Tuesday night at the Dog Pound: 7 o'clock: North Chicago vs. Waukegan. Bragging rights and the best w-l record in the county will belong to the winner.
So, how do you keep focused on this weekend's games when Tuesday's monster tilt is looming?
That's the challenge facing Waukegan's coaching staff and North Chicago coach "King" Coleman.
Coleman's team faces Grant on Saturday night, while Waukegan will battle Maine South in Park Ridge on Friday.
Those opponents are not the kind that our kids seem to get fired up to play.
Hopefully, Ron Ashlaw will have his club focused, and hopefully "King" will have his club ready.
Then, let the talking about Tuesday night begin!
January 2009 Archives
Here's what's spinning regarding competitive cheerleading in The Locker Room.
Why don't the judges announce the score for each team immediately after the routine.
That would build suspense as you are watching your team and trying to see if it can top, let's say an 88.0 that was scored earlier. The announcer could say, Team A needs an 87.2 to take the lead. Ladies you may take the floor! Then, the fans in the stands can try to determine in their own mind if the routine is worth 87.2 or 77.2.
Here's the other thing. We need to allow raucous cheering in the stands. The idea of staying quiet during a cheer/dance routine is silly. Having the bleachers packed with energized student-fans who are screaming their lungs out for their BFF's on the mat would bring an entirely different dynamic to the competition.
Here in The Locker Room, we see this as the huge problem regarding Waukegan, North Chicago & Zion-Benton not having head football coaches as of Jan. 14, 2009.
Over at Maine South and Stevenson and Lake Zurich and Glenbrook South, etc., you can bet the football players who do not play a winter sport are in the weight room daily, with their progress monitored by the fb coach.
The kids are on specific programs and you can bet your last quarter that the head coach is keeping close tabs on making sure all the players show up.
Some of our kids may take weight-training as a gym class, but that is not the same as the position-specific workouts designed by a top-quality fb program.
Every day that passes, our teams are falling farther and farther behind. And, heck, we are starting out behind from the get-go. It's tough to talk playoffs in August when your team hasn't put the work in in November, December, January and February.
Every fb coach will tell you championship teams come together in the off-season ... not in August when practice begins.
We are very worried.
Let's say you are an accomplished assistant football coach at a successful high-school program and you are ready to move up to the next level and head your own program.
Currently, the list of head-coach openings in our area includes Zion-Benton, Waukegan and North Chicago.
If you had your pick of jobs, which one would you take?
In The Locker Room, we think the North Chicago job may best best in terms of having the best chance at winning games.
Waukegan has some built-in losses in its Central Suburban League South Division schedule, and Z-B has some built-in losses in its North Suburban Conference Lake Division schedule.
There are no built-in losses on the North Chicago schedule.
For that reason alone, the NC job looks to be the best.
In The Locker Room, as of now, Zion-Benton is still the pick to survive what is shaping up to be the best IHSA Waukegan Sectional ever in terms of the quality of the four teams there.
Of the four teams, Z-B has players who know what it takes to win a sectional and super-sectional. There is no substitute for experience.
As for Waukegan, do not be shocked if sophomore sparkplug Aaron Johnson becomes the invaluable sixth man for the Dogs, giving them high-octane energy off the bench. That would move freshman Akeem Springs into the starting lineup which will make the team bigger and stronger on the boards. If you think about it, Waukegan is sort of in the same spot this year that Z-B was last year -- 5 of top 6 players will be back next year.
Finally, at tourney time, you win with a great point guard. Z-B has the best around in Ronald Steward.
