High School Sports Weekly
By High School Sports Weekly
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Recapping the basketball state finals and Glenbard West's magical season
The season is wrapped up. Glenbard West didn’t just win the Class 4A state title in with a dominant performance, the Hilltoppers went wire to wire as the top-ranked team in the area.That’s an incredibly rare feat. There’s now a great deal of discussion about …
Previewing the top IHSA state basketball supersectionals
On a typical Sunday I spend a few hours on the rankings. It’s important to make sure all of my records are updated and I know what every good team in the area did over the week. Then it is time for internal debate. Which teams need to tumble a bit? Which team…
Basketball playoffs heat up across the state
The Player of the Year race began in November with four main contenders: Yorkville Christian’s Jaden Schutt, Glenbard West’s Braden Huff, Thornton’s Ty Rodgers and Glenbrook South’s Nick Martinelli.Nearly four months later, things are the same. All four playe…
Player of the Year still up for grabs as playoffs draw closer
Ignore the calendar. March Madness has arrived.It’s actually already started. The regional quarterfinals took place on Saturday and now we all sit around and wait for the regional semifinal doubleheaders to take place on Wednesday.The Illinois High School Ass…
Dolphins take the Public League: Young wins boys and girls city hoops titles
The preseason seems like a long time ago. It’s easy to forget that Young was expected to be Glenbard West’s equal back in November. Picking which team was the preseason No. 1 wasn’t an easy task.The Hilltoppers have dominated from the start. Young struggled. …
Glenbard West's undefeated run ends as season hits the stretch run
High school basketball owned the Chicago sports scene on Saturday night. There was a sold-out crowd at Wintrust Arena and a nice crowd for the Donda Homecoming event at UIC.Both events were televised. For the first time in more than two years, there were big …
Public League tourney, 'Donda' event highlight exciting week to come
Lemont, St. Ignatius, Bloom and Kankakee dropped out of the rankings this week after picking up losses.The Wolfpack have hit their second low point of the season. They lost to Benet, Providence and Nazareth last week.Thornton, which dominated Larkin on Saturd…
When Sides Collide rewind
Two suburban teams are at the top of the rankings. Glenbard West and Glenbrook South are a combined 42-1, and the only loss was the Hilltoppers’ narrow victory against the Titans.Will the suburbs be able to bring home state championships in March?Glenbard Wes…
MLK Day starts off big week for high school hoops
It was an interesting week in the Super 25. There was a tough decision to make for the top spot. Glenbard West is obviously a strong No. 1. The Hilltoppers are undefeated and have been dominating ranked teams.They smashed Larkin by 21 this week and dominated …
Public League enters spotlight for week of big matchups
It was a week where a lot of teams played themselves out of the rankings but absolutely no one played their way in. That always makes things tough. A lot of teams hold on despite losing this week.Bolingbrook drops out for the first time this season. The Raide…
What we learned from the holiday basketball tournaments
The rankings are usually a little easier to do after the holidays than most weeks. I start with a clean slate. No one cares where anyone was ranked before all these games were played. What matters is what happened in all the tournaments.So it was a bit shocki…
High school basketball holiday tournament previews
Seventeen of the Super 25 teams didn’t play a game last week, so there hasn’t been much movement.DePaul Prep drops out after losing to Hinsdale Central in the second round of the Red Devils’ holiday tournament. The young Rams were sailing by on an undefeated …
Here we go again: Basketball season in jeopardy due to COVID
That was a rough week. My plan for the last few days was to cover St. Patrick vs. Notre Dame, Evanston at New Trier and DePaul Prep against Benet. Only one of those games happened, which is the way things are going these days. About 40 games were canceled ove…
Team Rose Classic recap: Curie, Glenbard West among winners
This was a tough week with the rankings. I’ve seen most of the teams that are in the Super 25 play now and it hasn’t always been very instructive.What do you do when a ranked team loses by 30 at home? New Trier survives this week despite that loss.I don’t lik…
Glenbard West passes early test, Young stumbles as shootout season in full swing
Two teams earned their way into the Super 25 this week.Batavia, which was firmly on my radar in the preseason, is off to a 6-0 start. The Bulldogs beat previously unbeaten Huntley 67-66 on Saturday. Trent Tousana scored 30 points.Wheaton-Warrenville South’s o…
Final Super 25 football rankings after state championship weekend
Eight state football champions were crowned Friday and Saturday in DeKalb.There was Fenwick as the debutant, winning its first title. Joliet Catholic, the king of Illinois high school football, added to its state-record trophy haul.Lockport and Wheaton North …
2021-22 basketball season preview and state football semifinal recaps
It’s almost here. The first real, complete basketball season in two years tips off today. There’s a full slate of Thanksgiving tournaments and holiday tournaments planned.We’ll have conference showdowns and weekend shootouts again. Most importantly, the crowd…
Top teams avoid upsets in state football quarterfinals
The quarterfinals delivered excellent games. There weren’t many blowouts in the area. Even though some of the final scores were slightly lopsided, the games were closer than they appeared.Lemont even kept things respectable against mighty East St. Louis, losi…
State football playoff quarterfinals loaded with big matchups
Some big names fell out of the rankings this week after picking up losses in the second round. At this point I’m sticking with teams that are still playing.At the end of the season I’ll go back and take a look at the season overall. It’s likely teams such as …
A big loss for Chicago's basketball scene and a state playoffs update
We’ve reached the point in the season where the rankings are pretty easy to do. At least for this week. First round losing teams drop out for good and everyone moves on. That eliminates Bolingbrook, York and Naperville North this week.No one will be shocked t…