We have special days, weeks, months, to offer salutes of special segments of our society. Ultimately, we have segments of society and we have a whole society made up of segments. The parts are never greater than the whole. We move forward as a whole. February was Black History Month....
Change is the steady framework in sports in all manner of methods, in personnel, conference affiliation, and rivalries. The West Suburban Conference, Silver and Gold, are dominant in football and often in basketball. That’s steady. The once flaming-hot football rivalry between East Aurora and West Aurora is non-existent because of...
Officially we are less than one month away from Spring’s first day, March 20. We have been blessed with the joy of a warmer than usual Winter for the first two of three months. With warmer weather arrives the joy of an accumulation of activities. With COVID-19 losing its grip,...
March Madness is on the horizon in basketball and for more sports, high school, college, and professional. For some fans the madness has been here during the regular season without a neat order and uncommon results. Why have neat and clean? An examples is the Big Ten Conference in men’s...
Programs, seminars, information, are important parts of our communities. Too often there is not enough space in The Voice for community activities in our counties. Each, of course, has good reason to think and perceive the personal activity is essential, important. Is is only natural. None of us is capable...
The Super Bowl game this year in the desert of Arizona was Super! Nearly an overtime ending, Kansas City defeated slight favorite of the odds-makers, Philadelphia, 38-35. It has been 37 years, more than one-third of a century (ouch, written that way) since the Chicago Bears captured the 1986 Super...
Complaints? Dissatisfaction? Disappointments? They all are minor when in comparison to major earthquakes such as one which hit countries of Turkey and Syria recently. Earlier this week 7,800 were estimated dead in the two countries. The death toll earlier this week was expected to continue to rise. We have been...
In college and high school basketball, both in men and women and in boys and girls, we are not in magical March Madness, however, February fosters fun and interest. Call it February Frenzy because teams are more finely tuned than at the start, seek to weave improvement prior to March...
Perception often is as important as the facts. An example is the headline at the top of page 1 this week, “State budget surpluses: Billions of dollars”. Residents of Illinois have heard for many years reports of failure, shortfall, debits, and problems with State government finances. The startling situation and...
Preparation is a relevant word in sports, whether for Super Bowl, freshman high school sports, or, midget-oriented, family-focus, fun. The next stage is in the thought process. Where do we go from here? Participants and fans can operate in the range from sheer joy to the agony and ecstasy as...
Punxsutawney Phil time will be with us February 1. Woodstock in McHenry County takes it personally. The Woodstock town square and other sites offered portrayal of Phil’s hometown in Punxsutawney, Pa. in the movie Groundhog Day 30 years ago. The last 29 years Woodstock has celebrated its contributions to the...
Tournament time in high school Winter sports begins and will be with us, except for Friday-Saturday, February 10-11 weekends through March 11. Fun, drama, competition, memories. It is only part of the sports whirl with the National Football League Super Bowl Feb. 12, college basketball tournaments after conference showdowns in...
The world is greater than the simplistic good versus evil. Nonetheless, movements to highlight the positive offer an acceleration of seeking a better world all around us. Truly, the celebration and significance of MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) Day is greater than racial parity or of a boastful day for...
The high school basketball season for boys and girls can take on various forms during the season with possible injuries, growth of players in size, strength, skill, experience, and accomplishment. Emotional and maturity can be factors. Part of the process is the bonanza of basketball during the recent seasons of...
News is truly an ongoing project. Changes are frequent with amendments in bills, personnel adjustments, and new information. Keeping up takes time, precision, tenacity, endurance. What is complete one day likely will change the next day, or, the next hour. What is captured in print is a snapshot at the...
We can have it all in sports, that is enjoy and dig deeply, or, lightly, and at all levels. • At once, the University of Georgia wins its second consecutive top level college football national championship in stunning fashion, 65-7, against stunned TCU. • Then, we have high school sports...
Year-end reflection is a common theme in media, interested persons given to thoughtfulness, and those who seek improvement in many areas. Affixing a value judgment to a year, good, bad, or, indifferent, may have some rules to an evaluation, however, it is more of a personal reflection. There may be...
End of the calendar year in sports offers excitement in football and basketball in playoffs, bowl games, tournaments, and football and basketball back-to-back, mostly in top-level college games. Mix in important National Football League games in preparation of playoffs, a plethora of high school holiday basketball tournament games, both boys...
Holidays or Holi-Daze? Busy ordinarily includes shopping, visits with relatives, travel, party-mentality, religious atmosphere, changes, consistency, fatigue, relief, reflection…. Most years contain minimal variation and a change of pace at the same time. There are wide ranges of celebration and attitudes. No one size fits all. Holidays or Holi-Daze? Add...
Illinois was one of the first states to offer high school Christmas holiday basketball tournaments. Back then the tournaments were strictly for boys. Think Pontiac, DeKalb in the 1920s. There are many other boys tournaments with nearly all schools playing tournament basketball. Think East Aurora, Elgin, Hinsdale Central, IC Catholic/Westmont,...
