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The Home Page of CPSfan.com and LaneTechFan.com have been hacked into by someone. Until it gets fixed, the home pages will be down. No time date yet on when it will be fixed. In the meantime, this blog is still up and running as usual.

Homecoming Spoiler

Lane Tech 36 Whitney Young 24


Drew Williams(5-10, 160lbs) of Lane Tech finds some space during a kick return.

This was a good game for both teams. At the end, Lane came up with a couple of 2nd half 4th down conversions that proved to be the difference.

Whitney Young started out blazing as they jumped to an early 13-0 lead with barely 3 minutes off the clock. In their very first play of the game after the opening kick touchback, Whitney Young got an 80 yard touchdown run on what looked like a botched play to take a 6-0 lead. Lane then promptly gave the ball back to Whitney Young after fumbling the ball on their first play of the game. Whitney Young took over on the Lane 35. A few plays later QB Casey Ford threw a 7 yard touchdown to give Whitney Young a 13-0 lead.

Their lead did not last long as Lane took advantage of two Whitney Young turnovers, the first on a botched snap and the second on an interception. Lane scored two quick touchdowns of their own. 7 minutes into the game it was tied 13-13.

Whitney Young missed a field goal attempt as time expired in the first half. The score was 27-20 with Lane up at the half.

One of the key posessions of the game came in Lane's first possession of the 2nd half. They drove the ball 80 yards and took off 7 minutes of the game to give Lane a 2 score lead. The key play of that drive came on a 4th and 10 when QB Jack McLaughlin(sr) connected with Lane receiver Antonio Abreu(sr) with an 11 yard play. A few plays later McLaughlin scored on a QB sneak.

But Whitney Young was not done Casey Ford scored on a 15 yard run to put Whitney Young within 8 (36-24).

With a few minutes left in the game, Lane faced a 4th down and 3 on Whitney Young's 35. Lane made a gutsy call and decided to go for it. Lane gained 4 yards on Elijah Ewarawon(5-8, 200lbs, sr, RB/LB) run. Lane then ran out the clock to preserve the win and ruining Whitney's homecoming.

Minus the turnovers, I thought both teams played well in front of a big Whitney Young Homecoming crowd.

more coming soon...

Walleye Fishing

I'll be in a secret spot in upper Minnesota for a week of fishing, camping, boating, and fun before the summer ends. I will not have access to Internet (intentionally). From now until I get back August 14, I'll still have one new post a day. However, I will not be monitoring the ever so popular comments. So from now until then it's a free for all.

Ki-jana Evans of Harlan Becomes 350th CPSfan.com FaceBook Fan

This site keeps getting more popular. Big lineman Ki-Jana Evans of Harlan has become the 350th fan of CPSfan.com. (fb photo).

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Free Speech

I admit, half of the comments on this site are way off base, crazy, juevnile, offensive, debateable, or stupid. At the same time, the other half are informative, great, insightful, or revealing.  Half the comments are disgusting the other half are inspiring. Either way, I learn more. One thing I know it is always real and there is always good debate or humor. That is why I love this site and the direction it is going.

Apparently, lots of peope agree with me. When I first started this blog, it was just me telling the Internet world how I felt about high school sports. For about the first year, I was lucky if 2 or 3 people commented on a post. In fact,the first two weeks of writing posts (10 posts total) in June 2007, I had a grand total of 1 comment.

Now you guys are going gangbusters with your comments. I can't keep up with all the comments because there are so many of them. The Standing Ovation in a Loss post has over 71 comments as of this writing. This site had a 27% increase in page views for the month of October over the same month last year.

I think one of the biggest reasons people like this site is because for the most part anything goes on the comments. People have critisized me for this, but I rarely edit or delete comments. This allows people to freely express themselves without fear of retribution. Good, bad, or ugly (and in some cases really ugly) - almost all comments stay and I allow readers anonymity.

At the same time, I know some people hate this site because of my hands off, limtied rules approach. See, unlike other places (school classrooms, other sites, traditional lamestream media), I encourage people to say what they want and rarely censor what they say- even if I don't agree with half the stuff.

This website represents the freedom of speech as given to us by the First Amendment. Some want to take that freedom of speech away from you. It is because they want control. They want control of the narrative and control of lives. But I promise to everyone that as long as I am running this website, I will always fight for that right.

If you like this site, please comment, Join us On FaceBook (we have over 312 fans, my goal is 1,000) and check out our school store.

If you hate this site, you are welcome to leave, form your own blog,  or better yet leave a comment. It's your first amendment right.

300th Fan

Darrius Frazier, Kenwood grad becomes landmark 300th CPSFan.com Facebook fan

Darrius Frazier, from Kenwood's class of 1999, and Eastern Illinois University

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200th fan
100th fan
CPSFan.com school store page

5th Anniversary

 
We are approaching the 5th anniversary of this site. On August 26, 2006, I launched LaneTechFan.com. I started writing exclusively about my alma mater. But I soon found out that when writing about Lane you gotta talk about other schools. So on July 11, 2009, I launched CPSFan.com. Since then, it has been quite a ride.

I've averaged over 1 page post a day (sometime 3 or more during the season), meanwhile attracting more and more fans. I'd like to thank all of the fans of this blog, the number one high school sports blog writing exclusively about Chicago Public League sports. Every year, the readership grows and grows.

My love for high school sports began when I was in high school. To me there was nothing more exciting than putting on that uniform and representing your team. I grew up as a Cubs and Bears fan, but I soon switched to wanting to become the best high school sports fan, because unlike professional sports, I was an active participant and the players and coaches were accessible. I can say that I wore a Lane uniform. I could never say I wore a Bears uniform, nor do I personally know any Cubs or Bears players.

One thing, I will always maintain is my limited (very limited) edits of the highly successful comments. I know it gets heated sometimes, but that is what makes the comments real. It is the true voice of fans. Like it or hate it, it's real - and I always encourage everyone to be who they are.

There is something about the passion and closteness to players that high school sports brings that is unmatched and unique from professional sports.

To help celebrate the 5th anniversay of this site I am going to give away an Amazon gift card to one random person that is or becomes a FaceBook fan of this site:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CPSfancom/187719961130

and that sends me an email at Publisher@LaneTechFan.com by August 26, 2011.

- Neil "Neilski" Hernandez
Publisher

 

This Blog is now on NorthsiderSports.com

CPSFan.com has teamed up with NorthsiderSports.com. This blog's feed will now be on their site.

As for content and user experience, it all stays the same. Go to the same web address:

http://neilski.typepad.com/wwwlanetechfancom_blog/

for your top source for CPS football, track, and cross country (and some other sports once in a while).

Record Month

Thank you to all the fans of this blog. In the month of October 2010, the CPSfan.com blog recorded a record month for page views. The previous record of page views was in the month of September 2010. I am pleased to announce that October 2010 eclipsed the previous high month of Septemnber 2010 by over 28.4%!