Thursssday

Very few games to report on tonight, although Loyola beating Evanston 12-5 (boys) is probably an important score in terms of the GBN Sectional in five weeks. Loyola has stopped both New Trier and Evanston so...on March 30, they have to be considered the favorite to advance to state this year! Sorry, I just wanted to sound all ESPN right there as if this was like some major day.

Stagg beat Marian Catholic tonight in a battle of #19 vs #23, as Karina Kennedy scored 3 goals an drew 3 ejections in the win, Bridget Maul led MC with 2 goals and three kickouts drawn. Marian had a chance to tie the game as time expired, but Stagg goalie Lauren Buchler deflected the shot off the post to preserve the win for the Chargers.

And uhh...I have nothing else. Not yet at least. Maybe later.

Wedz

Seriously, when I am on Spring Break in a few weeks and everyone else is at school, I am definitely gonna let you know about how I woke up at 2pm and did nothing all day. I know we just passed Wednesday but I get asked to do all kinds of work in addition to teaching with this video stuff and yet I see teams are scheduled to play games at 10am which means there is polo going on and I can't go because of work. I honestly had to film an 18-minute video of some teacher doing math problems on an overhead to show in 8 classes and have to edit it and make a DVD out of it and to be honest and sorry math teachers and all but BOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRINGGGGG. I am mad about this. I'm moving on. Wait not yet, at least the weather has been crappy. Yeah.

As for polo, McAuley beat Ignatius 8-6 at home, the second straight win over the Wolfpack in five days. Close game though, once again.

Meanwhile, Lincoln-Way East had Lincoln-Way Central on the ropes in the third quarter with a 7-1 lead, as they scored 4 straight to start the second half after holding a 3-1 advantage at the break. The game looked all but over, but LWC outscored LWE 5-1 over the next three minutes to get to within two goals of the Griffins with seven minutes left to play. Then, in the fourth quarter, Emily Watson scored with :24 seconds left to cut the lead to one, but Central came up short (8-7) against their crosstown rival.

Woah, I just realized I might have missed Shamrock shakes at McDonalds this year. If anyone knows of a McD's that still has them let me know, considering I drive everywhere anyways. I totally forgot about that. I think I'll uhh...write more later.

Videos + Serious Info!!!

The site (YouTube) I am using to host the water polo videos is having some web issues, so you probably won't be able to access any videos for a short while. I am working on uploading to a different host site and hopefully will be able to put the new video into the Illpolo Blog if I get the chance. This site has the bar that shows the progress of the file, and it moves about a centimeter every five minutes which is painful to watch if you are the one behind-the-scene just sitting there trying to upload a video. It ranks right up there with watching paint dry, golf on TV, or any game of soccer. I guess watching the grass grow would probably also be on that list.

By the way, a few things to mention:
1) Parents/players can send scores or any other information. When I usually talk about Illpolo I always say WE instead of I whenever I can, because the site wouldn't be efficient without the support of parents and players in addition to coaches, as information is always hard to come by. As long as you aren't making up things like Joe Bagodonuts scored 44 goals for Evanston in a 234-2 win over New Trier you can feel free to pitch in and help whenever possible.

2) There is no staff for Illpolo. In the past, my favorite emails were "you and your staff should do this..." or "To the Illpolo.com Staff" - Quite honestly, I am sitting in a semi-studio, which is basically three computers with the main one in the middle and one on each side with all kinds of stuff like DVD burners and external hard drives and camcorders and DVDs and whatever you can think of in certain places....then you have pizza boxes strewn about and an Asteroids machine on the left but uhh...

3) Donations. Seriously, these keep the site running. I barely even glance at how much they are in dollar amounts, it is just the greatest gesture anyone can get for their work. At least at this point it is...as I usually just think of new and innovative ways to improve the site and the coverage based on donations...the more I get, the more I put into the site, since I absolutely never wanted to profit from this site. I have always strived to breakeven if possible, and I already hope that I can get an even better camera and more bandwidth so that I can just host my own videos and have the clearest picture possible with the footage I get. Especially for those college coaches who keep emailing.

4) DVDs. I might as well mention now, all of the video footage I have gets stored somewhere...I hope I can remember where, as I plan to put everything onto a DVD for purchase or whatever at midseason or postseason or something. It's all a new thing, but I have gotten a lot of emails about this and am trying to figure out the best way to get people DVDs of the footage of their son or daughter or friend or player or themselves. So if anyone has comments about this or suggestions, please let me know. In terms of price for the DVD, what would be expected, what should be included...I would love to know. I already plan for some sort of All-State or All-Illpolo type of video yearbook, but, I mean, that has to be a rare thing in high school sports so it is just another confusing thing for me to deal with.

5) T-Shirts. Would Illpolo.com or Baller T-shirts be cool? If anyone wants to help with this, let me know. I mean, I guess I am purposely throwing about 200 times more work at myself with this post but what the heck, who needs sleep?

More updates later if I can keep my eyes open. Doubtful. Peace.

Spring Break Tuesday

While everyone is enjoying their nice, relaxing Spring Break week, I'm stuck at school since we don't take the week off until mid-April. I am very jealous. Anyways, not much polo tonight, but I do know that Evanston defeated Oak Park 15-8 behind 5 goals from Tommy Doyle and 4 tallies by Tim Silkaitis. I also know that Neuqua Valley (girls) held off Sandburg at home in a game that come down to the final minute. Sam Cody scored two late goals for the Eagles to get them within one, but Wildcats goalie Kayley Provow made a powerplay save to preserve a one goal lead with 1:32 remaining and Lauren Quebbeman slammed the door shut with a goal in the final minute to seal the victory.

Fenwick (girls) video coming in probably 20 minutes. Maybe another one later. Depends how much I can do in two hours.

Site Problems

If you try to check the site and get a server error and it does not come up, try http://www.nolimitpolo.com and it should work temporarily while the site host fixes the domain problem. Yesterday the site had well over 5,000 hits and has used 56 GIGS of bandwidth in the last 28 days. Also, in a four year period, the site has over 1.5 million hits (I just checked this today while calling my host). Pretty cool.

Monday's Late Update

I would have updated earlier, but I pretty much fell asleep driving from Bolingbrook to Oak Park to Schaumburg to see Fenwick vs Ignatius. More the first drive from work to the game after stopping at Portillos...the food coma set in and I don't even remember going from Lagrange to Oak Park but I made it that's all that matters.

New video will be up in moments for the boys game...Fenwick dominated from the third minute of the 1st quarter until the end - Ignatius scored the first goal and from there the Baldwin/Barrett/Parolin trio took over.

Girls video will be ready at some point tomorrow...a lot of footage there for the defending champs finally (since I accidentally deleted the only game they played on Saturday as I wanted to hook them up with some video highlights but failed...). It was uhh...a long 15-hour event on Saturday.

Well, I could keep talking but, I have a school district video, Fenwick video, and three other movies to edit so if you need info or have a comment please send to illpolo@yahoo.com - or you could just be like HEY GREAT JOB, YOU ROCK DUDE or something like that if it doesn't take too much time. Actually, the first person who emails HEY GREAT JOB, YOU ROCK DUDE will get a free...I dunno; you get a free prize, it'll be something cool. I'll go refresh my email for like 20 minutes waiting too...

Video Footage

I am working on getting some videos on the site by early morning...maybe even when everyone either gets back from going out or from waking up after a long Saturday, but, it is tough to put this much footage online, not to mention how long it takes to edit this stuff. I honestly say this not for sympathy but because to record 374 minutes of water polo and then find the best clips and then add credits and music and then render them as videos and then upload them and then make a page for each video and then a link for each video and then watch them all again just to make sure I didn't screw up too much...okay, I'm asking for sympathy because it's almost midnight and I'm editing water polo videos and I also left the house at 6:30am to do this so I am willing to bet $210,000 that I spend 24 hours on water polo...I need to get a date or something.

And for the record, I am listening to the song "Lonely Day" by System of a Down as I write this. Just thought I would mention this, for what reason I have no clue.

Go UCONN and NOVA!

Yellow Colors

This is probably an obvious statement but, if you play water polo for a team that has a BRIGHT YELLOW COLOR surrounding your scheduled game on the scoreboard page for the week, it basically means I've checked every paper, school web site, prayed, or tried to guess what the score of the game was and who won but didn't feel like that would be accurate...what I am trying to say is PLEASE SEND YOUR SCORE IN SO I CAN UPDATE THE STANDINGS AND BE ACCURATE!!! There has to be one person out there with an email account...

Saturday Marathon

Water polo from 7am-10pm today at the Fenwick Tournament today, and here are some things that I remember thinking at some point:

-The nightcap between Mother McAuley turned out to be one of the best games of the tournament. Neuqua took a 4-2 lead at halftime on a shot from outside 9-meters, but McAuley tied it quickly in the second half. The score was tied at 5-5 late in the fourth quarter, but Lily Gonzalez scored the game-winner and the Macs won 6-5.

-St Ignatius, while losing twice, probably played their most impressive water polo under head coach Mike Cashman. They lost by one to Stevenson and by two to Mother McAuley, but both games basically came down to a game-winning goal from the opposition in the closing minutes.

-I'm going to have about 15 minutes worth of video from the tournament...that's condensed to saves, steals, and goals - basically I spent 15 hours for 15 minutes...which is about right but, I guess I proved to myself that I love water polo and love making movies or else I woulda been watching college basketball, eating Chili Fritos, and ordering 80's DVDs from Amazon.com. Trust me, I wrote a 36-page book thing about the NCAA tournament back when I was in junior high because I wanted to be a sports reporter/author and that was in my spare time over Spring Break, so to miss NCAA tournament games for polo today was like, a big thing.

-Quite honestly, there seemed like there was a game where every team was very impressive. Neuqua looked great in the 6-5 loss to McAuley, as they played some intense pressure defense to limit McAuley's chances. Yet McAuley got things done in the end in their game with Ignatius and just continue to be a team that knows how to win close games. Sandburg had their best game early in the morning to beat New Trier, then beat Evanston, then got tired and lost to Mundelein. Homewood-Flossmoor didn't get a win but you could see a major difference in their play in the fourth game of the day after playing against tough competition as a mostly young team. Fenwick...only got the chance to see them once, which was rather unfortunate for me, their parents, coaches, etc; but they dominated for that 28-minute span anyways, and I am sure I'll see them more on Monday against Ignatius.

-More posts after the jump. And I don't know what the jump is...I think it's like when there is a link that takes you to a page with more comments that don't fill up this page, but since I dont have that, I'm just gonna say that the jump or my jump is where I just post stuff so you can read it and then I add to it later. So yeah. I'm random. I'm rambling. Long day. 15 hours of polo. Yeah.

HELP

On my way out of work today, I was blindsided by someone running through a red light and I couldn't make the Fenwick Tournament tonight. So if anyone attending can send scores and updates, please let me know. I don't know what it says that I was probably worried more about not getting to see the games and get some good footage and info instead of the fact that my car was damaged and I was standing out in the snow and thankful I only had somewhat minor injuries to deal with. And now, as long as I can find a ride, I can make the games tomorrow, but if anyone happens to have an extra car or helicopter I could use that would be great. Or just a ride there. I guess I could bike there and use it as Ironman training, but I'd have to leave at 4am and take a lot of side roads and get there to watch games from 7am to 11pm, which is crazy in itself. So uhh, see ya there tomorrow...maybe.

Thursday Night

So far tonight a few games have come down to wire, including the Stagg girls upsetting Lincoln-Way Central in sudden death overtime...Tricia Ramsey gave Central the lead in the first overtime, but Stagg's Sophia Papanastos answered and tied the game at 7-7 after the second OT. Finally, Stagg's Lauren Reeder scored the game-winner in sudden death.

Conant boys also beat Buffalo Grove in the closing seconds of regulation, scoring with under 30 seconds to remain undefeated in the MSL.

And Duke decided not to show up for their game either and ruined my chances in one of the 26 pools I'm in. More later...

Fenwick 12 St Patrick 3

Fenwick was pretty much dominant tonight against St Patrick...they jumped out to an early lead and were up something like 5-2 at half, then John Barrett erupted for 4 straight goals and it was over from there. Fenwick led 10-2 at one point before Joe Przekota added a fourth quarter goal, but Tom Parolin and Luke Baldwin tallied once each in the final minutes to finish off thh Shamrocks 12-3.

Wednesday updates

New video for today comes from a game between Fremd and Buffalo Grove (girls) last night. I can't promise this type of thing for every night, but sadly I'm getting addicted to giving myself more work so, if the ends justify the means...

THOUGHTS
#3 St Pats is at #1 Fenwick in the big game of the evening...last night, Waubonsie Valley looked like the much better team beating Naperville Central 9-7 in Aurora; with those two favored to be the top two seeds at the sectional hosted at WV this season, things are looking good for the Warriors...York girls defeating Oak Park last night means that the Dukes are now in position to win the WSC...For girls, Marian travels to Richards as both teams will have something to prove after the Bulldogs beat Marian over the weekend and Richards is looking to remain one of the hottest teams in the state...Loyola at Oak Park and Naperville Central at Sandburg are interesting matchups on the boys side tonight...same can be said for Sandburg at Central and Oak Park at Ignatius on the girls schedule.

Midday Tuesday Update

Ballers for Week 2 are posted...a few more names will be added with a little extra research tonight. I even have one baller listed for Week 3 already...so I'm trying to stop underachieving in that department.

Standings are updated for now...keep in mind that the win/loss totals could be off by a game until I get a chance to sweep through all of the results when I finally get some down time (or if I do), so if the record is off by one it's probably not something to fret about as it will likely get fixed in a short period of time.

A few more ads/sponsors have been added to the main page...I'm still working on that LIVE! scoreboard link/banner...

Tuesday Morning

NEWS AND NOTES: New video footage from last night's thriller between Loyola and New Trier is added to the site...apparently now that the state tournament for boys' basketball is finished, the Sun Times and Tribune decided not to post any water polo scores online so, if you see an unreported score (and there are more than usual) please email those scores...still working (sadly) on Ballers for Week 2 and now for Week 3; I know who they are, I just have to type them in off of a written sheet...I'm adding a LIVE SCOREBOARD logo to the site today if possible, hopefully making it easier to locate a list of the day's games and scores that is easily visible...if you are interested in triathlon, check out the link on the left side of the main page to the Elkhart Lake Multisports organization; they put on one of the BEST races that I have ever participated in, and would be a great event for both beginners or veteran triathletes...have a great day!

Dilemma Time

My question for the night is this...all the video footage and, for that matter, all of the coverage is meant to be positive and reward everyone involved with the sport. However, while doing the video thing, there are times when a player might miss a chance to score at the end of the game, make a bad pass, turn the ball over, and on down the list of things that can go wrong when playing a sport, so...

...if it happens at the end of a close game, where the play determines the outcome of the game, what do I do? I'm pretty sure that this question sounds hypothetical to everyone but maybe the two teams involved from this evening, so I would just like to gauge the opinions of the people playing this sport or especially from the one's involved in this particular game. No message board planned for this blog so, email will have to do. illpolo@yahoo.com

Monday results

Reports are coming in as the night goes on, which includes an 9-8 win by Mother McAuley at home against #1 Fenwick.

Amy Jackson, Maggie Wood, and Lily Cortes each scored two goals for McAuley. Laura Perez, Lily Gonzales, and Elaine Ginger each added one goal.

Rixter led Fenwick with 4 goals and Keely Baldwin scored twice for Fenwick.

Also:

--Loyola beat New Trier 10-9 (boys) after fighting off a late Trevians rally on Monday night, while St Ignatius defeated Brother Rice 7-5 for the first time in school history.

--Rolling Meadows (boys) had their first ever win over Barrington 10-8 as John Heer scored 6 goals and Konrad Waksmundski made 18 saves.

--Prospect/Wheeling (girls) shut out Highland Park 5-0 led by the combined efforts of goalies Liz Dix and Lindsey Mills.

--Colleen Shaw scored 7 times and Jackie Sershon added 4 scores in Loyola's 14-5 win over Marian Catholic.

--Neuqua Valley beat Lockport 14-6 this evening, led by: Amanda Redek - 4 goals, Lauren Quebbeman - 3 goals, Kathleen Patterson - 2 goals

New Trier vs Loyola highlights coming soon...

The Illpolo Recap Show (Vol. 2)

New video has been added to the site, The Illpolo Recap Show (Vol. 2). This one focuses simply on the New Trier Tournament with footage from games between Sandburg-St Viator and the final game between Evanston-New Trier. Enjoy!

Monday Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates...I'm working on another video for the recap show's second edition that should be up later tonight. The main thing I am still working on is Ballers of the Week for the past seven days. I'll get to it once I get the chance at work.

BOYS
Tonight's big games...Loyola takes on New Trier in a boys' matchup that could be a preview of the GBN Sectionals (either semis or final game)...St Ignatius, who moved up to #10 in the rankings after beating Loyola will try to continue their impressive start against Brother Rice, who was without goalie Joe Frantz over the weekend at the Fenwick Tournament due to illness...Waubonsie Valley travels to Sandburg for what could be a very interesting matchup...Lyons is at Homewood-Flossmoor and Oak Park heads to Stevenson looking to upend the Patriots.

GIRLS
Fenwick beat Mother McAuley over the weekend at Mundelein's tournament, so now they will look to repeat that performance on the Southside at 5:30pm tonight...Fremd takes on Naperville North earlier in the evening, while Oak Park vs Hinsdale South could be a very entertaining WSC matchup...other potential close games include Homewood-Flossmoor at Lyons and Conant at Lake Forest.

So...new video later, Ballers 2 later, scores later, and maybe some nightly highlights depending on what game I attend later. LATER.

'Saturday'

There is a brand new video posted on the site, which follows the action from Saturday's tournaments. It's 5-minutes in length and will be interesting to say the least...it is edited like a movie intro and uses the theme from the movie Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il.

I should have the rest of the site updated by later this afternoon...still have to update standings, rankings, ballers, Super Ballers, etc.

Oh, also, I made the videos bigger on the site so they should be easier to watch...

'Saturday'

There is a brand new video posted on the site, which follows the action from Saturday's tournaments. It's 5-minutes in length and will be interesting to say the least...it is edited like a movie intro and uses the theme from the movie Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il.

I should have the rest of the site updated by later this afternoon...still have to update standings, rankings, ballers, Super Ballers, etc.

Saturday update

On the road between Naperville and Hinsdale/Fenwick, here is the latest update for today as I stop at this next red light:

At Fenwick, the Friars finished their side of the bracket 4-0 with a win over York. Earlier, St Pats and Naperville Central battled to a 9-9 tie while Central beat Brother Rice 12-10 and Pats takes on Rice momentarily. Lincoln-Way East looked impressive in a win over Oak Park and is currently taking on Evanston. And the Florida team, Winter Park, went 4-0 on the same side of the bracket with NC, Pats, and Rice...they scored in double figures in every game on their trip.

At Mundelein, Fenwick is one win away from winning the Shamrock Invitational (Evanston is ther final game). They beat Stevenson 9-6 and McAuley 15-9 so far. Stevenson then beat McAuley, while Mundelein knocked off Evanston in the tournament opener. Just a few more games to play out here.

At Hinsdale, Lyons will play for the title against Conant, who was yet to lose this year (but did tie Hinsdale Central earlier today. Hinsdale Central has somehow tied Andrew, Hoffman, and Conant in their three weekend games, which has to be some kind of record. I expect nothing less than a tie in their final game of the night. Conant beat Andrew as well, and should jump a few spots inthe rankings a few spots as a result (and more if they could beat Lyons.)

At Naperville Central, St Ignatius' hole set Nora Kennelly scored on an outside shot in sudden death overtime to give the Wolfpack a 9-8 win. Neither team could score in the first two overtime sessions, so a third OT was necessary. Ignatius led for most of the game but Central tied things late and both defenses took over from there. Kennelly scored with under thirty seconds left as well, or this game would have gone to the fourth OT. York beat Lyons for 3rd place while Katie Kleinhample scored with :02 left on the clock to help Vernon Hills beat Lake Forest 6-5 for 5th place.

At Lake County, Mundelein beat Stevenson for the second time this year 7-5. Lake Forest beat Barrington for third and Vernon Hills topped Libertyville for fifth place.

Loyola girls beat Waubonsie Valley 12-4 earlier this morning, and I am curently just waiting for results from tournaments at St Charles North, Bremen, and Maine East (girls tournaments) and the final 2-3 games at Fenwick, Hinsdale, and Mundelein.

Oops..gotta go; green light! More later...

Fenwick Tournament

Video highlights are now available on Illpolo.com from the first day of the Fenwick Tournament. Enjoy.

Stay tuned the rest of the day for updates, except for during the Duke game at noon. Full recaps by the end of the night or the beginning of Sunday, depending if I make it back without getting another ticket.

Friday night

I finally have the scores updated for this evening that have reported thus far. Long story on the delay; first the Sprint wireless connection wasn't working for most of the night, then I wasn't paying attention and completely missed the exit to get off 290 at Thorndale and ended up going all the way to 59 (and I live in Schaumburg...oops). Then in the rush to get home and update everything I saw the cop car pull out behind me, slowed, waited for it, waited, waited...then BOOM the berries flashed and I got a ticket and lost my license. So I SPED home after that anyways and got home to update and so...

Evanston won the last game at the Fenwick Tourney over Oak Park 6-5 as Tommy Grossinger scored with 0:14 remaining. Winter Park (FL) is GOOD and beat both Brother Rice and St Pats in somewhat convincing fashion. Fenwick had wins over Oak Park and Lincoln-Way East and Naperville Central beat Homewood-Flossmoor for the second time this week.

Elsewhere...well, I don't really know yet, but I should have more updates and some VIDEO footage soon.

Weekend Production Schedule

I'll just say one thing, if you see me this weekend, don't hesitate to give me some Gatorade (or gas money)...here is where the coverage will be:

Friday
4:30pm DRIVE TO FENWICK
5:40-10:00pm York-Evanston, NC-HF, Fenwick, LWE, Rice vs FL, OPRF-Evanston
10:00pm Drive and update site, update site and drive

Saturday
7:00am DRIVE TO HINSDALE CENTRAL
8:00am HC vs Hoffman
8:50am HS vs Lyons
9:40am Andrew vs Conant
10:30am DRIVE TO FENWICK
11:20am St Pats vs Naperville Central
12:15pm DRIVE TO NAPERVILLE
1:00pm 5th place game
1:50pm 3rd place game
2:40pm 1st place game
3:30pm DRIVE TO FENWICK
4:30pm St Pats vs Brother Rice
5:10pm OPRF vs York
6:00pm St Pats vs HF
7:00pm Drive home, update site
8:00pm Pass out

NCAA Tournament

Quite honestly, this has been the greatest Thursday that the NCAA Tournament has ever seen since I was a youngster following this thing...and yes, I wrote a 37-page book/story/whatever about the 1990 tournament after reading a John Feinstein book about the '88 season (I still have the transcripts just in case no one believes I would write about this stuff as a 12-year old)...so uhh, if you have scores and stuff just send them along and hopefully they will be posted tonight.

I wish Illinois water polo could have a tournament like this...

Seed the teams 1-16 and forget about regions and crap since everyone is within an hour of each other if we don't count McHenry or Bradley (no offense, just saying); single elimination.

The Illpolo Recap Show

The recap show video has been posted after being finalized and reviewed by a few of the Illpolo insiders. Three games and one tournament have been covered, and there should be additional footage coming soon from another tournament and games from Week 2.

Make sure to click the play button on the middle of the picture, as it will allow you to watch the video directly from the Illpolo.com site, otherwise you will be taken to the youtube.com page to watch it there. Also, the quality of the video isn't great due to the file size issue, but the actual DVD footage is much clearer, larger, and an overall better picture.

Enjoy.

Nitpicking

One thing that makes me mad when I'm trying to get scores is how biased the newspaper coverage is of certain sports. I'll start by saying that my favorite sports personally are in order: NFL, NCAA Basketball, MLB, NCAA Football, and from there just throw the rest in a pile and pick one and that probably would include water polo but...

...when there are IHSA Sectional/Supersectional basketball games there is this huge rush to post the scores and updates and what not so I can check the Tribune site at 8:00pm and magically the polo scores are posted and I can update the site. The next day, when no basketball is to be played, fuhhgettabouttit, they aren't updating the site or the scores until well after midnight so the random Illpolo guy can't go to bed until after that happens.

Now, I understand that some sports are more popular or bigger "money makers" than others but, the writers on these sites like Barry Tempkin and Bob Frisk aren't exactly Woodward and Bernstein and I don't see much award-winning journalism coming from them at all...with Tempkin being the more biased of two in the teams that he favors.

The sad thing is that you can get much more information about water polo from the Daily Herald or the Daily Southtown than you can ever hope for from the SunTimes or the Tribune. If these publications would realize that there are more than two sports being played at the high school level they might even gain some readers or subscribers but, in the meantime, they'll stick to trying to act like know-it-all's with shoddy and predictable coverage of the two major sports which makes them come off as very amateur in their reporting. And currently it's now 11pm, 3 hours after when they reported scores last night, and they can't be bothered to update things because there is no basketball to be played...

(By the way, I wouldn't be so fired up about this if someone from the random schools each night would take the time, approximately 27.3 seconds, to send me an email with the score of the game if they don't see it listed on the site)

...and yes, I plan to sit here and click reload on the Tribune web site until they update this just so I can reference how many hours basketball coverage gets over water polo and other "minor" sports as they would call them.

(and yes, I'm still mad that the SunTimes reporter who used my pen because the one she had ran out of ink at state last year didn't credit me for my assistance in her article, even though she used half or 3/4 of her material from my site all year long anyways)

...and with that note, I'm gonna find something better to do at 11pm anyways and just check back at midnight, and if they haven't updated things at the Trib by then, I'm burning my neighbors Cubs flag.

Wednesday Evening

So far tonight, St Ignatius (boys) had their biggest win in recent years as they shut down Loyola 7-2 at home. Matt Middleton scored three goals, Brian Jucas had two, and Matt Noonan had a strong defensive effort to help the Wolfpack get the win. Meanwhile, the Ignatius girls defeated Loyola in Wilmette 14-5.

Sandburg also beat Oak Park (boys) 18-8 and the Sandburg girls knocked off Waubonsie Valley 16-3. And Mundelein had another amazing defensive effort in smashing New Trier 11-1 at home. And for more news...

Slow updates
There has been a lack of posts here for a day...due to the fact that I sleep about 3 hours a night and have given up Red Bull and other caffeine drinks so I don't have that to fall back on. End result...I woke up an hour and a half late this morning and work is 45 minutes away so that could be a problem. But, instead of rushing, I just sat down and spent 5 quick minutes updating scores so that you, the reader, had all the information by the time you have your morning coffee (I'm jealous of the caffeine) or you're in 1st period class. All ended up well...the site was updated and no one noticed I was gone or that I slipped in the side door (and I have 1st period free so it didn't matter much anyways).

The Illpolo Recap Show
Momentarily, I will be adding a 4-minute recap/highlight show filled with video footage from four games with music, voiceover, etc. The footage you see now is likely to ve streaming video, which means that all you need to do is click on the still-frame picture and it will play as fast as your Internet connection will allow it...no need to download the footage and no need to wait for anything. This is a new feature so obviously there could be a few bugs but it should make for a pretty cool new addition to the site. More to come soon about possible DVD production of this stuff because, as I imagine, there aren't too many water polo highlight shows anywhere in the US or anywhere else.

Happy Gilmore Trivia

Billy Doerrer of St Ignatius wins the "I hear that asteroids machine callin' my name from the game room" trivia question/movie quote contest thing for the evening. The Wolfpack's goalie was a Second Team All-Sectional selection last season and played a major role in this weekend's Conant Tournament title and 4-0 tourney record.

Nice work Billy!

Sectional Analysis

After posting all of this information that was loaded onto the IHSA site within the hour, everything really looks the same other than a few minor changes due to new teams joining sectionals and moving a couple of teams to a different site. The BIGGEST change is that EVANSTON's girls move from the GBN Sectional to the IGNATIUS Sectional, which means that those sites look like this:

GBN - Loyola, New Trier, Viator, P/W (instead of having 5 strong teams competing)
IGNATIUS - Ignatius, Evanston, Latin (add a tougher third team to the mix)

Otherwise, Rolling Meadows moved from the Fenwick/York area site to the MSL's Palatine Sectional and that's all I could tell as I am headed out to cover a few games this evening.

Keep in mind that the way the sectionals are listed on the site are NOT the way the state pairings would be...so who knows why the boys and girls lists are in different order. This drawing is VERY important and is usually done in early APRIL.

That's about it for now with this stuff...there really isn't much that changes the overall landscape of the season from previous years with these assignments other than the "less than stellar" facility choices (in my opinion) and the Evanston switch for the girls side.

Hope this covers all the bases for today's sectional announcements...I gotta get outta here, I hear that Asteroids machine callin' my name from the game room. (The first person who knows what movie that quote is from on the site and emails illpolo@yahoo.com gets mentioned on the site!!!)

Girls Sectionals

WAUBONSIE - WV, NC, NN, NV, STC East, STC North, Hinsdale South, Hinsdale Central
TBA - Curie, Maria, McAuley, Lyons, Bremen, Richards, Sandburg, Stagg
YORK - Fenwick, Morton, Elk Grove, York, OPRF, R-B
LWC - Bradley, Marian, H-F, LWE, Lockport, LWC, Andrew
GBN - Hersey, Viator, GBS, GBN, Maine East, Prospect/Wheeling, Loyola, New Trier
PALATINE - Barrington, BG, Conant, Hoffman, Fremd, Palatine, Meadows, Schaumburg
VERNON HILLS - Deerfield, HP, Lake Forest, Libertyville, Stevenson, Mundelein, VH
UIC - Lane, Latin, Northside, Ignatius, Young, Evanston

Boys Sectional Assignments

GBN-Hersey, Viator, Evanston, GBN, GBS, Maine East, Prospect/Wheeling, Loyola, New Trier
UIC-Latin, Lane, Lincoln Park, Mather, Northside, Roosevelt, Ignatius, Von Stueben, Young
VERNON HILLS-Deerfield, HP, Lake Forest, Libertyville, Stevenson, McHenry, Mundelein, VH
YORK-Morton, Foreman, St Pats, Elk Grove, Fenwick, OPRF, York, R-B
WAUBONSIE - WV, NC, NN, NV, STC East, STC North, Hinsdale Central, Hinsdale South
LWC - LWC, LWE, Bradley, H-F, Lockport, Bremen, Andrew
PALATINE - Barrington, BG, Conant, Hoffman, Fremd, Palatine, Meadows, Schaumburg
TBA - Rice, Curie, Julian, Mt Carmel, St Rita, Lyons, Sandburg, Stagg

Sectional Sites Update

The IHSA changed their site shortly after posting the original sites earlier today...it now lists a bunch of different schools to include:

Waubonsie Valley
Ignatius
York
Lincoln-Way Central
Glenbrook North
TBA
Palatine
Vernon Hills

...which is completely different than what they had listed as it almost seemed like they posted the 2005 assignments before fixing them. Waubonsie (shallow-deep) replaces Neuqua, York replaces Fenwick (which makes it a 6-lane pool instead of 8 for this sectional, and Palatine still hosts the MSL schools even though it is 6 lanes and somewhat shallow-deep instead of using Barrington which is all-deep and 8 lanes...and the TBA sectional which was held at Lyons (shallow-deep) last year is probably going to remain a shallow-deep pool. Confusing.

Up next are the assignments.

Sunday notes, Part I (finally...)

Some notes while I ask ya'll to please donate so I can order HBO to watch the Sopranos instead of trying to find a friend who I just "happen" to need to visit at 8pm on a Sunday night...

Updated Rankings
Based on some of the games this week, the rankings have shifted somewhat...though this early in the year it probably doesn't mean a lot. It's pretty simple in some situations; more difficult in others...Evanston girls beat New Trier and Viator but lost to Sandburg, who also lost to New Trier, who lost to Latin, but Loyola lost to Viator who lost to all three teams at the NT Tourney (Evanston, NT, Sandburg) and it's just a toss-up for the part. A few teams won a lot of games in the first week but haven't played anyone all that difficult while a couple other teams are without a player or two OR have played against teams that are ranked in the Top 10 so...check the rankings out or something.

All-Tournament Teams
From Northside Prep (girls)
Bridget Maul - Marian Catholic
Emily Hatz - York
Mary O'Shea - Hinsdale South
Heather Stephenson - Hinsdale South
Karen Achtien - York
Kelly Smith - York
Katie Moore - Marian
Jamie Holtz- Marian Catholic
Kathy Kurda - Northside Prep
Annie Anderson - Marian Catholic
Hannah Vatch - York

From Loyola (girls)
Colleen Shaw - Loyola
Kaitlin Kulick - Fremd
Sarah O'Toole - Hersey
Stephanie Goers - Hersey
Indre Lauritis - Fremd
Samantha Shehan - Loyola
Courtney Muntean - Loyola

Saturday Night Report

Returning from the New Trier Tournament, I was very impressed with the level of play from all four teams involved (Evanston, New Trier, Sandburg, St Viator). Each school looked like a Top 10 team in the state this year. Evanston ended up winning the tournament (if margin of victory was the tiebreaker) after holding off New Trier in the last game of the night that was very close from start to finish. Sandburg controlled the tempo in their game against St Viator, yet the Lions were hanging around towards the end of the game. And honestly in the final game, Evanston and New Trier provided a blueprint for how to play water polo and how to coach water polo in almost every instance of the game...they could play each other 2-3 more times this year and those have to be labeled as "can't miss" games.

Tournament Winners
The following teams ended up victorious on the first weekend of water polo tournament action:

BOYS
Conant Tourney-St Ignatius
Waubonsie Tourney-Naperville Central
GBS Tourney-Loyola
St Rita-St Rita

GIRLS
Neuqua Tourney-Naperville Central
New Trier Tourney-Evanston
Northside Tourney-York
Loyola Tourney-Loyola

Still waiting for results from Highland Park (girls)

Stay tuned...
The following items should be added by the end of Sunday as I try to find somewhere to watch The Sopranos since I don't have HBO:

-Updated rankings
-Players to Watch (probably will have a cooler name; will include anyone NOT on the All-Ill teams)
-Illpolo TV Show (this is a maybe...need to edit footage from six games, voiceover, etc.)
-Super Ballers 1 and updated Ballers of the Week list

I'm out...have an indoor triathlon to race in tomorrow very early so look for more updates starting mid-afternoon on Sunday.

Saturday Morning Report

Spending the morning at Neuqua Valley for the girls tournament and the evening at New Trier for their girls tournament. Momentarily, there should be a highlight clip from the Waubonsie Valley-Naperville North game, where both teams traded half court shots in the closing seconds...Sarah Fitch (NN) tied the score with just under 10 seconds remaining and Bailey Gucinski (WV) hit the game-winner just seconds later. Otherwise, Naperville Central has pretty much dominated the rest of the action here, jumping to an 8-1 lead over Neuqua before winning 8-5 and also beat Waubonsie Valley 10-1.

The New Trier Tournament is loaded with these teams: St Viator (beat Loyola this week), Sandburg, Evanston, and New Trier. Should be a tough set of games.

Other notes
-Conant and St Ignatius look like they will meet for the Conant Tournament championship (boys) later this afternoon IGNATIUS LATER WON 8-5
-Loyola will likely play Glenbrook South for the GBS Tournament final (boys)
-Naperville Central went 3-0 at the Waubonsie Tournament (boys)

Mundelein 11 Rolling Meadows 7 (girls)
Earlier today, Rolling Meadows made things difficult for Mundelein, building a 7-3 halftime lead, but the Mustangs went on an 8-0 run in the second half to earn a quality road win. With the score tied at 3-3 heading into the second period, the trio of Kendall Hylton, Kari Monaghan, and Colleen Briggs all scored during a 4-0 run before the half for Meadows, who were looking to pull off the early season upset. However, the Mundelein defense stepped up in the second half and did not allow a goal, while Siobhan Larsen led the comeback with four goals and Bree Longfield added three scores in the win. Lauren Nelson also scored twice for Mundelein. Briggs had three tallies for Rolling Meadows, while Monaghan and Hylton each scored twice in the loss.

Tournament Opening
Sandburg is looking for one boys team to fill an opening in their tournament scheduled for April 14-15. Four games will be scheduled on that weekend per team. Contact Sandburg head coach Jim Caliendo at jcaliendo@D230.ORG for more information.

Thursday night (3/9/06)

5:23am
And yes I realize it's Friday by now but seriously, here is the Sun-Times Top 5 teams...

BOYS
1. Fenwick: Lost a few seniors but have solid power
2. St. Patrick: Return four of seven hard workers
3. Mundelein: Everyone on varsity is back, expecting greatness
4. Naperville Central: Lost four big bodies but gave Fenwick a scare in 2005
5. Brother Rice: Offense will change with younger team, return three starters

Uhh...where is Latin in there? They finished in 3rd place two years ago, lost to runner-up Naperville Central in the quarterfinals last year, and return basically EVERYONE to their team but one starter, yet they couldn't crack the Top 5??? Otherwise it's a pretty basic preview and listing of top players at http://www.chicagosuntimes.com/output/prep/cst-spt-polo10.html.

4:01am
Woah...I just saw some of the Daily Herald's preseason previews and they actually printed this type of thing for each team (instead of me using area papers as a source, they are using Illpolo...wild):

Hinsdale Central

Coach: Dan Otahal (fourth year, 13-41).

Last year: 8-17, lost to Naperville North in first round of 2005 sectionals.

Illpolo.com 2006 preseason rank: 34.

3:56am
Stevenson's girls improving to 2-0 with an 18-7 win over rival Mundelein. The Patriots had their early lead cut to 8-5 at halftime, but they pulled away early in the second half as Terri Bukofzer scored 11 goals.

9:20pm
Ava!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ava Caffarini of Lincoln-Way Central scored 7 tonight and 6 goals in the last game which means that she has scored 13 goals this year in two games and I am good at Math. And she is good at water polo.

9:09pm
LATIN!!! #2 in my preseason poll and for good reason...the Romans beat New Trier 12-5 with Jordan Himmel scoring a whopping 10 goals in the win and yes I said WHOPPING. Close game early, with the score tied at 2-2 after the first quarter, but Himmel came to life and Latin jumped to a 7-2 lead en route to a 12-5 win. Charlie Gentles scored twice for the Trevians while Rick Farmer added three goals in the loss.

8:44pm
Mundelein beat Stevenson 11-7 tonight...the Mustangs led 9-1 at halftime before the bench came in; a few players missing for each team but the early indications are that Mundelein is GOOD.


7:41pm
I'm writing whatever in this blog tonight so if you have scores, comments, or whatever send them along to illpolo@yahoo.com and they will be of great use...if you don't see your team's score on the site and the game actually happened send it along; it's much easier for me than looking at the Daily Announcements on the Riverside-Brookfield and Highland Park school web sites hoping they posted the score there; I run the announcements at my school and I would definitely post the scores somewhere so the website guy could find them; my motto should be, if you don't see it, I don't know it...I'll be back, I need to order a pizza.

7:25pm
More from the HF-Rita game...Rita led 2-0 early but HF cut the lead to 3-2 and then took a 5-3 at halftime. Rita tied the score at 6-6 as Bob Conrath scored from set with 1:02 left at the end of the third quarter. Finally, with the score tied at 9-9, HF's Jack Oliver scored his second goal of the period with 0:34 seconds left and did not allow a shot in the final moments to win 10-9. Mike Disabato led the Vikings with 5 goals while Oliver (2 goals) scored the game-winner. Conrath led St Rita with 5 goals.

7:10pm
Hoffman Estates head coach Chris Fetterman won the first game of his career tonight over Rolling Meadows 8-4, then proceeded to celebrate by cancelling practice for his team the next night because they had a lackluster effort and a poor attitude after the game. Teach 'em a lesson, that's what I like to hear! (By the way, Chris also released his first rap album last summer as Dr. Detroit under my record label and also plays either bass or drums in the local rock band Temporary Solution...as if you wanted to know).

6:20pm
So far on Thursday night, Conant had no problem with Hersey 18-8 in a matchup between Conant senior Brett Krahn and Hersey's Chris Boudart.

Also, Homewood-Flossmoor had an impressive win over St Rita 10-9, as a young Vikings team has been impressive early on this season. More updates as we get scores from games between Mundelein-Stevenson, Latin-New Trier, and many others as the night goes on.

Mundelein 9 Evanston 1 + Video HIghlights

Mundelein dominated Evanston on both sides of the pool tonigh to improve to 2-0 in the early stages of the 2006 season. The Wildkits were unable to generate much offense, with Ben McBratney scoring their lone goal against Tyler Rayomme on a powerplay situation in the second quarter.

Andrew Peterson, playing in the field the entire game, scored four goals to lead the Mustangs, Brandon Schawel and Ricky Lukacs each added a pair, and Sean Larsen also found the back of the net once. Mundelein led 4-0 at one point and took a 5-1 lead into halftime before closing the door on the Wildkits with four straight second half goals.

-------
I'm working on coming up with a highlight package focusing on certain games and tournaments each week. Expect the first edition sometime on Friday showcasing Stevenson-McAuley, Evanston-Mundelein, and whatever game I attend on Thursday night.

Stevenson 10 McAuley 6 (GIRLS)

Stevenson outlasted Mother McAuley 10-6 on Tuesday night behind 4 goals from Terri Bukofzer. Aubrey Wanland added two scores while Rebecca Shopiro, Jesse Shopiro, Sally Heideman, and Megan Pagano each tallied one goal for the Patriots.

The Macs were led by Maggie Wood's two scores, while Lily Cortez, Laura Perez, Lily Gonzalez and Amy Jackson all scored once in the loss.

Stevenson jumped out to a 2-0 lead and led 3-1 late in the second period, but back-to-back goals by the Mighty Macs evened the score at halftime. The Patriots owned the third quarter, as Heideman, Bukofzer, and Rebecca Shopiro scored to make the lead 6-3 heading to the final frame. After quick g goals by Wanland and Bukofzer made the score 8-3, Wood scored then assisted Lily Cortez on a powerplay goal to cut the Patriots' advantage to 8-5. Wood then scored after a steal to get the Mighty Macs to within 8-6, but a steal and backhand goal by Bukofzer and a counterattack goal by Jesse Shopiro clinched a 10-6 victory for Stevenson.

More scores after the jump.

The season is underway!

Prospect/Wheeling started the season off with an 8-6 win over Hoffman Estates on Monday night. Early reports were that the game was within one heading into the homestretch, but the Wild Knights were able to pull away despite a solid effort in goal by Hawks' netminder Jim Ashbrook. Andrew Bengsten had a great game for Prospect/Wheeling and led them to the season opening victory.

Still waiting for word on the two other games scheduled for this evening. After that, the season gets rolling with 14 boys games and 15 girls games on Tuesday night. Oak Park vs Lyons (boys and girls games) appears to be the big WSC matchup for the evening, while the #11 Latin girls play at #1 Fenwick and in a huge early season game, #2 Stevenson takes on #3 Mother McAuley in Lincolnshire at 5:00pm.

I really love this blog. Easy to frequent notes from anywhere without having to jump through hoops, so I hope everyone is getting used to it.

SCHEDULES

As of around 4:00am this morning, 98.2% of the schedules for the 2006 season have been added to the site. Started at at 2:00pm on Sunday afternoon and took a dinner break but otherwise worked straight through until early Monday morning. I'm very thankful for having a day off from work today!

Anyways, I am missing a few games from a handful of teams. Actually, I am missing one boys game and one girls game that I know of...Neuqua Valley vs St Charles North...so if anyone knows if/when/where those games are being played, please email.

I also need the rest of the schedules for the following teams: Morgan Park, Mather, Roosevelt, Kenwood, Foreman, Curie, Lincoln Park, Von Steuben.

The only other missing elements are teams entered in tournaments and those schedules. If you have a tournament schedule and/or list of teams entered for later in the year, please email.

If anything is incorrect (I get almost all of the schedules by searching for them online), please email.

And finally, if you want to take over responsibility for doing the schedules for next year, PLEASE EMAIL :)

Daily Schedule

This next post will hopefully help with a bunch of things in the next few weeks; when will the site be updated, why isn't it being updated at this very moment, when can we expect updated scores, what does it take to do the site as ONE PERSON without any sort of staff without getting paid, and well...the people who have been helping with info over the past few years along with myself thought it would be funny if I listed what I do on a daily basis to run www.illpolo.com. The 2006 edition:

5:00am Wake, check scores, updates scores...
5:15am Shower, dress, breakfast,
5:30am Recheck scores in case one of the papers are slacking...
6:00am Drive to work (in Bolingbrook, from Schaumburg)
6:50am Check morning scores, update site
7:30am Update standings, schedules, scores, highlights, reports.
8:20am Show morning news show at school
8:25am TV/Movie Production
9:10am Keyboarding class
10:10am Update news and scores, check email, edit film, plan game attendance, directions, etc.
11:00am Lunch, continuous updating and emails
12:10pm Update site for tonight's games; news reports, previews, etc.
1:00pm TV/Movie Production
2:00pm Record televison news show after school, edit, finalize next day's work
2:45pm Edit class videos and footage, edit water polo footage
3:30pm Drive to games to report for the evening
5:00pm Arrive at game to report, film, interview, update, etc. (or 4:30pm)
7:00pm Drive home, update scores at stoplights, etc.
7:45pm Finish updating scores, news, etc. from home
8:00pm Rec center to swim, bike, run, lift or a combo of these (training for Ironman Wisconsin)
10:00pm Dinner, update scores and news, download video footage, begin editing process
11:30pm Return emails, finalize site for the evening
12:00am Question if this is all worth it while staring at a wall...
12:30am Start drifting to sleep but stay awake just in case I get another score report to update.
1:00am Sleep (if necessary)
5:00am Repeat process