Chicago Public League Sports Blog

Week 8 Thursday- Schedule/Line

Sullivan vs Austin.  No matter what happens this is a successful season already for Sullivan. Last year, Sullivan was playing in the Inter-City conference. This year, they are 5-1 including a 3-1 record in the Chicago Conference. This game versus undefeated Austin will likely be for the conference title. The winners gets invited to move to the Illini conference next year. It will be a tall task for Sullivan as Austin has an extremely physical team.

One of the Austin athletes to look out for is junior Christopher Thompson(5-8,175lbs, jr). He benched pressed 155lbs 36 times at the Schuman's National Underclass combine last spring. He plays both ways for the Austin Tigers.

THURSDAY, OCT. 11

CHICAGO BIG SHOULDERS
Amundsen vs. Taft, 7:15 at Lane - Taft by 14
Lincoln Park vs. Prosser, 4:15 at Hanson- Lincoln Park by 20

CHICAGO ILLINI LAND OF LINCOLN
Harlan vs. King, 4:15 at Gately- King by 6

CHICAGO ILLINI PRAIRIE STATE
Hubbard vs. Morgan Park, 7:15 at Gately- Morgan Park by 28
Orr vs. Robeson, 4:15 at Stagg- Robeson by 21

CHICAGO INTER-CITY 1
Marine vs. Kelvyn Park, 7:15 at Hanson-Toss up

CHICAGO INTER-CITY 2
Bronzeville vs. Hirsch, 4:15 at Eckersall-Bronzeville by 16

CHICAGO SECOND CITY
Austin vs. Sullivan, 4:15 at Winnemac- Austin by 10
Lake View vs. Manley, 4:15 at Rockne-Lake View by 20

NONCONFERENCE
Juarez vs. Phoenix, 4:15 at Lane-Toss up

Small is the New Big

The Sullivan Tigers are just one of many up and coming small school football programs in the CPS.

A lot of people talk about the big enrollment football programs in the CPS such as Simeon, Curie, and Lane Tech.

But I feel the future of football in the CPS will come from the smaller schools.

A small school has some advantages that big schools do not have. A smaller school is more tight knit. The players are more likely to share classes with each other, eat lunch together, and hand out together just because the school is so small. Everyone knows each other. This also helps the coaching staff. The coaching staff has less people to manage and can give more individualized attention.

The best example of this is Jones College Prep cross country and track programs. The school enrollment is only about 800 kids. With a school that size, everyone knows each other. Even the freshman know who the seniors are and seniors know sophomores and juniors. Where as at Lane with an enrollment of over 4,200 it's impossible to know half the people even in your own class.

With the trend in the CPS to open up more smaller schools (e.g. Bulls, UIC, etc), I feel that one of these years a New Norm  coach will do their football program what Jones College Prep is doing to their cross country and track program.

Some small school Chicago conference football teams played well in close state playoff losses last year. Marshall - enrollment 806 last only 10-6 to Evergreen Park, Urban Prep - classification enrollment of 1042 lost only 43-41 to Rochelle.

Can this be the year that a small school CPS school breaks out? Where will it come from? Sullivan, Marshall, Urban Prep, Westinghouse, Phillips, Brooks, Collins, Harper. There's hope.

Week 7 Thursday - Scores

Sullivan(in white) and QB Joel Lahua(#1) did just enough to upend Kelvyn Park 27-20 to keep its conference title hopes alive with one conference game to go. Kelvyn Park had its chances, but they could not capitalize. Mistakes was also costly for Kelvyn Park. In the first offensive play of the game KP fumbled the ball from the wild cat formation. They also missed a 31 yard field goal, ran out of time to end the half with the ball on the Sullivan 15, and in the third quarter they fumbled the ball on their own 4 yard line.

updated 10:19pm

CHICAGO BIG SHOULDERS
Taft 20 Lincoln Park 6

CHICAGO GREAT LAKES
Payton 2 Phoenix 0- forfeit

CHICAGO SECOND CITY
Dusable 8 Kenwood 6

CHICAGO WINDY CITY
Marshall 66 Gage Park 6

ILLINI LAND OF LINCOLN
Julian 48 Harlan 6

ILLINI PRAIRIE STATE
Hubbard 27 Robeson 14

ILLINI RED BIRD
Simeon 41 CVS 0

PUBLIC INTER-CITY 1
Lake View 22 Roosevelt 20
Sullivan 27 Kelvyn Park 20

PUBLIC INTER-CITY 4
Juarez 33 Muchin 0

 

Week 4 Thursday- Results

Jeffrey Bates went from being the head boys varsity basketball coach to the football coach at Prosser. I thought that would lead to a bit of a drop off in Prosser football. Instead the opposite has happened as Prosser is playing better. They upset Schurz last week in conference play and played pre-season conference favorite Foreman today to the brink before falling 25-18 in overtime.....

updated 6:11am

CHICAGO BIG SHOULDERS
Foreman 25 Prosser 18 (OT)
Lincoln Park 36 Schurz 28

CHICAGO WINDY CITY
Hyde Park 24 Manley 0

ILLINI RED BIRD
Dunbar 36 CVS 24

PUBLIC INTER-CITY 1
Sullivan 34 Lake View 20

PUBLIC INTER-CITY 2
Corliss 56 Tilden 0
North Lawndale 31 Kennedy 0
Washington 17 Hirsch 14

PUBLIC INTER-CITY 4
Urban Prep-East Garfield Park 52 Juarez 0

.....Meanwhile former Prosser football, wrestling, and track coach Vincent Rociola left Prosser two years ago to coach football at Sullivan. After a rough first year, Rociola's system is finally working as Sullivan is now undefeated at 4-0 after an upset 34-20 win over pre-season conference favorite Lake View. Word is Sullivan is now going after Kelvyn Park for the Inter-City 1 conference championship.

Sullivan Tigers - Momentum Going Into the Season


Joel Lohoua(jr, 5-7, 155lbs, QB/PK) of Sullivan carries the ball in their 34-12 homecoming win over Roosevelt last fall. Sullivan ended the season on a 3 game winning streak. (Sullivan football photo)

Fall 2010 record:  3-6

Fall 2011 Conference: Inter-City 1

Players to look out for:
Elijah Odulwya (sr,5-9, 165lbs, CB)
Ricky Smothers(sr, 5-9, 170lbs, RB/S)
Joel Lohoua(jr, 5-7, 155lbs, QB/PK)

Fall 2011 Schedule and Neilski's projected result
* conference games
Aug 27 @ Noble Street Rauner - Win
Sep 1 @ Noble Street Rowe-Clark-  Win
Sep 9 vs Urban Prep East Garfield -Win
*Sep 15 vs Lake View - Loss
*Sep 24 @ UCCS/Woodlawn - Toss Up
*Oct 1 @ Marine MIlitary - Loss
*Oct 6 @ Kelvyn Park - Loss
*Oct 14 vs Roosevelt-  Toss Up
Oct 18 vs Chicago Bulls - Win

Key game: Oct 1 vs Marine Military. This game will show how far the Sullivan program has progressed. Sullivan lost to Marine Military last year. If they can beat them this year, Sullivan will have hopes for the future.

Last year
Last year did not start out good for first year head coach Vincent Rociola. You can't really blame him as Rociola, coming from Prosser, had the toughest part of their schedule when they opened their season with games versus St. Viator, Round Lake, Marine Military, Kelvyn Park, Calumet, and conference champion Little Village.  So they started out 0-6. But they finally got some relief in their schedule and ended the season with wins over Farragut, UCCS Woodlawn, and Roosevelt - teams with 4 combined season wins.

Year 2 of the Rociola era
Year 2 of the Rociola era will feature a team that he is familiar with. Sullivan took some lumps early last year, but Rociola got a good chance to teach fundamentals and learn his players. With many of them coming back and with a busy off season including camps(NFL HSPD) and 7 on 7's(Foreman, Guerin Prep, Taft), Rociola now has a better grasp of his players.

Returning players
Sullivan returns all -conference conerback Elijah Odulwya (sr,5-9, 165lbs, CB). At the running back spot will be Ricky Smothers(sr, 5-9, 170lbs, RB/S) - who transfered from Amundesen after his sophomore year. Smothers averaged 124 yards per game and scored 8 touchdowns last year. The likely starting quarterback will be Joel Lohoua(jr, 5-7, 155lbs, QB/PK).

Schedule
The schedule is very manageable this year. Replacing giants St. Viator and Round Lake will be charter schools Rauner, Rowe-Clark, Urban Prep East Garfield, and Chicago Bulls. Sullivan should go at least 3-1 versus those schools - some of which are starting varsity football for the first time.

Tougher will be conference games. Sullivan opens conference play versus newcomer Lake View. Sullivan will be an underdog against Lake View. But you never know what will happen. Sullivan has been working really hard during the offseason. A good showing against Lake View will tell me how far Sullivan has progressed. Next two games will be against UCCS Woodlawn and Marine Military. Sullivan has an enrollment twice the size of those two schools, but both should be good games. After that Sullivan faces conference favorite Kelvyn Park and Brian Carter. I'm putting that game as an L.

With a favorable schedule, Sullivan could finish the season with 6 or maybe more wins. A good season for them is if they win the games versus all the charter schools and play competitive in the rest of the games. If they do that, then you could really say the Sullivan program is on the ascendancy.

Neilski's Pre-Season Top 20

Team Previews
Kenwood
Taft
Dunbar
Amundsen