Chicago Public League Sports Blog

North Carolina State Offers Cooper, Bailey

After leading Northern Illinois to its first ever BCS bowl game (where they will play Florida State), their coach Dave Doeren decided to take on the head football coaching job at North Carolina State.

Doeren, in one of his first moves as the new NC State coach, decided to make offers to a couple of CPS players. Doeren offered Khairi Bailey(6-3,240lbs, DE, sr) of Julian and Demetrius Cooper(6-5,225lbs, sr, DE) of Julian. Cooper already has offers from Iowa State, Purdue, Notre Dame, among others.

Demetrius Cooper of Julian Picks Michigan State

Demetrius Cooper(6-5,225lbs, sr, DE) of Julian orally comitted to the Michigan State Spartans of the Big 10.

Denzel Ward transfers from Julian to King College Prep

King College Prep has been boosted by the transfer of talented Denzel Ward.

I am hearing reports that Denzel Ward(sr, 6-9,285lbs, jr, OL) has transferred from Julian to King College Prep. The highly touted football player is emerging as one of the top college prospects from the CPS for the junior (class of 2014) class.

Scouts love the combination of athleticism and size (6-9, 285 lbs). He's been busy at camps this summer including his latest camp at Ohio State University last Friday.

King College Prep get's an immediate boost with the addition of Ward. As long as he stays at King, King will have Ward's services for 2 years as Ward is only a junior.

King is coming off a pretty good season which they finished 9-3 including wins over Julian, Brooks, Ridgewood, and conference champion Fenger. King played well in a first round state playoff lost to Sycamore- losing only 36-29.

Update: Just got word that Denzel Ward has officially transferred to Hales. He will play for Hales starting Fall 2012

 

Denzel Ward of Julian Picks up an Offer from Purdue

(DW photo)
Denzel Ward(sr, 6-9,285lbs, jr, OL) of Julian has picked up an offer from Purdue of the Big Ten. Colleges love his size at 285lbs and at 6-9, he is very tall even compared to other lineman. Ward is only a junior. He's been really busy in off season camps at Ohio State and Wisconsin among others. His results have been impressive as Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and USC have expressed interest.

Ward, at 6-9 also plays on the Julian basketball team, although there is some talk he may not suit up for basketball this winter to focus on football.

Ward is part of a Julian team that is looking better as the season is about to begin. The Julian Jaguars have already been boosted by the additions due to transfers of Division I college prospects Khairi Bailey and Demetrius Cooper.

CPS College Recruiting Page

Michigan State offers Demetrius Cooper of Julian

After attending a camp at Michigan State, Demetrius Cooper felt good. Michigan State coaches were impressed as well as they made an offer to Cooper. Cooper a 6-5, 225lb physical specimen has bulked up and really worked hard during the offseason whil also deciding to transfer from Morgan Park to Julian.

His work has paid off as he now has offers from Ball State, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan, and now Michigan State from the Big Ten. Other schools may follow as Minnesota, Notre Dame, and Purdue have expressed interest.

Demetrius Cooper of Morgan Park transfers to Julian- Picks up 2 offers

Demetrius Cooper(6-5, 225lb, junior, DE) has transfered to Julian from Morgan Park.

I've personally seen Cooper play. Cooper is a speed rusher on the defensive side of the football. Colleges love his height and frame at 6-5, 225lbs. He's got that big frame to build on in college. Add his natural speed and you got the makings of player.

Cooper has performed well at recent off season football events. At the 5 Star Central Showcase he was named the Defensive Line MVP. As a result of good performances colleges have begun to notice.  So far Northern Illinois and Western Michigan have made him offers.

There seems to be trend of players transferring to schools like Julian and CVS. Hard to keep up on all of these transfers.

 

Julian, Morgan Park to have boys track teams

After some speculation that Julian and Morgan Park may or may not even have a boys track team this year, I just got official word that both schools will be having track teams.

"Julian will be forming a boys track team this year...the coach will be Jason Richardson"

-According to a CPS sports official.

Jason Richardson was the head boys track coach at Morgan Park last year. Last fall he left Morgan Park to coach the football team. With his track coaching experience, I hoped that Julian would form a track team. Richardson will have a great opportunity to build a program at Julian. In the past Julian has been one of those school which has potential. It's located in the East Beverly neighborhood of Chicago by 103rd Street. It has a decent size enrollment of about 1250 students. It can put together decent football and basketball teams but for some reason, the Jaguars have never been able to put a boys track team of any kind of respectfulness together. I am not expecting the world out of Julian the first year because it takes time to build a program. However, I'd love to see some of their athletes from other teams go out for track. I'd like to see all city hurdler Dae Shaun Hurley(sr)- a transfer from Morgan Park put on his track spikes again. I'd love to see Ladelle Fleming(sr),  a NIU football signee and city wrestling champ go out for track. We'll see what happens.

I also heard that Morgan Park is actively recruiting athletes from it's hall ways to go join track this year. Morgan Park has a promising returning runner in Stedman Foster(sr). Foster, is not exactly an unknown since he is a returning all-city 400 meter runner. However, he lit is up during a couple off season club track meets, running a 51.35 in the 400 and a 2:01.51 in the 800. Those are great indoor times.

Learn to hurdle then score

CPS High Hurdles Preview

Dae Shawn Hurley is shown here after the first hurdle in last year's 110 meter high hurdles finals in the CPS meet.

Non-seniors in last year's 110m high hurdles prelims at the city meet

110m Hurdles - 39" - Varsity - Prelims
4	Dae'Shawn Hurley	15.48a	MoPa	11
9	Imani Payton	16.71a	NLaw	9
10	Javon Brown	16.73a	OrCo	11
11	Dareil Crowder	17.46a	MoPa	11
12	Quincie Johnson	19.33a	DuSa	9
13	Antonio Smith	19.60a	AgSc	9

Boys track is one of the more popular (and good) CPS sports. But for some reason hurdles never get's the participation that it could. Maybe because all the sprinters want to be 100 meter runners, all the basketball players go for the jumps, the big football players want to do the shot put or discus, and all the cross country guys want to do distance. Thus, hurdling is an event that is often overlooked.

This dynamic creates a situation like last year where only 15 hurdlers posted times in the CPS prelims for the 110m hurdles. And 6 out of those 15 hurdlers came from either Mather, North Lawndale, or Morgan Park. Furthermore, 9 of those 15 hurdlers were seniors last year including 7 out of the 8 who made the finals. The one all city returnee is Dae Shawn Hurley(sr), who ran for Morgan Park last year, but transferred to Julian this year. It is not even certain he will run track this year because Julian may not even have a track team and Hurley may decide to concentrate on football. Hurley accepted an offer to play football for Ball State.

This means the high hurdles is completely open this year.

One person that will surely be in the mix is Imani Payton(so) of North Lawndale. The uber talented sophomore has the slim and muscular build of a hurdler, but could also do every sprint event. He fell only place short of making the finals last year at the varsity level.

Other 110m hurdlers participants last year who return are Javon Brown(sr) of Orr, Dariel Crowder(sr) of Morgan Park, Quincie Johnson(so)of Dusable, and Antonio Smith(so)of Agriculture Science. Brown and Crowder  are proven veterans and will be a force this year if they decide to run hurdles again. Smith is a project who won the group C 55 meter title at CPS Indoors last year.

Expect defending city champion Lane Tech to have two strong participants. One of them will likely be much improved senior Michael Sliwiak(sr). Through lots of hard work and good coaching he has steadily improved his form. He was expected to make the finals last year but DQ'd in prelims.

Also expect city runner up Calumet, Whitney Young, and Mather to develop a couple hurdlers to try to get oh so valuable city meet points.

There is also an influx of hurdling talent that ran at the frosh-soph level in the city meet. Look out for Craig Henry(jr) of Brooks, Lucien Fitzpatrick(so) of Northside, Breon Bland(jr) of Steinmetz, tall Justin Feulner(jr) of Lake View, Ezekiel Givens(so) of Mather and Lester Harris(jr) of Payton.

Hurley Commits to Ball State

I am hearing reports that Dae Shaun Hurley(sr, QB, 6-1, 180lbs) of Julian has committed to play football for Ball State. However, at the same time I am hearing reports that the commitment is not solid due to late recruiting interest from other Division 1 schools. Northern Illinois is the only other school with a confirmed offer and Illinois and West Virginia have interest in Hurley.

Hurley played quarterback for Julian this year after transferring from Morgan Park. He played in only 6 games due to a question on his eligibility. But it was a very productive 6 games as he threw for over 1700 yards and ran for over 700 yards.

Ball State is looking at playing him at safety.

Julian Track Should Get Back on Track!

The last great Julian track runner was Willard Lewis (above). This guy was a stud and he was not even a sprinter. In 2007, Lewis was an all-state track runner, running a 1:56.78 in the 800 meter at the state meet for class 2A (back then there were only 2 classes). The last time, I spoke with Lewis, he told me he was disappointed that Julian did not really have much of a track program, but he did the best for wha the could do running practically by himself during practice.

However, ever since Lewis graduated, Julian track has fallen off a cliff-if it exists at all. The last recorded track result for Julian on the CPS Track and Field Results page was an indoor meet in 2008.

If that is correct, then that means Julian has not had a track team in 3 YEARS! To me there is NO excuse for that. No offense to listing these schools but even Austin , CICS-Longwood, Clemente, Agriculture Science, and more have put up track teams.

There is too much talent walking around the halls at Julian not to have a track team. I have not talked to anybody at Julian nor do I have any inside information. But to me, it seems like the ingredients are there to start track again at track.

Julian has Morgan Park transfer Dae Shaun Hurley(sr-above), who is a state caliber athlete in football and was all-city at the varsity level in the 110 hurdles his sophomore year for Morgan Park.

Julian also has football coach Jason Richardson. Richardson coached the Morgan Park track team for a little while last year.

I would also love to see what all-city football athletes Ladell Fleming and DeMarlon Morris could do on the track.

Like I said earlier, I have no inside information, but I think a lot of fans would love to see what Julian could do in track.