DePaul Prep Defeats Notre Dame 65-46
The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Notre Dame Dons 65-45 on Wednesday evening (Nov. 21, 2018) in the DePaul Prep/Lane Tech Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving Tournament.
Notre Dame Defeats Lake View 47-35
Dons survive a challenge from the Wildcats at the DePaul Prep/Lane Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving Tournament 47-35.
DePaul Prep Defeats Taft 60-15 in Battle of the Bridge
The DePaul Prep Rams played angry. The Rams defeated the Taft High School Eagles 60-15 in the season opener last night in the Tom Wienicki Gym. The game wasn’t as close as the score suggests. 24-2 at the end of the first and 34-5 at the half. Taft played hard; they just ran into talented team that wanted to play hard.
It did not seem to matter who the Rams were playing. They were focused. Not a lot of cheering or congratulations on the lopsided score—just focused, serious business.
Perry Cowen looks like he has added muscle. Sophomore Ty Johnson started the game at point guard and looks a foot taller that the last time I saw him in March. The Rams starting line-up of Cowen, Pantovic, Anthony, Mosley and Johnson is going to give a lot of teams trouble. Shower and Matthews off the bench can keep up the pressure. This team is poised to win a lot of games and make a deep run in 3A.
Based upon the Rams Super 25 rank at #21, Sun-Times Reporter Michael O’Brien sees the Rams obvious talent but doesn’t appear to believe at they have the mental toughness to be a top tier team. City Suburban Hoops Report’s Joe Henricksen does and puts the Rams in that top tier of his rankings at #10. I know it was Taft but last night at least, it looks like the Rams have what it takes.
The season has just begun 30 or so games to play. It will go quick. Stay tuned.
High School Basketball Starts Today!
The high school basketball season starts today.
I have been looking forward to this season for months now. Since the disappointing end to the DePaul Prep Rams season last March in the Sectional final.
The Rams come into this season ranked 21 in the Sun-Times Super 25 and 10 in Joe Henricksen’s Top 80 teams. Preseason rankings are all about expectations. So expectations for the Rams are high—very high. This will be the third season that this group of players have played together now at the varsity level. Each year they have gotten better and better. The Rams have one of the area’s top players—Perry Cowen. The Rams are among the favorites to win the Chicago Catholic League with Loyola, Leo and St. Rita.
The Rams are also seen by many observers as among the top teams in 3A with Morgan Park, Bogan, St. Viator and St. Rita. So the expectations are high for a deep run into the IHSA 3A playoffs.
It seems only a few short years ago that the Gordon Tech Rams had lost 33 Catholic League games in a row. Those days are long gone. Under Coach Tom Kleinschmidt, the Rams win games they should and pick off favorites here and there.
Personally, I am going to approach this like the 2016 Cubs season. Take the season in phases, enjoy every minute and not get weighed down by the expectations. God willing, we will all be in Peoria on March 16th for a matchup with can tell our grandkids about.
First phase, the Battle of the Bridge Tournament. So, see you at the Tom Wienicki Gym tonight at 6:00 p.m.
And I will also be shooting as many other games as I can get to while still remaining married.
Loyola Throttles Maine South 17-0 in 8A Quarterfinal
It is better to finish strong than start strong. Despite three losses Chicago Catholic League Blue early in the season, the Ramblers looked as dominant on defense Saturday against Maine South as any team I have seen this season.
Make no mistake about it. Maine South is a very good football team. Maine South came back in the second half to beat a very good Mount Carmel team. The Hawks made a believer out of me. Nevertheless, the Ramblers played a flawless game on defense and a brilliantly conservative and physical game on offense to shut out Maine South at Maine South.
Lincoln-Way East will have to go to Wilmette to face the Ramblers. Lincoln-Way has played some tough teams, Crete-Monee, Naperville Central, Thornwood. But they don’t play in the Catholic League’s Blue Division and they did not face Mt. Carmel, Brother Rice and Montini.
I am looking forward to this game. The semi-final should be a very good game.
Which brings me to a second subject—the dominance of the Catholic Schools in the football playoffs this year. In 8A, three of the four surviving teams are Catholic Schools: Brother Rice, Marist and Loyola. 7A has Nazareth and Mt. Carmel. 6A has Notre Dame. 5A has Joliet Catholic and Montini. 4A has Immaculate Conception and Bishop McNamara. 2A has St. Teresa (Decatur, Illinois). That’s eleven of the thirty-two teams. That’s basically 1/3 of all eight classes and half of the biggest classes.
How did this happen? Don’t know. I don’t even want to speculate.
What’s gonna happen? There will be some talk, in the usual quarters, about kicking private schools out of the IHSA. Don’t want to go there either. I’m sure we have all heard quite enough of the multiplier talk.
Personally, I think it will swing back. The DuPage Valley restructured. It will be back. And who knows what is going to happen with the Catholic Super Conference next year.
I am struggling about what to do about the finals. The football finals are the same time as the start of the basketball season. What is a photographer to do?
Notre Dame Defeats St. Ignatius 14-7 in Playoff Opener
It has taken me to long to get to this. There is a saying in the law, “justice delayed is justice denied.” I have delayed too long in posting these photos. Nevertheless, here they are.
St. Rita Blanks DePaul Prep 40-0 in Season Ender
Dissappointing seasons came to an end for both the DePaul Prep Rams and St. Rita Mustangs on Saturday (Oct. 20, 2018) with a 40-0 whitewashing of the Rams by the Mustangs. I had high hopes for the Rams at the beginning of the season. They had some athletes, a little bit of size. I thought they could pick up some quality wins. It wasn’t to be.
I saw St. Rita twice. They gave a good game to a very good Brother Rice team. 3 and 6 is a surprising record for such a good team.
Both programs will bounce back. On to basketball.
Hope you like the photos.
De La Salle Handles DePaul Prep, 40-22
The DePaul Prep Rams faced the De La Salle Meteors at DePaul’s new home field, Chicago Academy, 3400 N. Austin. The noon game at that field makes for good photos. It didn’t work out too well for the Rams. The gave up the first 40 points then scored the final 22. De La Salle just proved a little to big and fast for the Rams.
It was a great day to take photos. I noticed that the autofocus setting was reacting really slow. I need to work on adjusting the setting. Canon autofocus is so good. I must have work on that. Small issue but I can do better. The settings are so robust there is a better why.
Football is winding down. Playoffs are coming up. Looking forward to that.
Hope you like the photos.
Took a Week Off
I didn’t shoot any football games last weekend nor any tonight (Oct. 12, 2018) evening even though there were plenty of games. I know there are only nine games in the high school regular season but I just wasn’t feeling it.
Last week was all messed up because of the game cancellations and the weather related early starts. I planned to go to the Nazareth v. Marist game but it started early and I couldn’t get there in time.
I am not all that broken up about missed a week. I needed a little time off. My photos haven’t been anything special lately. I have just been going to through the motions trying to quickly publish some shots on Twitter and get a lot of impressions. That distraction might be necessary but it doesn’t make for getting great shots.
I didn’t shot any games tonight, well frankly, because I was too tired. I had a long stressful work week. I went out for sushi instead with Mary and had a wonderful time. We talked.
I am going to shoot the DePaul Prep game tomorrow with no tweeting—well maybe a little. But I am going to concentrate on good shots.
No photos in this post.
Brother Rice Continues CCL Blue Dominance with 21-14 Win over St. Rita
Brother Rice hosted St. Rita Friday night (Sept. 28, 2018) in a Chicago Catholic League Blue showdown. The Crusaders maintained their lead in the conference with a 21-14 defeat of the Mustangs.
The Crusaders opened the scoring early in the first quarter with a 73 yard touchdown pass and run from senior quarterback John Bean to senior wide receiver Dylan Summers.
The Crusaders took the 7-0 lead into half time and opened the third with a long touchdown run by John Bean. The Mustangs answered immediately thereafter with a kickoff return touchdown by St. Rita sophomore wide receiver Henry Wilson to make the score 14-7.
In the fourth, Brother Rice senior cornerback Danny Fitzgerald picked off an errant pass and returned the ball deep into St. Rita territory. The Crusaders capitalized on the Fitzgerald INT with an inside touchdown run by senior running back Jessi Plunkett.
Despite a late St. Rita touchdown drive, Brother Rice held for the win improving its record to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Catholic League Blue.
Maine South Over Evanston in Classic Showdown
The Maine South Hawks held on to defeat the Evanston Wildkits 21-13 in a classic showdown the won’t soon be forgotten. The highly ranked Wildkits hadn’t beaten Central Suburban South Conference rival Hawks since 2014 and it was looking like this might be the year. It wasn’t to be.
A huge homecoming crowd greeted the Hawks and their fans. The Wildkits took the opening kick and methodically worked their way down the field to the Maine South ten-yard line on a lovely seven-minute drive behind to tough running of junior running back Quadre Nicholson. The Wildkits stalled with successive incomplete passes. Going for it on fourth down, the Kits came up empty and turned the ball over on downs.
Maine South grabbed the momentum, took the lead on their own long drive and played just well enough to hold off the no-quit Wildkits, winning the game, 21-13.
It was one of the best high school football games that I have seen in years. Good teams, good coaches, good players.
It would not surprise me if these teams meet in the 8A playoffs.
DePaul Prep Falls to Fenton 33-17
The DePaul Prep Rams traveled to Bensenvllle to take on the Fenton Bison. The Rams played hard but just did not have enough to defeat a pretty average Fenton squad and lost 33-17.
Photographing High School Sports
So over the last couple weekends I covered a number of high school football games, I took thousands of photographs but I also tweeted news and photos of the action. I got some good, but not great, shots that I quickly tweets with news of the action. I got many quick retweets from news outlets and reporters; a lot of people saw my photos.
But . . . I noticed that the quality of my photos has suffered. I have not been concentrating on the game and being in the best position to get good photographs. I been much too focused on “impressions” and “retweets.”
I had a nice conversation with a very talented photographer who is one of two or three sports photographers in the Chicago area. He said, “Sports photography is 90% luck, 10% skill and the rest being in the right spot.”
Very true.
The 10% skill part is paying attention to the game and concentrating on taking photos. Tweets and talking to reporters and spectators have gotten in the way. I gave up being a sportswriter because it’s hard and I am a better photographer than sportswriter.
I think I am going to get back to making good pictures and leave reporting to the reporters. What little I know about good sports photography is anticipating the action and getting the exposure and shutter speed right.
Except I love Twitter, so I guess we shall see what happens.
[I planned this post for last Monday or Tuesday but I didn’t have the right photo available, so it is going up now.}
Simeon Upsets Phillips 21-8
Simeon dominated Phillips almost the whole game. I suppose Phillips had to lose a CPS game as some point. That does not take anything away from the Wolverines. They are good team and jump up in the rankings.
Marist edges Notre Dame 28-21
Maine South Defeats Mount Carmel 21-13
Lake View High School Opens New Practice Field and Community Playground
Marmion Academy Defeats DePaul Prep 27-0 in Opener
DePaul Prep's 2018 football season opened Saturday afternoon with the Marmion Academy Cadets defeating the Rams 27-0 at DePaul Prep’s new home field, Chicago Academy.
Big plays made the difference in the game. Marmion’s scores all came as a result of long pass or run plays. The DePaul Prep Rams struggled on offense much of the game, particularly containing the Marmion pass rush. There were some bright spots. Sophomore running back Remick Ware shows considerable speed on some long gainers. Senior quarterback Robert Clark ran well and showed off his big arm.
But it was the ability of the Cadets to connect on play action passes for big plays that proved the difference.
The meeting with Marmion also featured the return of DePaul Prep’s highly respected former athletic director Paul Chabura. Coach Chabura became Marmion’s assistant athletic director in June but retains his leadership role with the Chicago Catholic League. He will be missed at DePaul.
The Rams’ schedule does not get any easier. The Rams open the season with three straight Chicago Catholic League games, Marion, Hope and Leo. Next Friday (Aug. 31, 2018) DePaul takes on Chicago Hope Academy at 4:15 p.m., again at Chicago Academy, 3400 N. Austin. Chicago Hope Academy comes off a 42-7 defeat at the hands of perennial powerhouse, Mount Carmel.
The Chicago Catholic League's Red Division has changed since last year. With the addition of Montini to the Catholic League’ Blue Division, Mt. Carmel has been relegated to the Green Division and consequently, St. Ignatius has been moved to the Red Division. The CCL Red now contains DePaul Prep, St. Ignatius, Chicago Hope, Leo and St. Joseph.
As for the photos, I got some good ones but I found myself chatting too much instead of concentrating on taking pictures. I take much better pictures when I am not interested in what happens on the field. I changed my typical settings. I continued my auto ISO setting that I started using this past basketball season. It doesn't seem to make that much difference.
2018 Chicago Air and Water Show
It had been some years since I went to the Chicago Air and Water Show so I went this year. I couldn't spend all day at it. I went from about 12:00 until 3:00. I weaseled my way down front right outside the beach house.
I got some good shots with my 300mm. The Thunderbirds move fast, one has to be paying attention and anticipate which direction the planes will be coming from. Now that I have a little practice I will be able to get some better shots next year. The low cloud ceiling helped because the planes had to do the "low" show which meant they were much closer.
Posted some photos to social media after some quick processing in Lightroom Mobile on my phone. They looked okay but I wasn't very happy with them right there on the beach. But when I got back home and did some processing on my computer and big monitor I was surprised to see how i could pull the color out of the RAW images. And the high megapixels camera allows tight crops. To all those people that say, "the camera doesn't matter.," try shooting the Air and Water show with a crappy camera.
Hope you like the photos.
