Ridgewood Live Event 2026

The “Ridgewood Live Event” started Friday. The great part about Ridgewood is that one can readily watch two games and parts of a third game from the same seat in the Ridgewood High School Gym. Ridgewood coach Chris Mroz and his staff do a tremendous job putting on this event.

Early Friday I got to see some top players—Cole Kelly and Brady Pettigrew, and teams I usually cover during the basketball season—DePaul Prep, Benet, Lincoln Park, St. Ignatius, Loyola and Mount Carmel. I wasn’t able to see Lane and St. Laurence. They play today and tomorrow.

Another reason I very much enjoy this “Live” event is that I get to talk to high school basketball observers who know far more than I do on this subject. They usually set me straight on this I thought I knew.

Key take aways—

Cole Kelly looked like great. Scoring inside and out, dropping 3’s, grabbing boards. This junior may be the best player in the state at this point. Except for maybe, Brady Pettigrew was playing on the court next to where Kelly was putting on a show. Pettigrew was playing gingerly after having recently suffered a serious injury. But playing none-the-less and playing well.

DePaul Prep had two games early in the tournament. First was Rock Island. The starting line-up that Coach Kleinschmit went with was Blake Choice, Gus Johnson (now surprises there), then sophomore Kalob Hayes on the point, junior Jacob Only on a wing and junior senior guard Josiah Payne. This can obviously change. It will be interesting to see if and how the line-up changes. Whatever the starting line-up is, we will see a great deal of Elie Ghattas and Henry Levin.

The Rams handled Rock Island. They looked in mid-season form on offence and defense. Blake Choice was scoring inside and out. Gus Johnson took a beating inside from the brutal Rock Island Rocks but scored despite the felonious aggression of the Rocks. Caleb Hayes finished his layups which is great to see in a sophomore point guard.

The Rams’ second game, an hour after the first, was against Curie. The Rams started fast opening a ten-point first half lead. In the second half, Curie went to a full court trapping press and chipped away at the lead. On the small court, Curie exceptionally physical full court trap was affective. But not effective enough, the new DePaul Prep line-up held the Condors off and won 43-40. Not that the win matters at all but what I saw was a young Rams team took all the beating that Curie could dish out and held the lead. It is very hard get ten down on a Tom Kleinschmidt team and win the game.

Benet was Benet. The new starters and the bench players filled their roles and won easily.

Loyola was Loyola. They were very athletic and active if a little rough around the edges when finishing at the rim and launching threes. Coach Livatino will get that fixed.

Loyola played Lincoln Park, another team in the coverage area. The Lions too looked a little rough around the edges but big and very physical. One knowledgeable observers thought they will struggle a little this coming season and finish in eight or ninth place in the Chicago Public League. Looks like they will have work to do to get back the CPL championship game in 26-27.

St. Ignatius looked like a well-oiled machine systematically dismantling Hillcrest 59-21. Everybody can score. Amir Tucker looks to have taken a step up even from stellar play last year. The whole team contributed. Junior Walter Ross impressed me. He can score and finish at the rim. They will be in the mix for the new Chicago Catholic League.

My old East Suburban Catholic Conference, a conference that my school St. Viator dominated for two decades by the time I was in high school some forty years ago, has now folded. The larger schools have joined the Chicago Catholic League. For basketball, the CCL will have three division this upcoming year.

Blue                                 White                             Red

Benet                               DeLaSalle                      Aurora Central

Brother Rice                     Fenwick                        Carmel

DePaul Prep                     Joliet Catholic               IC Catholic

Loyola                             Leo                           Nazareth

Marist                             Marmion Academy    Montini

Mount Carmel                 Marian Catholic             Providence

St. Ignatius                      Notre Dame                    Providence-St. Mel

St. Laurence                     St. Francis                     St. Francis de Sale

St. Patrick                        St. Viator                       St. Rita

The Blue is stacked with a ton of state tournament experience. It was been said by many that the Chicago Catholic League is the toughest conference in the state. The CCL Blue is even tougher with the addition of Marist, Benet and St. Patrick—the reigning 4A state champ, the runner up and a recent state 3A finalist.

Both St. Laurence and Mount Carmel are returning top players are expected to contend for a state title. Loyola is returning top players and is always tough. The eventual winner of the conference title will probably have multiple conference losses. It is any team’s title to earn.

As for the Chicago Public League, one well-known commentator who I pumped for information told me to keep an eye on Lane Tech. Their four wins at R-B did not go unnoticed. He said “Cole Christian is a stud. They are fast and they move the ball well.” He said the Champions will be at the top of the Public League with Curie, Whitney Young and Crane.

That’s what I’ve got for you.

I expect to see St. Laurence and Lane tomorrow so I will have my further impressions. More tomorrow.

DePaul Prep Defeat No. 5 Warren 58-54

[Preview of this week’s article in the Inside—Booster.]

By Jack Lydon

DePaul Prep went up to Gurnee to face fifth ranked Warren and took care of business defeating the Blue Devils 58-54. The Rams just keep winning improving their season record to 26-3 and maintaining their No. 2 ranking.

In the regular season penultimate contest, DePaul Prep has lost only one game to an in-state opponent. That was a 52-43 loss to the No. 1 ranked Benet Redwings on New Year’s Eve at the Pontiac Holiday Tournament.

Thursday’s matchup featured the best player in the state, Warren’s junior guard Jaxson Davis, on the fifth ranked team against the second ranked team with two All City players, DePaul Prep’s seniors Rykan Woo and Rashawn Porter on the second ranked team and three-time state champions.

A battle of titans? Well, let’s not lose our heads, but surely the final meeting between top ranked teams in the regular season.

The Rams struggled a little early missing shots on their first four possessions.

“I don't know it's they just weren't going in the basket,” said Rykan Woo, Rams senior guard who was named to the Sun-Times first team All City Team on Friday.

Down 6-0, Woo made a layup and on the Rams’ next possession, Rams senior Zion Lee, a transfer from Springfield’s Sacred Heart-Griffin high school, drained a long three pointer.

“I just knew I had to try, I had to do something,” Lee said. “I knew we were down, so I had to come up with energy. I had to come up with confidence.” The Rams were back in it with the score 6-5.

Lee and the Rams surged ahead in the second quarter outscoring the Blue Devils 21-10. Lee added a field goal and another three-pointer midway through the second.

“It was that energy that we picked up going into the second quarter,” Zion Lee said. “We talked, we huddled to make sure that we kept the same energy.”

With the floodgates opened by Lee, the flood of points followed, Woo with 8, senior forward and the Rams other first team All City player, Rashawn Porter with 4, AJ Chambers with 3 and Blake Choice with 2.

It wasn’t the just the scoring energy of the Rams; it couldn’t be against the top player in the state. Defense would win the day.

“We had to show him two early,” said Rams head coach Tom Kleinschmidt about double-teaming Warren’s star Jaxson Davis.

“And we try to stay home on the shooters, let the bigs beat us,” said Kleinschimdt in coach speak about double-teaming Davis to make him pass the ball out to shooters on the perimeter.

It worked for the most part. Davis also faced some triple teams on his attempts to drive the lane.

“We just gotta show help and leave rebound lanes open lanes. He’s a hell of a player. You got to show two or two and a half of them. He's a great player,” Kleinschmidt said of Davis. The Ram didn’t stop Davis. He had 15 points in the game. But they definitely slowed him down. He is a player capable of scoring 40 or 50 in a game.

After defeating Ridgewood on Friday evening, the Rams have completed the regular season at 27-3. The Rams attempt at a fourth straight IHSA state championship starts Wednesday at Maine East. They enter as the #1 seed in the division 4A Loyola sectional and will face the winner of Tuesday’s game between Taft and Highland Park.

Mroz Returns to St. Patrick

SPORTS SPOTLIGHT BY JOHN MONTGOMERY           

Chris Mroz was excited about the prospect of playing against his alma mater at the Max Kurland basketball tournament at St. Patrick High School. Yes, you can go home again. In this case, it took a while.

Mroz, the head boys basketball coach at Ridgewood in Norridge, was hoping to see how his young team with only two seniors would measure up against a St. Patrick team that finished third in the Class 3A tournament last season.

His Rebels (4-3) lost to Naperville North 49-36 in the third place game. Carson Loughlin scored 19 points as Naperville North (7-2) pulled away in the second half, outscoring Ridgewood by a 25-14 margin.

“It brings back a lot of memories for me,” Mroz said afterward. “This is the first classroom I ever taught in as a teacher. Unfortunately, we lost today. We needed to make a few more shots. We made too many turnovers. Our kids played hard and the effort was there. We will watch the tape. We will get better and have a good season.”

Ridgewood had tough day on road making only 14 baskets with 18 turnovers in the loss.

Mroz, who graduated from St. Patrick in 2002 and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2017, played at Bradley and Missouri-St. Louis before finally obtaining his Master’s degree from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Now a special education teacher at Ridgewood, he has won 212 games and four regional championships in 16 seasons. But until last week, he never coached basketball game at St. Patrick.

He watched briefly as St. Patrick (4-0) handed Wheaton North its first defeat of the young season 69-48 in the championship game of the Kurland tournament. Senior center RJ McPartlin, who has battled injuries during the last two seasons, led the Shamrocks with 21 points to earn MVP honors. Maurice Neeley added 15 points while junior Omar Ajanovic contributed 12.

“We have had some good basketball teams at St. Patrick,” coach Mike Bailey said afterward. “This team has a chance to be a special group as well.”

“It was awesome to see St. Patrick and coach Bailey get Downstate last season,” Mroz said. “I went Downstate and watched the game with a bunch of coaches. If I make a layup 25 years ago against La Grange, we would have gotten there sooner.”

Mroz will return to St. Patrick for a non-conference matchup against the Shamrocks, who won 29 games last season and lost to Brother Rice in the Class 3A semifinals.

“You could see when he walked into St. Patrick as a freshman that he would be a coach one day because he knows the game of basketball,” Bailey said about his former point guard. “He was born to coach. He would come into my office at 14 years of age and talk about basketball with me after watching a game.”

Ironically, one of Mroz’ most memorable victories as a coach came against St. Patrick in the 2016 state tournament. The Rebels stunned the Shamrocks 55-54 on a long buzzer-beater by Zac Rzewnicki in the sectional championship at Ridgewood.

“It was one of the greatest games of my career,” Mroz recalled.

Success was short-lived as Ridgewood lost 52-35 to St. Joseph in the supersectional at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates. One victory away from trip Final Four in Peoria at Bradley University.

“We had a good game plan,” Mroz said. “We got off to a slow start and eventually settled down and cut their lead to six points. They had a seven-footer (Nick Rakocevic). They were a pretty good team." 

The Chargers lost to Peoria Manual in overtime for third place of the Class 3A tournament

In 2025-26, Ridgewood will try to overcome the loss of nine seniors from a team that finished 15-13 last season. Mroz will need minutes and points from seniors Mike Cwieczkowski and football player Alex Hrabchak to compete and contend in the Upstate Eight.

“We have only been together for 13 days,” Mroz said. “To come of the (Kurland) tournament 2-2 isn’t bad.”

Ridgewood is now in the realigned Upstate Eight with neighborhood rivals Fenton (1-8) and Elmwood Park (3-5). The Rebels will begin conference play Friday night at West Chicago (3-5) while St. Patrick opens its final season of ESCC competition against Notre Dame of Niles (6-3).

Clark Runs Away from Antioch 73-46

I went out to Michele Clark on Wednesday evening to see the 18th ranked Eagles (20-2, 7-1) take on Sean Connor’s Antioch Sequoits (11-17, 7-7). It was my first trip to Michele Clark and my first time seeing the Eagles this season. It happened to be senior night. I hadn’t planned to take senior night photos but given the chance, why not?

Clark has a big team. On its small court, it seemed like there wouldn’t be enough room on the floor for ten players. The Eagles came out in the 3/4 court press. The Sequoits struggled at first but they got the ball up and made some shots. Former DePaul Prep sophomore coach and varsity assistant has his Sequoits playing well.

What is a Sequoit you ask? No one seems to know. One alumnus said he had no idea. One parent said, “who knows?”

Me? I l think a sequoit is a mythical swamp creature that emerges from hiding deep in the lake region to menace unsuspecting flatlanders who wander north off the prairie.

But I digress.

The Eagles got an early lead on the strength of strong outside shooting and points off turnovers a held an eight point at the half.

But Sequoits were hanging around. Late in the third the Sequoits were close. Would it be a repeat of their last trip to the Chicago area last week when a late run and excellent free throw shooting lifted the Sequoits to a two point victory over Ridgewood?

Clark is not Ridgewood. It was Clark that went on the 4th quarter run. A couple of highlight reel alley-oop dunks blew up the gym. Clark coach Terry Head had his team peaking at the right time. Some turnovers, transition buckets and the Eagles had a 25 point lead early in the fourth and went on to a 73-46 victory.

I think the trips to Chicago have given the Sequoits some confidence. They never looked panicked or worried. They were having fun in the small Westside gym against a ranked team filled with large skilled players. I have no doubt Antioch will doing a lot of damage in the Northern Lake County Conference in coming years with Sean Connor at the helm.

DePaul Prep Handles Ridgewood 74-41

The second half of the 2019-2020 high school basketball season began Monday evening with the DePaul Prep Rams hosting the Ridgewood High School Rebels. The Rams defeated the Rebels 74-41. The Rebels were frankly just out-manned by the #11 ranked DePaul squad. The early first quarter pressure helped the Rams jump out the an early lead. The eventual outcome never seemed in doubt.

DePaul moved to 13-2 overall and 5-0 in the Chicago Catholic League Blue. It is a busy week for the Rams. The St. Rita Mustangs come to the Tom Winiecki Gym on Friday and the Steve Pappas Shootout is Saturday with the Rams facing Deerfield at 7:30 p.m. Don’t forget to set your DVR's to record the game which will be televised on WCIU. After you come out and see the Rams victory over Deerfield, you can go home an rewatch it.

DePaul Prep Defeats Ridgewood 56-32 to win 3A Regional

The DePaul Prep Rams took care of business against the host Ridgewood Rebels 56-32 on Friday (March 1, 2019) to win their fifth IHSA Regional Playoff Championship in a row.

This is the last phase of the season—the IHSA 3A Playoffs. Been through Thanksgiving, Christmas, Shootouts, CCL games, now the playoffs. Another Regional championship in the books now its only good teams in front of the DePaul Prep Rams. Carmel, St. Viator, Farragut, Morgan Park and Springfield Southeast. That’s all. No problem.

The Rams have played the schedule for it. They played everyone tough. Took Morgan Park to the end. They can play. They know what to expect. Dribble, shoot, play defense, make layups and most importantly—make free throws. Do those things, get a little luck and who knows.  

Go Rams!