May 2008 Archives

Plenty of mistakes are made in The Locker Room.

But the response made recently about former Niles West High hoops star Nik Garcia cannot go without comment.

Nik Garcia, one of the top prep basketball players in the state, is about to finish his junior year at Niles West High. He has ALREADY announced that he is transferring from Niles West because the hoops program is, in his words, "a shambles." That makes him a soon-to-be FORMER Niles West High hoops star.

The hope here is that he works his way up the shoreline and lands at Waukegan High. We can use him!

If you want to rank Brandon Paul of Warren as the No. 1 soon-to-be-senior boys basketball player in the state, go for it. After all, he is committed to the University of Illinois.

Brandon is not the problem.

Nor is ranking former Niles West star Nik Garcia No. 10.

However, when Web site ChicagoHoops.com lists the top 30 soon-to-be-senior boys basketball players in the state and does NOT include Zion-Benton High's Ronald Steward on it, the list is wrong.

That is as a bad an omission as you will see on any list of top players this season.

Terrible.

Waukegan High athletic director Dave Perkins may be way, way, way too conservative for some tastes, and may be a stickler for the letter of the IHSA law in a community in which we're pretty used to following the spirit of the law.

But you've got to give the guy credit for focusing on the all-important job of making sure as many of our Bulldog athletes as possible get to put their athletic skills to use at the collegiate level.

One of the key things a high school athletic program can do is make sure a school's student-athletes get a chance to take their game and brain to the next level.

In just one year on the job, Perkins has made a special point of making sure that happens ... and Waukegan's student-athletes -- now and in future years -- will benefit from it by getting an all-important college education.

So while Perkins sadly continues to not lead the bandwagon to get lights and artificial turf for the school's football field, our Bulldog cap is tipped in his direction for putting the school's student-athletes in position to succeed at the next level.

You probably don't have to look any further than Libertyville High, where the dynamic duo coaching team of Tiffany Taylor (head) and Laura Allen (assistant) has recently taken over.
The two have spent the last couple of years coaching cheerleading at Round Lake High, where they've been fighting a losing battle on a couple of fronts.
The change to Libertyville should energize them as well, plus they will now have the numbers to work with that they couldn't get at Round Lake.
Also, with Stevenson's longtime coach now retired, there is an opportunity for Libertyville to step up and join the ranks of the elite cheer programs in the North Suburban Conference.
The guess is that is exactly what will happen.

On the list of sports that are getting better as they're getting older, high-school softball is right at the top.
Back in the day, the sport was all about having a pitcher who could throw bullets and every batter was a walk or strikeout.
Then, came the slap-happy generation in whcih every girl was taught to bat left-handed and do this thing where they start running to first and slapping at the pitches with their aluminum bats.
Now, the sport has finally evolved to where it's actually very entertaining. The hitting has caught up to the pitching, and big thumpers who can turn games around with one swing of the bat are now integral in every lineup. That has also put a premium on defense. There have been more great defensive plays made in the last five college World Series than there were in the 20 prior years.
Defense, hitting and the infusion of the long ball have made this a very entertaining sport.

Can't think of a single reason why Zion-Benton High sophomore basketball star Lenzelle Smith needs to make a hasty decision about where he's going to play college basketball.

One of the top students in his class academically, the 6-3 guard/forward has already reportedly been offered scholarships by Illinois, Northwestern, Southern Illinois and Purdue.

That said, best he wait so that he can size up where he will best fit in at the next level.

There is no rush. As in just about everything in life, haste in recruiting makes for waste.

Good luck Lenzelle.

P.S. -- I luv the DePaul Blue Demons