Chicago Public League Sports Blog

Development, Development, DEVELOPMENT...key to success

Chris Wright of Niles West finished 2nd in the state last year in the 100 meter dash.
 

Wanna know why certain suburban school conistently produce solid teams? It's all about development. At Niles West (26th at state in 2009) and Niles North High Schools (14th at state in 2009), they run developmental meets for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade elementary school students interested in track.

See this brochure.

The brochure touts:

 " We view this meet as “instructional” for those athletes who may be interested in

competing at the high school level in the future. We will have a number of Niles

North and Niles West current athletes working the meet who will also be willing to

help the junior high athletes with any questions they may have regarding track &

field. "

In other words, Niles North and Niles West develops potential track runners starting at 5TH GRADE! How many CPS elementary school 5th graders go undeveloped every year?

Mini-Wrigley Field at Lane Tech?

Lane Tech's baseball team would get a big boost, if this new mini Wrigley Field get's built.

Alderman Eugene Shulter of the 47th Ward is pushing for a complete overhaul of Clark Park, just west of Lane Tech High School. Shulter has talked with the Chicago Cubs about building a mini-replica of Wrigley Field at that location. The mini-Wrigley Field would be used as a baseball stadium, with a Wrigley feel including Ivy walls and a Wrigley Style Roofline. It would be the home field of Lane Tech's baseball team but would be run by the Chicago Park District. Thus, other high schools as well as the local community would have access to it.

Other thoughts, surrounding this renovation would be to create a practice astro-turf field to be used for football, lacrosse, and soccer. Many Lane sports teams currently use Clark Park for practice. Last summer, I saw Lane Tech's freshman football team practice in a dust covered, overused Clark Park. The field was very dry, dust was flying all over, and the field was not even everywhere. An upgrade in facilities would definitely help.

When I first heard of these plans, I could not believe it. But as a I researched some more, I'm beginning to see that it's real.

According to Chicago Park District Superintendent Tim Mitchell, mini-Wrigley Field construction would begin as early as next year (2011).

Runners race on a cross country invitational at Clark Park, just west of Lane Tech.There are early talks of renovating the park and make a mini-version of Wrigley Field Baseball Field, astro-turf field for lacrosse, football, and soccer, river bank boat launch, and get this a BMX bike trail.

Harlan Football Team Beefing Up Non-Conference Football Schedule

Last football season, Harlan played lightweights Hirsch and Kenwood in their first two pre-conference games. They beat them handily 33-6 and 35-13. But at the end of the season, Harlan was over matched in a first round playoff game to Providence 41-7 and then lost to Robeson 14-6 in the first round of the city playoffs.

In 2010, Harlan will try a different strategy to start out the season as they open up in week 1 versus south side football power Richards in week 1, then play Maine East in week 2 - in what should be a very competitive game.

I'm not really sure if the strategy will pay off at the end. But I tell you what, I would much rather see Harlan play against Richards and Maine East then Hirsch and Kenwood.

Harlan should have an improved 2010-11 football team. They have some weapons in all-athlete quarterback Tashuan Johnson and Wide Receiver Brandan Presley. Both will be seniors.

As I get non-conference schedules from other teams, I'll try to post it up here.

Videos Now: 215lbs Ameen Solebo of Mather Defeats Donavan Harris of Al Raby

www.CPSfan.com, 3 sport athlete of the year Ameen Solebo (sr) of Mather wins the 215lb CPS city wrestling championship.

CPSfan.com YouTube Channel
Lane Tech dominated city wrestling meet
103 lbs Avery Willams of Morgan Park vs Johnny McCarthy of Lane Tech
119lbs - Jameel Carter of Uplift vs. NIck Jankowski of Lane Tech
130lbs - Keith Johnson Gage Park vs. Hiathem Hamad of Lane Tech
140lbs - Royale Jones of Kenwood vs Ryan Pozniak of Lane Tech
285lbs - Terrell Clinksdale of Douglass vs Johnny Johnson of Phoenix

Indoor Track Season Opens Next Week

 
Urban Prep opens February 5th, 2010 at the University High Meet at the University of Chicago.

Opening week of the IHSA indoor track season officially opens up next week. Here is a run down on where some CPS schools will be opening.

Urban Prep
February 5, 2010, U-High meet @ University of Chicago

Northside Prep
February 5, 2010, Niles West High School

Lane Tech
February 10, 2010, Proviso East Quad @ Proviso West High School

Whitney Young
February 2, 2010, Proviso East Quad @ Proviso West High School

Please comment to let us know where other schools will open?

Videos Now: 285lbs (Heavyweight) Terrell Clinksdale of Douglass vs Johnny Johnson of Phoenix

Abdullah Assad of Morgan Park signs with Concordia

Abdullah Assad of Morgan Park.

The Morgan Park football machine keeps churning out college football players. Safety Abdullah Assad (sr) committed to play football for Concordia (in Minnesota). Assad is part of 2010 Morgan Park backfield that also had Brian Jones, who recently comitted to Ball State. Assad joins a Morgan Park team that has had mutiple college signees: teamate Daron Brown (sr) signed with Northern Illinois a few weeks ago, DB Brian Jones signed with Ball State and lineman Matthew Mosely signed with Ball State.

Videos Now: 152lbs - Chase Wilson of Lane Tech vs. Jamal Carter of Uplift

Chase Wilson beats Carter.

Videos Now - Lane Tech Beats Whitney Young for 5 Board CPS Chess Championship

This video has very little talking. But this was the pivotal match between Lane Tech and Whitney Young in the CPS 5 Board Chess Championship 2010. Lane Tech and Whitney Young are the top two chess programs in the city. In this video, Lane Tech's Conor Salinas (jr) pulls out a slim victory over Whitney Young freshman Adrian Mui.

2010 CPS 5 board chess championship results

1. Lane Tech (JV)
2. Hubbard
3. Kelly (JV)
4. Simeon
5. Whitney Young (JV)
6. Hirsch
7. Schurz
8. Urban Prep
9. Lake View (JV)

4x800 preview....Part 2

Joseph Laseter (jr) of Kenwood takes the baton on their way to winning the frosh-soph 4x800 championship in 2009.

Top 2008-09 4x800 meter times
8:08.94 Mather
8:22.87 Lane Tech
8:30.4 Northside (school record)
8:37.64 Harlan
8:47.15 Lake View
8:53.17 Kenwood
8:53.33 Payton
8:57.54 Whitney Young
9:10.30 Jones
9:13.18 Lincoln Park

What to look out for (by school)

(Mather, Lane, Northside, and Harlan previews can be found in part 1)

Lake View - Lake View has a solid end of season last year for their 4x8 team. Lake View placed a surprising 4th place at the city meet then ran a season best 8:47.15 at state prelims. The goal this year should be to better their 8:47.15 time of last year. To do it, it will have to be without Romeo Jurardo, their graduated all-state 800 meter runner. The good news is that all 4 of their 4x8 state team returns including two time cross country state qualifier Oscar Medina (so),Michael Tran (sr), Segio Navas (sr), and sophomore Eduardo Chavez. Chavez, a soccer player in the fall, ran only two cross country meets last fall, yet nearly qualified for the state meet in cross country.

Kenwood - The Broncos ran their top 4x8 runners at the frosh-soph level and winning the 4x8 with a time of 8:52.30. That would have been good enough for 3rd at the varsity level. So the Broncos are dangerous. Obviously, they return everyone from that team including frosh-soph 800 meter champion Omar Tall (jr)- who showed a devastating kick in winning that race.

Payton - Payton finished 6th at the ciyt last year in the 4x8 and that was without their top 800 meter runner Jose Mora running. Payton got a taste of the wicked state meet. The Grizzlies ran a season best 8:53.33 but still finished last in their heat by over 14 seconds. The good news is that Payton returns everyone from their state meet 4x8 team including: Justin Speller (sr), Jimmy Brown (sr), Brandon Romo (jr), and Evander Ramos (jr). I also would not be surprised to see if someone from Payton's improved cross country team steps up to help their 4x8.

Whitney Young - The Dolphins WILL run a much better time than their season best of 8:57.54. Whitney Young returns almost everyone from last year and had a good cross country season. I like junior Sam Redmond. In my opinion he can run in the low 2:00's.

Jones- The days of Jones running times like their season best of 9:10.30 are over. Jones has a new attitude after their history making  state qualifying class AA cross country team of last fall. If those runners run track, expect Jones to run times way below 9 minutes in the 4x800. Many of those runners are still freshman and sophomores so the team will be low on experience but lot's of raw talent.

Related
2009 outdoor track leaderboard
CPS Runner Fan Page

4x100 preview
long jump preview
high jump preview
400 preview
discus preview
110 High Hurdles Preview
800 Preview
200 preview
1600 preview
4x200 preview
4x800 preview...part 1