Way, way back in the day, the IHSA used to group teams for its IHSA basketball tournament into four-team regionals based solely on geography.
The four teams often grouped together in the northeast corner of the state were Zion-Benton, Waukegan, Warren and North Chicago.
Imagine if the IHSA still was using that system in 2007-2008.
Given the strength of those four teams this year, how valuable would a ticket to that regional be?
Geez, are you old Bonato. Next thing you will want is no 3-point line, short shorts and games in which both teams score in just the 30s and 40s. Me, I'm a big fan of high-flying hoops which is always successful come state tournament time.
Where do I sign the petition to make this happen???!!!
I Blame ISHA for a very Non-Green (enviromental)travel plan, and a very costly one to our athetic programs.
In the day and age where there are constant school tax increases, program cuts, national recession, drop in property values, and rising gas prices.
Why are Waukegan athletic programs sitting in more than an hour's traffic (each way) to play a game that takes less time to play?
Think about it, you leave school at 4:30pm to play at 6pm, and then get back by 8pm!!!
Combined 2 hours on the road, I would love to see a cost study done on the current confrence travel costs versus the one in this article. Probably more than $30,000 a year.... maybe over a quarter of a million dollars over 10 years!!!
When I commented that I had mentioned this to you in an e-mail a few days earlier, you told me about an upcoming column in which another person and I would be credited, but that turned out to be about Zion-Benton having been in the Proviso West tournament before, not about this.