St. Charles East High School started the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Winter Sports State championship tournament countdown Saturday. St. Charles East won the boys bowling State championship by 159 pins over second place Vernon Hills, 12,836 to 12,677.
The St. Charles East State championship does not fit in the same category of interest as the National Football League Super Bowl, however, in St. Charles it was welcome and celebrated news.
Super Bowl community interest relevance, beyond the litany of calculations that the Chicago Bears missed out in the draft of the game’s Most Valuable Player Award winner, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, is Jimmy Garoppolo who played for Rolling Meadows High School in the Mid-Suburban League. Even though Mahomes prevailed with a tough-minded comeback rally in the 31-20 Kansas City victory, there is more to the game. The Kansas City head coach, Andy Reed, who won his first Super Bowl trophy, is linked to Brad Childress, formerly of Aurora and a Marmion Academy football player in the early 1970s. Childress was an assistant coach under Reed in Philadelphia on his way to the head coaching job with the Minnesota Vikings. Childress, a part of the Andy Reed coaching tree, never fails to extol the virtues of Reed as a coach and as a person.
Meanwhile, the high school boys basketball season accelerates into a higher gear with last weekend’s Yorkville-Oswego focus on cancer survivor games and in the annual Ernie Kivisto Hoopfest Saturday with four games at East Aurora. The lineup: Aurora Christian vs. Chicago Lindblom, 2:15 p.m.; West Aurora vs. Bolingbrook, 3:50 p.m.; East Aurora vs. Lake Park, 5:25 p.m.; Oswego East vs. York, 7 p.m. in the 10th annual festival.
West Aurora, which will enter Friday’s game at Oswego with a record of 7-16 overall and 5-7 in the Southwest Prairie Conference, slipped past visiting Yorkville, 48-47, Friday.
Kelvin Balfour scored on a halfcourt three-point shot at the buzzer to virtually take victory out of grasp of defeat. West Aurora had led most of the game, including 22-12 at halftime. Yorkville took a two-point lead with seven seconds remaining in regulation prior to Balfour’s heroics.
West Aurora head coach Brian Johnson on weekend games against Oswego and Bolingbrook, 19-4, “Both teams are outstanding and it definitely will be a tough couple of games. We are really looking forward to the challenge.”
West Aurora brought sophomore Isaiah Siler up from the sophomore team with the injury to senior guard Logan Mont. Siler is 6-1. Johnson said, “(Siler) has done well. He is confident and has a nice three-point shot. He handles the ball very well.”
Yorkville went from Friday at West Aurora to Saturday at home against Oswego in the annual cancer awareness and fundraiser day. Oswego won both boys and girls varsity games. Oswego won in the boys, 51-47, and in the girls,46-29, as a part of six games played, sophomores and freshmen.
“We had halftime shooting contest between two cancer survivors, Madi Beetham (Yorkville junior) and Connor Robinson, (Aurora University freshman and Oswego alum),” said Kimberly Wensits, the Yorkville girls basketball coach. Mayors of both communities attended, halftime activities included Oswego and Yorkville Special Olympics teams. There were more than 20 honorary captains who have beaten or are battling cancer, or, have family members with cancer.
Plano High School boys head coach Kyle Kee said, “We really have been playing well since the New Year, 11-1. We will play at home Friday against Kaneland (one game behind first place Plano in the Interstate Eight).
“Our two bigs, (6-8 senior) Griffin Cross and (6-6 senior) Robbie Taylor, have been dominating inside and are a huge force on both sides of the court.”
• Senior Eugene German of Northern Illinois recently set the school career scoring record last week with 2,000 points to pass T.J. Lux (1995-2000, 1996 points). Northern Illinois is 14-9 and 7-3 in the Mid-American Conference through Tuesday.