I gave some thought to what I want to do with this high school sports coverage. I have basically decided that I will concentrate on covering high school basketball and do other sports as I find time. That means football once a week, or so.
Flag football is becoming a thing. So that needs a little coverage. Volleyball is a fun thing to cover and it’s a challenge to photograph so I like that.
To that end of not being so serious with all the coverage, I went to the Geneva v. St. Charles North football game on Friday night. It was my first trip to Geneva high school. It’s a bit of a sprawling campus in this nice town way out there on the Fox River. The campus is tucked in a residential neighborhood a little northwest of downtown Geneva where the courthouse and all the fancy restaurants are.
I understand that Geneva was largely settled by Scandinavians in the last century. So the team name is “Vikings.” I assume that is the reason.
St. Charles North high school is an off shoot of the old St. Charles high school, which I understand is now St. Charles East high school. St. Charles is the next town north of Geneva. It’s very hard to tell where one town stops and the other starts. Very similar places.
My nieces attend St. Charles North and has the “North Stars” as it team name. Interestingly, they use a polar bear as a mascot, at least in graphics. Why not just be the polar bears.
Mike Clark teases me about my rating of the light in various gyms and stadiums in the Chicagoland area. I often say, “the most important thing in high school basketball is the light in the gym.” No truer words have ever been spoken.
I was surprised with state of the lights at Geneva. They were not very good. Only four light poles. There was enough light be barely enough. I was expecting much better from this wealthy town and school district.
