JOLIET - The Wildcats have less than 24 hours to shake off Friday's state semifinal loss to Prairie Ridge and reboot for a third-place game with Wheaton North.
What's the sense?
Sure, the third-place game can be hard to get up for, especially when you're Neuqua Valley. Last year's Class AA state champs wanted to win the 4A title this year. For them, their goal has already slipped away. It makes sense to want to pack it in for the summer.
As for their opponent, Wheaton North, it had no expectations whatsoever of making it to state this year after dropping seven of their final nine regular-season games. A trip to state -- much more a shot at a third-place trophy -- is like starting the season all over again.
They should be hungry, but according to Neuqua coach Robin Renner, so should his Wildcats.
"We talk about recovering a lot at the beginning of the season, and you know everybody has (a) different recovery time," Renner said. "You know, if you're a baseball player it's from pitch to pitch. If you're a (designated hitter), it might be 30 minutes.
"We have almost 24 hours to recover and we're gonna find out if we can do that or not. If we're gonna come out, and just go out there, or are we gonna...
"How many teams get a chance to win the last game of (their) season? We get a chance to do it two years in a row....not the one that we wanted to this year but, yeah we're all competitive and we want to win that game (and) hopefully we will recover and regroup (and) go at 'em hard tomorrow."
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