St. Patrick Wins Playoff Opener 49-28 over Wauconda

SPORTS SPOTLIGHT BY JOHN MONTGOMERY 

 

When St Patrick quarterback Gavin Gardiner is on top of his game the Shamrocks are hard to beat. Gardiner who had 11 touchdown tosses in his junior season, added three touchdown passes to help his team overcome a wild first half in the Class 5A playoff opener at Wauconda (9-1). The Shamrocks eventually prevailed 49-28 after a wild day in Wauconda after leading 35-21 at halftime after game was tied at 14.

Gardiner might have played his best game completing 16 of 19 passes for 229 yards in the first 24 minutes and finished the contest with 25 completions for 274 yards.

"Gavin can be the best player in the state this year," Anthony Catron stated earlier this season.

"Anthony is an amazing player," Gardiner said on his talented teammate. "He runs so hard.

Anthony Catron, who was named section player of the year in CCL Purple, had another solid performance with 140 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

This dynamic duo for Shamrocks has now combined for 25 touchdowns this season. The Shamrocks went 2-7 last season as Catron broke his leg.

"Wauconda is a tough team," St Patrick first year head coach Tom Zbikowski said after the win. "They played hard. They didn't quit."

Gardiner is blessed with talented group of receivers. Seven different players caught passes. His favorite target this season has been Tim Schayer. Schayer, who has caught 52 passes this season, had 14 catches for 185 yards with two trips into the end zone.

St. Patrick put the unbeaten home team away in fourth quarter by scoring on a 17-yard run by Catron and interception return for touchdown by Kevin Michaelsen.

The Shamrocks amassed 465 yards while allowing 384 yards but forced four turnovers.

Tom Zbikowski was named Coach of the Year as eight players were chosen all section for helping lead the Shamrocks to the division championship while center Eli Valencia was named the best lineman.

St. Patrick will now turn its attention to Saturday night showdown at Triton College against three-time state football champion Cary Grove [8-2] who has one of the best running games averaging 37 points per game.

DePaul Prep Comes Back to Defeat Glenbrook South

By Jack Lydon

What a comeback! The DePaul Prep Rams girls varsity volleyball team rallied from the verge of elimination late in the second set against Glenbrook South down 24-21, one point away from a season ending loss, to win the second set on five straight points and then dominate the Titans in the third set, 25-16.

Given the demeanor of this impressive group of Rams, one would not have known that they were one point away from the end of their season. Down 24-21, in the second set, after losing the first set, this experienced group ran off five straight points to force as third set.

Buoyed by the comeback and confident in their abilities, the third set went immediately their way starting with four point lead early and building thereafter. Fittingly, junior standout and North Carolina commit Kalia Kroth ended the match with a kill to give the Rams the comeback victory against the number 2 seed Glenbrook South Titans.

The Rams have only suffered five losses this season; one of the coming to Glenbrook South on October 18th.

The Rams advance to the IHSA 4A Glenbrook South Sectional Final on Thursday at 6:00 p.m., against New Trier. The Rams fell to New Trier in two sets in the third game of the day on October 17th.

“Competitive,” said DePaul Prep head coach Caroline Gajzler when asked what to expect from New Trier.

“The coaches and I will look at the film on New Trier and come up with a game plan like any other match.”

Lane Earns Berth in State Football Playoffs

SPORTS SPOTLIGHT BY JOHN MONTGOMERY

Lane, you are the champions.

Lane is one of few high schools that can actually say “We Are The Champions,” in reference to the now famous 1977 song by the rock group Queen that is often played after a sports team wins a championship. Lane’s nickname was “School of Champions” with good reason as the North Side school at Western and Addison has won over 500 city championships and 16 state titles since its founding in 1908.

In the Chicago Public League, Lane has been dominant in football, baseball and swimming. Today, it is a contender in a variety of varsity sports.

For many years, the school was known as the Indians. The statue of a symbolic Indian has stood in the school’s courtyard since 1947.

“We are a true College Prep School,” athletic director Brent Bradish told me recently. “Being the athletic director at Lane is an opportunity to work at a great school.”

Unfortunately, despite its distinguished academic and athletic reputation, which reminds many people of Northwestern in the Big Ten, there were some critics, especially Native American groups and former students, who were upset with the school’s nickname and mascot. There also were some students and alumni who weren’t offended and thought the issue was overblown. It all came to a head in 2020 and 2021 with a series of protests.

As in the cases of the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins, the Lane administration bowed to public pressure and voted to change the school’s nickname to Champions. Other nominees were Owl, Bison and Lightning. But Champions at the School of Champions prevailed.

In 2021, current principal Edwina Thompson summarized the issue with this public statement: “Our stakeholders have decided to stand with our name Lane Tech but continue our tradition on being School of Champions by selecting Champions as our symbol of honor.”

“We didn’t just change the nickname,” said Bradish, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and attended Rolling Meadows High School. “It was a rebranding. The response to the new nickname has been positive.”

First-year football coach Deshon Conley agrees. “The nickname Indians was the nickname (five years ago) and I didn’t get involved with the controversy. I am just the football coach. The new nickname is appropriate. We have been called the School of Champions for years,” he said.

The first great student-athlete at Lane was three-sport star Fritz Pollard, who now is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was the first black head coach in the NFL. Lane Stadium, one of the jewels of the Chicago Public League, has been renamed Pollard Field. Other standouts who attended Lane were Olympic gold-medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, the first Tarzan of the movies, former Chicago Cubs star and manager Phil Cavarretta and lineman Laken Tomlinson of the Houston Texans of the NFL.

During the 2024-25 school year, Lane thrived by winning 12 Public League varsity championships while advancing to the state finals in four sports. In Class 4A, Lane finished in the top four in boys soccer, boys swimming, boys volleyball and girls soccer. Both soccer teams lost in the state championship game.

One of the many jobs of an athletic director is to hire and fire coaches. Bradish may have scored a touchdown by promoting Conley, who was Lane’s defensive coordinator for the last four years. Conley responded by guiding Lane to the state playoff for the 29th time, more than any other Public League school. The Champions (6-1) punched a ticket for this year’s Class 8A playoff by beating Phillips 13-0 last Friday at Gately Stadium. Quite a comeback from last year’s 3-6 finish.

“I didn’t come into this season with any expectations,” Conley said. “Last year, we came in with great expectations and finished 3-6. And we had some great football players.”

This year’s squad features some great players. The offense is led by running back and two-way standout Vernon Cole, who has scored 10 touchdowns and has emerged as one of the leading players in the Public League. The defense, which has allowed only 38 points while posting four shutouts, is led by 5-11, 260-pound junior tackle Kanye Williams, junior linebacker Aiden Boywid, senior end Greg Howard and junior safety Clay Taylor.

“We have had some great turnouts at home games,” Bradish said. “It was great to start 4-0. We had a wide list of candidates (for the head coaching job). Deshon has been here as an assistant coach for four years .He has a great relationship with the kids.”

Lane, whose only setback was a 16-13 decision to Payton(6-1) will close its regular season with back-to-back home games against Westinghouse and King. Pairings for the state playoff will be announced on Saturday night October 25.

“We have won the most championships in football (in Public League history) and we have won the most championships in baseball,” Conley said. “Hopefully I can win a (Public League) championship .”

Like Champions from the past at Lane and add another championship banner.

Lane Tech defensive line. (Photo credit: Jack Lydon.)

DePaul Prep Falls to St. Patrick 1-0 in 3A Sectional Final

The DePaul Prep Rams varsity baseball team lost 1-0 to area nemesis to the St. Patrick Shamrocks at Kerry Wood Cubs Park.

The Rams opened the season 14-0 and finished 25-13. The Rams finished the season in the 3A sectional final losing to their former coach Chris Haas, the the Shamrocks’ skipper.

St. Patrick senior right hander Paddy Roth, a Michigan State commit, shut out the Rams working his way out of a couple jams.

It was a fun season. This group of Rams were always loose and having fun. My favorite kind of baseball.

It guess it’s football season now. (Except I have another group of baseball photos to post from the Northside game.)

DePaul Prep Falls to St. Ignatius 3-0 in 2A Sectional Final

[A preview of this week’s story in the Inside—Booster.]

By Jack Lydon

DePaul Prep Rams fell to the St. Ignatius Wolfpack 3-0 in the IHSA girls soccer sectional final on Friday evening at DePaul Prep. Wolfpack’s junior wing, Lauren Reed scored two goals, two minutes apart early in the first half giving the Wolfpack an commanding lead against conference rival DePaul Prep. Try as they did, the Rams (16-9-1, 5-2-1) just couldn’t put together a comeback against the stingy St. Ignatius defense.

“I was really thinking about winning this for my team and playing for my seniors. Then I guess I got really lucky on those two shots. But when I saw the opportunity take it, I did,” said River Forest resident, Lauren Reed.

Coming into the game, the Wolfpack (11-9-3, 3-3-2) focused on getting the ball into their center forward, junior Kayla Washington and so much on Reed.

“Kayla is our lead scorer. She's got like twenty-eight goals. Kayla is a classic striker. When you play with only one person up front, she has to be a big, strong capable player who can hold the ball up and wait for support,” St. Ignatius head coach Pam Whitehead said of Washington.

“Usually our goal is to get it to Kayla. I usually come up as back up. We kind of work together, but the main focus is to get it to Kayla,” Lauren Reed said of her teammate Washington.

“So I was lucky,” Reed added. She said “luck,” but two goals and two minutes is more than just luck. Reed was there to capitalize on the attention paid to Washington and that she did.

“Lauren is amazing because, first of all, she never came out of the game and absolutely she is positioned where she has to run up and down constantly,” Whitehead said of Reed, who is also a talented field hockey player. “And she is a third leading scorer [with 13 goals].” Lili Garcia is the Wolfpack’s second leading scorer with 17 goals.

DePaul Prep and St. Ignatius are both members of the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference and played each other on May 1st which ended in a 1-1 draw.

“It was our senior night. All of our seniors played. And you'll notice the [Senior Night] shirt that I wore tonight to remind them,” Whitehead said of the tie game.

Proud of her team’s rebound from the last match, Whitehead added, “It's just good combination play on the ground. I don't know if you noticed the tactical difference with DePaul. They like to send the long balls in, but we like to play between three of our key players up front with angle runs and drop balls; Good classic soccer.”

St. Ignatius managed to hold the Rams’ leading scorer junior Lucia Troutman scoreless despite early success by the Rams in pushing to the ball forward to Troutman.

DePaul Prep head coach and chair of the DePaul Prep Science Department, Kelly Keckler, was obviously disappointed after the game.

“Iggy was scouting [our last game against DeLaSalle]. They saw a lot of who we've become this season. The team that we were when we played them the first time is very different team than what we are now. . . We've figured out a lot of new tactics. We've been stronger and faster on the ball. We've been playing a lot of tougher competition throughout the whole season to gear up for this moment,” Keckler said after the game.

“No way would I've ever guessed it would be three zero. I think [Ignatius] brought their game winning boots today. It's as simple as that. We played almost same game as we played the first time we played them. I think it just came down to grit at the end of the day.”

St. Ignatius moves on to play Crystal Lake Central in the 2A super sectional on Tuesday. 

Dyett Wins 2A State Championship with 52-41 win over Althoff Catholic

My photos from the 2A state championship game between CPS powerhouse Dyett and Althoff Catholic from Belleville. Chicago Area teams won all for IHSA classifications: Chicago Hope Academy in 1A, Dyett in 2A, DePaul Prep in 3A and Benet Academy in 4A. Dyett was the only public school to win a state championship.

DePaul Prep Wins Third Straight State Championship

[preview of my Inside—Booster story for this week.]

By Jack Lydon

CHAMPAIGN, IL—The toughness and heart of DePaul Prep cannot be overstated. Down by nine with under six minutes to play, the Rams rallied to defeat Brother Rice 55-52 in double overtime to win their third straight state championship. This was a heavy weight boxing match between fighters that know each other well.

The game was practically a mirror image of their first meeting in January when the Brother Rice Crusaders (31-6) defeated DePaul Prep 53-52 after grabbing an early lead. The Crusaders survived a late comeback by the Rams, but just barely.

That would not happen again. With the weight of two state champions pressing down and behind 33-24 with 5:42 to play, the Rams had to dig deep. Senior leader Makai Kvamme, a veteran of the two preceding state championships, stepped up big time.

Makai was struggling. He had not scored in the game to that point. Despite getting good looks, his shots were just not falling.

At 5:42, Makai get a layup, his first points of the game. He would score 9 more in the fourth. It wasn’t just Kvamme. Porter had a bucket. With the Rams trailing 40-37 and 43 seconds on the clock, Junior guard and transfer into DePaul Rykan Woo, who was not on the prior championship teams, surely had the biggest free throw shots of his life. He made the first. He made the second. He made the third. Scored tied, going to overtime.

It would take two overtimes but the Rams would close out the win with big buckets by AJ Chambers, Rob Walls, Rashaun Porter and five more from Kvamme in the second overtime.

“That was a fist fight of heavy weights. All great whistles. They let us play. Points were at a premium. Things got loose a little in the second half,” said Rams coach Tom Kleinschmit.

“These seniors that are up here have been on the varsity for three years. They are 70 and 5 in two years. The culture was built on the guys before them,” Kleinschmidt added.

“We knew that we had experience. We wanted to use that experience to the best of our ability. We stayed poised, stayed relaxed and started pressuring them to make them turn it over. We got that result,” said junior center Rashaun Porter.

“When we took the program over [in 2013], we had two goals: win the [Chicago Catholic] League and win the state championship. We hadn’t won a league game in five years and people looked at us like ‘ya, whatever.’ We attained one of the goals and won the League. Now we’ve won a championship,” said Kleinschmidt.

It’s three championships now actually. The Rams defeated Bloomington Central Catholic 65-41 in 2023 to win 2A. Last year they defeated Chicago Catholic League rival Mount Carmel 49-41 to win their second state championship in a row, that time in 3A. It will have to be said that the DePaul Prep Rams have entered the rarified air of multiple consecutive championships in IHSA history.   

“We are a defensive culture team that can score now. We talked about leaning on our experience. We certainly did that tonight,” concluded Coach Kleinschmidt.

Seventh ranked Brother Rice Crusaders were as tough a team as the Rams faced all year. And the Rams played a tremendously difficult schedule. Brother Rice has put together an impressive string of their own with three consecutive 30-win seasons. It was their first appearance in the State Tournament since 2005.

Chicago Catholic League Lawless Player of the Year, Crusaders senior guard Marcos Gonzales lead all scorers in the game with 24 points. Senior forward K. J. Morris had 11 points for Brother Rice. Senior guard Jack Weigus added 10 points.

It was a total team effort for the Rams, offensively as well as defensively. Kvamme lead the team with 16 points, all coming in the fourth quarter and the overtime periods. Rashaun Porter added 14 despite suffering injured fingers. Rob Walls and Rykan Woo had 7 each. AJ Chambers had 5. Jonas Johnson and Gus Donohue each added a three-pointer. The Rams had 10 steals and only 9 turnovers.

DePaul Prep Advances to Third Straight Title Game

By Jack Lydon

The DePaul Prep Rams (32-4), Chicago Catholic League Champs, defending state champs defeated the Glenwood High School Titans, from Chatham, Illinois, 39-25. The Rams advance to their third straight IHSA title game against Brother Rice at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Please forgive me for not doing a complete story about the game. I shot three games yesterday. I have spend the last 24 hours working on getting the photos right. Photography at this state tournament level shooting demands a lot of attention. There is good light and a lot at stake so I need to concentrate on that.

Going into the Finals I planned to concentrate on blog posting. It didn’t work out that way. I largely neglected the writing and blog posting even though I planned to do more of that. It just didn’t work out. I found that I basically can’t do both. It’s time consuming enough to write a proper news story about a game that I shot.

These are my photos from the game.

Some shots I worked up for Mike Clark from the St. Pat's v. Brother Rice Game

Brother Rice defeated the Shamrocks 48-33 and advances to play DePaul Prep in the 3A title game tomorrow at 6:00 p.m., in Champaign.

Dyett Defeat Manuel 56-50 to Advance to 2A Championship Game

I shot the second 2A semi-final between CPS’s Dyett Eagles and the Peoria Manuel Rams. Dyett played well and defeated Peoria Manuel 56-50 to advance to play the impressive Belleville Althoff Catholic team in the 2A state final.

Chicago's Christ the King Takes on Althoff Catholic in 2A Semi

By Jack Lydon

The Christ the King (26-9)) getting ready take on Althoff Catholic (Belleville) (30-5) in the IHSA 2A Semi-final.

Christ the King College Preparatory School is a co-ed Jesuit “Cristo Rey Network” affiliated Catholic school in Chicago’s Westside Austin neighborhood. Christ the King opened in 2008. This is CTK’s first trip to any state The current IHSA enrollment figure is 371. First regional win was 19-20. CTK lost to Latin School in last year’s Sectional Final 43-42.

The Gladiators play a 2A schedule but defeated 4A Waukegan 62-58 in December.

Althoff Catholic from Belleville has an enrollment of 312 (IHSA enrollment is listed as 288) and won the 3A state championship over Lincoln-Way West in 2016. Altholff has a player, senior guard Dierre Hill, who is reputed to be the top high school football player in Illinois. Keep an eye on him, no. 22.

Update:

At half, Althoff Catholic leads Christ the King 30-17. Late second quarter charge by Althoff grabbed a thirteen point lead. Crusaders hit threes and scored in transition. Gladiators turning the ball over.

Blog Posts and DePaul Prep's 3A Semi-final Opponent Glenwood

By Jack Lydon

I think I am finding my voice when it comes to blog posts. The blog on my website usually just contains galleries of photos from games and events I cover with some explanation. I also post my news articles that appear in the Inside—Booster.

Starting tomorrow, I am going to post news related items from the IHSA boys basketball playoffs that the U. of I. State Farm Center in Champaign in more of a first person blog format. I hope to do it in as close to real time as I can for games that I am not photographing. Tomorrow are the 1A, 2A and 3A semi-finals.

We have six Chicago area teams in playing tomorrow: Chicago Hope, Christ the King, Dyett, Brother Rice, DePaul Prep and St. Patrick. So I will post what I can as I watch the games. But I will probably be photographing the 3A games with just the usually Twitter/X score updates.

Here is some stuff DePaul Prep’s opponent, Glenwood. The Rams take on Glenwood in tomorrow’s 3A sem-final starting at 8:15 p.m.

The Glenwood Titan (24-9), with an enrollment listed by the IHSA as 1,466, are from the Central State Eight conference where they finished fourth behind MacArthur (3A in Decatur), Springfield (3A) and Lanphier (3A from Springfield). All of those schools were in the same sectional that the #3 seed Glenwood won.

The Glenwood starters are senior guard Cameron Appenzeller, senior guard Gavin Simmons, junior forward Jack Kurman, senior forward Mason Neumann and senior forward Jonathon Helm.

Glenwood’s leader scorer is Appenzeller followed closely by Helm. Based upon the games played, it looks like their starters get almost all of the playing time with the only bench player getting significant playing time being junior guard Brody Green.

Knowledgeable high school basketball commentator Big Tim Shabazz suggests in his blog that Glenwood’s size could give DePaul Prep some trouble. Check that out at Big Tim’s blog. Click here to read it.

Michael O’Brien reported this afternoon in the “No Shot Clock” podcast that the Glenwood’s Cameron Appenzeller is a 6’5” lefty pitcher who might be a first-round draft pick in the Major League Baseball draft. So that’s something. Must be quite an athlete.

Appenzeller does not show up in the PrepHoops.com rankings of Class 2025 basketball players. I am guessing that is because he probably plays baseball and not club basketball in the off-season, so he is not on that radar.

Chatham (Glenwood) team photo as appears on the IHSA website.

DePaul Prep Going to State Again with 68-28 Win Over Kaneland

By Jack Lydon

“I feel like we came out and we just punched them in the mouth. We weren't trying to let them get going. We knew that they could get hot pretty fast. We wanted to limit their shots . . . We never gave them a chance to get going,” said DePaul Prep senior guard Rob Walls after the game.

Punched them in the mouth is a good way to describe how the DePaul Prep Rams dismantled the Kaneland Knights 68-28 in the 3A Super-sectional game at Hoffman Estates NOW Arena Monday evening.

It was by no means clear before the game started, how Kaneland would contend with competition such as DePaul Prep. Kaneland came into the game was a gaudy 32-1 record running through their competition with impressive wins over DeKalb and Crystal Lake South. But the Knights haven’t played anything like the level of competition that DePaul Prep would bring.

It showed in the first quarter. The Rams opened the game with 12-0 run. Senior forward Gus Donohue added two big three pointers in a row midway throw the first quarter opening an 18-2 advantage. It was 21-3 at the end of the quarter.

“I thought it was good to get the offense going. . . The guards got me the ball, [Kaneland] to help on our good guards and then I had wide open shots. I was happy that I could knock them down,” Donohue said.

The rest of the game was not much different. 43-12 at the half 60-22 after the third. Running clock and subs for both teams in the fourth with a 68-28 final.

DePaul Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt was complementary of Kaneland.

“Three and five are excellent players. Five [Kaneland senior forward Freddy Hassan] is a thousand-point scorer,” said Kleinschmidt.

“Three [Kaneland’s junior point guard Marshawn Cocroft] is an unbelievable guard, all state last year in 2A. We wanted to make sure they saw a man and a half. I know we're a good defensive of team, but if you play those two guys, one on one, they give people problems. They're thirty-two and one.”

Kaneland is good. They have good players and are well coached. A team can’t go 32-1 without that. It just seemed the Rams were just that much better. Dialed in. Ready and anxious to get back downstate.

Kleinschmidt was a little more forthcoming about the season than he usually is.

“There's a reason we play the schedule we play. We played eight rank teams in like twelve days. We got beat by [Brother] Rice at home by one. The next day within thirteen hours, H-F beat us by one. The kids were really down after that H-F game. I told them when we get down state this weekend, it's gonna be that weekend that got us down state.

“We had Benet at home. I thought it was important to start seniors like Gus and Jonus who helped us build the program. [Benet] took it to us. We gave them another day off and then they have been laser focused at practice and I think that's why. We are rested, we're tested and we’re prepped.

The DePaul Prep Rams have put together such a string of successful seasons that it hardly seems real. They have advanced to the state finals five of the last six years which had state finals, including this year. They won 3A last year and 2A the year before that. In 2022, they finished in third place in 2A. And in 2019, the finished in third place in 3A. Oh, and in the COVID year 2021, they won the non-IHSA Chipotle Tournament ending the season ranked No. 1.

The Rams will face Glenwood High School (24-9, 6-4) from Chatham, Illinois (population 14,525), in Thursday evening’s IHSA 3A semi-final at the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center. The Glenwood Titans finished fourth in the Central State Eight conference behind MacArthur, Springfield and Lanphier.

DePaul Prep Defeats St. Viator in Antioch 3A Sectional Semi-final

The DePaul Prep Rams (29-4) defeated the St. Viator Lions (24-10) 63-23 in the 3A Antioch Sectional semi-final Tuesday evening.

DePaul’s defense ruled the day. St. Viator was basically limited to perimeter shots in the first half scoring just ten points in the first half. The Rams held St. Viator’s best player, Henry Marshall, an MIT commit, to ten points of the Lions 23 total points.

The Rams move on to play #3 seed Deerfield (24-7) on Friday evening at 6:00 in Antioch. In a mild upset, Deerfield defeated #1 seed Lake Forest 33-31 in the sectional semi last night. Interestingly, St. Viator took Deerfield to overtime but lost to Deerfield 36-32 the day after Christmas. That was a long time ago so I am not sure it means much. Deerfield has no wins over ranked teams.

Kenwood Comes Back to Edge Simeon 58-56

After the DePaul Prep Rams took care of our St. Viator Lions 63-23 in the Antioch (my photos to follow), I jetted down to Hinsdale Central to catch the end of Kenwood v. Simeon.

I got there with about four minutes to go. Simeon lead by a point after having lost a seventeen point lead in the third quarter.

I was there mostly to see what happened rather than actually cover the game. I found a spot on the floor next to Sun-Times photographer Kirsten Stickney. She was working so I took a spot out of her way. She is a master at the reaction shot. I am not good at it despite working on it. I was kind of watching her work so I could learn from her. She never puts the camera down. She is always hunting for a shot. She was only using one camera with a 70-200mm lens.

I managed to get the obvious reaction shot of Kenwood’s Devin Cleveland after he dropped the game winning floater with 37.1 seconds left. Kirsten also got the shot but she also the shot of Devin taking the shot—the shot that is in the paper. The shot I got of that was obscured by a Simeon defender.

As for the game, I guess I just knew Kenwood would win. Jack Gleason said the same thing after the game. Kenwood just always wins close games at the end. Devin Cleveland, Amari Edwards and tj Seals are just money players. They know how to win.

These are shots from the final couple minutes and the overtime.

DePaul Prep and Lane Are Both Regional Champs

[Preview of my Inside—Booster article for this week.]

By Jack Lydon

It was a good night for basketball teams from Addison and Western. The seventh ranked DePaul Prep Rams (28-4) defeated the Carmel Corsairs (12-19) to win their tenth consecutive regional championship. Their immediate neighbor to the north, the Lane Tech Champions (20-11) defeated the New Trier Trevians 67-57 to win Lane’s first ever regional championship in school history.

With the number one seed in the 3A Antioch Sectional, DePaul Prep faced the number nine seed, Carmel Catholic from Mundelein. The Rams controlled the game from the outset. Their patented switching defense stymied Carmel at every turn. The Corsairs struggled to even get shots up. They only scored one point in the second quarter, and that was a free through in the closing seconds of the half.

Rams’s junior guard Rykan Woo, recently selected as second-team All-City by the Sun-Times, had nineteen points included all thirteen of the Rams’ first quarter points. Senior forward and DePaul University commit Jonas Johnson started the game and added eleven points. Point guard and Western Illinois commit Makai Kvamme had ten points.

“It’s great. I certainly don’t take it for granted,” Rams head coach Tom Kleinschmidt said of his teams’ having won ten straight IHSA Regional Championships.

“It the cultivation of a program, the support that we get from the school, the coaches and players that we have had, names that [our current players] may not know or may have only heard of that really build the program, guys like Chris Herrell and Raequan [Williams], David Holiday, Scotty Calderon, [Dan Lydon], all those guys that build the program,” Kleinschmidt added.

“[Those guys] took the program and gave it to Perry [Cowen], Perry gave it to these guys. It’s been awesome. I don’t take it for granted. Ten straight regionals. I remember the first three that we played in we didn’t win one. I was hoping to win one or two regionals.”

DePaul Prep senior Makai Kvamme, widely regarding as a top point guard in the area, reflected on his last home game in DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym. “I have played here for so long, developed such a great relationship with my teammates. It means the world to me being here with my teammates and coaches.”

As good of a night as it was for the Rams, it was that and more for the Lane Tech Champions. The number four seed Champions defeated the previously ranked and five seed New Trier Trevians in the Maine South regional final 67-57. This was Lane’s first regional championship in school history. The Champions join the ranks of venerable southside 2025 CPS regional champions such as Kenwood, Simeon, Whitney Young and Curie.

The Champions reprised their January 18th 60-47 victory over New Trier but it wasn’t without having to deal with adjustments by the Trevians.

“They really tried to negate [first team All-City senior center] Dalton [Scantlebury],” said Lane Tech head coach Nick LoGalbo.

“They were in a box and one [defense] the entire game. We did a good job in setting our other guys up, using Dalton’s strengths in other ways. Guys stepped up.”

New Trier junior forward Christopher Kirkpatrick led the Trevians attack with his deadly long range jumpers. Kirkpatrick managed 29 points but it would not be enough to overcome a 17-4 first quarter deficit.

“We got hot from three early. We made some big ones late. We got to a point where they were just daring us to shoot it. Drew Barolai hit a big one from the corner. That kind of broke the game open in the third quarter. We took a pretty good lead. We maintained that through the fourth. And that was it,” LoGablo said.

“I am super proud of our guys. We have been talking about trying to do this for a long time. I thought we had the team to do it. We set the schedule at the beginning of the year. We decided that we are going to go play everbody. We found a way to get ourselves here. Our guys were ready for the moment.”

DePaul Prep advances to face a somewhat overlooked St. Viator Lions team in the 3A Antioch Sectional semi-final on Tuesday. The Lions have put together an impressive 23-9 record year.

The Lane Tech Champions will face #12 Evanston (26-5)  in the 4A New Trier Sectional semi on Tuesday.

Other area teams also played in the regional championships. In 4A, #20 Whitney Young knocked off the other ranked area team #13 Lincoln Park 50-47.

Antioch Sequoits Fall to Notre Dame 55-46

The Antioch Sequoits (17-12, 11-1) lost to Notre Dame (16-15, 2-6) on Wednesday night at Notre Dame in the 3A Regional semi-final.

I thought maybe this might a 12-5 upset situation. The Dons jumped out to an early lead. In the third quarter, Sequoits coach Sean Connor dialed up the pressure with put on a 1-3-1 defense. It worked. Antioch battled back and had it to a four point game.

The 12-5 upset wasn’t going to happen. The Dons made their free throws and forced outside shots in the closing minute that did not fall.

Notre Dame advances to play Deerfield tonight for the Regional championship.

I got to see me first cousin twice removed, Logan Lennon, play for the Sequoits. Logan is the great great grandson of my grandfather and namesake, John J. Lydon, who came to the United States from Ireland in 1912. Logan is a freshman on the Antioch varsity and paid quite a bit in the game. I understand he is a gift football player. We’ll have to coach him up, getting in the gym shooting jumpers so we can be part of Sean Connor’s championship future in Antioch.

Lane Tech Handles Maine East 69-42 in 4A Regional Semi-final

I took a ride out to Maine South yesterday evening to see the Lane Tech Champions take on the Maine East Blue Demons. I fully expected the Champions to handle Maine East. I was just stopping in to check out Lane before I went over to Notre Dame to see them play Sean Connor’s Antioch Sequoits which I thought might be a 12-5 upset.

It was my first time being in the Maine South gym. It’s a nice enough gym but the light was poor. The color of the light was okay, just not enough light.

I arrived and the game had started already. Maine East had a lead at the end of the first quarter on the strength of some three point shooting. The Champions quickly put an end to that in the second quarter and used their overwhelming size to basically score at will in the paint in the second quarter. The Champions had a ten point lead at the half and never looked back winning 69-42.

Lane advances to Friday’s Regional final against New Trier at 6:00 p.m. The Trevians are favored to advance out of their own 4A sectional so the Champions will have their hands full. New Trier has been down state several times in recent years. They have some deadly outside shooters including Christopher Kirkpatrick and Daniel Houlihan.

Lane’s length will help with defending these shooters but I saw New Trier play #1 Kenwood and Kenwood struggled to defend the whole court against multiple shooters.

This regional final might the best one in the area. It would be a nice win for Lane. This is why they struggled through a killer schedule this year—to get ready for this game against a good team.

DePaul Prep Defeats Glenbard South in Sectional Semi-final

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Glenbard South Raiders 54-49 Tuesday evening at DePaul’s Prep’s Tom Winiecki Gym to win the 3A DePaul Prep Sectional semi-final game.

The Rams survived a 10-0 run by the Raiders at the start of the fourth quarter. The Raiders tied the game at 44 with 4:56 left. Free throws and defense in the closing minutes carried the Rams to victory.

It was an impressive win for DePaul Prep and their first year coach Corey Morgan. Glenbard South came into the game with a record of 26-3 overall and 12-1 in their conference earning them the #1 seed in the Sectional. Max Preps had the Raiders ranked #3 in 3A. Glenbard South had beaten the Rams 48-38 in the first game this season. The Rams turned the tables on the Raiders at the end of the season.

The Rams advance to play Montini on Thursday in the Sectional final.

DePaul Prep Takes Fourth Place in 3A Volleyball State Finals

[Preview of my story this week in Inside—Booster.]

By Jack Lydon

The DePaul Prep Rams (37-5) fell to the Prairie Ridge Wolves (38-3) in the IHSA 3A State third-place game Saturday afternoon in Normal. The Wolves edged the Rams in two sets, 22-25 and 23-25. The fourth-place finish in the State Finals is still the farthest that any DePaul Prep or Gordon Tech team has achieved in volleyball.

Despite going back and forth the whole way, DePaul Prep could not get more than a one-point lead at any point. Although the Rams were more at ease than they were in the semi-final, it came down to Prairie Ridge’s excellent play handling the Rams’ hits.

“It was tough. We wanted to protect the serve so anytime we got the ball back we wanted to keep the serve on our side. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Playing at this level, you know it’s going to be competitive volleyball. We just didn’t make that change quick enough,” said DePaul Prep head coach Caroline Gajzler.

DePaul’s semi-final match against Mahomet-Seymour was not much different. The Rams were right with the Bulldogs but a five-point run midway through the first set lifted the Bulldogs to a 25-18 first set. The Rams rallied bringing back to two but Mahomet pulled away slowly as the first set continued. In the second set of Friday’s semi-final, the Rams cleaned up their service errors but just couldn’t put together a run to overtake the Bulldogs.

Of the semi-final loss, DePaul Prep head coach Caroline Gajzler said, “Ultimately, we fell short in playing the game that we’ve been playing. A few back-to-back hitting errors here and there. Some missed connections with our setters.

“[Mahomet-Seymour, eventual 3A state champion] was definitely one of the most competitive teams that we have played this season. They played very clean tonight. They ran down most of the balls, most of the touches.”

The fourth-place finish was a little bittersweet for the DePaul Prep. The Rams definitely believed they could win. The bar is high at DePaul Prep. In just the past few years, the Rams have back-to-back state championships in boys’ basketball, a state championship and a second-place finish in boys and girls cross-country respectively and fourth place finish in baseball.

“Gratitude. Grateful. An honor to be these girls’ coach. The school has only been in existence for ten years and it goes back to Gordon Tech. To be a part of history, I am really blessed. I love these girls not only as athletes but as human beings. I am grateful to be part of their story. I can’t wait to see what the rest has for them. I am just really grateful to have the experience of being here,” Coach Gajzler said.

The 37-5 season for the Rams was the culmination for a four-year process for the team and the coaches.

“It feels surreal. Ever since we got here freshman year, it was always something that seemed so far our of reach. But this year and last year, it was finally attainable. And the fact that we got this far and beat a lot of teams that we worked really hard to beat to get here. All that really paid off,” said senior hitter Amira Boone.

“Our senior class said this is our year, this is our season. All of our programs are excelling. What we all worked for for four years is all coming together,” said senior Layla Christian.

“We called this our unicorn season. Taking eighteen on a roster we knew it was going to be something special. We just talked about it in the locker room. Being GCAC White champions, two-time tournament champions, regional champions, sectional champions, super-sectional champions, first time coming downstate, so the entire season has kind of been this high. Hard work paying off, these girls trusting the process, believing the coaching staff, and really stepping up their game and growing throughout four years. It’s really neat to be a part of that process.

“Everyone wanted it so bad. I am so proud of this team and how far we have come,” said senior Katie Syftestad.