Chicago Public League Sports Blog

5 CPS High Schools to Start Year Round Classes

Morgan Park, Robeson, Corliss, Tilden, and Gage Park are the 5 CPS High Schools that will be starting year round classes starting this Monday.

You heard that right, YEAR ROUND. No more 3 month summer breaks. Instead it will be only 2 months in the summer, 2 weeks in September, an additional week in December, and an extra week during spring break.

Proponents say this will alleviate learning losses in the summer and give students who are going to take tests like the ACT extra or at least early preparation time.

Personally, I feel it is worth a shot. Anything to improve education in the CPS without incurring extra costs is worth doing. I'm also for it as long as the Morgan Park, Robeson and the other school's communities called for it and it was a local decision. I am for making decisions at the smallest level possible. I'm not sure too many people like the idea of a big far away government making decisions for you.

From a sports perspective, I think it will help Morgan Park and Robeson. Official practice starts August 11th for the fall 2010 season. The schools start on August 9th. This will give the teams a head start over other CPS schools to recruit players for the football team.

CPS City Championships Since 2002

Mather boys cross country city varsity championship team Fall 2007

CPS City Championships Since 2002

Lane Slays Evanston in OT

Katie Lamb(sr)  of Lane Tech

Lane rolled over it's CPS girls soccer opponents the entire year giving up only two goals the whole year en route to the city championship. Undoubtedly a great accomplishment. But winning against good suburban things is another story.

Lane built even greater respect as it upset the mighty Evanston Township High School Wildkits in 3-2 in the 2nd OT of the Evanston Regional final.

Liceth Robles scored 2 goals for Lane in regulation. Freshman Jasim Carerra scored the winning goal at the 4:08 mark of the 2nd OT.

This is a monumental victory for Lane and the CPS. I'm sure many girls soccer fans woke up this morning saying WTF is that mis-print? Mis-print it is not as Lane wins.

Lane faces an even bigger giant next. Lane and number one ranked New Trier face off this Tuesday, 4:30pm at Maine South.

Last CPS Individual Boys State Champions

Max Schneider's recent individual wrestling championship, got me thinking what the last individual state championships for every boys sport or activity with individual champions.

Golf
1920 - Raymond Duggan, Bowen

Cross Country
1950 - Steve Murphy, Calumet

Chess
2010 - Zak Lukasz, Lane Tech, 4th board
2010 - Michael Auger, Whitney Young, 1st board
2010 - Lorenzo Cox, Marshall, 8th board

Wrestling
2010 - Max Schneider, Lane Tech, 145lbs

Bowling
(none - the CPS has never had a state champion in boys bowling, the IHSA first state meet was in 2003)
(the highest CPS finisher was Willie Jubiter of Morgan Park who finished 3rd in 2006)

Swimming and Diving
1981 - Arthur Hill, CVS, diving

Tennis
2007 - Evan King, Payton, 2007

Track
2009 - Jonathon Gardner, Whitney Young, triple jump

Serious Budget Cuts Forecoming in the CPS

The CPS has an $800 million budget. The state owes the district over $200 million. Faced with money problems like this something is bound to suffer.

The first items they are thinking of chopping completely or reducing is after school programs, early education, charter schools, after school programs, and get this sports.

I saw this coming. In previous posts, I talked about questionable CPS spending like social change programs, politics, free breakfast, and social justice. These programs are not free, they come at cost. This type of spending is unsustainable and eventually something would have to give. Now, unfortunately, it looks like the things that will give are going to be after school programs and sports. Mark my word, the CPS with their convoluted thinking will cut sports and after school programs way before they will consider cutting their own salaries, cutting these new community organizing schools like the new Chicago Talent Development High School, getting rid of questionable unionized service workers for their free breakfast program, or halting pay raises to unions.

Unfortunately, this is the agenda of the CPS. They would rather cut after school programs than cut union salaries and their own pay raises.

Monica by a Pinkie

Monica Pinkus (sr) of Northside Prep wins the CPSfan.com, female player of the year.

Final votes are in. Monica Pinkus, senior from Northside Prep has been awarded the female Player of the Year Award.

Here are just some comments from fans:

"MONICA!!!!!"

"Pinkus is ranked nationally and her time of 1:05.62 in the 100 Breaststroke would have won several state titles in the past 30 years. Her time also just missed qualifying for junior nationals."

"It's all about breaking barriers.Swimming is king in the North Shore (Lake Forest, Highland Park, Evanston, New Trier, etc), Northwest suburbs (Barrington, Stevenson, etc), and posh western suburbs (Hinsdales, Napervilles, etc).When someone form out of those areas even get close to a state medal, it is news.

In the case of Pinkus, she medaled in one even t and came close to another.She did something (medal), that only one other girl in the whole history of girls swimming has done form the CPS has done. For that alone she deserves some credit."

"7th place at state is pretty badass in my opinion for a cps athlete in whatever the sport may be."

Monica Pinkus all the way!!! She is one of the most committed, free spirited, and inspiring athletes I've ever come across. She definitely deserves this title! - Pink fan

....you cannot deny the intensity of the sport or the accomplishments of Ms. Pinkus. For a CPS athlete, it is extremely hard to qualify for state PRELIMINARIES in swimming, something Ms. Pinkus has done two years in a row. Not only did she qualify for preliminaries twice, she participated in the FINALS and swam the fourth fastest time in the state, but due to the IHSA rules, received 7th. This is a huge accomplishment for a CPS athlete, and it really put CPS on the radar for IHSA women's swimming.- BE NICE

In addition to her 7th place finish (and 4th fastest time) at the state meet this year, she placed 13th last year. Monica also won the city championship in the 100 breast for the past 3 years, placing second her freshman year to a senior teammate. She has won the city championship in the 50 freestyle multiple times, and has been part of numerous championship and record setting relays in CPS swimming. - seriously

Monica Pinkus became only the second CPS girls to medal in the girls state swimming meet.

New Trier 12 - Lane Tech 2

New Trier Post #1 and #2


#3 and  #4, #5

New Trier 12 - Lane Tech 2. That is not a football, soccer, or any other sports score. Instead that is the number of field goal posts that New Trier has on its campus compared to the 2 field goal posts that Lane Tech has access to at Lane stadium.

Lane Tech and New Trier have a lot of similarities. Both are ancient schools - Lane Tech is 100 years old and New Trier is about 106 years old. Both have high academic standards - Lane Tech and New Trier regularly are top 20 ranked public academic schools in the state of Illinois. Both schools have large enrollments - Lane Tech and New Trier have enrollments of around 4,000 students.

But that is where the similarities stop. New Trier, funded primarily by the property taxes of the posh North Shore communities of Winnetka, Kenilworth, Wilmete, Northfield, and Glencoe - put a primary focus on education and facilities for the kids communities.  Meanwhile, Lane Tech is funded by the highly beurecratic Chicago Public Schools (CPS).  The CPS has a gigantic challenge of running a large school system through a centralized CPS system.

I'm not really sure what happened over the past 100 years of the school's history, but somehow over the years the Chicago area has come up with a large gulf in the differences between schools like New Trier and Lane Tech. We have now come up with situations where some schools like New Trier has all the advantages - like the 12 field goal posts compared to the 2 field goal; New Trier has at least 8 soccer fields compared to zero for Lane Tech; New Trier has at least 16 tennis courts compared to zero for Lane Tech; New Trier has 2 tracks compared to one for Lane Tech; New Trier even has two field hockey fields to you guessed it zero for Lane Tech

The sources of the problem are many - and are beyond the scope of this article. But the challenge of fixing it are monumental. You see, the currrent CPS administration - no matter how good they are have the unenviable task of fixing a system (the CPS) - that was in deep trouble to begin with.

Lane Tech and New Trier play each other this Friday in an IHSA first round football game. At the end of the game you'll probably see a score of something like New Trier 44- Lane Tech 7. Some will say, New Trier whooped Lane Tech on that day. But I say, New Trier did not win because of the play on the field - a big part of the win came way before that. New Trier won when someone in the New Trier leadership decided a long time ago that it was better for the community to create 12 field goal posts.

New Trier field goal post #6


#7


#9


#10


#11


#12....Why the heck does New Trier have or even need 12 football field goal post? The bigger question is Why does a similar size school like Lane Tech only have 2?

List of Public League Varsity Championships Since 2002 Page Updated

2006 Boys Soccer City Championship Farragut team.

The Public League Championship winners have been updated and posted on the Sports History Page.

Result of first complete track meet in new Lane Stadium track

On April 12, 2008 Kenwood Academy hosted the Ed Key Invitational at the new Lane Stadium track. This boys and girls track meet marks the first time a complete track and field meet was held on the new Lane Stadium track. The first meet at the new track was on March 2008, but due to teh weather the meet was cancelled after just a few events.

It's ironinc that Lane did not host the first meet, but we are glad that another Public League School was able to run a meet at Lane Stadium. Hopefully, the new all weather track at Lane is just the beginning of much more needed facilities not only at Lane but throughout the Public League.

Here are the boys results: Leo (124 points), Northside College Prep (106 points) Fenger (72.5), Hubbard (67), IMSA (59.50), Kenwood (54), Urban Prep (46), Dunbar (33), Marshall (25), Clark (18.50), Corliss (15), Hope (13), Little Village (9), Austin (8), Chicago Academy (4), and Crane (3).

Letter from George Tyms ('1968): Lane Tech state shot put champion

As I approach the 40th anniversary of my state shot put title in 1968 I was browsing Lane's track web site which triggered many flashbacks.  Here's some insight you might find useful for your data base.

Competing for the late coach Len Jareczek, I won the state title on a cold rainy day with a throw of 57-6 1/4.  About 2 weeks later, I set a city of record of 61-1, which eclipsed the old mark by over 5 feet and stood for 23 years.  I continued on at Northern Illinois University where my Lane teammate Rick Bilder ('69), who was 3rd in state and had a best of about 59-6, joined me the following year.  Together we dominated shot putting in the Midwest for a number of years. During 1972 we both topped the 60-foot barrier for the first time making NIU one of only three colleges in America with two 60-foot throwers. Although I qualified for 6 NCAA championship meets (placed 7th in 1970 indoors) it was Rick who finally broke through in 1973 and won NIU's first NCAA medal in track.   

For the remainder of the '70s we both continued our athletic careers for the powerful University of Chicago Track Club and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1972, 1976, and 1980, where Rick was a finalist.  During those years we each won medals at national championship meets. In 1976 I was a member of the U.S. national team for the USA vs. USSR indoor meet in Leningrad.  At career's end it was fitting that after being teammates for most of 12 years we were separated by only 1 3/4 inches as Rick's best effort was 65-3 and mine was 65-1 1/4.

In 2000 we were inducted together into the NIU Hall of Fame and coach Len Jareczek served as our presenter.(Furthermore, the MC that night was NIU radio announcer Bill Baker, also a Lane Tech grad!).

Sadly, "Big Rick" passed away suddenly in 2001 at age 50 and "Coach" passed away just a few months ago.  It was a great run and I'll never forget those days that all began in Gym 3 one December day in 1964.

George Tyms ('68)