Seasons crossing; high school football in rivalries

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Summer, Fall, Winter!

We are easing into three of the seasons crossing each other with nearing the end of the Summer seasons, full throttle in the Autumn (Fall) seasons, and on the verge of starting Winter seasons.

In professional sports it is baseball, football, and basketball and hockey. We see in the Sports Lineup on page 9 that October 1 will be the final regular-season baseball games, including a merciful end to the Chicago White Sox season. Through Monday, Sept. 25, the White Sox held a won-loss record of 60-96 with six games remaining and right on the cusp of losing 100 games, or, just avoiding that horror. The Cubs are close to making it to the playoffs and it may go to the last day of the regular season, October 1, before we know their fate. The Chicago Bulls will play their first game, albeit preseason, against Milwaukee, Sunday, Oct. 8, and the Chicago Blackhawks will be right behind in starting the season.

High school football has played five of the nine regular-season games and will begin the playoff schedules October 26.

The week six games, September 28-30, offer highlights of big traditional rivalries.

Batavia, 4-1, will be at Geneva, 5-0, in the rivalry, Friday, Sept. 29. Other rivalries will include. Charles North at St. Charles East, Wheaton North at Wheaton Warrenville South, Lake Park at neighbor Glenbard North, Neuqua Valley at Metea Valley, Naperville North versus Naperville Central at North Central College in Naperville, and many important, hard-fought conference games throughout the four-county region. Add to that list, Kaneland at Sycamore in the Kishawukee River/Interstate Eight White.

College football comes in between the professional and the high school ranks. With the Chicago Bears in a not unexpected struggle to reach the break-even .500 ranks, there its more attention on colleges and high schools.

Can our regional and State college football teams respond with excellent quality of play, which for the most part is viewed in the won-loss column by most fans.

The football teams with 5-0 records and more than clinching playoffs on the line include: IC Catholic and Montini Catholic in the Chicago Catholic/East Suburban; Seneca in the Prairie; Geneva in DuKane and with a big rivalry game at home against Batavia, Friday, which lost 14-13 to Lincoln-Way East in week two and the latter is 5-0 in the Southwest Suburban Blue; Prairie Ridge in the Fox Valley; Morris and Sycamore, each the Kishwaukee river/Interstate Eight White; West Aurora in the Southwest Prairie West; and then two games of teams with 5-0 records who will play showdown games, Glenbard South at South Elgin in the Upstate Eight and York at Downers Grove North n the West Suburban Silver. Drama will be on display throughout our region.

Regional tournament play and other important games in all other Fall sports is at hand and in the next few weeks.

With so many high school sports, from football to cross country to volleyball, why would fans be interested in the Chicago Bears, or, colleges struggling to stay above .500.

Likely long-time fans and true partisans to just one team remain loyal.

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