Top-seeded Bolingbrook could go through four local teams. The Raiders might face Naperville North in the regional semifinal, Naperville Central in the regional final, Benet in the sectional semifinal and Waubonsie in the sectional final.
A January swoon didn't hurt Waubonsie Valley in the eyes of the sectional coaches. The Warriors earned the No. 3 seed in the Waubonsie sectional, behind only Bolingbrook and Hinsdale Central.
Benet grabbed the No. 5 slot, one ahead of Naperville Central. Neuqua Valley was eighth, and Naperville North 17th.
The IHSA announced the seeds Thursday. Stay tuned to the Heat Index later today for first-round regional pairings. Keep reading for the entire Waubonsie sectional field:
Neuqua Valley (20-1) - which held steady at No. 11 in the Chicago Sun-Times rankings - is also featured on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. The network's Web site has on demand video from last week's 90-63 victory at Bartlett.
Candace Parker, who is set to become a mother in a few months, told The New York Times that she plans to play this season in Los Angeles.
"My whole career has been trying to please people in basketball," Parker, a 22-year-old newlywed, said Friday in a telephone interview. "Now it's time to please myself." She added, "For me, family has always come first."
Parker, who was married in November to her longtime boyfriend, Sacramento Kings forward Shelden Williams, is due in the spring. The W.N.B.A. season starts in June and runs through September.
"I'm very stubborn," she said. "I feel like I'm going to play this season."
Shelden Williams sat out Sunday's game in Toronto with a strained left wrist, meaning the Kings power forward didn't play against Anthony Parker, his brother-in-law. That didn't stop Raptors forward Kris Humphries - nursing his own fractured right fibula - from messing with his teammate and sounding a bit like Lloyd Christmas. The Toronto Star's Dave Feschuk does a nice job of setting the scene here:
In these long-season dog days, harmless locker-room nonsense is perhaps essential. Humphries, to that end, asked Anthony Parker, the Raptors shooting guard, about Parker's famous basketball-star sister.
"Did Candace pass any messages on for me?" he wondered.
"She did say she hopes you get better," said Anthony Parker.
Said Humphries, smiling: "So, I still have a chance?"
He was speaking of romance jokingly, one assumes, although with Humphries you're never quite sure if the tongue is knowingly inserted in the cheek. Either way, the jokester was informed that Candace is married to Kings forward Sheldon Williams and expecting the couple's first child. Humphries let out a dramatic sigh.
Former Sun staff writer/fantasy football guru Dan Wiederer recently landed an interview with ESPN sideline reporter/Internet sensation Erin Andrews. Because anything Andrews does is newsworthy for sports blogs, the Fayetteville Observer Q&A is linked everywhere. It's a good get for Wiederer, who covers ACC hoops. As it turns out, even All-Americans lose their cool next to Andrews:
On elite college athletes feeling nervous around her:Hansbrough especially. I think I've always had a running joke with Tyler where I always have to tell him, 'You have to stop getting nervous when you're around me.' But I don't think it's just me. I feel like he's just so serious all the time. ... Before we go on the air for an interview, I'll elbow him pretty hard and I'll smile and try to give him that wide grin to try and loosen him up. 'C'mon now smile.' ... I saw Tyler at the ESPYs this year and I stopped to talk to him for a couple minutes and I was giving him a hard time about it. I just said, 'OK, so this year, if you come back, are you going to be more talkative, more friendly to me?' And he just stared at me and was like, 'What are you talking about?' I love kidding him about how he gets nervous.
Sunday will be Senior Night for the Naperville Central and Naperville North hockey teams. The junior varsity game is at 5:40 p.m. Varsity follows the senior ceremony scheduled for 7:20 p.m. The puck drops at Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodridge.
-- Lewis goalkeeper Anthony Szymel, a Naperville North graduate, was recently named to the NSCAA/Adidas Men's College Scholar All-America second team.
Szymel holds a 3.56 cumulative grade-point average in business administration. He finished his senior season ranked first in the nation in save percentage, leading the Flyers to an NCAA Division II Sweet 16 appearance.
-- Indiana Wesleyan sweeper Rebecca Foulk was recently named to the NCCAA/NSCAA All-America first team for the 2008 season. Foulk, a junior who graduated from Naperville North, was also named NAIA All-American honorable mention, and was the Mid-Central College Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
Naperville North is 6-10 overall - 0-6 in DuPage Valley Conference play - and it looks like turning the season around just became more difficult. Huskies coach Mark Lindo said Tuesday that senior guard Danny Grimley and junior forward Arnas Gintautas could both be done for the season. Grimley has been playing through a stress fracture in his foot while Arnas Gintautas may need shoulder surgery for an injury suffered during football season
The Huskies travel to an improved West Chicago team on Friday for their only game scheduled this week.
"We're giving up a lot of easy looks on defense right now," Lindo said. "People are knocking down jump shots against us (and) we just lost a couple key people to injuries. And that's what we went through all last year and now we're doing that again."
Before it even made the trip to Rockton, Neuqua Valley was being mentioned as a possible state contender. Then the Wildcats (19-1) went out and won all four games at Hononegah's Martin Luther King Classic.
The Wildcats, ranked 11th by the Chicago Sun-Times, don't rely on one single scorer. Later in the day it was junior guard Rahjan Muhammad who stepped up with 17 points in a 59-51 win against Normal Community.
"Neuqua Valley can score in the post, can score outside, can rebound," Zion-Benton coach Don Kloth told Scott Powers. "They got a really good team."
Notre Dame midfielder/forward Brittany Bock was chosen fifth overall by the Los Angeles Sol this morning in the first round of the Women's Professional Soccer inaugural draft in St. Louis.
Bock, a Neuqua Valley graduate, was taken one spot ahead of her college teammate and two-time Hermann Trophy winner Kerri Hanks.
Charlie Naimo, the Sol general manager, said the plans are to keep Bock as a midfielder. But he indicated she might also play forward as she did the past two years with the Fighting Irish, who she helped to three consecutive College Cup appearances.
"We want to see how she's going to fit with the rest of our players," Naimo said. "We just know we got a great player on our hands. And we're really excited to see what her play and training might dictate."
Bock, who was unavailable for immediate comment, also became the second female from Naperville drafted by a team based in Los Angeles in the past year. Candace Parker was chosen first overall by the L.A. Sparks in the 2008 WNBA Draft.
Neuqua Valley is bracing for another Waubonsie Valley invasion on Friday night. You figure that Waubonsie (8-6) knows the Wildcats as well as anyone, but they get away from the Upstate Eight Conference for the rest of the holiday weekend. Neuqua travels to Hononegah in Rockton for the Martin Luther King Classic, and it should be a good test for a 14-1 team.
"The timing is great," Hononegah coach Mike Miller told the Rockford Register Star. "It's a situation in which a lot of people are looking to upgrade their schedule and try to play against some great competition about a month or so before tournament time gets into full swing. You want to test yourself against the best, and that is what this tournament has grown into."
Saturday, Jan. 17
Hoffman Estates vs. Neuqua Valley, 9:30 a.m.
Guilford vs. Normal Community, 11 a.m.
Normal West vs. Hononegah, 12:30 p.m.
Sterling vs. Zion-Benton, 2 p.m. Neuqua Valley vs. Guilford, 3:30 p.m.
Normal Community vs. Hoffman Estates, 5 p.m.
Zion-Benton vs. Normal West, 6:30 p.m.
Hononegah vs.Sterling, 8 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 19
Normal West vs. Guilford, 9:30 a.m.
Hoffman Estates vs. Hononegah, 11 a.m.
Normal Community vs. Sterling, 12:30 p.m. Zion-Benton vs. Neuqua Valley, 2 p.m.
Sterling vs. Normal West, 3:30 p.m. Neuqua Valley vs. Normal Community, 5 p.m.
Guilford vs. Hoffman Estates, 6:30 (in dome)
Hononegah vs. Zion-Benton, 6:30
The seven-person North class of 2009 includes: Tim Carlson, a two-time IHSA state swimming champion; Aileen Guiney, an all-state soccer player; Rachel Karos, an all-DuPage Valley Conference athlete in volleyball, basketball and softball; Dan Pettigrew, another all-state soccer athlete who later played at Princeton; Bart Smith, a two-time IHSA state champion in the 300-meter hurdles; coach Stan Gruszka, a state Hall of Fame coach in both football and wrestling; and the late Gene Drendel, the widely-respected long-time Naperville educator.
Previous inductees include Jerry Hairston Jr., now of the Cincinnati Reds, and NFL veterans Chris Brown, Glenn Earl and Justin McCareins.
Gruszka in particular has a lasting legacy with the North football program. Its offensive linemen are still graded by the metrics the assistant introduced in the mid-1980s. As we wrote in this feature last October: The Huskies count knockdowns - for every two it's a dog bone helmet sticker. They track "TDBs" - touchdown-enabling blocks that clear the way for someone to run into the end zone. That warrants another bone. And whoever registers the hardest hit is named "Captain Crunch" and earns a Ziploc bag full of the cereal.
If anyone else has good stories about the class of 2009, post a comment and let us know.
-Ben Johnson, a sophomore midfielder out of Naperville North, will transfer from Western Illinois to play soccer at Saint Xavier, the Chicago university announced Tuesday. The Woodridge native previously played at Missouri State.
-White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper will run pitching camps in Lisle, LaGrange, Barrington, Tinley Park and Schererville, Ind. The Lisle sessions will be Jan. 24-25 for high school athletes and players ages 7-13. For more on the Bulls Sox Academy events, click here.
-Naperville's Centerfield Sports Academy will be running a pitching camp through Feb. 6 for players ages 13-18. The 90-minute sessions will be held three times a week for four-consecutive weeks. For more information, click here.
-Unbeaten Wheaton College (13-0) remains No. 1 in the D3hoops.com national Top 25 poll. North Central College (10-3) received votes in the same poll.
The Sacramento Bee recently caught up with Raptors guard Anthony Parker and the Naperville Central graduate deftly handled this Q&A session. The Bulls are in Toronto Wednesday night, and the Raptors visit the United Center on Jan. 23. Until then, check out the beginning of Scott Howard-Cooper's piece:
How often do you get asked about your sister Candace Parker and your brother- in-law Shelden Williams?
Often. Especially the day that we play Shelden in basketball. But it's fun, though. I enjoy it. You don't get sick of being asked about your relatives, especially your sister? It's one thing to have a brother-in-law in the NBA. But do you get a lot of people throwing the Candace Parker card in your face in an unflattering way?
Occasionally you hear that, when you're visiting other arenas. ... But it's fun. It doesn't get to me like maybe people think it would. What do you hear most often?
"Your sister's better than you." Not very original.
No. It's the same thing every time. What does she say about all this? Does she feel bad?
No. ... We joke, and we laugh about it. That's where it ends.
Neuqua Valley and Naperville Central are both rising in Michael O'Brien'sSun-Times basketball rankings. Neuqua (14-1) climbed three spots to No. 12. Central - which improved to 14-1 overall and 5-0 in the DuPage Valley Conference last weekend - moved from No. 22 to No. 18.
"Great team win," Central coach Pete Kramer said after Saturday's 54-46 victory at Wheaton Warrenville South. "It puts us in a real good position cause if you look at where we have to go, and where we've already been, (that's) a good thing. (But) again, as a team, we've talked about one game at a time. Next it's West Chicago."
Here then is a breakdown of Central's upcoming DVC schedule. The Redhawks have already notched home wins against West Aurora, Naperville North and Glenbard North. They've traveled to Glenbard East and WW South and earned victories. The remainders look like this:
If you haven't already, be sure to check out Blake Baumgartner's Sunday feature on pitching guru Tom House. There's a lot of terrain covered here, from how coaches Bill Seiple (Naperville Central) and Robin Renner (Neuqua Valley) agree to disagree, to two pitchers from India signing big-league contracts. It's worth a read and has already generated some comments online. Feel free to share those responses here.
.
Naperville Central nearly gave away all of its 15-point lead on Saturday night at Wheaton Warrenville South before closing out a 54-46 win. WW South made it a one-possession game in the final minute, but what really added a layer of tension to the finish was the fact that Central had Drew Crawford down for three fouls while the official book had him with four.
Basically there was a miscommunication at the scorers' table. At some point, a foul that should have gone to No. 11 (Danny Ondik) instead went to No. 1 (Crawford - who incidentally is the son of a veteran NBA referee).
Afterward WW South coach Mike Healy said Crawford might be the most valuable player in the entire state - who knows what would have happened if the Northwestern-bound senior had picked up his phantom fifth foul.
In the days leading up to a first-round NCAA tournament game last March, Jon Rice found himself impersonating Duke point guard Greg Paulus in practice. Belmont, the No. 15 seed, nearly became one of those Cinderella stories. It pushed the hated Blue Devils for almost 40 minutes before losing 71-70.
Now, away from the spotlight, the Bruins' focus is wandering a bit, as Kyle Whelliston explains in this ESPN.com story. But a fourth-consecutive NCAA bid is still possible. And Rice, the 6-foot guard who finished his high school career at Waubonsie Valley, is making progress. Whelliston reports:
Jonny Rice is a redshirt freshman guard who is making the most of his seven minutes per contest, shooting 54 percent from the floor and making half of his 3-pointers in limited action. He sat on the sidelines last March as his future teammates battled Duke.
"I wanted to play so bad, just get in that game," said Rice. "But last year I got a lot done with school, and it gave me time to learn the plays. Every minute I get on the floor, I just want to make the most of it and get better. And hopefully we'll get another chance to play in the NCAA tournament."
Jerry Hairston Jr. will play anywhere and everywhere for the team that gave him a chance when no one else would. That's essentially what the Naperville North graduate told Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News this week after agreeing to a one-year, $2 million contract, with $2 million more available in incentives.
Last season Hairston played six different positions in 80 games for the Reds and hit .326 with a .384 on-base percentage and 15 stolen bases. As McCoy points out:
The Reds were 25-19 when Hairston batted leadoff. His on-base average of .487 while batting leadoff was second best in the National League among leadoff batters with more than 150 plate appearances. Only L.A.'s Rafael Furcal was better.
Hairston expects to fill the No. 2 hole in the Cincinnati lineup, and could wind up shuttling between shortstop and the outfield. The short-term deal gives both sides flexibility, and Hairston the chance to prove that he's an everyday player who can last through a 162-game season.
"I just got really focused on just being healthy and once I got healthy, I felt like a completely different person," Hairston told the Sun last July in the Wrigley Field visiting clubhouse. "Like I tell everybody, the last couple years I felt like I was like 50 years old.
"Now I feel like I'm 25...I'm runnin' like I used to, runnin' like I should. I'm only 32 years old and I feel I got a good six-eight years left."
Naperville native Scott Hairston and the San Diego Padres avoided arbitration on Thursday and agreed to a one-year, $1.25 million contract. The day before his brother Jerry Hairston Jr. resigned with the Cincinnati Reds for one year at $2 million.
Last year Scott Hairston hit .248 with 17 home runs and 31 RBIs in 112 games. His season ended in late August after tearing a ligament in his left thumb. According to Tom Krasovic'sUnion-Tribune blog, the deal comes amid much economic uncertainty in San Diego. The franchise is up for sale, though former Arizona Diamondbacks managing partner Jeff Moorad and his investment group have emerged as a potential buyer.
Krasovic writes: Hairston, 28, is the seventh player signed by the Padres for 2009. The club has guaranteed more than $31 million to those seven and still must sign 33 other players as it attempts to meet a $40 million payroll mandated by owner John Moores.
Naperville Central announced today that girls swimming and diving coach Jon Carlson is retiring after guiding the Redhawks' program since 1983.
Carlson, who retired from teaching 18 months ago, guided Central to 20 top 10 finishes at the IHSA state meet, including winning team championships in 2004 and 2005.
He also coached state-champion relay teams in the 200 medley (1989, 1990, 2004 and 2005), and the 400 freestyle (1994 and 2004), and individual champions Ellen Stonebraker (1993 and 1994 200 freestyle relay), Kelly McNicols (2004 and 2005 500 freestyle and 200 freestyle) and Amy Prestinario (2005 and 2006 200 individual medley and 2006 500 freestyle).
He was also the boys swim coach from 1988-1992.
"Jon's record of success speaks for itself," Central athletic director Marty Bee said in a news release. "But Jon's true success lies beyond the championships. Jon fostered a great atmosphere among the girls he coached. He understood the need to help them develop as young people and did an awful lot to promote that growth."
Neuqua Valley (12-1) checks in at No. 15 in the latest edition of Michael O'Brien'sSuper 25 boys basketball rankings. The Sun-Times slots Naperville Central (12-1) at No. 22 in the same poll.
The Wildcats, whose only defeat was a 74-70 overtime loss to East Aurora, rebounded to win the Elgin holiday tournament. Neuqua travels to Plainfield Central on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.
The Redhawks - coming off a Wheeling tournament championship that saw Northwestern recruit Drew Crawford earn MVP honors - next host Glenbard North on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Brad Engel is the longest-tenured member of The Sun sports staff and has won several national and state awards in his coverage of preps as well as the Chicago Bears, Chicago Fire and general sports.
Patrick Mooney
Patrick Mooney covered politics, prep sports and professional baseball for several print and online media outlets before joining The Sun in August 2007. He concentrates on prep sports, writing features, profiles and breaking recruiting news.
