This ongoing debate about Grayslake Central High's old varsity boys basketball coach and its new basketball coach ... well, over here in The Locker Room, we have decided it is a stalement.
Nobody's going to announce what specifically got Tim Bowen fired, and the generalities being spewed regarding his dismissal, unfortunately, don't sound any worse than what goes on at every school in the state and don't seem like grouinds to whack him.
So, since nobody's going to talk, there's no place to go with this.
In The Locker Room, there is concern for the kids who play hoops at GCHS who are following this debate online. This can't be a positive for them.
As for the school board that did the whacking, these people don't get paid. They are volunteers so it's pretty hard to pick on them. You have to be pretty cool to volunteer as much time as it takes to be on a school board. If they made a bad choice in whacking Bowen, then make sure the board members get whacked themselves at the next election. The key thing is to make sure the kids on the team are happy and are put in the best possible position to be successful on the court next winter. We in The Locker Room are rooting for them. The rest of you can fend for yourselves.
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Thursday night, Grayslake's high-school board hired Grayslake Central assistant varsity basketball coach Brian Moe as head coach for the 2008-2009 season.
Moe, of course, is replacing Tim Bowen, who was ousted for reasons that were not related to the team's 22-win, Fox Valley Conference and regional championship season last winter.
Moe inherits a talented, veteran squad that is expected to challenge North Chicago for Class 3A supremecy in our area next season.
Before coming to Grayslake, Moe worked as a lower-level coach at Mundelein High.
What do you think Ram fans?
In The Locker Room, we sort of look at this as a no-choice situation. At this late date, the board pretty much had to go in-house to find a coach, just as North Chicago had to go in-house to hire a varsity football coach a couple of weeks ago.
In any case, we are rooting for the kids at GCHS to have a success and happy season.
Way too much Locker Room chatter regarding the hiring practices for coaches at North Chicago High, with King Coleman coming under siege in some quarters.
Truth is, King managed to keep almost all his players academically eligible for all of last season, which is no easy feat. Not only that, but his team won 25 games.
The guess is that King spends more time with his players during non-school and non-practice situations than he does at the regular school/practice times.
Coaching at NC High is not easy and it certainly isn't like coaching at other schools in our a area.
Do we like King in The Locker Room. That's obvious.
But more importantly, we respect him for the job he's trying to do for the NC kids.
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The buzz in The Locker Room is that longtime hoops coach Jerry Thornton -- who has tons of hoops-coaching experience (like more than 25 years at all sorts of levels, including high school and juco) -- is a possible replacement for Tim Bowen at the wheel at Grayslake Central.
Thornton reportedly has been coaching of late with the Kessel's Heat youth hoops program and has worked with some of the current members of Grayslake Central's hoops team.
We shall stay tuned.
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.
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.
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.
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.
