Attached is a photo of the Northside Prep varsity team with the city championship plaque. From left to right, coach Jeff Caveney, junior Alex Bologna, junior Edmond Jay, junior Aamir Ansari, freshman Slavisa Djukic, sophomore Christian Kavouras, junior Chengliang Luo, senior Jayce Feiger, coach Dan Caldwell, and junior Ahmed Akhtar. Photo credit to Kehuan Luo.
Interesting note: the four NCP players who won against Whitney Young included one senior, one junior, one sophomore, and one freshman. The team needed every class for this victory! You might also be interested to know that at one point earlier in the Board 7 game, Northside's Djukic offered a draw and Whitney Young's Natarajan declined. If they had agreed to a draw, Whitney Young would have won 35-33. Of course neither play knew that at that earlier point in the match.
State will be a very tough competition and also interesting to watch. I think Northside Prep and Whitney Young clearly deserve the 1 and 2 seeds. But many of the other top teams in the state have not yet brought their full teams to non-conference statewide events this year, so they will be tougher at State -- in particular Niles North, Stevenson, and Evanston. Hinsdale Central may field a stronger team for State as well. We saw Glenbrook South play Whitney Young down to the final seconds 38-30 at the Raider Tournament. Urbana and IMSA are always tough too. And the top teams can never afford to overlook lower seeds, as Wheaton-Warrenville South showed by playing Northside Prep so close at the Raider Tournament.
If Northside Prep and Whitney Young do get to play a rematch at State, I expect it to be just as tight as yesterday's match. It could go either way. The Whitney Young players who lost are capable of playing better, but the Northside players who lost are also quite capable of improving their results too!
Jeff Caveney
Northside Prep coach
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