Hibernation Ends Here
It feels like forever since Kaneland, Marengo and Moline won
spring titles ...
spring titles ...
Two months from today, we clamped down on one of the busiest weekends this area has
seen in quite some time.
Only a few days to prepare for a weekend that saw the Kaneland Baseball team win two
games to become Class 3A champions. A weekend that saw Marengo defeat LaSalle-
Peru in the Class 3A Softball title game, unique for being a title game pitting area foes. A
weekend that saw Moline Softball duplicate history with its sixth state title.
After hitting the “publish” button in the website workshop, my keyboard broke due to the
weight of my head crashing down on it. Sure, there were a couple of things that I woke up
to, but I drifted back to sleep (this time with a pillow at my desk) because there was just
simply nothing going on.
So how's your summer been?
Other than hot.
Many days we were unhappy with the heat. Late July featured a stretch of hundred-
degree temperatures, which felt hotter after factoring in the heat index. The humidity had
a lot to do with that. So dry that we wanted some rain at some point. When it rained
however, it poured. The folks in East Dubuque and Savanna need no reminder of that.
Coming into August, didn't we think that the first official day of high school sports practices
– yesterday – was going to be just as bad? Football teams practicing with two-a-days
(some perhaps three)? Long walks on the golf course in pants? Quite the contrary.
Mother Nature was in a good mood, delivering temperatures in the 70s and lower 80s.
One Big Prep Start Date
All fall sports started practice yesterday: cross country, football, golf, boys soccer, girls
swimming, girls tennis and volleyball. No more monkeying with allotted summer contact
days, and no more “dead periods.”
Until a couple of years ago, golf, which has been the first sport to undergo competition in
the fall, was the first sport to practice. Golf had previously started on the Monday of the
sixth week of the IHSA calendar year. Girls swimming, meanwhile, originally had practices
begin after the first day of school. Football had always been the Wednesday of the IHSA's
sixth week.
Now all sports start on the same date, that of the usual football starting date.
For years it always seemed that the first day of football practice was a big deal. These
initial practices even attract media coverage. Now that all initial fall practices all start on
the same day, football has continued to be the center of attention – sometimes to the
chagrin of the non-football crowd. Give it a couple of years, and we may start seeing a
balance in coverage of opening practices. It takes time for the traditional cycle to have
some flexibility, especially when staffs go from zero to nearing the sound barrier in
workload this time of year.
Football is still the king of the prep sports in northern Illinois. Last season was a prime
example of that, after Lena-Winslow, Newman and Boylan won state titles. However,
volleyball has always been just as high up there, with the past four years seeing an area
team in the Class 1A title game.
Golf Postseason Assignments Out
Some could even argue that golf is among the top of the area's sports. One thing we do
know about this year's golf scene is where teams and golfers will be in the postseason.
The locations were announced during the spring, early enough so that golf courses can
reserve these dates ahead of anything else. The change in classification altered some of
these assignments a little, and the IHSA released an updated, incomplete list a couple of
weeks ago.
For Class 1A boys, Aquin will host the area sectional at Park Hills. Feeding into the
Sectional are regionals hosted by Aurora Central Catholic (Phillips Park) and Elgin
Westminster (on a course to be determined). The two other regional courses have not
been announced yet.
For Class 2A boys, LaSalle-Peru (Senica's Oak Ridge) and West Chicago Wheaton
Academy (Pheasant Run Resort, St. Charles) will host the area sectionals. Feeding into
the LaSalle-Peru Sectional are regionals hosted by Geneseo (Maple Bluff) and Macomb
(Macomb Country Club), as well as two other locations to be determined. Feeding into the
Wheaton Academy Sectional are regionals hosted by Burlington Central (The Highlands
of Elgin), Rockford East (Elliott) and Sycamore (Sycamore Golf Course), as well as one
more location to be determined.
For Class 3A boys, area sectional sites have yet to be determined. The Rockford area 3A
schools will have their regional at Atwood Homestead (hosted by Harlem), and feed into a
sectional with golfers from the Barrington, Mundelein and an addition regional. The Quad
City area 3A schools will competed at Lick Creek Golf Course (hosted by Pekin), and feed
into a sectional with golfers from the Collinsville, Minooka and Oswego regionals.
For Class A girls, Westminster will host the area sectional at Algonquin's Golf Club of
Illinois. Area regionals are at Byron (Prairie View) and Aquin (Park Hills). Regional golfers
from the LaGrange Park Nazareth and Wheaton St. Francis regionals will also feed into
the Westminster Sectional.
For Class AA girls, Quad City area schools will have their regional at Rock Island
(Highland Springs) and their sectional at Mattoon (Meadowview). All other area teams will
compete in another sectional which is yet to be determined. Sycamore's Sectional will feed
into this regional, and two more regionals feeding in have also been yet to be determined.
“New” Source For Information
For a bracketed view of what feeds where, visit the Illinois High School Association website
at ihsa.org.
After arriving, you'll know that the website has underwent a complete overhaul. The
website is more colorful, has dropdown menus and an improved navigation bar, has a
news feed, and has more links on the front page directing toward important information.
The IHSA ScoreZone, a popular destination for updated scores of postseason games and
regular season football games, is set to become directly available on the site's homepage.
With most newly-designed websites, it will take a slight delay for older browsers to display
the webpage. The backbone of the website (the header, footer, navigation bars) doesn't
change when trying to find school and coach information, and even when viewing a
school's win-loss history. This reduces the number of backclicks and avenues to
backtrack on. What is missing from the list for information on each individual school is the
classification. Instead of finding it by school, there is an entire page devoted to finding out
what class a sport is.
The only real downside to the new website is the information listed in the homepages for
each sport. On the old setup, each sport page had many links to different bits of
information directly from that sport page. With the new setup, there are a couple of extra
clicks of the mouse to find certain information.
Added within the new look of the IHSA website is a link called “Porter's Corner.” The space
is named for former IHSA administrator H.V. Porter, who coined the phrase “March
Madness” in a 1939 essay of the same name for the Illinois High School Athlete magazine.
Porter's Corner offers principals, coaches, students, administrators, officials, IHSA staff
members and other special guests an opportunity to write about topics relating to Illinois
high school sports.
Not since 1997 has the IHSA had any substantial change in its website design, aside from
framework and new links. In that 14-year span, people who constantly use the website as
a resource have known where to go at a moment's notice and even know where links are
on a page before finding a way to describe where they are at. Now that the website has
been overhauled, it will take time for the IHSA website veterans to figure out where
everything is at.
Nelson, Davis, Gentry Enshrined
Lastly, on August 2 the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame announced its charter
members into their club.
The Hall itself is new, having formed last season and officially unveiled during last year's
large school boys basketball tournament weekend.
Sixty male and female athletes were chosen from the Hall's selection committee, and were
put into three categories: pre-1970, post-1970 and girls.
Three area basketball legends have been given the call, and all are a part of the older
class of Hall members. Don Nelson played high school ball in Rock Island before playing
at Iowa and with the Boston Celtics. After retiring as a player, Nelson coached five
different NBA teams before retiring as the NBA's all-time leader in coaching wins. Deacon
Davis was a star for Freeport, and led the Pretzels to the 1951 IHSA state title. He also
played at Iowa and went on to play with the Harlem Globetrotters. Nolden Gentry led
Rockford West to back-to-back state titles in 1955 and 1956 (only the second time it had
been done at that time). He too played at Iowa before embarking on a successful law
career.
The area trio will be inducted during a ceremony on November 5 in Champaign. The Hall
also plans on opening a museum in Danville by 2013, and is looking for items to add to its
collection. More information is available on the Hall's website: ilhoopshall.com.
Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and writes columns about
Illinois high school sports every Thursday. You may have also noticed a slight change to
the column template. He can be reached at Northernillinoissportsbeat (at) yahoo (dot)
com. --- Talk about what's written on our Message Boards!
seen in quite some time.
Only a few days to prepare for a weekend that saw the Kaneland Baseball team win two
games to become Class 3A champions. A weekend that saw Marengo defeat LaSalle-
Peru in the Class 3A Softball title game, unique for being a title game pitting area foes. A
weekend that saw Moline Softball duplicate history with its sixth state title.
After hitting the “publish” button in the website workshop, my keyboard broke due to the
weight of my head crashing down on it. Sure, there were a couple of things that I woke up
to, but I drifted back to sleep (this time with a pillow at my desk) because there was just
simply nothing going on.
So how's your summer been?
Other than hot.
Many days we were unhappy with the heat. Late July featured a stretch of hundred-
degree temperatures, which felt hotter after factoring in the heat index. The humidity had
a lot to do with that. So dry that we wanted some rain at some point. When it rained
however, it poured. The folks in East Dubuque and Savanna need no reminder of that.
Coming into August, didn't we think that the first official day of high school sports practices
– yesterday – was going to be just as bad? Football teams practicing with two-a-days
(some perhaps three)? Long walks on the golf course in pants? Quite the contrary.
Mother Nature was in a good mood, delivering temperatures in the 70s and lower 80s.
One Big Prep Start Date
All fall sports started practice yesterday: cross country, football, golf, boys soccer, girls
swimming, girls tennis and volleyball. No more monkeying with allotted summer contact
days, and no more “dead periods.”
Until a couple of years ago, golf, which has been the first sport to undergo competition in
the fall, was the first sport to practice. Golf had previously started on the Monday of the
sixth week of the IHSA calendar year. Girls swimming, meanwhile, originally had practices
begin after the first day of school. Football had always been the Wednesday of the IHSA's
sixth week.
Now all sports start on the same date, that of the usual football starting date.
For years it always seemed that the first day of football practice was a big deal. These
initial practices even attract media coverage. Now that all initial fall practices all start on
the same day, football has continued to be the center of attention – sometimes to the
chagrin of the non-football crowd. Give it a couple of years, and we may start seeing a
balance in coverage of opening practices. It takes time for the traditional cycle to have
some flexibility, especially when staffs go from zero to nearing the sound barrier in
workload this time of year.
Football is still the king of the prep sports in northern Illinois. Last season was a prime
example of that, after Lena-Winslow, Newman and Boylan won state titles. However,
volleyball has always been just as high up there, with the past four years seeing an area
team in the Class 1A title game.
Golf Postseason Assignments Out
Some could even argue that golf is among the top of the area's sports. One thing we do
know about this year's golf scene is where teams and golfers will be in the postseason.
The locations were announced during the spring, early enough so that golf courses can
reserve these dates ahead of anything else. The change in classification altered some of
these assignments a little, and the IHSA released an updated, incomplete list a couple of
weeks ago.
For Class 1A boys, Aquin will host the area sectional at Park Hills. Feeding into the
Sectional are regionals hosted by Aurora Central Catholic (Phillips Park) and Elgin
Westminster (on a course to be determined). The two other regional courses have not
been announced yet.
For Class 2A boys, LaSalle-Peru (Senica's Oak Ridge) and West Chicago Wheaton
Academy (Pheasant Run Resort, St. Charles) will host the area sectionals. Feeding into
the LaSalle-Peru Sectional are regionals hosted by Geneseo (Maple Bluff) and Macomb
(Macomb Country Club), as well as two other locations to be determined. Feeding into the
Wheaton Academy Sectional are regionals hosted by Burlington Central (The Highlands
of Elgin), Rockford East (Elliott) and Sycamore (Sycamore Golf Course), as well as one
more location to be determined.
For Class 3A boys, area sectional sites have yet to be determined. The Rockford area 3A
schools will have their regional at Atwood Homestead (hosted by Harlem), and feed into a
sectional with golfers from the Barrington, Mundelein and an addition regional. The Quad
City area 3A schools will competed at Lick Creek Golf Course (hosted by Pekin), and feed
into a sectional with golfers from the Collinsville, Minooka and Oswego regionals.
For Class A girls, Westminster will host the area sectional at Algonquin's Golf Club of
Illinois. Area regionals are at Byron (Prairie View) and Aquin (Park Hills). Regional golfers
from the LaGrange Park Nazareth and Wheaton St. Francis regionals will also feed into
the Westminster Sectional.
For Class AA girls, Quad City area schools will have their regional at Rock Island
(Highland Springs) and their sectional at Mattoon (Meadowview). All other area teams will
compete in another sectional which is yet to be determined. Sycamore's Sectional will feed
into this regional, and two more regionals feeding in have also been yet to be determined.
“New” Source For Information
For a bracketed view of what feeds where, visit the Illinois High School Association website
at ihsa.org.
After arriving, you'll know that the website has underwent a complete overhaul. The
website is more colorful, has dropdown menus and an improved navigation bar, has a
news feed, and has more links on the front page directing toward important information.
The IHSA ScoreZone, a popular destination for updated scores of postseason games and
regular season football games, is set to become directly available on the site's homepage.
With most newly-designed websites, it will take a slight delay for older browsers to display
the webpage. The backbone of the website (the header, footer, navigation bars) doesn't
change when trying to find school and coach information, and even when viewing a
school's win-loss history. This reduces the number of backclicks and avenues to
backtrack on. What is missing from the list for information on each individual school is the
classification. Instead of finding it by school, there is an entire page devoted to finding out
what class a sport is.
The only real downside to the new website is the information listed in the homepages for
each sport. On the old setup, each sport page had many links to different bits of
information directly from that sport page. With the new setup, there are a couple of extra
clicks of the mouse to find certain information.
Added within the new look of the IHSA website is a link called “Porter's Corner.” The space
is named for former IHSA administrator H.V. Porter, who coined the phrase “March
Madness” in a 1939 essay of the same name for the Illinois High School Athlete magazine.
Porter's Corner offers principals, coaches, students, administrators, officials, IHSA staff
members and other special guests an opportunity to write about topics relating to Illinois
high school sports.
Not since 1997 has the IHSA had any substantial change in its website design, aside from
framework and new links. In that 14-year span, people who constantly use the website as
a resource have known where to go at a moment's notice and even know where links are
on a page before finding a way to describe where they are at. Now that the website has
been overhauled, it will take time for the IHSA website veterans to figure out where
everything is at.
Nelson, Davis, Gentry Enshrined
Lastly, on August 2 the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame announced its charter
members into their club.
The Hall itself is new, having formed last season and officially unveiled during last year's
large school boys basketball tournament weekend.
Sixty male and female athletes were chosen from the Hall's selection committee, and were
put into three categories: pre-1970, post-1970 and girls.
Three area basketball legends have been given the call, and all are a part of the older
class of Hall members. Don Nelson played high school ball in Rock Island before playing
at Iowa and with the Boston Celtics. After retiring as a player, Nelson coached five
different NBA teams before retiring as the NBA's all-time leader in coaching wins. Deacon
Davis was a star for Freeport, and led the Pretzels to the 1951 IHSA state title. He also
played at Iowa and went on to play with the Harlem Globetrotters. Nolden Gentry led
Rockford West to back-to-back state titles in 1955 and 1956 (only the second time it had
been done at that time). He too played at Iowa before embarking on a successful law
career.
The area trio will be inducted during a ceremony on November 5 in Champaign. The Hall
also plans on opening a museum in Danville by 2013, and is looking for items to add to its
collection. More information is available on the Hall's website: ilhoopshall.com.
Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and writes columns about
Illinois high school sports every Thursday. You may have also noticed a slight change to
the column template. He can be reached at Northernillinoissportsbeat (at) yahoo (dot)
com. --- Talk about what's written on our Message Boards!
| Northern Illinois Sports Beat http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com |
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