In last Friday's prep football game in the mud between host Zion-Benton & Lake Forest, there were 3 penalties called and excepted without having a single second tick off the clock.
Amazing.
Z-B kicked off and the pool of mud in the middle of the field caused the kicker to hesitate, resultilng in the kick-coverage players going offside. No time off clock.
The next kcikoff sailed into the end zone which was an automatic dead ball, but Z-B was called for a personal-foul penalty on the play which cost them 15 yards. No time off clock.
Lining up for its first-down play, Lake Forest's offense jumped offsides for a five-yard penalty. STILL no time off the clock.
3 penalties without a second being run off the clock.
Can you top that for an unusual occurance at a prep football game?
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This is one to debate for awhile ... especially if Lake Forest loses one more game this fall and thereby is not eligible for the IHSA football playoffs.
In last Friday's 43-42 overtime loss to unbeaten Warren, the Blue Devils won the game when, after scoring a TD in OT to pull within 42-41, decided to run for a no-guarantee-of-success two-point conversion that they made rather than opt for the virtually automatic one-point kick that would have tied the game and forced another OT.
Earlier, Lake Forest was in the exact same situation. After scoring a TD with 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter to pull within 35-34, the Scouts went for and made the one-point kick to tie the game and send the game into OT rather than attempt a no-guarantee-of-success two-point conversion that would have resulted in a 36-35 win or 35-34 loss.
Which coach was right? Warren's Dave Mohapp or Lake Forest's Chuck Spagnoli?
And remember: Warren pretty much could not stop Lake Forest's passing game and Lake Forest pretty much could not stop Warren's running game.
Prep boys basketball practice starts on Nov. 9.
That said, which area high schools figure to be missing hoops players at practice that date because the school's football team is still alive & in the second round of the IHSA playdowns?
Here's a short list: Vernon Hills & Antioch from the NSC Prairie; Lake Zurich & Stevenson from the NSC Lake: Carmel from the ESCC.
There's your Fab Five.
By the way, This will be the 21st straight year that Stevenson High coach Bill Mitz will have gotten the Patriots into the grid playoffs.
The coach most likely to better that record? Tony Monken at Vernon Hills.
Geez, you would think that after going 12-1 last year and creating a total football buzz in the community that Antioch could have done better with its football scheduling for 2009.
Alas, the Sequoits are collateral damage in the scheduling mess created by the Fox Valley Conference having a unwield 13-team league.
Forced to find two new opponents for non-conference games during Weeks 1 & 2 of the season, Antioch wound up settling for two road games -- at Streamwood & at Waukegan. Then, on Week 3, is yet another road game, this time at Warren.
All told, Antioch has just THREE homes games this fall because the North Suburban Conference crossover game against a Lakes Division team (Warren) is a home game for the Lakes Division.
Guess the Sequoits will have to make it up to their fans by hosting 2-3 playoff games.
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.
Heading into Round 2 of the IHSA football playoffs, there is ONE North Suburban Conference Lake Divison team left, and FOUR (Joliet Catholic, Carmel, Nazareth Academy & Marist) from the East Suburban Catholic Conference.
So, which league is tougher??????
That said, in the Locker Room, we like both our ESCC team (Carmel) and our NSC Lake team (Warren) to win again.
n Carmel 56, Woodstock 7 in the slop.
n Huntley 14, Grant 10 in the slop.
n Warren 35, Schaumburg 18 in the cold
n Antioch 42, Highland Park 28 in the cold
That would be 3 area teams in the quarterfinal round ... pretty darn impressive.
1) According to someone who's opinion can be respected, Nick Goshe is doing an outstanding job as he looks to change the losing culture that has overwhelmed the football program at Grayslake Central High. The Rams (1-17 under Goshe) may be outmanned, but the coach, according to the reliable source, is never outworked and outhustled. It should pay dividents down the road.
2) Of the 10 area prep football teams that have playoff games this weekend, only four are going to win.
You can pretty much figure out which four by youself. Only thing you really need to remember is that in The Locker Room, we drink a lot of Blue/Gold kool-aid.
For the record, after having gone 12-1 (Mundelein over Z-B ... who saw that coming) and 13-0 in picking prep football winners the last two weeks, it feels like the right time to take a week off.
Besides, that way, nobody in The Locker Room has to admit he thinks Evanston is going to beat Waukegan on Saturday.
Nore, will anybody in The Locker Room have to comment on the North Chicago/Wauconda game which looks like a 2-6 team playing a 35 team on paper, but there could be way more to it than that.
In any case, the prep football pairings will be announced on Saturday. There's a cable TV show from 8-10 p.m. that will show who plays who, but since the IHSA always does the classes in order from 1A to 8A, you don't need to watch until about 8:45.
Then, stop by The Locker Room, where, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, we will be chatting live about our playoff teams and who they might play in Rounds 2, 3 and 4 of the playoffs.
In The Locker Room, we've been studying the map of what the Fox Valley Conference Fox Division will look like next year with the league expands to 13 teams and realigns.
There will be 7 teams in the division: 2 in Woodstock, 1 in Johnsburg, 2 in Crystal Lake and 2 in Grayslake.
Question: What do the two Grayslake schools have in common with those five other schools?
Answer: It's a major, major hassle trying to get to any/all of them from beautiful downtown Grayslake on a weekday late afternoon, and it's a hassle for any of the five other teams to get to beautiful downtown Grayslake on a weekday late afternoon.
It's time, people, to push to somehow get into the North Suburban Conference, expanding that league from 14 to 16 teams. All you guys need is to find two other teams willing to join with you. Then, you have 18 teams -- 3 six-team divisions based on enrollment.
It CAN be done. And with the impossible scheduling problems created by a 13-team league, it should be done sooner rather than later.
