Expectations in The Locker Room are for 8-3 this year -- that's 7-2 regular season, plus a first-ever playoff win.
We really need to get ball rolling on raising money to bring in portable lights so we can play that first-round playoff game at home on a Friday night. Entire city would be there.Friday of Round 1 of playoffs is Halloween. That would be a-w-e-s-o-m-e.
Anyway, Waukegan has TWO NCAA Division I-calibre receivers: No. 83 is Denzell Ray, who started last year. No. 80 is Mar'Quon Edmonds, brother of the QB. Both catch E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Both are B-I-G and basically not coverable.
In The Locker Room, we are thinking "aerial circus" as the FUN returns to Weiss Field.
Now, if we can get those portable lights ordered ...
After 16-plus years as pretty much the face of Chicago sport-talk radio station WSCR -- the score -- Mike North has been relieved of his duties as morning drive-time host.
In The Locker Room, the view is that it, indeed, was time for him to go.
North deserves a ton of credit for stretching his 15 minutes of fame into 16 years. But the truth is, he carved out his radio niche being the voice of the common man -- the hot-dog vendor, if you will. Only, over time, he no longer was the common man.
And when he crossed that line from common man to elitest, the ball game, so to speak, was over.
Same thing actually happened to longtime Chicago radio personalities Johnny Brandmeier and Steve Dahl. While they both are still around, there ratings are infantismile compared to back 15-20 years ago when they RULED the airwaves. Now, they are time and space fillers.
Both of them, like North, carved out their niche as the common man. And then, due to their success, they weren't so common anymore.
The only radio guy who actually was able to pull off that common-man thing after striking it rich was the late Bob Collins on WGN. Don't know why he was able to pull it off, but he's the only one we in The Locker Room can remember being able to do it.
With Bob Stone now at the wheel at Mundelein High for the departed Dave Whitson, and John Coursey now in charge at Round Lake High for the departed Doug Moss, every area prep football team currently has a head coach.
But for how long.
In The Locker Room, whispers suggest one more coaching shoe may be about to drop ... and this one will have nothing to do with the team having a mediocre won-loss record.
Stay tuned.
Here's a numbers comparison between East Suburban Catholic Conference football playoff success and North Suburban Lake playoff success in the five years that we've had the current East Suburban Catholic Conference and an NSC Lake.
In that time, the ESCC has had 5 teams reach the semifinal round of the IHSA playoffs and the NSC Lake has had 4 teams reach the semis.
They are: Joliet Catholic in 2003, 2004 & 2007; and Carmel in 2003 & 2007.
They are: Libertyville in 2003 & 2004, and Lake Zurich in 2006 & 2007.
In those five years, two NSC Lake teams have won state titles, and FOUR ESCC teams have won state titles.
And while there obviously are pushovers in the ESCC, there's also cannon fodder floating around every other league, as well.
Consider the case of Grant High basketball coach John Eiduke.
He played basketball for Grant High in the 1990s, and eventually worked his way back home, so to speak, where, for the last seven years, he served as coach of Grant High's sophomore boys basketball team.
That would, you would guess, make him a solid candidate to become Grant High's varsity boys basketball coach, if/when veteran coach Phil Ralston dedided it was time to move on.
Alas for John, the coach of Grant High's varsity GIRLS basketball team, Phil Oeffling, stepped down in the early spring, creating an opening.
Eiduke, ever qualified, was hired as the rock-solid choice to take over the Bulldogs' girls varsity program.
Alas, two months later, Ralston announced he was leaving his Grant varsity BOYS basketball job to take the same position at Geneva High. That created an opening that, if it had been there two months earlier, you have to wonder if Eudike wouldn't have been the perfect fit for the BOYS program.
But because he just got the girls job, he obviously couldn't even be considered for the boys job, which should be filled soon.
If the coaching vacancies had occurred in a different order ...
As they say, timing is everything.
Maybe the steam from the shower in The Locker Room has fogged things up, but we just don't see how the East Suburban Catholic Conference can be considered over-rated in football.
1) Joliet Catholic is one of the best programs in the state. Period.
2) Our Carmel Corsairs have won at least one playoff game in 6 of the last 7 years that they qualified
3) Marian Catholic's overall won-loss playoff record in football is 24-17
4) Marist has won at least one playoff game in each of the last five years it has qualified
5) St. Viator has won at least one playoff game in 4 of the last 5 years it has qualified
That's a pretty strong top half of the league. while St. Joseph is feeble, you can find a doormat in every league, including the North Suburban Lake.
Year in and year out, the Corsairs are consistently good ... and sometimes very good. The ESCC is not a cupcake league, witness Joliet Catholic's stack of state grid titles.
And if you're scoring at home, another solid two-run of big success is coming up for the Brown & Gold on the gridiron.
Besides, they are the only are high school with 30-second play clocks visible behind both end zones which enhances the fans' enjoyment of the game.
What is interesting is that both Joliet Catholic and Carmel are powers in football and baseball, and both struggle in basketball. St. Joseph can't beat anyone in football or baseball but is a basketball power. Apparently, it's impossible to be really good consistently at all three.
Especially the school's football program, which has opted to schedule a non-conference football game in each of the next two years against super-power Joliet Catholic because those two East Suburban Catholic Conference powers aren't scheduled to play during the regular season.
InThe Locker Room, we love it when powerhouse teams step up to meet a challenge rather than try to avoid it.
Carmel didn't HAVE to play Joliet Catholic... they WANTED to play Joliet Catholic.
What's that saying about how if you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best?
When it comes to prep fb around here, Carmel is the best!
When Warren High played in a boys basketball tournament last weekend in Champaign, two veteran viewers of the sport had vastly different opinions of how Blue Devil senior star Brandon Paul will fit in at the collegiate level (he's committed to the University of Illinois).
One thought he was the best player on the court on a day when prep stars were all over the court. The other thought he would never fit in at the next level.
The truth? Obviously, time will tell.
The good news for Brandon is that he has a true position -- "2" guard. The better news is he can shoot the rock from 3-point distance and he can also beat a defender on the dribble/drive to the bucket.
What remains to be seen is whether he can guard any "2" guards at the Big Ten level. His high school coach -- Chuck Ramsey -- is a defensive-minded coach and it will be interesting to see if Brandon becomes the basketball version of a "lock-down corner" in football. That is, the guy he's guarding -- a Ben Brust from Mundelein, for example,-- can't get open to get any shots off.
In other words, it won't be the points Brandon's scoring this winter that will be worth paying attention to. It will be the number of points scored by the guy he's guarding. Because at the Big Ten level, he's going to have to guard the best if he expects to play.
OK. Now that we've settled the issue regarding standout running back Greg Kennedy RETURNING to Warren High and NOT transferring to North Chicago High (that according to Greg's Mom, who would know), there's another rumor being churned regarding a successful and longtime area coach of a major sport not returning to his post next school year.
Look for an announcement in the very near future. It true, this will be sad. It also will be the coach's own choice, rather than some poor decision by a school-board.
For the record, the coach who may be out is NOT Waukegan High football coach Pat Jennings. Why would be step down when he's going to coach the Bulldogs to their first-ever playoff victory next October?
While it's true that Libertyville High finished fifth in the coed division at the IHSA state tournament, there are a couple of things to remember:
1) The one time last year that The Locker Room had its eyes peeled on cheer competitions, it was the North Suburban Conference meet, and Libertyville's performance was ordinary, at best. Stevenson, Lake Zurich, Antioch & Wauconda were all vastly better that day. That wasn't just the opinion in The Locker Room, it was also the opinion of the judges.
2) Do not criticize the efforts of Stevenson High's cheer squad, which didn't come up with a big number at state. No cheer squad in our area took more chances and had more difficulty in their routines than did the Patriots. That the girls didn't hit at state does not diminish the fact that the girls challenged themselves to be excellent and should be prasied for that.
College of Lake County has hit the motherload in terms of it Tuesday night prep boys basketball league. The field includes Zion-Benton, Warren, Waukegan, North Chicago, Libertyville, Lakes and Grayslake Central.
Play begins a week from Tuesday, with action going on from 5-10 p.m. each game night.
As for what to watch for, keep your eye out for players you DON'T recognize.
For example, is there a 6-foot-6 rebounder anywhere on the court for either North Chicago or Waukegan ... two teams that desperately need a tall, inside presence?
Summer league is the first time for players we're not familiar with to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
In The Locker Room, of course, we'll be watching closely.
