LATE SEASON CHRONICLES

With a shortage of talented young coaches in the city presently, we’ve become awfully fixated on our next wave of up & coming bench coaches. It was so refreshing earlier in the week to take in a city first round play-off match-up between Red-Division Hyde Park Academy and upstart Walter Payton. The visiting Grizzlies proceeded to knock off Hyde Park in a contest that featured two of the city’s better young guys, Payton’s Quinn Peterson & Hyde Pk’s Reggie Bates, both have exhibited enormous amount of potential leading, preparing, & managing their respective programs. As they continue to grow in building their craft & profile, a College setting one day may be in the cards.

SOME DANGEROUS TEAMS/PROGRAMS COULD PREVAIL HEADING INTO THE STATE PLAYOFFS IN A FEW WEEKS. THIS OVERLOOKED CAST HASN’T RECEIVED A TON OF FANFARE, BUT MUCH RECOGNITION COULD BE ARRIVING SOON:

*St. Laurence *Alton *Lincoln Park

*York *Cary-Grove *Kankakee

*Chicago Corliss *Richards

Farragut’s hot shooting guard, Aaron Strong has strung together several eye-popping outings in recent weeks. Strong, at six-foot one combo averages close to 23 points per game, just landed an offer from Detroit Mercy and is on course to qualify academically, according to his Coach Will Nelson. Aaron has always possessed offensive capabilities, he’s one of the area’s top outside marksmen. In our last issue we listed Aaron in the Junior College lumping, in fact that will not be his route. His play this season has indicated he could be a sleeper recruit.

Several un-song prospects have opted to get their College decisions out the way before the season ended, which indicates maturity & understanding of where they fit in a program. Highly sought by many small Colleges, Geneva’s sparkling general, Jack McDonald has given Augustana a verbal. McDonald has his team in full contention, and he should receive some All-State recognition. Bloomington Catholic’s 5-11 point-guard, Luke Yoder turned away numerous Division 1 & 2 opportunities, he recently committed to Illinois Wesleyan. Yoder stated he wanted a situation where he fit in socially, academically, & athletically. I wish more players took on that kind of approach while sorting through College choices. We absolutely enjoy watching another little-known prospect, Zach Toussaint who hoops at Johnsburg. This kid has already amassed over 278 career three-pointers and has recorded over 2,000 points, that’s no small achievement for the 5-11 guard who has signed with Division II West Texas A&M. Zach currently averages 24.9 per outing.