The Week That Was February 1st through February 7th 2016

Last week was the penultimate week of the season for many of our basketball teams. Between concerts and weather, last week was a bit lighter as far as games go. We only had 10 games. I think this is the first week since the first week back from break our total games for the week were so low. That doesn't mean we were not challenged.

There were no Games on Monday February 1st, but that gave us a chance to get team pictures in. Getting team pictures in is a necessary duty of every season, but one that creates issues as everyone wants more practice time. Some schools get team pictures in the first week of the season. I prefer getting them in late in the season as coaches really don't like losing practice time early. Also, late in the season we know everyone in the picture has made it through the most rigorous part of the season.

Our Varsity Boys Team Picture 2016

On Tuesday February 2nd we finished picture days and then expected to play a series of 3 games. The weather was terrible and there had been some localized flooding so we cancelled our MS boys Games vs. the Lab School. A slightly depleted Girls Varsity team travelled to Morgan Park Academy. Playing in the MPA small gym has given MPA a significant home court advantage many of our teams have felt. So what we hoped was going to be a close game was not as between a depleted line-up and struggles adapting to the smaller court we lost. The Fresh/Soph boys played LFA for the second time. Our Raiders started very slowly, woke up a bit in the 3rd quarter to narrow LFA's lead to a bucket. But LFA pulled away in the end. So this rain soaked day started our game week at 0-2.

On Wednesday February 3rd our Middle School Boys and Girls played Latin. The Romans are the toughest opponent on our schedule almost every year. So the big thrill of the day was the steadily improving White Boys team defeated Latin. Watching the White Boys team this year has been a thrill for me because the rosters is filled with a number of boys who have never played basketball before. Early in the season, they were getting beaten badly. At the Basketball Bash though, they scored 28 points in a close but losing effort. And last Wednesday they won. I don't record is the most accurate assessment of a successful Middle School sports season. The White Boys team don't have the greatest record. But they have steadily improved and one day a number of these boys will contribute on our Varsity team. So the story of Wednesday was the White boys. The other three middle school teams -- Purple Boys, and Purple and White Girls all lost to Latin. We were 1-3 for the day and 1-5 now on the week.

There were no games on February 4th due to the all school band concert.

On Friday February 5th the boys Varsity and JV teams traveled to U-High and the girls Varsity team had their senior day at North Shore vs. Lycee Francais. The Varsity Boys game is one to put behind us. We got off to a slow start and struggled in a packed gym at U-High. We had beaten U-High at our place earlier in the season but were unable to stay close Friday. Our JV boys continued to show they are peaking at the right time as even though they were a little short-handed, they won at U-High. We had to scramble a bit for our scheduled Senior Day opponent Rickover Naval Academy cancelled on us. We were fortunate that Lycee Francais was willing to fill the gap in our schedule. That gave us a chance to celebrate the contributions of Catherine Hayward and Katie Winslow Friday. It was also nice to get a win, making Friday our winningest day of the week. We were 2-1 on the day and 3-6 for the week.

On Saturday February 6th we hosted our last Hoops4health clinic for Middle School basketball players. These clinics were awesome and it was a great way to incorporate alum Brendan Kolton and his colleagues into our program. The Fresh Soph team played Northridge Prep at 11 am and ended a tough week of games with a loss. We were 0-1 on the day and 3-8 for the week and the month.

Raiders in Seattle

At the same time, we were in the midst of the penultimate week of basketball season for many of our team, we had the first week of track and field competition in the state of Illinois. One of the things that has frustrated me about the way track starts in Illinois is there are less and less opportunities for small schools like ours to compete indoors. The indoor facilities that are near us are almost all operated by large schools. These large schools are buried with competition requests. Given the flexibility we want in our scheduling, getting into these meets is difficult. Also Chicago is the only major city I know of that does not operate a state of the art indoor track facility. I could go on, and I might in another post. But finding quality opening of the season competition for our team is a struggle. This year I proposed we roll the dice and travel out of state to a meet to open the season. I discovered an outstanding meet in Seattle Washington at the University of Washington and along with Harold Gauthier took five athletes out to compete. This was an awesome meet. All the boys who competed PR'd and got to run in a meet that both Coach Gauthier and I thought might've been the best run high school track meet we have ever seen. If you would like to learn more about the meet, go to this link UW High School Invitational 2016

We were not able to include everyone on the team in this meet, but I see these athletes as trailblazers for the future.

So despite some ups and downs this week, we made progress. In athletics, sometimes it is all about keeping the ball rolling and creating good momentum. We certainly did that last week. Now onto a week with 17 games!