state title.

It's taken the Sequoits several weeks to get to the final four pairings and if they win again on Saturday against defending 6A state champ Lemont, they'll have to play another game for the title. Here's the problem: The IHSA.

The IHSA allows teams who win five games to be playoff eligible. Five games? Who can't win five games? OK, the once-mighty Mundelein Mustangs didn't and haven't for a few years. But what gives with the five games? Less teams in the pool means less games and a quicker route to the championship.

Unless the IHSA is hoping to boost attendance and gate receipts for area high schools. If so, say so from the start and don't dance around the end zone about why these playoffs drag out until the gales of November, along with snow showers, are blowing.

Joe Maddon takes the Tampa Bay Rays to the World Series in October and is named American League Manager of the Year. Lou Piniella's Cubs get swept in three games by the Dodgers and the North Siders' skipper is named National League Manager of the Year. What's wrong with this picture?

Shouldn't Charlie Manuel, who guided the Philadelphia Phillies, to the team's second World Series title, have been named NL manager of the year? Piniella took the Cubs to the playoffs for the second straight year and the team got swept for the second straight year, leaving Cubs' fans with the same plaint: Wait until next year.

The Hound says this latest award, Piniella's third --- he won with the Seattle Mariners in '95 and '01 --- certainly isn't for raising the Cubs' level of play in the post-season. Surely, Piniella didn't lobby for it, did he?

Manuel just got the shaft from the baseball writers and Phillies' fans in the City of Brotherly Love should be irate. The Hound is a Cubs fan and is irate at this snub for a job well done by Manuel's labor.