With one mighty stroke of genius, Waukegan High athletic director Dave Perkins has improve TWO basketball programs at Waukegan.
First, he moved varsity assistant boys basketball coach Windell Piercy to the position of varsity head coach of the Waukegan girls team, replacing Mr. Drake, who had to step down after being promoted to an assistant-principal position at the school.
Piercy is a solid choice to keep the Bullldogs' program on the upswing, a tract that started under Drake. And while some segments of the community might be pining for veteran Jim Askew to return to coach the girls team, the feeling here is that Windell knows his hoops and that the program will continue to improve.
That done, Perkins then nabbed Tim Bowen to fill Piercy's former seat on the Waukegan High hoops bench next to second-year varsity boys head coach Ron Ashlaw.
A brilliant move. Bowen is a hard-nosed, no-nonsense type of coach who brings to the table some of the things that were missing from Ashlaw's bag last winter. The gut feeling is that this will be a match made in heaven.
Or, to put it another way, look out Zion-Benton!
Recently in Girls basketball Category
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.
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.
After three days of IHSA Class 3A and Class 4A girls basketball action, here are some things we know that we didn’t know before.
There is way too big of a gap between the top teams and the second-tier teams in high school girls basketball. Actually, it’s the exact same way in college, but we aren’t talking college here.
Along comes Monday night, a first-ever victory for Lakes High’s girls basketball team after 84 consecutive losses. And just how did the Eagles celebrate on the court after the game?
They’re not the biggest. They’re not the best. But no team in our area this season has brought more smiles to this tired ol’ face than the Lake Forest High’s girls basketball team.
Besides us over here in this tiny corner of the world?
Just a reminder to the girls playing varsity basketball at Warren High in Gurnee. An overtime loss and a pedestrian-like six-point win over a conference opponent do NOT signal the start of the end of the world
This area’s four best prep girls basketball teams – Warren, Waukegan, Grant and Mundelein – are a combined 13-0 so far in holiday tourney action.
