By Sean Fuchs
Naperville Central is the highest-ranked local team in both girls and boys water polo, according to the presseason media polls on illpolo.com.
By Patrick Mooney
Go ahead and try to decipher this wild playoff game. Drew Crawford, as one reporter pointed out afterward, finished with 40 points and was not the game's leading scorer. What did Central show you on Wednesday night? How do the Redhawks match up against Glenbard West? How far can they go in the Class 4A tournament?
Box score after the jump...
By Brad Engel
Maybe, and that's only if Ryan Haggerty avoids a spell like the one he had against Lake Park on Monday.
By Sean Fuchs
Neuqua Valley swimming star Brian Alden told the Heat Index on Monday night that he will play water polo this spring.
Join us in offering congrats to the Neuqua boys swimming and diving for winning its first team state title!
By Sean Fuchs
EVANSTON -- The Wildcats secured their first ever team state championship on Saturday afternoon with a first place in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
By Sean Fuchs
EVANSTON -- Neuqua Valley senior Brian Alden won the 100-yard freestyle at the IHSA boys swimming and diving championships, giving him three state titles in a row. Earlier this afternoon, Alden claimed a three-peat in the 50 freestyle.
By Sean Fuchs
EVANSTON -- Despite winning the 50 freestyle state championship for the third year in a row -- something only he and one other boys swimmer in IHSA history has accomplished, Neuqua's Brian Alden wasn't that excited.
By Patrick Mooney
ST. CHARLES - The Warriors woke up on Feb. 15 atop the UEC standings with an 8-0 record, needing a split of their final two games to earn a share of the title, or a sweep to win it outright.
They almost certainly didn't want to consider the third scenario, which unfolded on consecutive Friday nights. Elgin first submitted a blueprint on how to beat Waubonsie, and St. Charles East -- with its inside strength and shifting zone defenses -- drafted an entirely different one a week later.
The fallout from Friday night’s 74-72 loss at St. Charles East means rival Neuqua Valley alone celebrates an Upstate Eight Conference championship.
By Sean Fuchs
After the first day of the IHSA boys swimming and diving championships, Neuqua Valley has set itself up for a run to its first team state championship.
By Sean Fuchs
Neuqua Valley senior Brian Alden was significantly faster than the field on Friday afternoon in the prelims of the 50-yard freestyle at the boys swimming and diving state championships. Almost blazing.
UPDATE: Guess who did you know what in the 100 freestyle.
By Sean Fuchs
Neuqua Valley diver Chris Murray advanced to the finals on Friday afternoon at the IHSA boys swimming and diving state championships.
By Dustin Michael Harris
Candace Parker has said goodbye to her Tennessee career. The former Naperville Central star is now a bona fide star in her own right whose name is often mentioned with the question, "Can she save the WNBA?" With her time at Tennessee coming to a close, it looks like we'll finally find out.
Parker is a huge name in women's college basketball, not just to Naperville readers but to a national audience as well. She can dunk. She is athletic. She was called the female version of LeBron James by ESPN. But will anyone care once she's in the financial no-man's land (no pun intended) that is the WNBA? Despite a new salary increase and an encouraging up turn in attendance and ratings, the league is still not profitable. As it currently stands, the WNBA should be applauded for sticking around, but the sport clearly needs a player that can bring in the money and the national contracts. Is Candace that player? Can we expect to see people in Candace jerseys wearing Candace shoes? Air Parker, anyone?
By Sean Fuchs
One area coached termed this year's state qualifying standards as "a significant change" from last season's state cuts. While that may be true, the new standards didn't keep that many area swimmers from advancing to state.
By Sean Fuchs
Central's Mike Greco, Neuqua's Gus Appenbrink and North's Eric Heyson could get one of 32 at-large bids to the state finals. But they won't know until the IHSA website posts the list.
By Patrick Mooney
ELGIN – Waubonsie Valley saw its mirror image in Elgin, and the reflection shattered its perfect conference record. What could have been a Friday night celebration scene -- with the Warriors clinching a share of the Upstate Eight title -- instead ended in a 73-58 defeat.
The Maroons did a huge favor for idle Neuqua Valley (20-7, 8-1), which is now tied atop the UEC standings with Waubonsie (20-5, 8-1). Neuqua concludes its conference schedule at Larkin (1-22, 0-9) on Friday, when Waubonsie will travel to St. Charles East (12-12, 5-4).
The UEC does not recognize the head-to-head matchup as a tiebreaker in this case, meaning Waubonsie’s win over Neuqua in January does not carry extra weight, and the two rivals will be forced to share the championship if they win out.
By Sean Fuchs
Wildcats coach Chad Allen said he wants 90 percent of his swimmers to advance to the state meet out of Saturday's sectional at Naperville Central.
By Sean Fuchs
There will be a team champion crowned on Saturday at the Naperville Central Sectional, even though nobody cares.
(UPDATED: The Beacon News is reporting two West Aurora starters have been suspended.)
Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer was spotted in the Benet stands on Tuesday night in Lisle, ostensibly scouting Wheaton North one more time before: a.) the regular season finale that could decide the DuPage Valley Conference title; and b.) a potential 4-5 matchup in the Naperville North Regional.
The Waubonsie Valley girls basketball team walloped Upstate Eight Conference rival East Aurora 71-34 on Friday night to finish 10-0 and win the UEC outright for the first time since 1998-99. The Warriors did it in typical fashion - contributions from everyone. Even though the team led by nearly 30 points at halftime, only two players reached double figures yet all 12 players who played scored. This is very different from the squad that last accomplished the feat of winning the UEC outright. That team had Ashley Luke, an unstoppable Division-I recruit who was a versatile threat inside and out. At any given moment, Luke could step up and score 20 or more points in a game. But the 2008 Warriors don't have a player like that and although they seem to like it that way, could it be their downfall during the post season? Or could the team's versatility be the very reason they surpass the Ashley Luke-era?
So the IHSA has decided not to allow newspaper photographers into state finals events (regionals, sectionals and the like are OK) if they don't sign a waiver. Essentially, the agreement prohibits newspapers from selling the photos, limiting them to publication only. Read the IHSA's most recent statement. Do you think the IHSA is right to regulate photos taken at its events, or should it back off? Do you think newspapers should just sign the waiver?
Through the recruitment of Naperville Central defensive end Josh Jelesky you could identify several big ideas shaping college football right now.
There's an urge to commit early that has flipped the recruiting calendar to junior year. The SEC continues to lure athletes to its deepening talent pool. Once there, how exactly do you defend the spread offense? And in the offseason, will your head coach jump to another program? Through it all new media continues to repackage the game.
And then there's the story of the Nevada high school football player who completely made up his own recruitment, announcing at an assembly that he had accepted a scholarship to California. The only problem being that Cal's staff had never heard of this kid, who filed a police report, claiming he got scammed before finally admitting it was all fiction.
This is where we're at on Feb. 7, 2008. Does Signing Day generate too much hype? Is it good for the sport? Is it fair to these student-athletes?
"I just loved the way he played the game. He plays every down like it's his last."
That's what Western Michigan football coach Bill Cubit said about Naperville North senior Kyle Lackner on Wednesday, shortly after Cubit made his 25-member recruiting class public.
Lackner, listed as a 6-3, 230-pound inside linebacker in the school's official release, played defensive end for the Class 8A state-champion Huskies in 2007.
Illinois State University received Lackner's first verbal commitment last summer before the Broncos became his final team of choice.
"To be honest with ya, I didn't know that," Cubit said. "We don't pay much attention to who else is recruiting."
Knowing what Cubit didn't know, who else would have made a good home for Lackner?
The referendum measure presented today to residents of Naperville School District 203 offers some improvements for the athletic programs at Central and North, though neither is in line for a new field house.
Where would you rank Central and North's facilities within the DuPage Valley Conference? How does its facilities compare to those at Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley?
Will the referendum's impact on athletic departments influence your vote? Or do you simply consider FieldTurf and pool renovations to be luxury items?
By Sean Fuchs
Just because Brian Alden has won the past two state championships in the 50-yard and the 100-yard freestyle, that doesn't mean the Neuqua Valley senior will get his chance to three-peat in those events. Neuqua coach Chad Allen told The Sun on Saturday that he might not have Alden swim both freestyle sprints in the tournament.
