Chicago Public League Sports Blog

Lane Tech Proposing a 7th and 8th Grader Academic Center

Lane Tech wants to open a 6 year college prepatory curriculum program allowing student to start at 7th grade.

According to the Lane Tech website:

"Lane Tech High School is currently in the process of applying to CPS to house an Academic Center within our school. Academic Centers provide an accelerated curriculum for 7th and 8th graders, which enables students to earn high school credit before 9th grade. If Lane were to house an Academic Center, we would be able to offer a 6-year college preparatory program with curricular offerings to our community of students. Students enrolled in a Lane Tech Academic Center would automatically be allowed to continue to 9th grade and complete high school at Lane Tech."

They are thinking of starting this program as early as Fall of 2011, with 90 7th graders. They would be be housed in the 4th floor. Whitney Young and Lindblom has a similar program currently being run at their school.

From a sports perspective, this could give Lane an additional edge. I'm sure some of those close to 200 7th and 8th graders will be athletes. Of course none of them can participate in high school sports until 9th grade but they will have 2 years to get exposed, at the minimum, to the Lane Tech sports culture. Yes, they'll be mainly in the 4th floor where there are no athletic facilities. But being in the building they'll get an opportunity to see how sports operate at Lane.

Steinmetz, Schurz promoted to Red-North Next Year

Steinmetz and Schurz finished first and second in the Blue-North basketball conference. Thus, they will both move up to the tougher Red-North conference. Steinmetz was the conference champion with a undefeated conference record of 9-0. Schurz finished 8-1 with their only conference loss was a 54-49 loss to Steinmetz last week.

Steinmetz should be able to compete somewhat in the Red-North next year as they will return captain Frank Bland (5-6, 130lbs, jr). Don't be deceived by Bland's size. He can play. He averaged 10.6 points and 2.4 steals a game for Steinmetz. That means he can score and play some defense. 2.4 steals/game is impressive. Steinmerz also returns versatile Derek Rice  (guard/forward, 6-1, 170lbs).

Moving down to the Blue North will be Payton who finished last in the Red-North with an 0-9 conference record. I'm not sure who the other team will be that will go down to the Blue. Senn, Von Steuben, Uplift, and Lane all finished tied 2nd to last with conference records of 3-6 and I'm not sure what the tie breakers are.

Can someone tell me what the tie breakers are and who will be sent down?

 

Lake View Track Preview

All-state cross country runner Oscar Medina (sr)  enters his final season at Lake View. He is an instant pre-season CPS individual title contender in whatever events he runs (3200?, 1600?). He also has the speed to be able to run the 4x800 if Lake View decides to do so.  Medina is also a legit pre-season class AA all-state track contender......

 

......but Lake View is not all about Oscar. Their sprints hopes will lie on the feet of Abimbola Osundairo (sr). He ran an 11.51 in the 100 at sectionals last year and could be a force in the CPS for class AA.....

....then there is still the question of couple soccer players going out for track. Last year promising distance runner and soccer player Eduardo Chavez (jr) (above.) had a great sophomore season running season bests of 2:05.50 in the 800, 4:45.76 in the 1600, and a 10:46 in the 3200. Also look out for sophomore Juan Berumen...

....but they'll have to manage with a new coach as the previous track coach (above) is no longer coaching at Lake View. 

Lane (minus Schneider) wins another CPS wrestling title.

Kenneth Field of Austin wins at 135lbs.

Lane won it's 3rd city wrestling championship in 4 years (and 18th out of the last 24 years). Lane scored 205 points to runner up Fenger's 131.

Lane won despite the abscence of defending city and state champion Max Schneider(jr). Schneider is still injured and his status is still unknown for regionals.

Here are some intial individual champions:

160 lbs: Chase Wilson, Lane Tech (repeat champion)
125: Matt Finnegan, Lane Tech (3 time city champ)
171: Ryan Pozniak, Lane Tech (repeat champion)
119: Jameel Carter, Uplift (upset Nick Jankowski of Lane 2-1)
152: Jamal Carter, Uplift (beat Mather's Tarik Estrada 3-0)
215: Marcus Sander, Uplift
112: Ronzel Darling, Bowen (3rd straight CPS title)
189: Rashid Treadway, Gage Park
285: Chris Ballard, Gage Park
103: Alberto Dominguez, Kelly
145: Angelo Hernandez, Kelly (undefeated season reocrd of 17-0)
130: Nikko Liottta, Mather (the senior has only one loss this year)
135: Kentral Fields, Austin
140: Francisco Lozano, Taft

First Round CPS Boys Basketball Pairings

Harlan barely survived in the Red-South, the toughest conference in the state (Simeon, Morgan Park, Brooks, etc). But their 3 conference wins was enough to keep them out of the last two spots in conference and thus they will stay in the Red-South next year. Harlan is one of my favorites to win the Consolation Division.

playoff pairings start Wed, February 2, 2011; all games start at 4:00pm

First Round Championship Division (Neilski's picks in Bold)
Wells @ Simeon
Morgan Park @ Taft
Robeson @ Foreman
Von Steuben @ Mather
Corliss @ Crane
Hope @ King
Prosser @ Young
Lindblom @ Lincoln Park
Collins @ Farragut
DuSable @ Carver
Steinmetz @ Bogan
North Lawndale @ Brooks
Lane @ Hyde Park
Vocational @ Marshall
Orr @ Harper
Kenwood @ Curie

Consolation Division (starts Feb 1)(Neilski's picks in Bold)

ACE Tech @ Manley
Dyett @ Calumet
Little Village @ Hubbard
Roosevelt @ Austin
Perspectives @ Al Raby
Phillips @ Payton
Ag Science @ Gage Park
Chicago Academy @ Dunbar
Jones @ Senn
Lake View @ Clark
Fenger @ Urban Prep
Clemente @ Richards
North Grand @ Uplift
Bowen @ Julian
Westinghouse @ Schurz
Juarez @ Harlan

Neilski's CPS Pre-Season Class AA Indoor Track Rankings

Cameren Franklin (sr) and Robeson go into this season with high expectations. It helps when all 4 legs of your all-state 4x400 meter relay team return.

1. Kenwood- Great balance of distance and field events. Omar Tall and Joseph Laseter will be a threat in any event 800 and up. Phillip Martin is one of the city's top shot putters. Some new sprinters will have to emerge.

2. Robeson - The relay school has a lot of senior talent this year. They return all 4 members from the 3rd place in the state 4x400 relay team. The Pipkin brother Duwane and Juwane are best known. But Robeson is much more than the Pipkin brothers. Look out for Cameren Franklin (sr), Alexander Jones (sr), and rising sophomore sprinter Devon Sanders (so).

3. Kelvyn Park - KP is top heavy in talent. They return all-state sprinter Brian Carter (jr) and state qualifiers Jamal McNeely (so) and Victor Medina (sr). Those 3 alone will score lots of points for Kevlyn Park. The only question is do they have anyone else after their big 3? Indoor season has less events than outdoor, so that will benefit Kelvyn Park.

4. Morgan Park? - That's right Morgan Park is in class AA this year. The only question is how will Morgan Park look like after the Spurlock era? Who will be the new coach. The talent is there at Morgan Park. The good news is that they will have until the end of the Outdoor season to put it all together. The first goal is to hire a new coach. By the end of the season Morgan Park could be ranked as high as #1 or as low as completely unranked.

5. Westinghouse - I got a feeling that by the end of the indoor season, Westinghouse will be ranked a lot higher than 5th. The Warriors are entering only their 3rd season in existence after re-opening 2 years ago. Last year, their freshman team opened my eyes with a 2nd place finish at the freshman city championship beating out freshman teams from traditional track powers Morgan Park, Mather, and Whitney Young. Those freshman are now hungry sophomores. Key will be how much the coaching staff developed those talented freshman.

6. Brooks - The man to look out for is Daniel Medrano (so). He ran a 2:08 in the 800 last year in winning the event at the 2010 freshman city track championship. Also look out for Byron Kelly (so) and Ahmad Bradshaw(so).

Others

Calumet Perspectives
Jones
Lake View
Payton
Roosevelt
South Shore

Class AA Outlook

It's always challenging and risky to do pre-season rankings. In a few weeks I'm either going to look like a genius or a dummy.

I have Westinghouse, Kelvyn Park and Brooks rated higher than Lake View, Jones, and Roosevelt. This is due to a combination of gut feel and my bias for sprint heavy teams. See at the freshman city championship last year, the showings by Brooks and Westinghouse left an indelible impression on me. They did so well, that I felt that those two teams are programs on the rise.

Jones, Lake View, and Roosevelt will rely on their distance talent to suceed this year. All three of those schools return all-state caliber runners. Oscar Medina (sr) of Lake View, Jamison Dale (so) of Jones, and Jeffrey Rector(jr) of Roosevelt are all city championship individual contenders and are pre-season all-state contenders.

Class AA has a lot of interesting questions that will be unraveled as the season progresses. Who will be the next Morgan Park coach? Does Kelvyn Park have anyone after their big 3 of Carter, McNeely, and Medina? How good can the Jones crew be after a uber-successful cross country season?

Surprise College Choices

Simeon's Bryant Picks University of Michigan, D. Reed and D. Scott both pick Eastern Michigan University

Darius Scott (sr- left) and Demetrius Reed (sr- right) sprung a surprise when both decided to go to Eastern Michigan University. Reed turned down an offer from the Indiana University.

Christian Bryant (sr-OL) the top Offensive Lineman in the state of Illinois picked the University of Michigan over Arizona, Illinois, Pittsburgh, and others. Bryant picked Michigan even though Michigan just fired former head coach rich Rodriguez an dhas a new coach. Bryant stated he liked the tradition at Michigan.

Simeon had an event where their football players made college choice announcement. Here are the other oral commitments: Demetrius Simpson(DE/LB) (Western Illinois), Devonta Elzy(WR) (Northwood in Michigan) and Eric Dickson(DB)(McKendree).

New This Year - CPS Indoor Track Championship will be broken into 3 divsions

Carl Young (so) of Orr shakes the hand of Robert Taylor of Hubbard after a heat of the 55 meter dash at last year's indoor city championship. Young, a sophomore finished 5th in the 55 meter dash as a freshman.

The CPS will be on Sunday, March 20, 2011. In the past, everyone ran one big meet (that took practically all day). This year, the CPS is doing something new and will break it up in three different divisions as follows:

Group A
Dunbar
Fenger
Harlan
Kenwood
Lake View
Lane Tech
Northside
Payton
Calumet Perspectives
Robeson
Simeon
Steinmetz
Whitney Young

Group B
Bogan
Brooks
Jones
Kelly
Lincoln Park
Marshall
Northlawndale
Orr
Senn
Uplift
Von Steuben
Westinghouse

Group C
everyone else

Decision Time

James Adeyanju (sr-DE) of Curie will be signing his letter of intent for University of Wisconsin on Wednesday, February 2nd at 8am at Curie high School.

The national signing day is coming up next week,  the first day that college recruits can sign a National Letter of Intent for their school of choice. The National Signing day will bring a lot of attention to college recruits. The CPS will have their share this year.

James Adeyanju (sr) of Curie's city championship football team will be signing his letter of intent Wed. Feb 2nd at 8am at Curie High School. Adeyanju is ranked as the #1 Defensive End prospect in the state of Illinois.

Simeon has many players that will sign letters of intent. However, only running back Horatio Banks (sr)has made a firm committment (Ball State). Tonight, Christian Bryant(sr), the #1 or #2 ranked (depending on publication) offensive guard prospect in Illinois is expected to make his college decision.

Orr basketball, track, and all sports suspended from state playoffs

Orr has been suspended immediately from participating in the state playoffs. This includes the top 20 state ranked Orr basketball team and the promising Orr track team. Pictured above is promising Orr sprinter Dominique Connor.

According to the IHSA:

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) confirmed on January 27 that seven member schools will be suspended immediately from State Series participation in all IHSA activities and sports due to non-compliance with By-law 2.130. By-law 2.130 states “each member school principal or his/her designee shall be in attendance at an annual principal rules meeting/town meeting.”

Schools who fail to attend an annual town hall/principal rules meeting are placed on probation and then are suspended if they fail to attend for two consecutive years.

The following schools failed to attend for two consecutive years and were suspended: Chicago (Orr), Chicago (Academy of Scholastic Achievement), Chicago (Best Practice), Chicago (Henry Ford Power House Charter), Chicago (Las Casas), Plainfield (Christ Lutheran Academy), Rockford (Our Lady of the Sacred Heart).

The IHSA annually holds town hall/principal rules meetings at 28 different high schools geographically placed throughout the state during November. All schools who failed to attend the November meetings were invited to a pair of make-up meetings that were held at the IHSA office in January.