Neuqua Valley's baseball team claimed the No. 1 seed in its own sectional Wednesday.
The Wildcats, which won the AA state championship last year, top what's been called an insane field of competition. Insane, these days, doubles for difficult.
Without further deadpanned delay, here's the top 16 seeds:
1. Neuqua Valley
2. Downers Grove South
3. Lockport
4. Lincoln-Way East
5. Downers Grove North
6. Joliet Township 7. Benet 8. Naperville Central
9. Plainfield North 10. Naperville North
11. Hinsdale South
12. West Aurora
13. Providence Catholic
14. Romeoville
15. Wheaton Warrenville South 16. Waubonsie Valley
After learning that his Warriors would enter the state playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Naperville North Sectional, Waubonsie Valley boys volleyball coach Al Lagger didn't hide his disdain when The Heat Index asked him if that was a fair seeding.
"No (it's not fair)," Lagger said on Wednesday night. "We got kind of hosed by the suburban Prairie schools that don't see us play."
Waubonsie (13-10), which will host one of the four regionals, is the lowest seeded team in the Naperville area.
Naperville Central (21-4) is the top seed, Neuqua Valley (27-3) is No. 2, Naperville North (17-7) is No. 3 and Benet (19-10) is No. 4.
North coach Roger Strausberger said his team could have been a No. 2 seed in his mind, but being third is about right considering his team is carrying seven losses.
"Even though all of our losses were to good opponents, they were still losses," he said.
The IHSA will release the seedings on Thurdsay and the pairings on Friday.
The IHSA held its softball seed meeting for Class 3A/4A on Wednesday night. Naperville Central led local teams with a No. 4 seed, while Benet and Naperville North rounded out the top ten at No. 9 and 10, respectively. Here's the complete list according to our sources:
1. Plainfield Central
2. Lockport*
3. Downers Grove South 4. Naperville Central
5. West Aurora*
6. Plainfield South
7. Wheaton South
8. Hinsdale South 9. Benet 10. Naperville North 11. Neuqua Valley *
12. Downers Grove North
13. Plainfield North
14. Hinsdale Central*
15. Bolingbrook
16. Oswego East
17. Romeoville 18. Waubonsie Valley
19. East Aurora
Regional pairings will be announced this Friday at the IHSA website. What do you think about the seeds? Are any of the teams seeded too high? Too low?
The Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference on Wednesday named Waubonsie Valley graduate Aly Kelley as its softball player of the year.
Kelley is a senior catcher at Saint Xavier University.
Kelley is hitting .338 on the year with 46 hits, 20 runs scored, and 33 RBI. She has a team-best six home runs this season as well as the most total bases (70) and highest slugging percentage (.515). Behind the plate, Kelley has been just as tough with 184 putouts and 25 assists with only three errors. Among active starters in the field, Kelley has the highest fielding percentage at .986.
Waubonsie Valley may be without its leading scorer for the remainder of the regular season. But that's good news considering the Warriors could have lost sophomore Vanessa DiBernardo for even longer than the 10 days to two weeks she's expected to miss.
DiBernardo, an all-state and Sun All-City midfielder, sprained a ligament in her right leg in Tuesday's 1-0 victory over St. Charles North. An MRI taken Wednesday came back negative for any further damage.
If all goes well, DiBernardo should be back on the field in time to help the Warriors defend their Class AA crown. Waubonsie begins its pursuit May 14 in the Plainfield North Regional.
The Warriors did get some good news earlier Tuesday when the NSCAA released its latest national rankings. Waubonsie (13-0-1) moved up to No. 4 after falling as low as No. 11 in the days after its 2-2 tie at Lincoln-Way Central. Normal Community is the only other Illinois team to crack the NSCAA rankings, coming in at No. 13. For the complete poll, click here.
I'm sure the Naperville North and Naperville Central boys volleyball teams are currently focused on Thursday night's crosstown match, but the forward thinking The Back Row broke down this weekend's Lincoln-Way East tournament on Tuesday.
Previously-ranked but always dangerous Naperville North and Lake Forest will go head-to-head in Pool A, Lincoln-Way Central and Naperville Central will meet Friday at 5:30 p.m. for the right to advance from Pool B, and Sandburg and Lyons will meet Friday at 5:30 p.m. to emerge from Pool D.
Brother Rice, which had lost three consecutive matches following Monday's defeat to Oak Park, should get back on track in Pool C against Oak Lawn, Joliet and Maine East.
As for the crosstown match on Thursday, I wouldn't even go if I wasn't essentially required by law. Yes, the Redhawks beat North at the Tiger Classic to break a 14-match losing streak. Yes, the Huskies evened the score in the first DVC match.
Nothing against the two squads, but watching rivals play is worthless in terms of evaluating the scene.
Naperville Central senior Kara Wilson, the school's all-time goal scorer, told The Heat Index on Tuesday night that she will not play water polo when she goes to college next year.
"I decided not to pursue that," Wilson said after scoring four goals in an 8-5 loss to defending state champion Mother McAuley.
Wilson will play her final home match on Wednesday night against St. Charles East, her final regular season road match on Thursday at Sandburg and her final tournament on Saturday at the Stevenson Co-ed.
After that, Kara Wilson said she hopes her water polo career doesn't end like last season -- at the Neuqua Valley Sectional. She also said she is aware the clock is ticking.
"Yeah definitely," Wilson said. "I mean, after this year, I'm done. So it's kind of sad. So hopefully we'll end on a good note. I mean, last year was a tough way to end. My freshman and sophomore year it was great to go to state, so it'd be great if we could rally and just play really well at sectionals."
Neuqua Valley senior Dan Pawelski will play his college basketball at Loras College, Chicagohoops.com reported on Tuesday.
Head coach Greg Gorton and Loras College have scored a major recruiting coup, and have landed 6-8 Neuqua Valley star Dan Pawelski. Pawelski is coming off of a huge senior season which saw him tabbed as a 4th team All-State selection.
Loras College is a Catholic liberal arts school in Dubuque, Iowa. As a NCAA Division III program, it does not provide athletic scholarships.
McKeon is trying to become the sixth Naperville native to currently play in the NFL, three of whom in Chris Brown, Justin McCareins and Glenn Earl already hail from his father's North program . The others are Central grad Owen Daniels and Neuqua grad O.J. Oshinowo.
What makes the North program so good at producing NFL-caliber players, or is it just a coincidence?
Neither Naperville Central grad and NIU kicker Chris Nendick nor Naperville North grad and Nebraska linebacker Corey McKeon were picked at this past weekend's NFL draft.
So both will spend the next day or so waiting to hear from prospective teams about signing on as a free agent.
It's impossible to predict the NFL Draft, especially the later rounds. Everyone agree?
When it comes to Naperville North grad Corey McKeon of Nebraska, he's equally unsure about who's interested in him the most. Dad -- North football coach Larry McKeon -- doesn't have a great feel either. That's expected.
Here's what they do know: 28 of the 32 NFL teams watched McKeon run a 4.5 40-yard dash and leap 36 inches in his vertical during his pro day at Nebraska this spring.
Narrowing the list even further, McKeon got calls from teams like Indianapolis, Washington, Philadelphia and the New York Giants. They mainly wanted to know how to get a hold of him Sunday, just in case. That's common at this stage of the game.
Here's what else: McKeon's not getting a lot of calls from teams who run a 3-4 defense. On the flip side, the Colts talked about scheme a great deal with McKeon, who sees himself fitting in as an outside linebacker who plays outside the box and drops in pass coverage.
By D.J. Wanberg
One of the things that make the NFL Draft fun to watch is the twists and turns that take place especially in the first round.
Dallas takes Arkansas' Felix Jones, a running back considered an early second round pick by some, allowing Pittsburgh to grab up Rashard Mendenhall at 23rd of the first round, the very next pick.
This allowed the Steelers to make one heck of one-two running punch with Willie Parker already an established star.
By D.J. Wanberg
Kansas City traded with Detroit for the 15th pick and selected Branden Albert of Virginia. That's a good pick for the Chiefs, but the Lions needed a running back. I can't believe Rashard Mendenhall is still on the board.
By D.J. Wanberg
Denver needed an offensive lineman and took Ryan Clady of Boise St. with the 12th pick. Carolina is next and isn't looking for o-line help. Please help me welcome Chris Williams of Vanderbilt to the Chicago Bears in just a couple of minutes.
By D.J. Wanberg
Jacksonville and Baltimore exchanged first-round picks and the Jaguars also gave up two third-round picks and a fourth to get Florida defensive end Derrick Harvey. Harvey should be a productive starter in the NFL. But his draft stock had dropped according to a published report earlier this week.
Is he worth the price? Jacksonville was to draft 26th and I think they would have gotten the defensive end they wanted. Though Harvey is considered to be capable of switching to linebacker.
By D.J. Wanberg
Nothing but cheers when the Jets used the sixth pick of the first round to take defensive end Vernon Gholston of Ohio St. Jets fans will need to sit down. All this happiness might cause them to be light-headed.
By D.J. Wanberg
The New York Jets are on the clock and it appears like usual there are plenty of their fans at Radio City Music Hall. How loud will the booing from them be this year?
By D.J. Wanberg
Arkansas running back Darren McFadden is heading to Oakland to join JaMarcus Russell in the backfield.
But the Raiders will need to address later their defensive line, specifically defensive tackle as the defense allowed an average of 5 yards per carry last season.
By D.J. Wanberg
Atlanta just selected quarterback Matt Ryan of Boston College. If Michael Vick tries to return to the NFL when he gets out of prison, another team will have to take him.
By D.J. Wanberg
Virginia defensive end Chris Long was just selected as the second pick overall by the St. Louis Rams.
He's a great pick and will help the Rams'r poor defense. But an analyst on television said he's a sure bet for the Hall of Fame. His dad is Hall of Fame lineman Howie Long.
Please. Let the kid have a career first before Hall of Fame consideration.
Atlanta is on the clock. Do they pick Glenn Dorsey of LSU, considered by some to be the best player in the draft? Or do they fill their gaping hole at quarterback with Matt Ryan of Boston College?
The last time Waubonsie Valley faced Fremd was a pretty good night for the Warriors. Actually, "pretty good" doesn't come close to describing how they felt.
Powered by a hat trick from then-freshman Vanessa DiBernardo, the Warriors rolled to a 4-0 victory, claiming the first state team title in Waubonsie history.
The teams will go at it again in about five hours after the Vikings (9-1-1) held off St. Charles East for a 1-0 win in the second Naperville Invitational semifinal.
The Warriors (11-0-1) put their 43-game unbeaten streak (41-0-2) on the line in the final, which starts at 6 p.m. at Naperville Central.
Fremd reached the semifinals by winning a weather-ravaged Group C. The Vikings played only 18 minutes Friday night against Neuqua Valley before the game was halted by a storm. The match had already been rescheduled from Thursday when another storm ripped through the area.
The championship also gives Fremd coach Steve Keller a chance to gain some revenge against his alma mater. Keller graduated from Waubonsie in 1990.
The 3-0 score showed Waubonsie Valley won in lopsided fashion over Naperville Central on Saturday morning in the Naperville Invitational semifinals.
But even the Warriors know that single statistic did not tell the story.
"I just thank God for Clare (Hanold), player of the game," Waubonsie midfielder Bri Rodriguez said of the Warriors goalkeeper. "She made like three incredible saves and kept us in it in the first half. If it wasn't for those saves, we probably would have had to come back from (a deficit)."
By D.J. Wanberg
The NFL Draft starts soon and Bears fans only have a short time left to ponder who the team's first-round pick will be.
There's been a lot of media talk and ink devoted to how great it would be if Chicago picked local son Rashard Mendenhall of Illinois.
The Bears do need a running back. Cedric Benson isn't exactly racking up the frequent runner yardage. But I don't think it will happen.
First, Mendenhall will likely be gone by the time Chicago picks at 14 and two, I don't consider Bears management smart enough to admit they made a mistake in picking Benson. And picking Mendenhall would be admitting a mistake.
And the Bears need help with an aging and increasingly ineffective o-line.
Boise State's Ryan Clady likely won't be around by No. 14 and there's a good chance that will happen to Virginia's Branden Albert.
But from what I have read and heard is that Vanderbilt's Chris Williams should still be around and the Bears need to take the 6-feet, 6-inch, 309-pound tackle.
He has the most upside of any OL that should be around that time except he can be too much of a finesse player at times and needs to work on his strength.
The Chicago Tribune cited on Friday an April 18 report on Chicagohoops.com that said Neuqua Valley forward Dwayne Evans now has a scholarship offer from Northern Illinois.
Evans, a 6-5 forward, is a long, athletic and highly mobile player on the basketball court. He is an outstanding rebounder and defender who is equally comfortable offensively both inside, and on the perimeter.
Evans is a prospect who is poised to see his recruiting stock soar this spring and summer on the heels of a strong sophomore season at Neuqua Valley High School.
The reason Morton is seeded fourth in Pool B for the Benet Invitational isn't because tournament director Amy Van Eekeren thought the Mustangs are one of the two weakest teams in the eight-team event that begins Friday night.
It's because information was scarce. Believe you me, I spent an hour longer than I wanted to searching for scraps for this post.
"I tried to do it as fair as possible," Van Eekeren said. "A couple people didn't send it in, so then we tried to look up their records online. Well, you know, not everything was up to date."
Morton isa great team. They were undefeated until we (LT) beat them. They are very scrappy and play very solid defence. Still a little wild in other aspects but they will provide a good game for anyone.
Waubonsie Valley had pushed Ian Krol well past 100 pitches on Thursday in Naperville, and the Neuqua Valley ace didn't return to the mound for the seventh inning.
The Warriors hadn't generated an extra-base hit, and already struck out 11 times. It was now up to Rob Skowronski to protect a 1-0 lead.
Trying to find conference standings in just about any sport, save football, can be incredibly frustrating. The DuPage Valley and Upstate Eight Conferences should take a cue from the East Suburban Catholic and maintain a working web page that is frequently updated with scores and all-conference lists. But I guess that's just wishful thinking on my part ...
Anyways, I wanted to get a better idea of where our teams stood in their respective conference races and after some digging around, here's what I came up with. Keep in mind this may not be a hundred percent accurate (games get cancelled, scores aren't reported, etc.) but it should give some idea where our team's stand. And right now, Central and Benet are in the best positions to make some noise.
This week's featured hole (in the April 24 Sun) is No. 2 at River Bend Golf Club, a par 4 that plays at 404 yards from the back tees.
Head pro Mike Reilly had this to say about No. 2 at his course:
"A couple things about it that I like, one is from the blue tees you're still 400 plus. And depending on the wind, you're still grabbing a head cover for your second shot; you're still thinking about hitting 200 plus into (the green). Out of bounds left, a good bunker off the tee that's pretty much right in the way. It's really tough to get over it unless you're a huge hitter. And it's one of our biggest greens on the golf course, too, so you can have some monster putts out there.
"It was the original No. 1 in the old clubhouse days. It was really a tough starting hole then because right away you're facing a long par 4. It's well-treed, it's well-bunkered at the green. You walk away from there and put 4 down, it's a good number."
He's right about that. In the half-dozen or so times I've played River Bend, I can remember making par just once. It might not be the most intriguing hole on the course, but it will test your game, as Reilly says, especially if the wind is gusting.
Being picked at the last second by Wayne Grady to caddie at the Masters Par 3 Tournament is a priceless experience for 14-year-old Ross Murphy. (You can read about the Naperville resident's unbelievable luck in the April 24 sun, or here.) But the experience also could be had for those willing to donate enough to charity.
Ross' father, Dave, ran into someone on the course who filled him in.
"Seventh or eighth hole this guy comes up to me, and I don't know who this guy is," Dave said. "He's got an English accent. I look over at him and I say, 'That's my kid who's caddying,' and he says, 'I know.'"
Turns out the man is the regular caddie for one of the players in Grady's group. He wasn't on the bag that day because a corporate auction to benefit charity allowed someone else to have the job for the day. Dave asked how much it cost, and the man with the accent converted it from British pounds.
The total? About $30,000.
Dave was floored.
"I said, 'You're kidding me, right? My kid was just picked an hour ago to do this.' He goes, 'I know, that's what's so great about this story."
And if you want to get a glimpse of Ross Murphy after Grady's hole-in-one, click here.
Well, thankfully for Neuqua Valley, that merry-go-round between center field and first base may only happen for a few games, although very important games.
Williamson's X-rays came back negative Tuesday night, which means Neuqua's leadoff hitter and center fielder shouldn't have to miss the rest of the season with a broken hand.
Here's the catch: there was so much swelling, doctors scheduled a follow-up with Williamson at 3:30 p.m. today. Cross your fingers, Wildcats fans, for positive (um, negative) results on Williamson's check-up.
Neuqua coach Robin Renner remains hopeful that Williamson will be back in the lineup by Monday. In that case, here's the schedule Neuqua will face without him.
The Wildcats (12-3, 8-1 Upstate Eight Conference) have league matchups with Lake Park today, Waubonsie Valley on Thursday, St. Charles North on Friday and two more against rival Waubonsie on Saturday.
Currently, St. Charles North and Neuqua are co-leaders.
"I think the winner of the conference will have three losses," Renner said. "I think the team that has four losses will be second."
You know what he means. Neuqua can only afford two more league losses.
While in Chicago this weekend for the WNBA's Rookie Orientation, Candace Parker took time out to talk to The Sun and WNBA.com.
Parker told her hometown newspaper that she missed a majority of Thursday's scheduled events, because she was shooting a commercial to help promote the WNBA.
Alongside her at the shoot? Detroit's Cheryl Ford and Indiana's Tamika Catchings, a former Tennessee star like Parker.
Now a rookie with the Los Angeles Sparks, Parker said the promo's scheduled to air during the NBA Finals. Boy how things have changed for the former Naperville Central star.
