Naperville North: September 2008 Archives

Surprisingly, Naperville Central didn't tumble out of the Sun-Times top 25, but then again that's also probably a sign of how highly Wheaton Warrenville South is regarded. Within this piece, Steve Tucker writes of this week's crosstown at North Central College: This will be the first in a series of big tests for the reigning Class 8A state champions. Could Nick Mlady be the school's second consecutive Sun-Times Player of the Year?

With that in mind, what's your early crosstown prediction? And who's your first-half MVP?

Check back around 7 p.m. to follow the live blog from Naperville North as the Huskies take on Glenbard North. Follow along with me in this rematch of last season's Class 8A state final.

Four DuPage Valley Conference teams are spotlighted in the latest Chicago Sun-Times poll and those heavyweight programs will be colliding on Friday night. No. 3 Naperville North hosts No. 23 Glenbard North, while No. 4 Wheaton Warrenville South brings its 31-game regular season winning streak to No. 16 Naperville Central.

What would your ballot look like?

UPDATE: The show is not going to be broadcast from Naperville North. Not sure why the change happened.

ESPN Radio 1000 will broadcast its High School GameNight show from Naperville Central on Friday night after the Redhawks play Wheaton Warrenville South in a game that will influence who wins the DuPage Valley Conference football championship .

The show airs from 10-11 p.m. and features interviews with players and coaches from around Chicagoland.

For Naperville Central, this is about perception versus reality on two fronts - what its DuPage Valley Conference schedule looks like on paper, and how its spread offense controls the ball.

Every program enters Week 1 with question marks, whether you're the defending Class 8A state champions (Naperville North) or a team that just missed the playoffs (Lake Park) last season. Naperville Central falls somewhere between those extremes, and coach Mike Stine kind of laughed when asked for his impressions off the Waubonsie Valley game film - everyone feels like they have a long way to go on both sides of the ball.

Today we looked at special teams play and how it influenced several season openers. As crazy as some of those game-changing plays were, check out this view of the DuPage Valley Conference:

-Seven of eight DVC teams won in Week 1.
-That group includes Glenbard East (1-0) and West Chicago (1-0), which went a combined 3-15 last season.
-Meanwhile Glenbard North, the only DVC program to lose its opener, was the Class 8A runner-up in 2007.
-And despite losing to Bartlett 28-21, Glenbard North came away with the most playoff points (nine) in the conference from Friday night. All nine teams on the Panthers' schedule are currently 1-0.

Any guesses as to how the DVC will look after Week 9?