Rivalries important in all sports; improvement the goal

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High school, college, professional.

Those are the choices for fans in football, basically Friday night for high schools, Saturday for colleges, Sunday for professional teams.

It used to be that neat, clean, and evenly divided. These days a few college and professional games are played Thursdays and the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) would like high school teams to play Thursdays more often because of the shortage of field officials.

There is more to high school sports than football. In fact, the fall State tournament countdown tournaments started this week in both boys and girls golf and the march will continue in girls tennis, boys and girls cross country, girls swimming and diving, and boys soccer. Parents became involved as well as the fan bases.

• High school football has completed five weeks in a nine-game regular-season basis and two playoff teams in each of eight classes will play 14 games in a season. Among teams and conference with quality teams are in the West Suburban Conference. See Bobby Narang’s report for the showdown in the Silver Division between York and Glenbard West. DuKane Conference teams in the new, strong, eight-school group, include St. Charles North, 3-0 in Conference and 4-1 overall, and Wheaton North and Geneva, each 4-1 overall and 2-1 in Conference. Only St. Charles East, 2-3 overall and 0-3 in Conference has failed to win a Conference game in the balanced group. Only Neuqua Valley, 2-0, is undefeated in the six-team DuPage Valley Conference. Four weeks remain in the regular season and there will be excitement in future games.

• Plainfield North defeated Yorkville, 24-0, in a game between two undefeated teams.

• Rivalries in the Friday, Sept. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 1 weekend include: Geneva at St. Charles East, Naperville North at Naperville Central, Metea Valley at Neuqua Valley, Larkin at East Aurora,. Games in the DuKane Friday, Oct. 7 will be rivalry-driven with Geneva at Batavia, St. Charles East at St. Charles North, Wheaton Warrenville South at Wheaton North, Glenbard North at Lake Park. See the two-week schedule and results from September 22-24.

• The Chicago Bears have started with a 2-1 conference record and perhaps fans will come to expect good things and winning seasons, rather than negative nonsense of sub-par play.

• Northwestern and Illinois continue to fight football mediocrity in the Big Ten Conference that continues to be dominated by Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State in the two divisions.

• The Major League Baseball season will end Wednesday, Oct. 5 for both the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs and, although the less written might be better, a few comments are in order.

• In spite of falling out contention for the playoffs early, the Cubs have reflected growth the second half of the season. Should they be regarded as playoff contenders next season? Unlikely, however, often the press and fans can be surprised by a few teams with quality play and an increase in expectations. Can the Cubs….The White Sox, however, fell flat at the end and never really showed the quality play of last season. There was something missing. Pride in last year’s playoff run? Overconfidence? Lack of drive? There will be discussions in the offseason, hot stove league. What changes will be made and what will be determined the missing element of this season? Likely baseball is the most difficult to predict because of the 162-game season, variation in pitching, and the movement of the game to the majority of teams close to .500 play. The White Sox offered high opes to fans following last season’s playoff team and this season will fall into the bag of utter disappointment. Perhaps next season a more realistic mental approach will prevail. Will we ever see in our Chicago teams the consideration that the Cubs and Sox could even nudge their fans to think of a possible meeting in the World Series, a true City series?

Hope springs eternal.

We have to hope.

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