Recently in Prep sports Category

After taking a pair of games from rival Naperville Central on Thursday, Naperville North can win the DuPage Valley Conference baseball title outright with another victory against the Redhawks today.

If the Huskies do claim the DVC title - is it the kind of momentum-builder that can help them dethrone defending state champ Neuqua Valley and win a sectional title?

The IHSA released its broadcast schedule on Monday for IHSAradio.com for the spring championships. Boys and girls track and field, girls soccer, baseball and softball will get the royal treatment.

Track and Field coverage will begin on Friday, May 16 with a recap of opening day results beginning at 4:30 pm central time. The network will then continue on Saturday, May 17 with live coverage of the final day of competition beginning at 11:00 am central time.

Spring sports coverage will then conclude with full coverage of Class 1A and 2A boys baseball and girls softball on May 30-31, to be followed by the 3A and 4A tournaments for both sports on June 6 and 7.

Any by royal treatment, I mean the state finals will be broadcast on the Internet to an audience of the six people who care enough to listen, but don't care enough to go to the game.

But either way, boys volleyball and girls and boys water polo, tough luck, the IHSA deems you too unimportant to waste audio archive space.

Ultimate Frisbee as an entity hasn't been around all that long; it was established in 1969. But the sport has plenty of colorful traditions. Jimmy Selleck, Wheaton Warrenville South's coach of 11 years, enlightened me on some of Ultimate's well-meaning quirks.

"At the end of every match, whether you win or lose, traditionally you go over to the opposing team and you sing to them a song that you've made up to compliment them on their play," Selleck said. "It's always picking out something positive. It could be poetry, it could be a song, it could be rap. It's a lot of fun, so that's bizarre.

The attire in the sport can get rather ... creative.

"And you get some where guys will pull their shorts down and they'll have a Frisbee taped over their yank, and then they'll dance and run around you and give you a group hug," said Selleck, who grew up playing the sport in Michigan. He said Ultimate is much more mainstream in the Northeast. "It's just fun and good spirit. It's also wacky in the sense of the costumes and uniforms. They're very serious around here (in Illinois), and they are serious at the collegiate level. But there's always that sense of wackiness where you have guys who could potentially wear underwear on their head.

"We go up to Madison Mudbath (a tournament in Wisconsin). They might wear tie-dye-color socks, (or have) Wacky designs and wacky sayings on their uniforms. Just poking funs on themselves, just kind of atypical athletic behavior sometimes."

Naperville Central girls soccer earned its 400th varsity victory with a 4-0 win over Glenbard East on Tuesday.

Casey Short, Hillary Scott, Kelly Blumberg and Jackie Renn each scored and keeper Krissy Many made one save to earn the shutout for the Redhawks (6-0-0 DVC).

Join us in offering our congratulations to coach Ed Watson and the entire Central girls soccer program.

The National Federation of State High School Associations announced this week that instant replay will not be an option for high school basketball in state tournament games.

After much discussion, the committee voted against the use of instant replay to review specific situations during state tournaments. Three proposals were considered by the committee this year after three states had last-second shots in championship games.

"The committee discussed the issue extensively, but there was very little support for implementing video review at the high school level," Struckhoff said. "Some felt the use of video to review officials' decisions is against the philosophy of high school sports. Others said that video review doesn't always provide a conclusive decision, and the equipment would not be consistently available in facilities throughout the country. The committee also felt it would be difficult for officials to officiate without replay throughout the season and then be expected to use it at a state championship."

The NFHS did make two significant rule changes: the rebounding spots closest to the hoop will now be empty to reduce fouling per a pilot program in Georgia; the head coach, not the player, will now be given a technical foul for a player with an illegal uniform.

Rules changes for wrestling and swimming were also announced.

I've seen a lot of high school wrestling in my time, but I've never seen a backflip. Now I never will thanks to the killjoy association NFHS.

Naperville North and Nebraska graduate Corey McKeon will attend the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' rookie mini-camp on Thursday as an unsigned free agent.

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?

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.

So it's no surprise defending state champ Waubonsie Valley was named to No. 1 seed in its own girls soccer sectional on Wednesday night.

Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley and Benet took the next three slots while Naperville North was the No. 7 seed.

Geneva was the fifth seed followed by Batavia at No. 6. Plainfield Central rounded out the top eight.

Would you have voted these seeds any differently?

Bad Kermit over at hirejimessian.com is betting that the Cubs will undearchieve in the run-scoring department this season and asks the question, "Will the Cubs score fewer runs than the Naperville Central Redhawks?" So far, the Redhawks are trailing 63 percent to 37 percent in the poll. What do you think? To vote, click here.

The IHSA announced on Tuesday the creation of a Sportsperson of the Year Award that will honor seven people each year "for their outstanding sportsmanship during interscholastic competition."

It took almost another two full sentences in the press release to plug the title sponsor.

There are five criteria listed that potential good sports awardees need to own, but three are boing so I will skip to the two that caught me eye.

-- Student shall not have EVER been ejected from a high school contest.

-- Student must have a minimum of a 2.5/4.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

Nothing against all you C students out there, but I find it interesting that the IHSA is willing to dip that far down in the GPA scale just to find someone who hasn't been ejected.

Each school can nominate one student-athlete as long as that school participates in the IHSA's sportsmanship program.

What I think is important to make clear is that it is possible to book the Add A. Tude mascot for your next high school event for the low-low rate of $25. Silly mascots rule.

The entry deadline is May 16. The award will be given out June 2 along with $500 to the winners courtesy of the sponsorship deal. I guess it's a "scholarship" or something like that, but what's up with an amateur athletic body handing out cash?

Neuqua Valley senior Chris Derrick shattered the national record for a high school only 5K race on Saturday at the 41st annual Arcadia Invitational, a prestigious track and field meet in California.

Derrick finished with a blistering 60-second last lap with the capacity crowd on its feet screaming to pass Illinois legend Craig Virgin on the all time list. Derrick took nearly 30 seconds off the the previous national record for a HS-only 5k -- 14:24.89 by Ryan Deak of Smoky Hill Aurora CO at Mt. SAC in 2004.

There is a seven-minute video at dyestat.com that shows highlights of the race.