July 2008 Archives

Tony Stewart picked the No. 14 for the side of his new car when he abandons the Home Depot No. 20 car and changes NASCAR driving teams next year.
What number would YOU choose to put on the side of your race car ... and why?
If there was a race car in The Locker Room, it would definitely have 14 1/2 on the side. It's a number that serves as a personal reminder that it is a losing Locker Room.

Here in The Locker Room, we luv the Chicago Wolves minor-league hockey team.We especially love the team's logo, team colors.and the fact that they play at the old Horizon in Rosemont which is E-Z to get to.
Alas, the team seems to be heading in the wrong direction since winning the league championship last spring.
The coach is gone, having been promoted to the NHL team in Atlanta.
The assistant coaches are gone.
The announcer is gone, as Pat Foley has bailed to go back to working for the Hawks.
The Blackhawks are stealing all the public thunder that there is for the sport in the area.
When are the Wolves going to bite back, er claw their way back into the public spotlight?

Regarding Grayslake Central boys b'ball coach Tim Bowen getting whacked by the Grayslake school board.
While a sad development, it apparently can happen to the best of them.
Refresh my memory on this, but it seems like a few years ago, there was some sentiment on the Warren High school board to whack Chuck Ramsey as Blue Devils varsity boys hoops coach.
Seems like the vote to retain him was something like 4-3 ... ridiculously too close for comfort for the area's best hoops coach.
The fact that 43 percent of the board members thought Chuck should go at that time goes to show that literally anything can happen.
As Bowen found out the hard way.

While the firing of Grayslake Central High basketball coach Tim Bowen was front/center all weekend, the fact of the matter is, North Chicago High's high-quality football program is now without a head coach as well.

Mike Grenda officially quit as coach last Thursday to take a job in the same school district as elementary-school principal.

Besides now being the most-tattooed school principal in the state, Grenda has left a h-u-g-e hole in the Hawks' football program. It's way too late to find a coach from outside the system, so they'll have to promote from within.

That thought has some of us in the Locker Room a bit nervous.

You can read what News-Sun sports columnist Jeff Bonato thinks Grayslake Central High should do next regarding its boys basketball mess by checking out his Extra Point in Monday's News-Sun (also available online).

Then, go ahead and send your comments regarding what YOU think Grayslake Central should do, now that they've apparently decided to whack the very good coach they already had in the system.

The Locker Room door is never locked.

Apparently, the Grayslake High school board late Thursday night voted 2-2 on the question of rehiring Tim Bowen as Central varsity boys basketball coach.
According to a reporter at the scene, the 2-2 vote means that Bowen is out as Rams coach after eight seasons, including a 22-7 campaign last year and the likelihood of a 25-win season next winter.
Unbelievable.
And not in a good way.

A year ago, Zion-Benton High DOMINATED summer-league hoops at CLC and we all saw what happened during the prep season.
Also incredibly strong last summer was North Chicago, and we saw what they did, going 25-5.

Not terribly impressive last summer were Waukegan and Warren -- two teams that didn't get the high-quality results during the prep season.

Dave Masterson actually wrote a column several Fridays ago noting how what happened last summer predicted almost perfectly what was going to occur during the regular prep season.

We think that is going to be the case again this year. Z-B very good, but North Lawndale of Chicago (nowmoving up to Class 3A after winning Class 2A last year) blocking North Chicago from making it to Peoria, unless the draw sends N. Lawndale to the other half of the bracket.

Also, Waukegan has had uneven results this summer, and we expect the Bulldogs to be an up-and-downer during the prep season. And Warren has shown that it is still looking for four players to put around Brandon Paul ... a situation which most certainly is going to exist in the early stages of the winter campaign.

Girls basketball in our area ... this is one of the things that happens when the major sport during that season, in this case, boys basketball, is in the midst of its glory days. The other sports become an afterthought.

Sarah Boothe and Zion/Waukegan standout Bianca Jarrett gave the sport some buzz for the last couple of years, but for 2008-2009, we are hurtin' for certain in terms of teams with any kind of shot at all of contending for even a sectional title.

Danasha Jenkins at Waukegan High .... I've seen her play and she has potential to be a very good one ... and Round Lake's LaBrenthia Murdock has game. But in terms of our big-school programs -- Stevenson, Warren, Lake Zurich, Grant -- will all be down and way down this coming winter.

Should be a lot of good ones around this fall.
Waukegan has Mar'Quezie Edmonds
Warren has Zach Shaw
Stevenson has the lefty returning
Zion-Benton has a junior back who saw saw times last year
Lake Forest has the Rees kid who was part-time QB as a sophomore and finished season
Deerfield has a kid back with experience

Interesting to watch should be the kid at Zion-Benton High. After back-to-back 1-8 seasonss, word in The Locker Room is that Z-B will be able to move the ball through the air effectively.
We shall see.

In The Locker Room, we feel like summer hoops does give a true indication of what's going to happen during the prep season.

And people who've been following North Chicago this summer say they're going to be better than they were last year.

As for Z-B, some are saying that the graduation of Rodney Clinkscales is gong to hurt more than you might think. It might make it easier to double-team star point guard Ronald Steward, make him give up the ball and create some turnovers.

By the way, in The Locker Room, our pick to lead the area in scoring average next winter is Mundelein junior guard Ben Brust.

Saw Warren High's sophomores KO Lake Zurich on the road last fall. Couple that with fact that many of the Blue Devils' varsity players are returning and you have to think that the mighty Blue will be in the mix for the NSC Lake title this fall.

LZ definitely will come back to the pack, although the kids who were part of last year's club understand the work ethic and intensity it takes to win. Intensity & effort will take you far on the gridiron.

Seems like Lake Forest had an underclassmen at QB early in the season last fall who was throwing the ball all over the field while playing in a roation with a senior. Then, as the season began to crumble a bit, the underclassman seemed to lose a bit of his playing time.

Gotta give North Chicago High's hoops team credit for beating Zion-Benton on Tuesday in the semifinals of the CLC summer league tournament. Alas, the Hawks ran out of gas and lost in the finals to North Lawndale from the Chicago Public League in what could have been a preview of next March's IHSA Class 3A state championship game.

The thing that hurts NC is a lack of height. Basically, the team plays with four guards and small-forward Joshua Wright.

Teams with size like North Lawndale will give the Hawks trouble all year.

The trick for coach King Coleman is to get his swarming, lightning-fast team to frustrate bigger opponents. It's the only path the Hawks have to Peoria.

Remember when Z-B High's powerhouse hoops teams played at Chicago Mather at Thanksgiving, Luther North at Christmas, and slated non-league games against NSC teams from the other division plus Germantown, Wis.
How times have changed! This year, the Bees have as tough a schedule as you can possibly get.
Interesting, though, that Z-B is NOT playing in any of the gimmick games -- doubleheaders put together by companies trying to make a buck that are played at Loyola or Northwestern or the big new arena in Hoffman Estates, etc.
if you ask the promoters why Z-B isn't playing in any of those games, they'll tell you that Z-B fans don't travel. And they are only interested in teams that sell tickets.
It will be interesting to see if the Z-B Nation travels with its team to road games this season.
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By all accounts, Matt Vogrich is emerging as a prime-time player, and Kevin Berardini can get the job done at the point.
But Lake Forest hoops, of all area teams, seems to have more success at home and less success on the road than their team's skill level would suggest.
That bandbox of a gym they play in at home with the friendly rims makes them a threat to beat anyone there. But it's definitely not the same team on the road, and they'll never get a regional in that midget-like gym they now call home.
When the Scouts move to the renovated big gym on Waukegan Road, will the homecourt advantage go with them?
Don't know.
In a league that includes Z-B, Warren & LZ, LF is going to have to work to finish anywhere near the top.

A few years back, Z-B hoops was led for a season or two by Big Tim Baines. Many who knew the kid thought he'd be an NFL player if he decided to play OT or TE. Instead, he played hoops only and is not going to the NBA.
Now, the same thing is being suggested regarding our gentle giant ... big Markus Yarbrough. Size-wise, he obviously would get it done in the O-line. But the kid really is just a nice, happy teen-ager who doesn't seem to have the mean streak in him that you want your football players to have.
Besides, we don't know how he'd react being part of a Z-B grid team that has won exactly two varsity games in the last two YEARS. Guarentee the gentle giant is not used to losing. It might have soured him on the sport, or cut down his drive to succeed.
You've got to admit, he's made HUGE strides in his conditioning from his sophomore year to now. Would he have worked as hard while part of a really bad grid program?
Don't know.

By all accounts, Matt Vogrich is emerging as a prime-time player, and Kevin Berardini can get the job done at the point.
But Lake Forest hoops, of all area teams, seems to have more success at home and less success on the road than their team's skill level would suggest.
That bandbox of a gym they play in at home with the friendly rims makes them a threat to beat anyone there. But it's definitely not the same team on the road, and they'll never get a regional in that midget-like gym they now call home.
When the Scouts move to the renovated big gym on Waukegan Road, will the homecourt advantage go with them?
Don't know.
In a league that includes Z-B, Warren & LZ, LF is going to have to work to finish anywhere near the top.

Highland Park's own Tim Loecke earned $257,334 for his 23rd-place finish (out of a starting field of more than 6,500) in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Loecke, who is sales manager at Staples in Highland Park, was badly short-stacked and went all in with a pair of sixes. He was busted by a pair of 3's that turned into a set on the turn.
This was his first-ever live poker tourney, as he is an on-line player. He won his entry into the WSOP main event by winning a qualifying tourney online that cost him $63 to enter.
Parlaying $63 into $257,000 in seven days ... not too shabby!

Proof positive that anything can happen in the World Series of Poker, being contestest as we speak in Las Vegas.
A local guy, Tim Loecke of Highland Park, has outlasted more than 6,000 other players in the main event and is in the final 27 (3 tables left) in the marathon event. This is the FIRST live event he's ever played in, as he's been an on-line player.
Anyone can enter the WSOP main event for $10,000, but Loecke got in by winning an on-line qualifying tournament that cost him $63 to enter.
If he's the next guy to bust out, he would win $257,334. Right now, Loecke is short-stacked, but he's been that way for the last day and has survived.
Locke is a sales manager for Staples. His dream is to make it to the final table (final 9 players).
You can follow the progress of Loecke and the other 26 today on Web site www.worldseriesofpoker.com.

On The Locker Room wall, we keep adding to our list. Here's what's on it so far, under the title "sports-related things we can do without."

10) anything to do with a rodeo
9) indoor pro lacrosse
8) the Chicago Sky (the Chicago skyline we can take, the hapless pro women's hoops franchise, we can leave)
7) any talk of bringing a minor, minor-league pro baseball franchise to Waukegan
6) The carnival midway game in which you have to shoot a regulation-size basketball through a rim the size of quarter.
5) indoor pro soccer
4) any positive talk about bringing the 2016 Olympics to Chicago
3) PGA Senior Tour golf
2) rhythmic swimming
1) People who refuse to come over to watch the Bears game at your place because you don't have a giant-screen, high-def. TV.

The varsity team won exactly one time last year, and only got that win because Vernon Randolph was ineligible at the time at Round Lake High. Otherwise, Antioch High's boys basketball team would have been 0-for-the-season under first-year coach Mike Skinner.

So, what did the Antioch hoops braintrust do?

They got the team into the Luther North Christmas tournament.

If you're scoring at home, the Sequoits are replacing Zion-Benton in the 16-team field, but that's not the important thing.

This is: In The Locker Room, we are guaranteeing that the Sequoits will go at least 2-2 in that four-day event. It sure beats going 0-4 at Oak Park-River Forest every December!
For a team that won once all of last year, putting yourself in position to be successful is VITAL. And Antioch's done just that.

Last year, Grant High's Bulldogs went 9-0 during the regular season and Wauconda's Bulldogs made the playoffs for the first time in a long, long time.

This year, it's Waukegan's Bulldogs' turn.

The word in The Locker Room is that the team's offensive line is huge and the team will be able to pass the ball all over the field.

The three areas of concern are: 1) running back; 2) linebacking; 3) kicking.
To fix No. 3, Waukegan's coach should be working with the school's soccer coach NOW to find someone who can kick field goals and kick off into the end zone.

As for finding quality linebackers, that's why Waukegan will probably play a lot of 28-27 games this fall.. We our side having the 28, of course.\

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The word spreading in The Locker Room is that the Grayslake High School board did NOT re-hire Tim Bowen as Grayslake Central High's varsity boys coach.

Problem is, no one seems to know for sure. Players and parents passing through The Locker Room seem to think he's out. Yet, we fully expect to see him on the bench coaching the Rams in summer league hoops tonight at CLC.

What's the story? Anybody at that board meeting? The guess in The Locker Room is that they "tabled" his re-hiring because the school's new athletic director -- the likeable Tom Kim -- hadn't yet started his new job and that maybe Bowen will be re-hired at the next board meeting. But that's just a guess.

For the record, the Rams won 22 games last season.
Also for the record, Tim Bowen knows what he's doing as a coach.