Prep sports: March 2008 Archives

Including Tuesday night's 12-5 loss to Naperville Central, the Naperville North girls water polo team has lost three of its past four and all five matches against area teams.

The good news is that Lockport comes calling on Wednesday.

Now that Naperville Central has won the Hoffman Estates Invitational and is ranked No. 2 in the Sun-Times' boys volleyball poll, we get to see how good the Redhawks are this weekend at the Tiger Classic.

They maybe as good as that ranking. Or maybe not.

A poster on a thread at volleyballmag.com said this on Monday night about the Redhawks: "they are definitely not the 2nd best team in the state."

A trio of shortstops heads up the area's five-player contingent named to the Sun-Times' Top 100 softball list released on Saturday.

By Patrick Mooney

The Sun-Times baseball poll slots Neuqua Valley, last season's Class AA state champions, at No. 5, while Benet checks in at No. 20.

The sidebar lists the area's Top 100 players, which includes Neuqua pitcher Ian Krol, Neuqua catcher Geoff Rowan, Benet pitcher Bryan Roberts and Naperville North pitcher Jake Naumann.

The Redwings were scheduled to visit No. 3 St. Charles North on Thursday, but the field wasn't playable. Assuming the weather finally breaks - and considering all those front-of-the-rotation pitchers - how far can area programs go into late May and early June? Did the comprehensive Top 100 list miss any prospects in particular? Who will be a surprise impact player this spring?

The Heat Index has learned that Naperville North senior Mike Henry (far right) will not miss the first month of the season as expected.

In fact the outside hitter said will play in North's opener on Wednesday night against Neuqua Valley. The season opener for North is a rematch of last year's sectional final that the Wildcats won.

In an email sent to the Heat Index late Tuesday night, Henry said the results of a bone scan he had on Friday revealed that he has a bone bruise in his lower back that was big enough to appear on the MRI he had on March 12. At that time, Henry was told the injury was probably a stress fracture.

When I ran into Henry after Neuqua's season opener on Thursday, he lifted up his shirt to display the back brace, saying "I got this," in a way that indicated things had only gotten worse. Things are now looking much better for Henry. Maybe not so much for Neuqua Valley.

When the IHSA decided to go ahead with its proposed drug testing program in January, it did it on the merits of this survey of its member schools.

At the time, I couldn't figure out what was more significant: that only 54 percent of the schools responded to the survey or that 60 percent of those that did respond said they didn't think teams should have to forfeit playoff awards if one of their players came up dirty.

By Patrick Mooney and Brad Engel

Drew Crawford made the leap this season for Naperville Central, from a sophomore finding his way into a junior carrying his team. Crawford increased his productivity across the board. Look at these splits between 2006-07 and 2007-08:

By Sean Fuchs

On the eve of the water polo season, the Heat Index brings you the preseason list of the top 10 players in the area for boys and girls, thanks to the kind folks at illpolo.com.