The following are posts related to specific shoots. And other things that I cannot stop myself from writing about.
The DePaul Prep girls volleyball team continues its winning ways improving to 12 and 1. The Rams handled the Friars in straight sets.
That’s not all. This was head coach Caroline Gajzler’s 100th win as a head coach. 100 wins in just five years as a head coach. It’s a remarkable accomplishment. Well done coach.
[Preview of this week’s Inside Booster article]
By Jack Lydon
The DePaul Prep Rams took apart the St. Patrick Shamrocks 41-0 at DePaul Prep on Friday evening. The Rams improved their 4-0, 2-0 in the CCL/ESCC Purple division. This game against the Shamrocks, 2-2, 1-1, also in the Purple, took on the added significance because it was a division game.
It was a busy evening on the west end of Roscoe Village. DePaul Prep hosted St. Patrick, the only other Catholic high school on the Northside. Lane hosted Whitney Young at Lane Stadium at the same time just a few hundred yards north of DePaul’s field. Parking was difficult to come by.
Before the game, the DePaul Prep fans, coaches and staff I talked to were tightlipped about what to expect.
“They’re good. And big,” a couple people told me.
Another observer told me, “DePaul 20-13.”
“They can run the football, but they haven’t played anyone that can pass the ball like we can,” one coach told me.
It didn’t take long for the Rams show exactly how well they can pass the ball. And score. Less than two minutes into the game, Rams senior quarterback Juju Rodriguez hit senior wideout Justin Sterner on a twenty-five-yard touchdown.
Not long thereafter, Rams’ senior running back Nick Martinez added another touchdown with a 37-yard for a touchdown. 14-0.
Rams’ senior wide receiver Braden Peevy scored a four-yard touchdown with 6:55 left in the second quarter to make the score 21-0. The Rams were rolling.
Then with nine seconds left in the half, Rodriguez connected with junior wide receiver Matthew Osterman on a 23-yard post route at the back of the north endzone for a fourth touchdown and a 27-0 half time lead.
To some extent, that was expected. The Rams and Juju, a three-year starter, can pass the ball and score. What was not expected was the way the Rams defense controlled the Shamrocks. St. Patrick’s strung together a couple first downs in the first quarter but never threated to score in the first half. The Rams defense held on every possession and forced punts. The Shamrocks offensive line is huge. The Rams defensive line stopped the run. The closest the Shamrocks go to scoring as a 52-yard field goal attempt late in the game that was on target but a came up few yards short.
It felt like the Rams were just taking-care-of-business. St. Patrick had a winning record. They are big and skilled. Yet the Rams handled them on offense and defense.
I remember interviewing Rams head coach Mike Passarella several years ago. He said something to me after a tough loss that stuck with me. “We haven’t learned how to win yet.”
The Rams have learned how to win.
“I think it started last year. It started with us losing a game against Providence [Catholic in New Lenox] by a couple points. Then we beat Fenwick in double overtime. We learned how to compete, how to stay in games and how to finish games. When I started here, it was a rough go in the beginning. Then every year it was a steady climb. We grew up last year,” Passarella said.
When one learn how to win, I guess it just feels like taking care-of-business. Check off another game on the schedule.
But the goal of the season is to get into to the playoffs. The Catholic school super football conference, a combination of the Chicago Catholic League and the East Suburban Catholic League, doesn’t make it easy to get to the playoffs. To be assured a playoff spot, the IHSA requires a 6-3 record. Getting six wins in the CCL/ESCC is tough for every team. You just don’t play teams at your level. You play teams from the higher divisions of the conference.
The Rams face Loyola next week from the Blue Division. Loyola has lost one game in the last three seasons. The Rams will play St. Francis (Wheaton) from the Green Division. The Rams will play Carmel Catholic from the White Division. Very good teams with winning programs. And then there are St. Viator and Benet Academy, historically successful programs and new rivals in the Purple Division. To make the playoffs, the Rams have to find two wins in those five games against teams from the upper levels of the Catholic League.
Asked what he is going to change to get ready for Loyola, Passarla said, “Honestly, nothing. Our practice is going to be the same during the week. The kids know that when we are on the road, it’s a business trip. This is the first group that has the ability to flip the switch and be engaged. They want it.”
They turned a corner. They learned how to win.
“Yup, this group is hungry. This senior class wants to be the first class to bring us back to the playoffs for the first time in a decade,” Passarella concluded.
The DePaul Prep Rams women’s volleyball team handled Rosary Tuesday evening at the Tom Winiecki Gym in two sets. The Rams have improved to 6-0 on the year and 1-0 in the GCAC.
Maybe the Rams were just taking care of business. Just going through the matches on the schedule. They were playing within themselves. Doing what they do.
But maybe, just maybe, it was more. The were down two of the best players, Ava Wilson and Maisy Erlenbaugh, who were out sick. Now it’s true that Rosary is a little down this year with a 3-8 record. But the Royals did beat the Rams last year.
Maybe this is a unique and special Rams squad that is working into an historic season. We won’t know for a while. There are still 29 matches to play and very good squads. (I originally wrote thirteen but I left out tournaments.)
But maybe. Just saying.
Amundsen Vikings head coach Nick Olson was not happy after this the 41-18 win over the Hyde Park Thunderbirds on Saturday afternoon. He thought his team took the Thunderbirds too lightly; that the were not ready as they could have been.
I don’t know. The Vikings rallied after and early interception and touchdown by Hyde Park. The Vikings came back and handled the Thunderbirds scoring 41 unanswered points.
The Vikings looked good to me. Junior running back Reggie Mitchell had 156 years rushing and five touchdowns. Quarterback Elmir Gjeka looks confident and in command of the offense.
Coach Olson knows his team better than I do. I believe him when he says that they weren’t as ready as they could have been, but his team handled a pretty talented Hyde Park squad. The Thunderbirds were gassed early in the game but they have some players and they will win games this year despite the 0-3 start.
Amundsen is good. They are going to win a lot of games.
Preview of this week’s article in the Booster.
DePaul Prep defeated Marian Catholic 20-7 Friday in Chicago Heights. The Rams improved to 3-0 for the first time in the DePaul Prep era.
DePaul Prep had Marian playing their game. The Rams knew Marian Catholic could run the football. Spartan six foot, 173 lbs, junior tailback Kyle Scott was a load, and fast. Early in the game, the Spartans strung together a couple first downs in each of their first quarter possessions. The Rams stiffened, forcing the Spartans to throw the ball.
An ebullient head coach Mike Passarella gushed about his squad. “Stop the run. That was the game plan,” Passarella said. “They moved the ball on us. I said, ‘let’s just play base football . . . Let’s get after them.’ We are confident in what our guys can do. They know their business,” Passarella said after the game.
“We wanted to force them to throw.”
And they did. Except the Spartans throw the ball to the Rams. Two early interceptions thrown by Marian quarterback senior Joey Baranski killed the Spartans drives without ever moving deep into DePaul Prep territory. Multiple illegal formation penalties contributed to the Spartans troubles. The Rams committed penalties of their own contributing a slow, mistake plagued half for both teams.
It wasn’t until the end of the first half before either team put together a scoring drive. With 3:27 left in the half, having moved the ball down to the Marian Catholic eleven-yard line, Rams’ senior quarterback Fernando “Juju” Rodriguez, a three-year starter, rifled a pass to junior wideout Matthew Osterman at the goal line in the middle of the field. Osterman caught the pass in a crowd for the first score of the game. The PAT gave the Rams a seven- point lead.
The Spartans took the subsequent kick but again throw an interception. The Spartans through a total of four interceptions in the game. The Rams took their 7-0 lead into the half.
The second half was a different story. The Rams took the kickoff and moved right down the field. Halftime adjustments on the offensive line led to Rodriguez being able to connect with Osterman and Rams’ senior running back Nick Martinez for big gains. The drive culminated with a 25-yard strike to senior wide receiver Justin Sterner early in the third quarter.
Rodriguez added a touchdown late in the third quarter on a two-yard quarterback sneak up the middle. Marian blocked the extra point attempt making the score 20-0 at the end of the third.
The Spartans scored on a 73-yard pass reception touchdown that was mostly run-after-the-catch with 1:18 left in the game against the Rams’ second team defense but the game was decided at that point.
This was a huge game for the Rams. They haven’t started a season with three wins since the Gordon Tech days. The Rams move closer to making the IHSA playoffs which takes six wins to be assured a playoff berth. The Rams finished last year’s the regular season 4-5 and missed the playoffs
DePaul Prep started this season with two convincing wins over Deerfield and Marian Central Catholic, 35-28 and 35-7 respectively. The Rams moved up a division in the combined Chicago Catholic League and East Suburban Catholic League. Moving from the lowest “Red” division into the Purple. The CCL/ESCC Purple includes Benet Academy, St. Viator and Northside rival St. Patrick.
The Rams will face St. Patrick next Friday at home. After that will be Loyola at home. The Ramblers lost a shocker at St. Francis 35-21 on Friday. A playoff berth is by no means assured for the Rams. Only tough games remain on the schedule. After Loyola is St. Viator, Carmel, St. Francis and Benet.
Sparked by last year’s huge upset win over Fenwick at home and squad loaded with experience and talented seniors, including expected Division One talent of senior wide receiver Braden Peevy and sophomore offensive tackle Carlos Rios, the Rams football program is on the rise.
“I am excited for [the rest of reason]. This is kind of what we wanted. The goal is to continue to build up the program. We talked about it a few years ago. Where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We never wanted to stay down in the Red. We wanted to move up. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. I am excited for it. This is what it is all about,” Passarella said.
The plodding lackluster contest became an unlikely thriller with three quick touchdowns, a made two-pointer and a missed two-pointer all in the final three minutes of the game. The Lane Tech Champions (1-1, 0-0) traveled to Lansing, Illinois to take on the Thornton Fractional South Red Wolves and survive a late comeback by the Red Wolves to win 21-20 Friday night.
Let’s just say that until the final three minutes, this game was not exactly football at it finest. Both teams were plagued by mis-queues, injuries and penalties, and the occasional dustup too. The ineptitude both squads displayed gave way to clutch plays at the end.
Down late 14-6 late in the game, there was no quit in TF South. With three minutes left, Red Wolves’ senior quarterback Nicholas Ford launched a deep ball up the far sideline. Sophomore wide receiver Amari Dukes caught it in stride for a 63-yard touchdown to bring the Wolves to within two points. What looked like an eventual Lane win suddenly was one play away from a tie.
With the game on the line, Ford found his other wide receiver David Nkwogo at the back of the endzone for the two-point conversion to tie the game.
The Lane sideline was stunned. I think the TF South sideline was a little stunned too but cheered and danced all the same.
With 2:35 left on the clock, Lane Tech fielded South’s kickoff and returned it to their own thirty-three-yard line with time to take the lead.
This is not the three yards and a cloud of dust Lane Tech Champions of recent years. On the very next play, senior quarterback Noah Mayra took the shotgun snap and quick rifled a strike down the middle to junior wideout (and baseball player) Alex Lagges. Lagges shock a couple tackles and raced up the Lane sideline for the go-ahead score. The PAT made it 21-14 Lane.
“This year we have some pretty good skill [players]. That was just a double post to the middle of the field and Alex [Lagges] took it 80 yard (67 actually) for a touchdown,” Lane Tech head coach Dedrick Dewalt said.
“I had the post on that,” Champion’s Alex Lagges said of his winning touchdown after the game. “I just trusted that my quarterback Noah [Mayra] was going to see it, read it. That’s what he did. That’s what we do. Great play call by my coach. He saw the middle was open. We knew if we got the shot, we could make things happen.”
One play and the Champions had the lead back with 2:16 on clock. But still plenty of time left for South. But no time outs for the Red Wolves. A couple plays for small gains took time off the clock. Then Red Wolves QB Ford scrambled and found senior wide receiver Tariq Meggs-Hood underneath the coverage who sprinted up the Lane sideline to the Lane 45-yard line.
With time ticking down to 35 seconds, Ford dropped back and launched a perfect strike to senior RB/WR Christian Streeter at the goal line for another unlikely touchdown against a prevent two deep zone defense to make the score 21-20. This time the South faithful believed it and stadium erupted.
TF South head coach Bob Padjen, never hesitated. They were going for it. Win or lose, the extra points try would decide the game.
With no time outs, the Red Wolves would need run the play quickly. Padjen called a cut back run up the middle from an overloaded and decoy formation. But the quarterback audibled to a Philadelphia Eagles style “tush push” run up the middle from the three-yard line. Initially, it looked like it was working but the Champions defensive line stiffened and stopped the Wolves a half-yard shy of victory.
The Champions move into Chicago Public League play. CPL has created a 16 team Red Division super-conference. Lane will not have to face Kenwood and Simeon this season but will have to face Morgan Park. The games against Whitney Young, Taft and Amundsen give the Champions a chance to prove undeniable mastery of the Northside. Stay tuned.
The DePaul Prep Rams girls volleyball team edged Lane Tech 2-1 in an early season rivalry game. The Rams move to 3-0 on the season with wins over Lincoln Park, Wheaton Academy and Lane Tech.
The Lane Tech Champions have a very talented squad, including standout freshman Sophia Polec.
The Rams took control of the first set early and handled the Champions. But there was no quit in the Champions. Despite falling well behind early in the second set, the Champions rallied late and took the set.
“They came out really competitive and they are always hungry to beat us; they are a rival. They definitely were the most aggressive team serve-wize that we have faced this season. That’s the hardest that we have had serves coming at us in a match so far this season. We had to adjust our back row,” said DePaul Prep head coach Caroline Gajzler.
Adjust they did. The Rams jumped out the their customary quick start and held off the talented Champions to take the final set 25-20.
“This is the strongest start that we have had in five years,” said Gajzler. “I told the girls that the sky is the limit for them. We have a lot of starters back from last year. We have 11 seniors on this team. I have never had this big of a roster—18. We are very deep on our bench. They are all very deserving of a spot on this team.”
It’s early in the season. Still tons of volleyball to play. But it’s a short season. IHSA playoffs in mid-October. Stay tuned.
The DePaul Prep Rams girls volleyball team defeated Wheaton Academy in straight sets, 25-17 and 25-16, last evening at DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym. The Rams were in control from the start and looked every part of a championship team but I am getting ahead of myself.
Head coach Caroline Gajzler and her staff have the Rams playing at a high level early this season helped by a very deep bench. It looks like every player on the team could start.
As for the photos, I think the ISO was too high. One does not get a good feel for that in the camera’s small electronic viewfinder. 8000 was too much. I ended up having to use the noise reduction. It’s good but makes the photos are little too cartoonish. Don’t worry, I will get it dialed in.
“OK. We got a big night ahead. Thank you all so much. Thank you so much. OK. There you go.
Hello, Chicago! Yeah. All right. Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it? You know, we’re feeling it here in this arena, but it’s spreading across this country we love. A familiar feeling that has been buried too deep for far too long. You know what I’m talking about. It’s the contagious power of hope.
The anticipation, the energy, the exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day. The chance to vanquish the demons of fear, division and hate that have consumed us and continue pursuing the unfinished promise of this great nation, the dream that our parents and grandparents fought and died and sacrificed for.
America, hope is making a comeback.
Yeah. But, to be honest, I am realizing that, until recently, I have mourned the dimming of that hope. And maybe you’ve experienced the same feelings, that deep pit in my stomach, a palpable sense of dread about the future.
And for me, that mourning has also been mixed with my own personal grief. The last time I was here in my hometown was to memorialize my mother — the woman who showed me the meaning of hard work and humility and decency, the woman who set my moral compass high and showed me the power of my own voice.
Folks, I still feel her loss so profoundly. I wasn’t even sure if I’d be steady enough to stand before you tonight, but my heart compelled me to be here because of the sense of duty that I feel to honor her memory. And to remind us all not to squander the sacrifices our elders made to give us a better future.
You see, my mom, in her steady, quiet way, lived out that striving sense of hope every single day of her life. She believed that all children, all — all people have value. That anyone can succeed if given the opportunity. She and my father did not aspire to be wealthy. In fact, they were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed. They understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone else around us was drowning.
So, my mother volunteered at the local school. She — she always looked out for the other kids on the block. She was glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation. The belief that if you do unto others, if you love thy neighbor, if you work and scrape and sacrifice, it will pay off. If not for you, then maybe for your children or your grandchildren.
You see, those values have been passed on through family farms and factory towns, through tree-lined streets and crowded tenements, through prayer groups and National Guard units and social-studies classrooms. Those were the values my mother poured into me until her very last breath.
Kamala Harris and I built our lives on the same foundational values. Even though our mothers grew up an ocean apart, they shared the same belief in the promise of this country. That’s why her mother moved here from India at 19. It’s why she taught Kamala about justice, about the obligation to lift others up, about our responsibility to give more than we take. She’d often tell her daughter, ‘don’t sit around and complain about things. Do something.’”
I typically don’t write about politics on this blog. But I do warn readers that this blog will contain things that I cannot stop myself from writing about. I reproduce the entire text of the speech here because I can. I found and read the entire text of the speech, at the price of giving the New York Times my email address, so I could respond to a dopey post of Facebook saying that the Obamas have more than they need so why don’t they give it away. Presumably, to discredit them, their support of Kamala Harris and the content of their speeches at last night’s DNC.
What Michelle Obama said was “[her parents] understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone else around us was drowning.” She said give back. Help. Volunteer. Do the unglamorous work. Love your neighbors. DO SOMETHING.
I agree with Mrs. Obama and the Former President’s admonition in his speech to treat those who oppose us with the dignity that we wish they would extend to us. I hope I was courteous in my Facebook retort to the cleaver poster. I thought it was important to expose his false and mean spirited argument. And I don’t think it will hurt to cannot encourage others to love their neighbors at least once on the blog.
Michelle Obama at the 2024 DNC. Photo credit CBS News.
I just love this event. I love being able to watch two games at the same time. Ridgewood Coach Chris Mroz and his staff do such a great job. And there are so many teams. It seems unworkable but they make it work so well.
My focus is always more toward teams than individual plays. I am there to see preview of teams. And I get to see players that I won’t get to see during the season.
So—my impressions from the weekend in no particular order.
Lemont and Gabe Sularksi are good. No surprise there; just a lot more evidence. Lemont is not a team that run into often. I have seen plenty of Gabe Sularski at Benet. He is an excellent player and will lead Lemont to big season.
Marco Gonzalez leads Brother Rice. The Crusaders will be a new team. I didn’t see enough to make much of a judgment.
Lane is Lane. Nick LoGalbo always has his group ready. Too bad we can’t bottle and sell their energy; we would solve global warming. No Shaheed Solebo for the Champions but everybody else is back. Dalton Scantlebury impressed in his matchup against Rich Township and their premiere big man Al Brooks. Dalton will lead this senior heavy group. Probably the best CPL team on the Northside but can they make a deep run into the City Championship and 4A?
St. Laurence will be a top team in the Chicago Catholic League. Solid all around.
Homewood-Flossmoor may have graduated Gianni Cobb but there doesn’t seem to be much of a drop off. One of the three best teams that I saw over the weekend.
DePaul Prep is the second of the three best teams that I saw at Ridgewood. The addition of Whitney Young transfer Rykan Woo helps. And it’s not like the two-time defending state champs need a lot of help. Favorite in the Chicago Catholic League. Too early to talk about the favorite in 3A but . . .
Maybe the biggest revelation for me was St. Ignatius. The Wolfpack came into last season highly ranked and struggled with an extremely difficult schedule. That adversity seems to have turned into energy and determination. Matt Monroe’s group was just hitting everything. Phoenix Gill looks like he is ready for the NBA. Not an exaggeration. He looks ready to play in the NBA. Two well known observers that I spoke to said Gill was the best player they saw at Ridgewood. He was the best individual player that I saw.
That Wolfpack are not just Gill. Nico Harris, Chris Cittaro, Chris Bolte impressed. These guy can shoot. And then there are Will Horton, Alex Anaya and, of course, Ryan Cavanagh. It seems like St. Ignatius always has an Irish kid on the team. Gotta love that. (Plus I think he is my friend Tim Cavanagh’s son so that’s even better.)
I got a chance to talk to Mount Carmel’s Phil Segroves about his Caravan. The loss of Angelo Ciaravino and Lee Marks leave big holes to fill. And by “big,” I mean points from Ciaravino and size from Marks. The Caravan looked like there were still figuring it out but Coach Segroves suggested the may be adding some more pieces. They will be top CCL team.
I saw the end of Loyola v. Bolingbrook. That was the only Loyola I saw. They beat Bolingbrook. I wish I could have seen more. They have to be in the CCL conversation until I have reason not to assume that Tom Livatino’s team will be there. They have been there every year. They are until they are not.
And then there is Benet—the third of the three best teams that I saw. Even with Sularski going back to Lemont, the Redwings look like they are even better. Blake Fagbemi looks even better than last year. Colin Stack looks more confident in the paint. Jaden Wright, Mac Doyle and Daniel Pauliukonis fill out the lineup. Heavy favorite in the ESCC. Possible No. 1 to open the season.
Finally, I got over to Wright Junior College to see Sean Conor’s Antioch Sequoits only to learn that a cousin of mine, Logan Lennon, a freshman, is one of the Sequoits. I know of only two descendants of my grandparents, Irish immigrants John Lydon and Delia Geraghty to play varsity high school basketball—my son Dan Lydon and Logan Lennon. So that is something a little special for me.
Well I guess that’s it for a while. We will be going back to football season now.
Here are some photos from the weekend.
The Riverside-Brookfield Summer Shootout this past weekend was a good look at teams in advance this year’s upcoming tournament. I mostly cover the Chicago Catholic League and the Chicago Public League so I wanted to get a look at as many of those teams as I could. But I could only be there on Friday.
I got a look at DePaul Prep in games against Lake Zurich and DeLaSalle. The Rams have plugged in junior guard/wing Rykan Woo, a transfer from Whitney Young. The Rams return Makai Kvamme, AJ Chambers, Rob Walls and Rashawn Porter. They should pick up where they left off.
The Lane Tech Champions also looked like they picked up where they left off. Despite losing Shaheed Solebo to graduation, the Champions return Dalton Scantlebury, a top player in the 2025 class. The returning group of seniors, Braydon Rosenkrantz, Drew Bartoli, Mike Remotigue and Zach Mazanowski. Despite a close lose to Simeon in their first game, the Champions looked good.
The St. Ignatius Wolfpack looked very good against East St. Louis. Returning top player Phoenix Gill looked bigger, stronger and faster. A new group of starters, make this pack of wolves appear especially dangerous in the coming season.
I saw DeLaSalle against DePaul Prep. Meteors coach Gary DeCesare will have this talent group ready. They looked good but not good enough against the Rams.
I saw the first half of St. Laurence against Glenbard West. Jason Opeka had his Hilltoppers playing their 1-3-1 defense that was giving the talented group of Vikings, lead be returning EJ Mosley, some trouble. I didn’t get a good chance to see much of what Roshawn Russell and this Vikings will have in store for the league this winter. I asked one observer about St. Laurence. He said, “We’ll see.”
I also got a look at El Paso-Gridley. A newcomer to the R-B, the Comets look to show off their top performer Jonah Funk. The 6-9 forward didn’t dominate and played on the perimeter more that I expected. The 2-A Comets were overmatched in the game I some them play against DeKalb. It’s difficult to say how well the Comets will fair this season even with Funk. But I got a look at Funk, he will dominate the Comets conference opponents. I intend to get down to El Paso at least once this year to see Funk play, if he stays in El Paso.
I also got a look at Lou Adams’ Rich Township squad. I figured it was only a matter of time before Adams working Rich into a top team. That time appears to have arrived. Look for Rich to make a splash.
I got a look at Benet. The Redwings look special even without one of last year’s top contributor, Gabe Sularski. Sularski a couple court’s over after returning to his home town Lemont team. Sularski had a couple chippy exchanges with Whitney Young’s Antonio Munoz in their matchup.
Whitney Young is, well, Whitney Young. They will be very good as usual—maybe special. Antonio Munoz looks itching to get after a state title.
So those are my impressions of Friday. Here are a few photos from the day.
For me at least, R-B is the start of basketball season. I know there are AAU weekends and other “live” events, but the Riverside-Brookfield Summer Shootout is the best of all worlds. Top teams, top college coaches, top players, a look at new line-ups for top teams. It’s great to catch up with coaches, players, parents, reporters and even a few photographers.
I know football interrupts the season but R-B sparks the excitement, football sustains it and the Thanksgiving tournaments sets it free. So get ready for another sprint through the season.
We don’t have to wait long our beloved DePaul Prep Rams light it up at noon against the Lake Zurich Bears were 22-9 last season, finishing fourth behind Warren, Lake Forest and Stevenson in the North Suburban conference. I confess I didn’t know the first thing about Lake Zurich. I had no idea what the mascot was. I had to look it up. Twenty wins in a hard conference makes a tough team. It will be fun to see the new Rams line-up against at team I never considered before today.
The Benet against Bolingbrook—two top programs face off at 12:55. DePaul Prep again against Chicago Catholic League rival DeLaSalle Academy at 1:50.
Our El Paso Gridley Titans make an appearance for the first time (I assume) at R-B. The Titans, a 2-A school from Central Illinois about 30 miles north of Bloomington, travel up here presumably to showcase their top player Jonah Funk. Except Funk is reported to be moving to Metamora and will play there this season.
I think of El Paso mostly as a football school. My brother-in-law Mike Souhrada took the then El Paso Comets, before the combination with Gridley, to a state tittle football game 22 years ago. My nephew Jared Souhrada played on the basketball team a few years later.
After that we get a preview of Loyola, East St. Louis, Kenwood, Warren, Mount Carmel, St. Ignatius, Rich Township, Lane Tech, Simeon and St. Laurence.
It’s gonna be a busy afternoon and evening in Riverside-Brookfield. More fun than should be allowed in one evening.
Get there early. Parking is a . . . ..
Here are few photos from last year’s R-B.
Eighty years ago today, soldiers and sailors of the United States, Britain and Canada went ashore on the beaches of Normandy, France and saved the World.
Okay. There is a lot of overstatement there but there is more truth than not. The Battle of Normandy and its D-Day landings were the penultimate battle of the war that ushered in a prolonged era of relative peace.
Everyone should watch the second scene of Saving Private Ryan when Captain Miller’s (Tom Hanks) Ranger unit lands at Omaha Beach. That is what the soldiers faced for about four hours on Omaha. It’s hard to watch.
The men who landed, and lived, made their way up the bluff in scattered small groups silencing German machine guns, howitzers and mortars as Navy destroyers came right up the beach and knocked out the big guns. By midday, the tide was turning. By evening, the beach was in securely in American hands.
Elsewhere, the Americans on Utah were ashore and advancing inland. Same with the Canadians and British. It would be a while before the outcome of the battle was clearly evident, but it was never actually in doubt. Allied air supremacy pretty much assured victory but not the price of victory.
The day is a metaphor, a symbol for the whole endeavor of the war. The whole titanic struggle of good versus evil distilled into one day.
I could go on, and on, and on, and on about the things that happened that day and in the days after. My wife could certainly attest to that. She graciously agreed to sit through a day long symposium on D-Day with me and my sister in April. I reread three books and rewatched two movies just to get back up to speed.
My father was in the U.S. Army in World War II and served in SHAEF Headquarters as an officers’ pay clerk. I have studied World War II much of my life. I am sure that is because of his influence.
We owe so much to the bravery, foresight and determination of those men. We owe our lives and our prosperity to them.
I, for one, will be thinking of that today, June 6th, the 80th Anniversary of D-Day.
Robert Capa iconic image of D-Day
The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the St. Patrick Shamrocks 2-1 in a well-played exciting game fitting of the stage. The student defeated the teacher in the IHSA 3A Clemente Sectional championship game.
When Sammy Colon was an 8th grader, Chris Haas went to his grade school and played catch with him eventually getting him into Gordon Tech. Sammy, a four-year starter for Chris at Gordon, came back to work at DePaul Prep as an assistant athletic director and an assistant varsity baseball coach. Chris moved on to become an athletic director himself and Sammy graduated into being the Rams’ baseball head coach.
Shamrocks’ junior right-hander Elias Alvarado had the Rams well in hand for the first four innings. No runs, one hit, no walks and three strike-outs. The defense behind him was solid.
Rams’ senior lefty James MacMillan was rolling too. Despite giving up three well hit singles in the top of the second, MacMillon rallied to set done the Shamrocks only giving up one run.
“We knew [Alvarado] was running out of gas a little [after four innings]. We started taking it one inning at a time. We put some balls in play and none of them were falling. We just needed to keep working on him, riding out at-bats and we would get an opportunity,” Colon said.
I wasn’t far from Sammy who was coaching third base. I could hear what he was saying to the bench. In the bottom of the fifth, he was fired up. He knew it was now or never to make a move, score a couple runs and win the game. He was all business.
To open the frame, the Rams got a huge lead off infield hit of the pitcher’s glove from senior Carter Levine. It was the ember the Rams needed to spark the inning. Levine, who to that point had the Rams only hit off Alvardo, legged out the hit. Colon had alerted Rams’ Owen Rog before the at-bat that if Carter got on, Rog would run for him.
Rog scrambled out to first base in place of Levine who had done his part. Rams’ third baseman junior Charlie Pribyl was at the plate.
“I didn’t put the bunt down initially but then I went to it. That put a lot of different things in peoples’ heads. I think Haas thought for sure we were bunting there to get the one run. It’s funny that Rog was at first base. Typically, he is our starting center fielder. We had a bit of an injury with the arm but the legs still worked so I was confident in stealing the bag there,” said Colon.
On a 2-0 count, after Pribyl showed bunt, Rog bolted for second; a good throw was late. Rog was in at second.
With two on and no outs, senior left fielder Aiden Ball ball squared around to bunt and worked a walk to load the based. Four innings in, Alvarado seemed a little gassed, struggling to find the plate. Rams hitters were in no hurry to swing at pitches outside the zone.
With the bases loaded and no one out, sophomore Joey Sachetti worked a walk on a three and two count to bring home Rog from third and tie the game.
“Big walk by Joey Sachetti in the nine spot who typically does not start for us, a sophomore that we called up from JV. That was a big at bat for us,” Colon said.
Back to the top of the line up, with one out, Rams senior infielder Benny Espinosa hit a fly ball to right field scoring Pribyl from third.
Rams up 2-1.
“Benny Espinosa doing what he does best. He has been our rock all year long. He stepped up big,” said Colon.
“Ya, [Alvarado] got a little gassed. He got a little rattled when he hit [Pribyl] on the bunt attempt. He throw a one hitter. They got the two runs he had no hits. It was just one of those things. I thought we hit the ball. We had six or seven hits.” But just one run.
James MacMillon’s performance was just as impressive as Alvarado’s. Six and a third innings giving up just the one run despite giving up five hits and three walks. Timely strike-outs and solid defense on balls put in play was the recipe for success.
Shut down closer Gavin Glibowski closed the door on the Shamrocks in the top of the seventh.
Sammy Colon was emotional after the game.
“There wasn’t much conversation [with Chris Haas] before the game. It’s emotional for this game. He means a lot to me. As a coaching mentor, as a friend. He found me in the rough in the high school team at Gordon. He means a lot to me. It’s very emotional to play him. We didn’t talk a lot before the game. I had to keep my mind on beating him. But afterwards, we will go hang out. We will talk about this game forever. So, it’s fun,” Sammy said after the game.
Chris Haas took over baseball coaching from legendary Gordon Tech skipper Red Miller in 2003.
“I get emotional too. I love him. It was hard [to talk before the game]. I went up to him. Those kids, Luke Oblen, Griff Horne, Klein, Latko; those are still my guys. It’s bittersweet. I love those kids,” Chris Haas said after the game.
“I love Sammy to death. He was a four-year starter for me in high school. I went to his grammar school everyday for a week at lunch. I played catch with him and talked about coming to Gordon. I love him. I wish him the best of luck.”
It didn’t look good for Lane late in the City Championship game on Monday at Wrigley Field. Kenwood’s senior left-hander Kevari Thunderbird was rolling. He held the Champions scoreless giving up only two hits through five and a third.
Thunderbird hit his pitch count limit with one out in the sixth. It looked bleak for the Champions after Kenwood senior left-hander and center fielder Khamaree Thomas took over for Thunderbird promptly striking out two Champions to keep the shutout going.
But Lane’s head coach Sean Freeman, channeling his inner Jason Heyward, gathered his team during a long delay before the Champions came to bat in the top of the seventh. Not the rain from the Heavens like in Cleveland for the Cubs but an injured umpire stopped the game for an extended period. Freeman rallied his group for one last chance at the City Championship on the big stage.
“I mentioned the 49ers v. the Ravens when the lights went out and the Ravens ended up coming back. I said we are going to do that right here. It ended up being great.”
With one out, junior shortstop Ted Greco walked. Standout right freshman Sebastian Wilson crushed a double to right center advancing Greco to third. Senior Ethan Borggren singled to left scoring Greco.
Then it was Tyler Trapp’s turn. The junior second baseman struggled early in the game with two errors and a strikeout.
“It was a change-up just perfectly down the middle in my perfect spot and I just did everything I know,” said Trapp. He crushed it over the centerfielder’s head to score Wilson and Borggren. Just that quick, the game was tie. Tyler’s celebration at second base was reminiscent of the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo in the tenth inning of the seventh game of the 2016 World Series.
Keeping it going, Champions’ outfielder Henry Owens walked on four pitches. Sophomore third baseman Ronan Owens crushed a long sacrifice fly to right field advancing Trapp to third.
Henry Owens stole second.
With two out and men on first and second, catcher Elias Padilla singled scoring two runs to give the Champions a 5-3 lead with the Broncos still to bat.
Winning pitcher senior Oliver Evans stayed in for the bottom of the seventh. Strike out swinging for Kenwood’s Damaurion Butler. One out. Kenwood’s Jimmy Downs struck out swinging as well. Two down.
Kenwood’s clean-up hitter, senior first baseman Savion Flowers chopped a ground ball to first base. Ethan Borggren grabs it beating Flowers to the bag. Wrigley erupted in celebration. The Champions rushed out of the first base dugout onto the field. Hats and gloves flew into the air. Players ran into center field in celebration.
Foul ball.
After things settled down a bit. Sean Freeman walked out through the infield telling his team that the umpires had ruled the grounder a foul ball. The game would go on.
With Flowers back in the box and Evans back on the mound, Flowers hit a high fly ball to left. Champions’ senior Grant Leff gloved it. This time it was over. Champions won the Chicago Public League City Championship at Wrigley Field for the second time in three years. A second celebration ensued.
Of Kenwood pitcher Kevari Thunderbird, Freeman could not say enough. “He is a great pitcher. I tip my cap to him. He was the best player on the field today. I knew that once he hit the limit, if we could get him there, our odds would obviously go up a little bit,” said Freeman, not a man given to exaggeration.
The Lane players showed a maturity well beyond their years. Frankly, Thunderbird had them well under control for most of the game. Even when he got in a jam, as he did in the third and fourth, he got himself out of trouble with strikeouts.
“We were trying to work the counts as deep as we could. We knew that he would be pulled after 115 pitches,” Trapp said. Having committed two errors early in the game, Trapp stayed in the game mentally and physically.
“I just let the errors stay in the past. I can’t change the past. I just keep looking toward the future, toward my next opportunity,” Trapp said.
Next opportunity is the IHSA playoffs that start Wednesday.
[As for the photos, I worked up about three or four times as many as I usually do delaying the posting of them. I figured more is better under these unique circumstances. Not often—okay probably never again—will these players get photos of themselves playing at Wrigley Field.]
The Lane Tech Champions defeated the Morgan Park Mustangs 5-2 on Thursday afternoon at Kerry Wood Cubs Field. The Campions advance to face Whitney Young on Saturday at noon at UIC’s Les Miller Field at Curtis Granderson Stadium—isn’t that a mouthful.
Lane improved its record to 24-9, 14-0 in conference.
A spirited Morgan Park team made the trek north to face the Champions in the quarterfinal of the Chicago Public League baseball playoffs. The single elimination tournament will culminate in a championship game at Wrigley Field the coming Monday at 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. There is also free parking at the Cubs lot at Clark and Grace.
A preview of my story this week in Inside—Booster:
The Rat Hole: Before and After
The Chicago Department of Transportation removed the section of sidewalk in Roscoe Village on Wednesday with the animal impression frozen in the concrete—Chicago’s famous “Rat Hole.”
Early last Wednesday, CDOT workers removed and replaced sections of sidewalk and curb in the 1900 block of West Roscoe containing the Rat Hole. The animal impression in concrete has drawn nationwide attention in recent months. By mid-afternoon, a new sidewalk was poured. By early evening, the concrete had set and the forms were removed putting an end to the Rat Hole which some accounts said had been in place for twenty years.
CDOT’s Ambrosio Medrano, Jr., on the scene at the time of the removal said that the section of the sidewalk with the impression of the rodent was preserved and is in the possession of CDOT. Medrano said that the Rat Hole sidewalk would be given to the City’s Rodent Control Office in the Department of Streets and Sanitation. CDOT officials later would not confirm plans for the Rat Hole.
The animal impression gained notoriety in early January 2024 when a local artist posted his rat sculpture with the “rat hole.” Since then, it has blown up social media and news reports. A wedding is reported to have taken place at the Rat Hole. For a while in February, lines formed in the 1900 block of Roscoe to examine and leave tribute at the Rat Hole. It was regularly filled with coins like a European fountain, only smaller, and with a Chicago flair.
At least one purported expert who studied the Rat Hole believes that the impression is actually that of a squirrel that fell out of an adjacent large tree into wet cement when the sidewalk was first poured some twenty years ago. The impression is consistent with the anatomy of a squirrel rather than that of a rat was his hypothesis.
“This is definitely something we have not encountered before,” said Paul Sajovec, Alderman Waguespack’s chief of staff. Alderman Waguespack’s office has had lots and lots of complaints since January and February when people started visiting the 1900 block of Roscoe to check out the Rat Hole. Sajovec said, “the City’s 311 call center had received and forwarded numerous call to Alderman Waguespack’s office.
Alderman Waguespack contacted CDOT in late January or early February to “raise the issue” since this is a City infrastructure issue. Alderman Waguespack also discussed the Rat Hole directly with CDOT Commissioner Tom Karney.
“Some people were very vocal about immediately removing the sidewalk,” Sajovec said. The Alderman did not side with people who demanded that it be removed.
“It was CDOT’s decision to replace the sidewalk,” Sajovec said. It is not known when CDOT decided to remove sidewalk.
After reports of the Rat Hole removal, Alderman Waguespack’s office received mixed feedback from community members.
“Some people are pleased; some people are very upset [with removal of the Rat Hole]. The reactions are all over the board,” Sajovec said.
This reporter’s tweet about the removal of the Rat Hole generated 462,000 view in two days on Twitter—also know as X.
CDOT had a slightly different take on removing the Rat Hole. “This sidewalk removal and replacement was in coordination with the Alderman's office and is funded through the 32nd Ward’s Aldermanic menu funds,” CDOT responded to Inside’s inquiry about how the removal came about.
“CDOT surveyed the sidewalk earlier this year and is replacing several other small sections of damaged sidewalk on Roscoe Street through CDOT's 311 hazardous sidewalk program,” wrote CDOT’s Erica Schroeder, the public information officer.
“[T]he square of concrete containing the "rat hole" is with CDOT's Division of In-House construction currently. Future plans are not confirmed, but I will certainly keep you posted once those are finalized.”
Stay tuned. We will have to see where the Rat Hole ends up.
I went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for the annual meeting of the SHAEF Veterans and Friends Association. I am very jazzed because the weekend includes participation in the the Dwight D. Eisenhower Society and the Eisenhower Institute D-Day 80th Anniversary symposium at Gettysburg College.
SHAEF stands for Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces. It was my father’s unit in the U. S. Army during WWII. My father passed away many years ago but my sister Pat and I are members of the association and go the the annual meetings.
Over the past few weeks I have been rereading, listening to actually, several books I have on D-Day in anticipation of the SHAEF meeting. Craig Symonds, “Operation Neptune. The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landing,” (2014), Steven Ambrose, “D-Day,” (2002), and Cornelius Ryan, “The Longest Day,” (1959). It has been some time since I read these books for the first time. It was useful to revisit them. They confirmed and refuted many things I thought I know about that momentous day.
Like so many historic events, there were many reasons why the invasion succeeded. I get the feeling from these books that it would have succeeded almost no matter what because of dopey things Hitler and the other Nazis did.
What I didn’t quite know was how the Americans stranded at the sea wall on Omaha Beach got off the beach. The destroyers came in close to the beach blasted installations on the bluff and in the draws.
The surviving men that landed made their way up the bluff and suppressed enough of the enemy for the survivors and successive waves to control the beach.
The other big controversy seems to be the opposing strategies of the German defense. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel wanted to defeat the invasion at the beaches. Field Marshal Gerd Von Rundstedt wanted to let the invaders land, then he would counter-attack with armored divisions outside the reach of naval guns. Would that have worked? Probably not. A million airplanes would have swarmed over the moving German units the same way they did in the Battle of Normandy. Without some air power, any air power, I don’t see how the Germans would have defeated division after division of American, British and Canadian troops that came ashore and would continue to come ashore for the next ten months.
The Germans might have done better under Von Rundstedt’s plan but that would have just meant that the Russians would have been defeated the Germans before the Americans got into Germany.
Yesterday we went to the Gettysburg National Military Museum and Visitors Center. Very interesting. Carol and I road around the area getting a feel for the topography and the distance between the matter engagements in the three day battle in July 1863. The Civil War is such a big subject I have not gotten very deep into it. Still being here and seeing the town with its 19th Century feel has been very interesting.
Today was the D-Day + 80+ Symposium at Gettysburg College. It was everything I expected and more. Susan Eisenhower, Doug Dowds, Craig Symonds and David Eisenhower were great speakers.
I really enjoyed Craig Symonds central thesis that the Destroyers saved the day on Omaha beach. I did not appreciate that until I reread the D-Day books in recent months. My wife Carol, my sister Pat and two of Pat’s friends also went to the Symposium. The seemed to enjoy it as well even though they are not quite the WWII nerds that I am.
That’s it. Battle of the Bulge, Battle of Midway, War in the Pacific and D-Day taken care of now. I’m gonna have to find a new WWII subject to take up now.
I went over to Kerry Wood Field Friday evening to catch the Lane v. Whitney Young baseball game. According to Max Preps, the Champions came into the game with an 8-0 record. Lane Head coach Sean Freeman corrected me when I asked about the spotless record saying that they dropped a couple split squad games to out-of-state teams on their Spring Break trip.
The Dolphins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Champions’ senior right handed pitcher Jack Davis gave up three singles, a walk and two runs with two out but settled down pitching five full innings allowing only one earned run with eleven strike outs and two walks.
I couldn’t stay for the whole game so it’s not going to get the full treatment and a story in the Booster. There will be time for that.
Sean Freeman’s Champions have three division one commits: senior first baseman Ethan Borggren (Northwestern), senior center fielder Henry Murray (Boston College) and freshman right fielder Sebastian Wilson. The talent is there for the Champions to have a great season.
It turns out that the Champions fell to Kenwood 6-4 on Saturday in what might be a telling look at the top teams in the Chicago Public League.
With the weather warming up and league play starting, I will be getting out to as many CPL and CCL games as I can.
The photos are not my best. It was coooold and I didn’t give it the full treatment. I am still getting back in the swing of taking baseball photos.
My father was the Co-ordinator of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade from 1956 to 1991. St. Patrick’s Day has always been a special day for me and my family. My dad had a great deal to do with making Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day what it is these days. Particularly, the dying of the Chicago River. In recent years, I have not made a big deal of it. Frankly, it is somewhat painful. I miss my dad, Daniel P. Lydon.
I am beginning to appreciate what St. Patrick’s Day has become. It is now largely a secular celebration of Irishness and Ireland. The entire Republic of Ireland has about 5.5 million people. That is about the same number of people in Cook County. Yet, Ireland and the Irish occupy such a large place in American popular culture. Ireland, it patron saint and its people enjoy their own American holiday. Perhaps not exactly a feast day of a Roman Catholic saint intended to celebrate the evangelization of the Emerald Isle to Christianity in the Fifth Century. But I, and I think, the rest of Irish America, don’t mind too much.
I enjoy, and take considerable pride in, the outsized influence the Celtic island on the edge of Europe has had in history and particularly the history of the United States and Chicago in particular.
I take pride, in the good sense, not pride in the sinful sense, in my Irish heritage and Irishness of America. The Irish—Irish Americans—have made Chicago the place it is. A good place. A friendly and productive place that has contributed to America and her people. I hope that we have brought the Irish skills and traits of good humor, hard work, faith, wit, charm, good looks and devotion to the American persona—especially the good looks part.
Enjoy the holiday. Don’t forget about St. Patrick. He taught the Irish to love. He made us who we are, like so many before and after him.
