Football: Beating The Elements

Football is a game that is made of many physical challenges.

Feats of strength executed by those on the gridiron will make a difference between a sack and a touchdown. Hands, hips and feet twist and twirl around in and effort to subdue the opposing team.

Like a car's parts underneath the hood, many pieces all work together to make sure all is running smoothly.

However, on an afternoon where the sun shined bright and temperatures reached the triple digits, the individual parts of the vehicle that is the football team could break down at any given moment.

This is where the cooling system comes into play.

In practice, each player knows the schematics of what's being run, as well as what's run against them. However, the chances of knowing what to expect on the gridiron makes the game situations tougher. All of the thought processes being bottled up within a helmet can produce a bit of wear in the mind.

Temperatures ran high during the first week of the high school football season. As the sunlight sped its way down to the Earth at 5:15 p.m. on this Friday afternoon at Sterling High School, the sophomore Braves were about to do battle with Metamora's underclassmen.

With a game-day air temperature of 98 degrees as a high, the gridirons at Fulton, Rock Falls and Sterling tied for the hottest home games in northern Illinois. Sterling felt hotter, however.

Crisp Countdown

Two years ago, the playing field at Sterling's Roscoe Eades Stadium was considered to be in bad shape due to heavy rains and extra use over the years. Through fund raising and donations, field turf was installed in time for the 2012 season. This prevented the use of needing to water down the field and cause more harm to the playing surface.

Spraying was needed once more at the newly-named Sterling Chevrolet Field. Realizing the intense conditions of the opening football game of the 2013 season, Sterling High School called upon the city's fire department to hose down the football field at 2 p.m.

Playing on field turf increases the temperature by about 10 degrees from the air temperature. Still, after the fire department did its job, the mercury read a stifling 115 degrees on the turf along the Sterling sideline at 4:15.

About a couple of hours before kickoff, Sterling senior lineman Blake Hall and his varsity friends stood at the mouth of the stadium's tunnel talking about the heat, among other things.

They had been through it before and wouldn't let it bother them later in the night.

“We've been practicing on it for a long time,” Hall said. “We should be alright.”

At the steel table on the Metamora sideline were six water cooler jugs – three on top and three underneath. Sterling had just a single cooler on its table. However, modern technology controlled the cooling process for the Sterling sideline: A three-foot-high plastic piping cube pushes out water from several holes along the top to create a multi-fountain device. This is Sterling's newest hydration technique, having come in favor of the dolly-like water bucket, which uses a motor to spit out water from several handle-like fountains. This machine has been in the Sterling arsenal for the past couple of years, after an older system had numerous battery problems.

All resources were put to use on this oven of an evening.

Sterling athletic director Greg King chatted with the group of varsity players in the tunnel; kids whom he had been in charge of in the football program until a couple of years ago. Having turned over the head coaching reigns to Jonathan Schlemmer, King's duty on this particular evening of preparing the stadium for the game becomes more abundant.

After recollecting about a hot evening in Edwardsville many years ago while serving as a Rock Island assistant coach, King called on a couple of varsity players to bring over a large fan from the school's Fieldhouse to the Sterling sideline.

Metamora's fan had already been placed on their sideline.

“One of the first things you got to do is you have to make sure your kids are smart throughout the day and get a lot of water throughout the day,” King said. “You want the kids to play, and they've worked so hard, but at the same time you want to make sure it's smart.”

King served on a committee with the IHSA to look at the heat-related changes in off-season and preseason practices. The IHSA made substantial changes to the first couple of weeks of practice this year to limit excessive heat exposure.

“Listening to the doctors from the Korey Stringer Institute, it's some pretty serious stuff,” King recalled. “You want the kids to have fun, but be safe at the same time.”

Several Metamora players went through pre-game warmups shirtless, minus the black-colored pads and the black-colored helmets.

“When we got here today, we went a little less with shoulder pads and helmets,” Metamora team doctor Timothy Kaufman said. “We emphasized a lot with water every time they come out, and lots of ice bags on their neck to keep them cool.”


Sweltering Sidelines

The increased awareness on this scorching evening also increases the concentration for Sterling athletic trainer Andi Sumerfelt.

“I have the ice baths in case of any heat illness,” Sumerfelt said. “The best way to recover is to cool their body temperature down with cold water immersion. So I make sure I have the tank ready for that. We have fans on both sides. I have Gatorade for both teams, as well as plenty of water.”

In addition to focusing on injuries and soreness to the football players, coordinating a hydration routine was a big part of Sumerfelt's afternoon. Water was not only being provided for hydration in the bodies, but also being provided for the surface of the bodies. She set up a pair of stations along the sideline where players would be soaked with water. At each station, one of her assistants would soak a large yellow sponge into a water jug and ring it out over the top of a player's head.

“It has ammonia spirits in them and it helps open the pores so they can breathe better, as well as cool them down because it's ice and water together,” Sumerfelt said.

Her other assistants, a select group of kids from Sterling's junior tackle program, were in charge of the green Gatorade bottles that were placed in the orange racks. The kids had to be alert for timeouts, stoppages in the game, and for certain players coming on from the field.

This being the season's first game, Sumerfelt taught the kids on how and when to deliver the water to the sophomore players. Eventually, one of the water boys had to be helped to the cooling station at halftime.

Breaks became few, as Sumerfelt describes such a night as having one thing happen after another before finding a break at the half.

“When it's hot like this, I always make make sure – any time of the day, whether it's practice or a game – I have an ice bath ready and ...”

Things were cut off all of a sudden when Sumerfelt received a motion from the Metamora sideline about someone with an asthma attack. As she raced across the field, a stretcher from the CGH ambulance also flew by. After a few minutes, all help needed was completed.

“The coaches made sure that they drank plenty of water throughout the day, as well as sodium,” Sumerfelt said. “It is depleted in the sweat, so they made sure they got a little extra sodium today to help prevent any cramps.”

And if there's not enough sodium, help can be found in a pickle jar.

“Pickle juice is very high in sodium,” Sumerfelt added. “We have one guy that cramps all of the time and he brings his own pickle juice and drinks it. It really helps prevent them because of the sodium that's in it.”

The water boys served not only the sophomore players, but also to the game officials.

“Hey, get some for the officials, guys!” King asked a couple of the kids from an open area on the sideline during a a timeout.

Veteran area referee Don Cook's squad was working both the sophomore and varsity contests. This particular sophomore game featured officials' time outs during changes in possession and longer quarter breaks. The lengths of the quarters were shortened on this evening from ten minutes each to eight.

“Tonight there's all kinds of water,” King said. “We got some fans here. We're going to shorten the sophomore game by quarters from ten minutes to eight minutes with a lot of water breaks in between.”

Fighting the heat and each other, the Redbird sophomores scored the game's first touchdown against the Braves on its opening drive. The Redbirds would cruise to a 21-8 halftime lead under the calling of quarterback Jacob Mitchell.

Also a member of the varsity roster, Mitchell was only scheduled to play the opening half. With his sophomore game done, Mitchell made his way to the bench where he relaxed with his pads off, with an ice bag wrapped in a towel hanging over his neck.

“You just got to keep your head up and stay focused to block out the heat as best as possible,” Mitchell said. “It's not a big factor once you're playing. You don't really think about it too much. You just got to block it off and stay hydrated all week. That's what everyone did. Our coaches told us to stay hydrated and we did.”

Mitchell was examined in this process by Dr. Kaufman. The evening was a busy one for him in between keeping the Redbirds hydrated and coordinating the efforts by the team's two water boys in freshman uniforms.

Metamora's cooling setup involved plastic cups of water placed on wood trays with holes in them, with the water boys carrying them out waist-high whenever time was called.

“We really emphasized hydrating the whole week,” Kaufman said. “You can't hydrate just today, you got to hydrate three or four days prior. So we really talked about having good meals, good rest, and to hydrate this week. That's the key thing.”

Just don't take in too much water at the wrong time, as was the case for Mitchell.

“He drank a little too much water there in the end and felt like he was going to throw up for a few minutes,” Kaufman said.


More Than Enough Water

Metamora's sophomore team would put the Braves at 0-1 with a 28-14 win. The elements improved as the game came to a close with large clouds looming over the stadium.

“Thankfully the clouds came out and cooled it off pretty quick to help,” Kaufman said.

Halfway through the first quarter of a scoreless varsity game, the hot weather had finally transitioned into one with a large draft of cool air. As the quarter drew to a close, the drafts became more prevalent. That meant the arrival of the second weather-related concern for the evening: a thunderstorm.

Small droplets of rain spat every few seconds during the four-minute mark of the first quarter. After that, the drops got larger and eventually cascaded over the turf in round, shiny chunks reflected by the lighting system.

Touchdowns by Sterling's Draque Peneflor-Heier and Metatmora's Zach Rohrback made for a 7-7 game that lasted until the 8:32 mark of the second quarter.

Lightning had been spotted from the stadium at 8:10 p.m. to enact a 30-minute postponement.

The postponement lasted longer than 30 minutes.

And it's ongoing.

On an evening when water was badly needed for the football players, the water ended up winning. No major heat-related incidents were reported from Sterling's sideline, and other than the asthma attack on the Metamora sideline, no other heat-related incidents were reported there.

The water ended up winning in the varsity game also, to the point where the game couldn't be resumed at any point during the night and had to be pushed back to 7 p.m. the next evening. Too much lightning scattered the sky to cause scheduling crunches for Metamora, whose caravan drove about 75 miles to get to Sterling.

Crunches were also made to the stadium schedule for Saturday. Roscoe Eades Stadium's other tenant, the Newman Comets, were scheduled to have a 7 p.m. varsity kickoff against Rockridge. Since the stadium's main tenant had no choice but to reserve its priority, this put Sterling's two high school athletic directors on the phone with each other.

King, Newman athletic director and football coach Mike Papoccia, and the administration from Rockridge worked out a deal where Newman's varsity kickoff would take place at 3 p.m.

So ended a rough evening for both varsity programs, whose game now has this gaping interruption. So ended a rough evening for Sterling's sophomores, given a season-opening loss to think about before suiting up once more to take on Mendota next Saturday. So ended a rough evening for Metamora's sophomores also, whose bus broke down in the heat not too far from Sterling.

The heat was a factor in having King giving out a freshman-level rarity: an air-conditioned charter bus to be used for the drive to Metamora this morning for a 10 a.m. kickoff, where the sun will shine directly over Malone Field.

“I told my son, who's a freshman, to take a water bottle with him for all his classes,” King said.

Athlete Q&A: Rockford East's Sean Miller

In brief:

Sean Miller is a senior golfer from Rockford East. He kicked off the 2013 season with a win at the Boylan Invitational at Ledges Golf course in Roscoe on Aug. 19. Miller has been a sectional qualifier in each of the past three seasons, and qualified for the IHSA Class 2A State Meet during his freshman year.


CC - What do you like and enjoy about golf?
SM - Golf is a challenge. I'm always trying to improve. It's a lot of fun.

CC - What do you think makes golf better than any other sport?
SM - Because you can also be part of a team and compete as an individual. So you can have personal success and team success, which is more rewarding than just having the one.

CC - How did you first get involved in golf?
SM - My dad got me started when I was about five or six.

CC - What do you think is one moment from your high school career to date that you're most proud of?
SM - Making it to State in a 6-man playoff my freshman year.

CC - What was that experience like?
SM - It was unreal. Just so nervous. I had to hit last and ended up advancing on the first hole. It was great. I was feeling it.

CC - Do you have any goals for this season?
SM - Just to continue to improve and end up getting back to the State level.

CC - Describe your role on this E-Rab Golf team.
SM - I try to be a leader and to be an inspiration to the rest of the players.

CC - What do you think has been the biggest improvement in your golfing since your freshman year?
SM - Definately my mental attitude. I'm not beating myself up over each and every bad swing I make, and just knowing how I missed and how I can get away with it when I do miss.

CC - What has been the best golf advice given to you?
SM - Swing, go find it, and get it back in play.

CC - Finish this sentence about yourself: Other than golf, no one can beat me at ...
SM - Academics. I'm in the top 3% in my class. That's something I pride myself on.

CC - Balancing athletics and academics is tough. How do you go about doing that?
SM - It's always been academics. It's a priviledge to be able to play sports. If you don't have the grades, there's no chance your going to play.

CC - If there was one rule in golf that you'd like to see changed, what would it be?
SM - Being able to pat down spike marks on the greens. Someone could draw a circle around the hole with their foot, and you can't do anything about it.


FAVORITES

Place to eat at - Stone Eagle
Musical artist - Brantley Gilbert
TV Show - That 70's Show
Class in school - Math
High School Rival - Danny Gorman of Boylan
Golf Course (other than your own) - Illinois State University
Pro athlete - Rory McIlroy
Pro sports team - Cincinatti Reds

Team Spotlight: Rock Falls Cross Country

Rock Falls cross country coach Mark Truesdell talks with
his runners during the first day of practice on August 14.

The runners are out once again at Centennial Park. Cross country season is underway for Rock Falls High School.

August 14 was the official kick-off of the season, with 25 boys and girls gathering near Centennial's Larson Shelter for the first official day of practice.

Running around the park's pond for the duration of the practice session, the kids took in advice and guidance from cross country coach Mark Truesdell – who took to his bicycle to make sure he could meet each runner while they learned the feel of the course.

When it was all over with, newcomers Bailey Smith and Michaela Spreier felt first hand what it was going to take to fit in with a quality program.

“It's different than summer running because there's more people here and you have to push yourself harder,” said Smith, a freshman.

“It's harder than I expected it to be, compared to the summer runs,” said Spreier, a junior. “The competition is harder. There's more people. There's more expectation now that we are in the actual season.”

Despite having separate teams, the boys and girls all practice together. That is how things go in the program, which has seen its girls squad achieve plenty of State Meet success – five State qualifying teams – during the eight years Truesdell and assistant coach Mindy Porter have been in charge.

“I'm looking real forward to training them,” Truesdell said. “Summer is hit-or-miss with the kids because they have a lot of stuff going on. Now that we got them all locked together, we can get an idea of what we have. We got a good mix of young and old.”

Last year, the girls squad placed fourth at the IHSA State Meet at Detweiler Park in Peoria. Katie Anderson led her team with a 32nd place finish at State, and followed not too far behind by Sandra Gomez (58th) and Maklay Velazquez (69th). The trio will look to maintain the success and keep its running pack tight despite losing half of last year's team to graduation.

“Our goal is going to be the top three again,” Gomez said regarding the State Meet. “If we all work real hard during practice and just click during meets, we can reach our goal and perform.”

Needless to say, some of the success rubs off onto the boys in the practice setting.

Goals are high among the Rocket boys, whose team will also look to reload from senior losses.

However, the team has high expectations for Hamblen, who received word from Truesdell on the first day that his pace was already that of typical postseason success.

Pounding the ground on those summer runs with sophomore Seth Williams has helped both runners. Williams racked up about 450 summer miles, with Hamblen running about 200.

“We're pumped,” said Hamblen. “Coach was telling us that we could get in the 15's. That pretty much guarantees us a spot to go to State.”

“He's basically saying that with our talent that we're having right now, and we're pushing each other, me and him are taking the top spots right now,” Williams added. “We're really hoping for State this year.”

Cayden Erickson, a junior, and Kasey Anger, a senior, also return to the Rockets from last year's sectional qualifying team.

“I think this season is going to be very interesting,” Erickson said. “We lost a lot of runners, but we gained a real good one in Brayden. I think he's going to be real good if he's pushing hard. If we push hard together, I think we'll be real good as a team.”

“We got some good runners coming in,” Williams added. “We got some people that left last year, so we got some leftover varsity from last year. Kasey and Cayden are two good runners, and then we're really hoping that our runners that weren't varsity last year that are coming up to varsity now. Hopefully they can step up this year and do better. That's what we're really looking forward to this year.”

The program's first meet of the season is the Rocket Run at Centennial Park on August 27. Eleven meets are on the calendar for this season, in addition to the Big Northern Conference meet at Harvard on Oct. 19. Postseason competition begins on Oct. 26 with regionals.

Of the 11 meets, Williams is looking forward to the Charger Classic hosted by Aurora Central Catholic on Sept. 28.

“I'm looking forward to Aurora,” Williams said. “It's all downhill and is a very fun run. That was my first good meet (last year).”

Gomez is looking forward to the Twin City Meet on September 17 at Hoover Park in Sterling, where the Rockets will race against neighboring rivals Newman and Sterling.

“It's a fun meet and it's real fun to run,” Gomez said.

Still Football In Pecatonica This Year

Pecatonica head coach Eric Bergin instructs players during a
special teams drill during practice on Aug. 19.

Contrary to reports, there is still a football program at Pecatonica.

When news of the cancellation of this season's varsity schedule came out in March, the Rockford Register Star offered the ominous phrase, “the Indians will not exist.”

So much for that.

Declining numbers forced a switch to a junior varsity schedule for this season for the Indians, who did not have enough players to play the last three weeks of a winless season in 2012. Nearly 10 months later, the practice field just to the south of the school is being used once more.

On Aug. 19, the first Monday of practice, 16 freshmen, sophomores and juniors suited up for first-year head coach Eric Bergin. That evening, the players worked on running plays and kickoff returns, afterward splitting up so that Bergin could work alone with five linemen.

The practice concluded with sprints across the practice field to and from, with Bergin counting down the seconds until the next whistle for the next sprint. There, the fastest runners always finished first and the slowest runners were encouraged by the rest of the finished teammates. All of which survived to make it to the practice-ending huddle.

With 16 players, most will be seeing duty on both a new-look offense and defense. Obviously all would like to play, but they cannot be overworked. Thus, the never-ending concern for Bergin and his coaching staff.

“We've been practicing hard,” Bergin said. “It's a new process for them, a new offense and a new defense is being installed. We're working on that, and we'll go from there. Hopefully we stay healthy and don't have any dings and stuff like that to avoid the situation we had last year. We'll line up with our 16 kids and we'll play. That's what we'll do and try to build it from here.”

The Indians will open the season on Friday evening at Lena-Winslow against the Panther JV squad. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will mark the first time since September 28 that Pecatonica purple and gold donned the gridiron.

Be it junior varsity or varsity, Collin Viel, one of three juniors on the Indian team, is just happy to play.

“We're very excited because we're getting to play,” Viel said. “We're juniors and we're supposed to be playing varsity this season, but since the numbers and all those problems, we just get to play now. That's a good thing for us.”

“Everyone says that it sucks that we're playing JV, but I'm just excited to be playing games,” junior Alex Thayer added. “I'm glad to have a season.”

Under the junior varsity scheduling arrangement, the Indians will suit up against the junior varsity squads of its Northwest Division foes of the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference. Included in the schedule are two Saturday dates with Ashton-Franklin Center (the team's lone NUIC crossover game, as well as the Homecoming game) in Week 5 and archrival Durand in Week 6; as well as a Monday night tilt with South Beloit in Week 3.

Numbers and size may be small, but speed is plenty for the Indians. They will look to use that to their advantage in the nine-week grind.

“We have some kids that can run, so we'll use that to our advantage,” Bergin said. “We have a little bit of speed we can use and we'll try to get them out in the open and do some things off of that.”

Despite an abrupt end to last year's season, the remaining players have worked hard toward erasing the adversity, whether it is putting in the effort physically in the offseason, or trying to recruit more bodies to join the program.

“The tempo has picked up a lot,” Viel said. “We've had harder practices and had more running and lifting a lot. It's just a lot more up tempo now.”

While dropouts have run rampant, additions have been made. One of which is the Indians' third junior, Skyler Alongi.

Having lived in Orangeville at the start of high school, grades were an issue for Alongi until they were finally good enough to earn a spot on the team.

“I'm excited because this is my first year playing football, ever,” Alongi said. “We've been getting in shape the whole offseason, so hopefully we'll be good.”

Asked what would make a great sell to get more bodies out for the program, the three juniors offered their own bit of persuasion.

“It's a lifetime experience,” Viel said. “You don't get to play football again. We're a small school, so a lot of us won't be going to these high-end colleges and playing D-I football. So it's just this experience. You come out, you play as a family, you play with your friends, you get to experience it, love it.”

“Last year everyone didn't want to go out because we were bad,” Alongi said. “It's not going to change your football team around by not going out.”

“I think if you don't play now, this is a part of your life that you're going to regret for the rest of it,” Thayer said.

The plan is to try to field a varsity team once more in 2014. But before that, all will hinge on what happens this season.

“We got 16 kids out here that want to play football,” Bergin said. “We're starting ground zero right here, and these kids are a part of it. After this year, hopefully we'll be a team of sophomores and juniors, and hope to keep building from there.”

2013 Pecatonica Indians Football Schedule
Friday, Aug. 30 - @ Lena-Winslow (7 p.m.)
Friday, Sept. 6 – vs. Eastland/Pearl City (7 p.m.)
Monday, Sept. 16 - @ South Beloit (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Sept. 20 - @ Dakota (7 p.m.)
Saturday, Sept. 28 – vs. Ashton-Franklin Center (12 p.m.)
Saturday, Oct. 5 - @ Durand (11:30 a.m.)
Friday, Oct. 11 – vs. West Carroll (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 18 - @ Forreston (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 25 - @ Galena (5 p.m.)

Four Illinois Sports See Participation Increases

Boys cross country was one of four high school sports in
Illinois to see an increase in the number of participants,
according to the National Federation of High School's
 participation survey.

Whatever the high school sport may be, Illinois has its usual collection of them. Typically, those sports attract the biggest crowds and have the largest number of participants.

The National Federation of High Schools on Monday released data for its 2012-13 high school athletics participation survey. High school athletic participation in Illinois decreased for the second year in a row, falling from 346,896 students in the 2011-12 school year to 339,944. The fall continued from a high of 350,114 students in 2010-11.

All but four sports registered decreases in participation last year. Increasing numbers were boys cross country, girls soccer, boys swimming and diving, and girls track and field.

Participation in boys cross country has increased each year for the past five years. In 2012, 11,319 Illinois high school boys ran cross country, while 10,129 ran in 2008. Two years ago, 10,762 kids ran cross country, marking an increase of 2.76 percent.

Boys swimming and diving saw the largest percentage of increase among high school students in Illinois. In 2012, 6,744 Illinois high school boys participated in swimming and diving programs, an increase from 6,484 from the prior year.

Track and field numbers for girls in Illinois also rose last year. In 2012, 19,283 Illinois high school girls participated in track and field programs, an increase from 19,283 from the prior year.

Girls soccer numbers increased slightly from a year ago, increasing to 16,144 from 16,107 in Illinois.

Participation numbers for girls soccer, boys swimming and diving, and girls track and field were increases last year after decreases from 2010.

Football continues to be the most popular high school sport in Illinois in terms of participation, with 46,889 kids suiting up last year. However, the overall number has decreased in each of the past five years, with 51,334 kids out for the sport in 2008. Volleyball ranks second in terms of participation in Illinois high schools with 22,492 participants, down from 22,329 a year ago.

Among sports in Illinois with over 5,000 participants, boys tennis numbers went down significantly from a year ago. Numbers in boys tennis fell from 7,712 kids in 2011 to 6,670 in 2012.

Illinois ranks fourth in the nation in the number of high school sport participants behind Texas (798,333), California (777,545) and New York (389,475). Ohio is fifth in the nation with 327,919 students, with Pennsylvania (315,492), Michigan (304,438), New Jersey (270,423), Florida (243,397) and Minnesota (230,421) rounding out the top 10.

Of the top 10, only New Jersey had an increase in participants. Thirty of the 51 state high school associations reported increases.

State Softball: Quitting Is Not An Option

In three of its last four games, the Sterling Softball team was
trailing going into its last at-bat, and proceeded to put
runners in scoring position each time.

A late-game lesson just in time for the new high school sports season ...

Big plays might make sports games seem insurmountable at certain points. However, the finishes are almost always at a predetermined period of time down the road. Leading up to that ending, a trailing team's challenge of coming back when time is short begins to take shape.

The Sterling High School varsity softball team understood that situation when time was short during the final inning of its sectional final game against Marengo on June 1.

Down 5-1 with two outs in the seventh inning, the Golden Warriors' last breath brought new life into the team. They were able to score five runs without getting that fatal out to win the sectional championship and later advance to the IHSA Class 3A State Finals at EastSide Centre in East Peoria on June 6-7.

Sterling brought to East Peoria the knowledge of what it is like to have backs against the wall and to get themselves out of it.

Head coach Rick Henderson attributes this to attitude – a popular motto within the program.

Sterling's first game at State was against Marquette High School of Alton, Ill. The Golden Warriors were unable to win the game, falling 3-2 to try for either third or fourth place in Class 3A. Much of the troubles came against Marquette pitcher Alexis Silkwood, one of Illinois's top pitchers.

“We've had attitude shirts that we've bought for the past five years. We try to preach attitude, attitude, attitude,” Henderson said after the game. “They took that right into the batter's box today against one of the best pitchers you're going to see in a while. Every single player stepped in there with an attitude, with a belief, with something on their mind that they could do to help this team. I saw no quit. All season, let alone today.”

Marquette posted a 3-0 lead in the third inning and the Golden Warriors were only able to tally up on before the bottom of the seventh inning. That's when Sterling junior Karlie Mellott banged out a leadoff homerun off Silkwood past the right field fence. That momentum shift brought back the feeling of fighting with time running out, although coming up short in the end.

“We never quit,” Mellott said. “We never quit. All the way down the stretch getting here, with the tough game in the sectional, we never give up. We're all in the dugout yelling, cheering everybody else on, picking everybody else up. You can't teach that. As a team, that's so great to see.”

“We never let up. Every time we're in the dugout, we're always constantly cheering and making sure that we have each others backs,” said fellow junior Darien Bardoner. “You can see on the field when one of us strikes out, the next one does something to pull each other up. We've always had each other, and that's how we've been since we were little. It paid off for a sectional championship, but we were so close this time.”

Now having to face off against Tinley Park High School in the consolation game, this would be the team's last showing of the season. Despite posting a 4-2 lead after five innings, Tinley Park came back to go up 5-4 before the bottom of the seventh, and the backs against the walls again.

Mellott, leading off once more, doubled to left field and later came to third on a sacrifice. With the tying run 90 feet away, a grounder to the shortstop ended the second comeback run in a 24-hour span.

Despite being an all too familiar feeling, Sterling's dugout appeared cheerful and determined once more during that seventh inning.

“Although we didn't come out winning any games, it's still a great experience to be here,” said Sterling senior Stephanie Kester, who pitched both games for her team. “It takes a good team to be here, and we did that.”

It is safe to say that the fourth-place finish was made possible by the team's attitude.

“People are going to ask them questions not about how you lost, but about how in the world you keep fighting like you do,” concluded Henderson, who recently stepped down as head coach to spend more time with family.

Cutter: “Next Year”

Not to worry, these girls on last year's Dakota volleyball
squad WILL be back for this year.

One of the most important roles of journalists is to get things right and get facts straight. This means so much more than making sure the rushing yard count is correct.

Somewhere down the line a mistake will slip through the cracks. Even when we don't know of their existences until later down the road.

I would like to bring light to one of the most common high school sports media mistakes that even the most seasoned professionals make. In fact, sports media types alone do not make the mistake. I have also heard coaches and athletes make this same mistake.

This is the belief that a junior, sophomore or a freshman on a particular varsity team “will be back next year.”

For example: “All of the girls on Dakota's volleyball team will be back next year” (as mentioned in 2012).

Do we know this for a fact? Did the girls commit to a multi-year agreement that they will play until the end of their senior year?

As not to pick on one particular team, does any athlete in the area sign a four-year contract before their freshman year stating that they are bound by a particular program until graduating high school? Has this ever happened?. As much as our coaches would like to see every freshman player stay for all four years, we all know that the success rate of that happening is not 100%.

This may seem like semantics for print journalists, but think of it this way: If the not-so-entirely-true phrase of “will be back next year” is put in print, and the newspaper ceases operation, someone looking back through microfilm many years down the road will still be confused. They have put that phrase on record.

With “will be back next year,” journalists have given an indication that these particular athletes are definitely returning for the following year. Readers do hold on to that as a truth. When they do so, they don't give out the fine-print information – you know, the stuff said real fast at the end of a car dealership commercial.

Over 100 years ago, high school yearbook accounts often mentioned the “disbanding” of high school sports teams after the last contest, or after the postseason banquet. We are seeing less and less of this disbanding in today's high school sports environment with strict weight room commitments and the like.

Technically, no high school student can be committed to a particular team for a cycle of one year. This is because, technically, high school students do not belong to a particular high school during the summer vacation (save year-round schooling).

We forget that there is a period of time when all high school students are considered “free agents” in a way. The only way these kids can come back to their school is after they fill out all of the registration paperwork and pay the fees. The only way an athlete can come back to their team is if they fill out all of the participation paperwork and pay the fees.

This is the clause that gives athletes and their families the right to transfer to another high school. No contracts are ever breached when someone transfers. No punishments are handed out and no fines are doled out.

No athlete is any kind of property of a particular team when the season is not taking place, nor is any student any kind of property of a particular school when the school year is not taking place. This also gives students the opportunity to switch sports in a particular season if they do choose.

Speaking of transfers, the number of those taking place in the area are on the rise – for whatever reason. This fact is also a terrific reason why we should never suggest that anyone “is returning” to their team “next year.”

How many among those followers of Winnebago's boys basketball team, in 2011, said that Marcus Posley “is returning next year?” (He went to Auburn, where he was eventually ruled ineligible by the IHSA).

How many among those followers of West Carroll's softball team, in 2009, said that the next two years were going to be really awesome, since Jordan Kasbohm was just a sophomore? (She went to Moline for her next two years, where she helped lead the Maroons to a Class 4A title in 2010 and a third-place finish in 2011).

How many among those followers of Dakota's boys basketball team, in 2012, said that the Indians were going to be the team to beat because Kendall Lawson “is returning next year?” (He went to Rockford Lutheran and helped lead the Crusaders to a 3A regional).

Rather than believe an athlete has pulled a lie on someone, there is a more correct way to address a team's future, without having to elaborate on transfers or writing up fine-print information.

Instead of saying “five of Keith Country Day's six starters will return next year,” we should say “Keith Country Day loses one starter to graduation this year.” The latter statement about the volleyball program is more of a fact. Did we know at the time they won the IHSA Class 1A championship that those non-seniors on the team would definitely be returning for 2013?

On an aside, to suggest that any team would be a “team to beat” because they “will be returning a lot of their starters,” is not an absolute fact. That's another column for another day.

Such varsity starting spots are not automatically reserved for anyone just because they have so many more years of eligibility left. In fact, no athlete practicing today should consider themselves a varsity starter “this year.” They are only that when the first contest arrives.

Cutter: Day 1

The first day of the high school sports season is officially on Wednesday. However, the first day of the high school sports season for me is today.

This marks my return from the hiatuses that were needed to both construct this new version of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and to improve on areas in my personal life. Needless to say, last year was an abbreviated one for me, taking the entire months of December, April, May and July off, as well as several chunks of other months. All of which comes to and end today and I hope to have no more of these long breaks this year.

Since today starts my first day back from "vacation," I thought I'd give everyone a look at what I call "Day 1" in the NISB Office. That day is spent getting ready for the upcoming sports season. This particular "Day 1" is different because I've spent little or no time thinking about preparations for the upcoming year (that is what a vacation is, right?).

***

As a late riser, I wake up at 8:45 a.m. Most people that wake up at that time are likely trying to hurry up and dart out the front door on their way to work. Not me. Instead, I slowly walk the 15 feet from the foot of the bed to the NISB Office, making it before 9 a.m.

After a check of the usual things (messages, Facebook, etc.), it is time to start "Day 1" of the 10th season of Northern Illinois Sports Beat.

The first thing I do is to get out the pocket planner and fill up as many dates as I possibly can. Before I do this, I need to fill up personal dates, work dates and side-writing-opportunity dates (see here). This process involves reviewing who the top fall sports teams will be, in my opinion, for this year. For example, Keith Country Day and Dakota's volleyball teams obviously.

I create a list of the top five (known only to me because I don't want to jinx anyone) fall sports teams for each sport. Since there are nine sports in the fall - boys and girls cross country, football, boys and girls golf, boys soccer, girls swimming and diving, girls tennis and volleyball - I have a sheet in front of me with 45 teams on it. I don't rank them one-through-five. That gives me a feel for what teams to focus on early in the year.

Next up is to find the schedules for these 45 teams. The football schedules are easy to find, as they are right there on the IHSA website. Finding the other 40 schedules takes some work. In the past, this part of the job was as quick as a visit to the old highschoolsports.net - that was before it merged with USA Today and became a huge mess. These days, this task involves digging through Athletics2000 (or 8 to 18, whatever it's called now) and school-based websites.

When it comes to the point where I pound my fist on my desk because I can't find the schedule, I have to write down "email" next to the team as a sign for me to email the school's athletics director. Quite a few on this year's list.

Using what I have already, I switch from the pen to the pencil to fill in important dates that I am able to attend. The first date, August 14, is filled with a football practice in the morning. This occurs before a cross country practice later in the day, which is before a shift at my full-time job. Another date immediately filled on the calendar, as has been the case for a couple of years now, has been the Boylan Golf Invitational on August 19. With an 8 a.m. shotgun start, this represents the very first moments of actual competition for the 2013-14 high school sports year.

Next comes August 30, the first week of the high school football season. For this occasion only, I take a gander at the master area football schedule and find what I believe are the 10 best games in the area. Seems like a really tough list to fill up this season. I eventually settled on a game that I wouldn't normally cover in years past. Not only did I fill that date, I also filled the following Saturday for another fotball game.

With my appearances throughout northern Illinois finalized, I now determine just how I will be covering these events. I can cover these events in a multitude of ways, as well as do multiple items with each appearance. (Before I go any further with this, I need to make sure my camera and my video camera are operable and ready for the year). Sifting through my planner, I put away the pencil and bring out the red pen. For the first couple of weeks only, I write down the content schedule for the website.

One of the personal decisions that I made during these hiatuses was to create more time to personal life (mostly with family and friends). In years past, it seemed like every day was spent writing at least one story and partially writing on a couple of others. So I decided to set aside one or two days out of the week to do mass typing and uploading of content. With this new Blog format, I am able to schedule content items on future dates and have them automatically published on these dates. This is all in accordance to a goal I have for this website to have something new every day.

Next up is the budget.

(Do you really think I'm going to give away budget specifics on here?)

Next up is the finite specifics of what I plan to work on tomorrow; which is the last day for a while that I will not be working, covering an event, or spending time with family and friends.

Another check of the email led me to an apparent error on one of the website pages involving the number of state titles won by the Winnebago Boys Cross Country team. After replying to the person, that made me think of the many areas of website-related cleanup and updating that I need to do. That will be first thing tomorrow.

I have this column brewing in my mind that I hope the lay the groundwork on tomorrow. In addition, there is a held-over story from this past spring that I will finally get around to and have published. That's when I also thought of the idea to write this little thing you are reading right now.

So ends "Day 1" for the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat. "Day 2", one of those mass-typing days, will be spent locked away in the office with plenty of caffeine to keep things going.

I have to get ready for my full-time job right now.

(Update: When I originally published this entry, it came out in one lumpy paragraph for some reason. Now I have to put in HTML page breaks. This stinks.)