Day 28

We are four full weeks into this stay-at-home phase of this historic global pandemic, and I have not written a word about it in this blog. I started this blog as a place to post photographs, not a place to vent or opine on subjects I know little about. I am not a columnist with a gift for observation, analysis and the English language.

Since I haven’t been shooting events, I have only posted twice in the last 28 days. The first was on Day 1, photos from the DePaul Prep v. North Grand regional final basketball game a few days prior. The second was Day 15 when I posted previously unpublished photos from a DePaul Prep regional playoff baseball game last spring. I was missing baseball that day. I ran across the photos that I did not have time to process immediately after I took them. Then the relevancy of the photos was overtaken by events, so they never got posted. On April 4th, I thought people would like to see them.

Nevertheless, I have still been taking photos. I have started carrying my DSLR everywhere I go—which turns out to be very few places, basically just to the Jewel and to my office downtown.

Some of those photos are below. I generally don’t publish in black and white but somehow it seems appropriate now. The photo the bird is in color. I saw this strange looking bird among some pigeons sitting quieting in a corner of a building on LaSalle Street. I have never seen a bird like this before. It seems quite out of place—a duck sized bird with an unusually long beak. Perhaps someone knows what it is?

These photos are not particularly good. I am not a good street photographer, nor am I particularly trying to be. This global pandemic is requiring me to adjust and pushing me in an other direction.

I hope you like the photos.

DePaul Prep Drops Disney 13-1, a Year Ago

I was looking for some other photos and I noticed that I never processed the photos from the playoff game between DePaul Prep and Disney last spring. The DePaul Prep Rams eliminated Disney 13-1 in the IHSA regional playoff game.

Maybe this will help with some baseball withdrawal.

As I recall, I was using my 300mm, f5.6 lens. I typically only use this lens in bright light situations. This late afternoon game was not a good situation for this. I had to limit the shutter speed to 1/1000. Way to slow as one can tell from the blurry baseball shots. I hope you appreciate that I publish these photos despite them being such good evidence of just how crappy a photographer I am.

Nevertheless, there are some good ones. I hope you like them.

DePaul Prep Handles North-Grand 86-31 in Regional Semi-final

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated North-Grand 86-31 in the IHSA 3A Regional Semi-final matchup at DePaul on March 3, 2020.

My ability to timely post these photos right after the game was overtaken by events. The Election, the girls championship games, oh, and the global pandemic. It seems that we all will have a little time on our hands so I thought I would process these and extend the basketball season.

In these mismatch regional games, the coaches can go deep into the bench. That’s what happened against North-Grand. The bench proved more than adequate to the task. I venture a guess that the DePaul Prep Rams bench could beat most high school first teams.

So I hope you like the photos. I have a couple more game’s photos that did not get published. I will be posting those photos in coming days.

St. Ignatius Upsets DePaul Prep 56-54 in Sectional Semi-final

The St. Ignatius Wolfpack defeated the DePaul Prep Rams on Wednesday evening (March 11, 2020) to win a IHSA 3A sectional semi-final 56-54.

I did not post these photos right after the game. Frankly, I did not know what to write. It was an abrupt and unexpected end to the season, to the whole season, for everyone. The next day, the IHSA pulled the plug on high schools sports because of the global pandemic.

No more playoffs. No state championship tournaments. That’s it. Done. Over. Wait ‘til next year. I suppose it had to be.

I may, or may not, have more to write about the DePaul Prep season. It seems people actually read this idiot blog so perhaps I ought to be a little more circumspect with sharing my opinions. Plus, I don’t know what to write at the moment anyway. Kind of uncharted territory when the team has a great season, an historic season and one is disappointed just because you did not to win a state championship.

As for the photos, I have never liked the light at St. Ignatius. Not enough light and it is just too yellow in there. I can never get the white balance correct.

It was great to see the young St. Ignatius student photographer Luke Hales at the game. Luke is a high school senior and takes amazing photographs. You can see his photos from the same game here and judge for yourself. I have really enjoyed seeing his “in with the team” perspective. I look forward to seeing his photos in the future.

But I will write this. Thank you DePaul Prep. I hesitate to name names because I would have to far too many people to mention. I greatly enjoyed just coming to the games and watching excellent high school basketball. Thanks for the opportunity to get work on my craft, at your expense most of the time. Thank you for being so nice about it and making me feel welcome and appreciated.

In the words of our erstwhile leader and beloved Ram for life, Paul Chabura:

As always, Go Rams!

DePaul Prep Defeats Farragut to Win 6th Straight Regional

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Farragut Admirals 69-37 last night (March 6, 2020) at DePaul’s Tom Winiecki gym to win a sixth straight regional championship.

The game started close. The Rams opened an early lead but Farragut came stayed close. The game turned the Rams way for good after Farragut guard Malik Williams undercut DePaul’s Tyler Johnson. TY stole the ball and moved in for an open dunk. Williams pushed Johnson in the legs causing him to come down hard.

Johnson stayed in the game. DePaul never looked back.

Granted Farragut’s best player was injured and they only dressed 8 players but with DePaul’s relentless defense, it had to be just a matter of time before the Admirals lost wind in their sails.

69-37 was the final.

The sixth straight regional championship for DePaul Prep. Next for the Rams are the St. Ignatius Wolfpack at St. Ignatius at 7:00 p.m., on Wednesday. If victorious, a probable rematch with Fenwick. And then maybe another rematch with the Notre Dame Dons.

Gonna be tough.

Fremd Wins 4A State Championship over Lincoln Way West

The Fremd High School Vikings defeated the Lincoln Way West Warriors 58-47 on Saturday (March 7, 2020) at ISU’s Redbird area to win the IHSA 4A State Championship.

See a full story about the game at IL Preps Insider (click here). It was great to get to work again with Luke Druze from IL Preps Insider. No one knows more about girls high school basketball than him. I sat next to him during the third place games and he filled me in. We’re gonna have to do more of that next year.

It’s just a pleasure to go to ISU for the girls championships. The Redbird area has great light. The facilities are first class. The IHSA does a great job putting on the event. I really enjoyed it.

And the games were great. Simeon made a remarkable comeback against powerhouse Morton. I know this is cliche but I was sad that some teams had to lose. The Morton Potters were crushed by their loss. The Lincoln Way West Warriors were equally devastated by their loss to Fremd.

God willing I will be back next year. However, we are looking at a whole new format next year with all four classes on the same weekend and probably in Champaign.

Lane Tech Drops Oak Park River Forest 48-40

Lane Tech defeated Oak Park River Forest 48-40 at Lane on Wednesday (March 5, 2020) in the 4A IHSA regional semi-final. I was working at taking photos so I was not following the game as closely as I would like but—wow—the Indians played hard and defeated the favored Huskies.

Lane missed a lot of shots. But it seemed like they got every rebound. The Lane players are tough with very high energy motors. There is only one speed—fast. They imitate their high energy coach, Nick LoGalbo. I have seen a lot of teams this season. No team has played as hard as Lane did last night. I was impressed.

Going into the last few minutes, Lane had a ten point lead. When the Huskies went to a full court press and began to foul, sending the Indians to the free throw line, the Indians hit the free throws.

If a team gets a lead and hits its free throws at the end, it wins the game.

And another thing, there is no louder gym in the city. It almost hurts one’s ears. Everybody is high energy in that gym. It’s exhausting.

Well now they get Simeon on Friday in the Regional Championship. I wonder if Simeon knows what they’re in for.

St. Andrew's or Saint Andrew?

Wait. Is it St. Andrew’s or Saint Andrew?

This morning Mark Brown’s column in the Sun-Times raises this age-old question and throws it squarely into the newspaper for all to ponder and debate. (I have the app on my phone. The last time I actually bought a paper copy of the newspaper was when it published a photo I took at a Lane Tech basketball game. But I digress.) Okay, maybe it’s just me who thinks about this St. Andrew’s v. Saint Andrew question. But that’s the point of this blog. (Again, I digress. Twice in the in the same paragraph. Enough already.)

Mark Brown’s column this morning features his heartwarming tale about ditching his out-of-town friends in order to attend a fish fry at Chicago’s “St. Andrew’s” Catholic Church at Addison and Paulina with his charming and lovely wife.

You see, St. Andrew’s is the next parish over from my parish, St. Benedict at Irving and Leavitt. But its more than that. St. Andrew’s has always been something of rival for St. Benedict. I am not proud of this but, at times, St. Andrew’s has not been spoken of in the most charitable terms.

In my mind at least, that was mostly because St. Andrew’s has excellent basketball teams that usually vanquished our beloved Bengals and often did so with the conference championship on the line.

And there was that time when my friend Robert was politely asked to either shut up or leave the gym when he argued a referee’s call a little too loudly, and repeatedly. Robert deserved it so I guess so I can’t hold it against a whole Catholic church community but they did hire the bad ref making calls in St. Andrew’s favor. Just saying.

Plus, and this is more of an unspoken thing. At one time, St. Andrew’s was more of lace curtain Irish kind of place. I come from an Irish family in the German parish. It’s not that way anymore, but I learned that perception my parents, my father really. He grew up in St. Benedict in the early part of the last century and for some reason that attitude printed on me.

I understand there was a time when St. Benedict were predominantly German and St. Andrew was largely Irish. St. Benedict had German pastors and St. Andrew’s had Irish ones. (Although interestingly, the one-time German pastor of St. Benedict, Fr. Bob Heidenriech, was born and raised in St. Andrew’s. Go figure. Again I digress.) St. Andrew has always been a little fancier—lacy curtain Irish rather than the working class, policeman/bus driver kind of Irish in my German parish.

But that’s not true so much anymore. St. Benedict is plenty fancy. I don’t know how many Irish policemen live in the neighborhood anymore but I bet one can count them on one hand. I only know one.

It was only a few years ago that I learned that St. Andrew’s name is actually Saint Andrew Catholic Church. No apostrophe and no “s.” As long as I can remember it’s been St. Andrew’s. It seems Mark Brown thinks so too and wrote it that way in the paper.

I am guessing it’s a “Jewels” v. “Jewel” Chicago-speak kind of thing. It’s just something one says for no apparent reason. As far as I know, the proper name of the place has always been Saint Andrew.

St. Benedict has always been “St. Ben’s” or just “Ben’s.” Kind of a shorthand. Not sure that applies to St. Andrew’s. I don’t recall anybody ever calling it “Andrew’s” or “Andrew.” It’s always been St. Andrew’s.

I had to give up my hard feelings almost a decade ago when Saint Andrew joined the 47th Ward with the 2011 map. I can’t be thinking poorly of a parish in the Ward. That can’t be good politics.

Plus, and more importantly, it’s not right to harbor ill feeling toward our fellow Catholics simply because my St. Benedict teams have suffered humiliating defeat after humiliating defeat wrought by the merciless hands of grade school kids. I mean I don’t feel that way about Queen of Angels or St. Mathias. They are wonderful people, worthy of love and respect. We must keep telling ourselves that no matter how many defeats we suffer. It is the Christian way. And this is lent after all.

So it’s Saint Andrew Catholic Church. And I’m okay with that.

I wonder if Mark Brown has any idea of the St. Andrew’s/Saint Andrew divide. But probably he does, he wrote St. Andrew’s all over the paper.

DePaul Prep Falls to Riverdale 41-28 in 2A Super-sectional

The Riverdale High School Rams (28-3) defeated the DePaul Prep Rams 41-28 to win the 2A DeKalb Super-sectional Monday evening and earned a trip to the state tournament in Bloomington this weekend. 

The game was closer than the final score indicates. A low scoring first half, Riverdale 15, DePaul Prep 14, showcased the defensive talents of each team. 

First half turnovers limited DePaul’s shots. Riverdale’s size inside proved a challenge for DePaul. Despite finding openings in Riverdale’s defense, DePaul found it difficult to score.

“I thought defensively we were in pretty good shape. We only gave up 14 in the half,” said Riverdale head coach Jay Hatch who is making his fourth trip to the state tournament but this is the first for Riverdale.

“We weren’t really counting on [DePaul’s Trish Adams] stepping out and hitting 30 footers,” Hatch said. 

“Offensively we tried to get some more touches, more ball reversal, more movement,”

“Once we got inside, I think they chose to get out of the zone and we got some options for man-to-man.”

That seemed to be the difference for which DePaul Prep had no answer.  

“They were hitting shots and we weren’t. That was pretty much it in the second half,” said DePaul Prep’s 23-year-old first year head coach Sarah Zarymbski (Gordon Tech 2014 graduate).

The score got away from the DePaul with a few minutes left in the game when the Riverdale broke the press for some easy buckets and converted fouls into points at the charity stripe.

Riverdale’s senior center Sidney Garrett lead the Rams with 20 points. DePaul Prep’s senior forward Trish Adams lead the other Rams with 9 points. 

In an impressive start to coaching career, Zarymbski lead her Rams to their first sectional championship, in her first year. 

“We want to get back here next year. This isn’t enough,” said an emotional Zarymbski. Only losing four seniors players to graduation, DePaul Prep Rams may well be a power in 2A again next year.    

Riverdale is located in Port Byron, Illinois, about ten miles northeast of the Quad Cities. Port Byron has a population of 1,647. The IHSA website lists Riverdale enrollment at 327.5

DePaul College Prep, the former Gordon Tech High School, is located at Addison and California in Chicago. Gordon Tech first admitted girls in 2003. These Rams have enjoyed success over the years including five regional championships and an overall record of 217-198.

DePaul Prep Handles St. Ignatius 65-34

The DePaul Prep Rams rebounded Friday night (February 21, 2020) from consecutive CCL Blue losses to Fenwick and Loyola in a convincing defeat of the very good St. Ignatius Wolfpack 65-34 at DePaul Prep.

It’s been a rough couple weeks for the Rams with three Chicago Catholic League Blue division losses in a row. Even so, it’s only 5 losses on the season total but tough losses.

St. Ignatius ran into a buzz saw that cut them up in the first quarter. The Wolfpack worked to get up shots that did not fall. It was 16-2 at the end of the first quarter. The Rams wouldn’t let them back in. It seemed they enjoyed putting it on somebody for once. The Catholic League Blue schedule is brutal.

It was a special night at the Tom Winiecki Gym. Tom Winiecki, the former Gordon Tech football coach, was actually there. I have been in that gym a million times and I don’t remember seeing that many people in attendance. It was the 40th Anniversary of Gordon Tech’s 1980 state football championship. There was special half time commemoration and many members of that team were in the Gym for the celebration.

It was wonderful to see the student section break into Go Gordon Go (the Gordon Tech fight song) at the end of the celebration. One could see what it meant to the 1980 Rams. It was a special moment.

I would remiss not to mention that the girls team won the 2A Orr Sectional and will play in the Super-sectional championship on Monday evening at DeKalb High School. This is big. I believe this is Gordon/DePaul Prep’s first girls sectional championship. The girls’ head coach Sarah Zarymbski is only 23 years old but really has her girls dialed in. It must be her St. Benedict Elementary School training. We could be in Bloomington next week for the State Tournament. Just saying.

Go Rams.

DePaul Prep v. Loyola CCL Blue Showdown Preview

Frequent viewers to this channel will recall that I have this practice of breaking the basketball season into parts; early season Thanksgiving games; Christmas Tournament, Chicago Catholic League play and IHSA Playoffs.

We are at the end part three and the CCL title is on the line. The annual showdown against rival Loyola Academy Ramblers and then the pesky and always dangerous St. Ignatius Wolfpack.

Loyola comes into tonight’s game against DePaul Prep atop the Chicago Catholic League Blue Division with 24-4 overall record and 12-1 conference record, ranked #20 in Sun-Times Super 25. Our Rams are ranked at #19 with 21-4 overall and 11-2 in the CCL.

The Ramblers are always tough. Tom Livatino’s teams are skilled and disciplined. They always give me fits. I always have an pit in stomach in advance of those games, no matter the records, no matter the stakes. The stakes are high today. And so is my anxiety.

Pat Mahoney expressed confidence last night at the girls sectional semi-final victory stating that he thought DePaul would beat Loyola tonight. His confidence did little to relieve my trepidation. I pretty much have to think our Rams are the underdog.

It would be a huge win if the Rams can find a way to win, giving them a share of the CCL Blue title with Loyola and Fenwick (assuming a victory over St. Ignatius, you’ll have to indulge here). A victory would also give the DePaul Prep two CCL titles in a row.

The Chicago Catholic League Championship is what I like to see. My dad used to talk about winning the Catholic League. He attended the long-ago closed St. Phillip High School on the west side. St. Phillip won the CCL in 1945 after my dad graduated and while he was in Europe during WWII. Before that they won a few times and he talked about it a lot. His high school winning the Catholic League was a big deal for him. And so it has become with me.

The third part of the season basically ends tonight with a deciding game in the CCL Blue. The Sun-Times identified this game as a key game of the season in a season preview. For me, as accomplishments go, winning the Chicago Catholic League and then win the state championship are the top goals. It all builds up to tonight’s game.

Go Rams.

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DePaul Prep Edges Timothy Christian 53-51 in 2A Sectional Semi-final

The DePaul Prep Rams edged the Timothy Christian Lady Trojans 53-51 Tuesday evening (February 17, 2020), at Orr Academy. The Rams advance to the 2A Orr Sectional Final against Walther Christian on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

In the first half, the Rams opened a ten point lead on the Lady Trojans by scoring in transition while shooting enough threes to keep pace with their excellent shooting Opponents.

In the second half, the Lady Trojans dialed up the defense and the Rams struggled. The Rams excellent free throw shooting in the fourth quarter sealed the win.

It was an excellent game, well played and well coached by both teams and coaches. I can’t overstate how impressed I am with first year head coach Sarah Zarymbski. It seems like just yesterday Sarah was an eighth grader winning a championship with Bernadette Molloy’s St. Benedict Bengals. Now she is part of Bernadette’s coaching tree. Bernadette’s daughter Megan is the girls head coach at Lane Tech.

Sarah has her Rams playing at a level greater than the sum of their parts. The Rams are a team that works together. They move the ball around quickly and commit very few turnovers. And foul only when they need to. Well, okay, not only when they need to but they don’t commit needless fouls and get into foul trouble.

I was looking at the 2A bracket. I thought Latin was the likely sectional winner but the Romans fell to Walther Christian in the second game last night. The Rams are poised to make a deep playoff run.

See you Thursday at Orr and 7:00 p.m.

And did I mention how wonderful the light is in Orr’s gym since the changed the lights this year? It is seriously one of the best gyms for light in the City. Another reason to love Lou Adams.

DePaul Prep Handles Northside 64-24 on Senior Night

The DePaul Prep Rams handled Northside 64-24 on Senior Night last Wednesday (February 5, 2020).

It was a night for the Rams seniors, Chloe Anne Cox, Nora Roe, Patricia Adams and Avery Downes. The convincing defeat of Northside put an appropriate finish to this regular season and a successful four years of basketball at DePaul. I have to hand it to the Northside team. They were just over-matched but they never quit.

The Rams finished the regular season with a 18-8 record. First year head coach Sarah Zarymbski, (2014 grad) improved a little on last year’s record with the help of assistant coaches Sammy Colon and Leah Czuhajewski.

The Rams open the IHSA 2A playoffs hosting a regional. The Rams will face the winner of Monday’s Marine v. Josephinum game on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., in the Tom Winiecki Gym.

DePaul Prep Falls to Brother Rice 46-40

The DePaul Prep Rams (19-3, 9-1) lost to the Brother Rice Crusaders (16-7, 8-2) 46-40 at DePaul on Friday night (January 31, 2020). The Rams fell behind in the first quarter.

The DePaul Prep Rams fell to the Brother Rice Crusaders 46-40 Friday night (January 31, 2020) at DePaul. Basically, the Crusaders made the Rams play a half-court game. Then the Crusaders played defense and made their shots on the offensive end. Plus, the Rams just didn’t make shots they ordinarily do.

To open the second half, the Rams did what they wanted to do. They almost erased the 32-19 deficit with a 12-1 third quarter run.

The Rams lead with under two minutes. Crusaders never quit. Rams simply did not make shots to win at the end.

Rams rebounded to take down always dangerous Benet 45-30. I could not get to that game.

So . . .

St. Joseph

DeLaSalle

Fenwick

Loyola

St. Ignatius

Mather

Still the major goal to go—the Chicago Catholic League blue division championship.

Oh, ya, and then the IHSA 3A state championship run.

DePaul Prep Defeats Regina Dominican 50-44

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Regina Dominican Panthers 50-44 Thursday night (January 16, 2020) at DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym. The Rams controlled the well played game by both teams.

The Rams welcomed an honorary captain, Ellie O’Keefe. Ellie is the niece of former DePaul Prep Dean of Students and Chicago Catholic League legend, Dan O’Keefe. Great to see Coach O’Keefe again. Best of luck to his charming and inspirational niece Ellie.

DePaul Prep Handles Deerfield 55-24 in Steve Pappas Shootout

The DePaul Prep Rams (15-2, 6-0) defeated the Deerfield High School Warriors 55-25 in the final game of the second annual Steve Pappas Shootout Saturday evening (January 11, 2020). It wasn’t that close.

The Rams handled the Warriors from the opening tip. The Rams defensive pressure gave Deerfield fits. They had trouble moving the ball. DePaul’s Tyler Johnson repeatedly picket the pocket of the Warriors’ point guard like he was a gypsy in a Paris subway. The Rams finished on the offensive end as well.

I guess I was expecting Deerfield to be better. Maybe I was just expecting a competitive game because the preceding games were so good. I seem to remember some pre-season talk that Deerfield was good and that it would be a contender with its move to 3A. Deerfield will be in the Grayslake Sectional and will have to contend with Notre Dame, St. Viator and St. Patrick; not likely to be Deerfield’s year.

It was just Tom Kleinschmidt’s Rams taking care of business—as usual. I guess I expected that this year’s Rams would not be a good as last year’s 3A third place finishers with stars like Perry Cowen, Raheem Anthony and Pavle Pantovic. The record to date suggests otherwise. At this point last year, the Rams were 13-4, pretty good. This year’s group is 15-2 with wins over ranked teams Niles North and Marian Catholic. The Rams opened the season ranked #21 and are #11 at the moment.

Coming up the Rams enter the meat of the schedule including all seven games in the Chicago Catholic League Blue: St. Francis de Sales, Montini, Peoria Manuel, St. Laurence, Brother Rice, Benet, St. Joseph, De La Salle, Fenwick, Loyola, St. Ignatius and Mather.

“I’ve said it before and I will say it again,” win the Catholic League.

Loyola Edges St. Viator 40-39 in OT

If you like defense, you will like this year’s #19 ranked Loyola Academy Ramblers. The Ramblers (17-1, 6-0) edged the St. Viator Lions (11-6, 2-1) 40-39 in the second annual Steve Pappas Shootout at DePaul College Prep Saturday afternoon.

The Ramblers win by playing defense. They just wear you down in their zone defense until you turn the ball over. St. Viator lacked the three point shooter to loosen that zone but the Lions fought and got some inside points. The Lions also played equally good defense.

With a chance to win with a few seconds left, St. Viator’s standout Connor Kochera could not get a shot off before the buzzer and there you have it. 40-39. Another eighth grade score in Loyola game.

Marian Catholic Shocks Morgan Park 71-69

The Marian Catholic Spartans (13-4, 3-1) upset the #8 Morgan Park Mustangs (9-6, 3-1) 71-69 last night at DePaul Prep’s televised Steve Pappas Shootout.

The Spartans hung around and hung around all game, slowing erasing a small deficit late in the game. Morgan Park had all kinds of chances to win. They just missed shots in the lane they ordinarily make. Marian didn’t.

Marian’ s senior guard Ahron Ulis played as well as I have seen him play. I did not get any stats on the game he had a lot of points. Marian Catholic as a team impressed me. I saw them lose against Notre Dame. The Dons handled them even without Anthony Sayles. Granted it is tough to go to Notre Dame and win a conference game, especially this year. DePaul Prep dropped them in the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic. Frankly, I expected more out of the Spartans.

I saw it yesterday. When they play like that, they can play with anyone.

It was fun to see Ulis matched up on Morgan Park top prospect senior Adam Miller. For much of the game, Marian was in a box-and-one with Ulis shadowing Miller all over the court. It seemed at points that Ulis got under Miller’s skin. I can’t say how effective the box-and-one actually was, but it was fun to watch.

Very high level basketball. A marked contract to the Loyola/St. Viator game a few hours before. Not that that was not high level, just a different kind of high level. Loyola would prefer to score as few points as necessary to win. Frustrating to watch; exasperating to play against. But an interesting and effective style.