Love you buddy! Can’t wait to see your guy play college ball this fall! Time flies. What a terrific young man!
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Loyola at Marist
- Thread starter BornNRazed
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It's very possible. Defensively we are set for the next 2 years...due to injuries and people opting out MC had 4 Soph's start on defense and are returning 3 more current juniors that started and a couple more sophs that got brought up with a lot of playing time....Asher Tomaninski (I think thats his last name) had a great Spring as a Soph starting on the D-Line.....Offensively is the question. Enzo De Rosa, Jared Bossie and a Darrion Dupree (just had a huge freshman year) will give MC major weapons at RB/Slot....Joey Thompson at....well....not really sure he just kind of roams but he had a real big spring season....had 16 catches for 160 yards vs BR. Tucker Miller is a big unknown as he got hurt before the Spring and never recovered but I hear he's a weapon....Boersma is a D1 guy on the o-line and even though we lose remaining 4 starters it a position we are really deep at. But we need someone at the helm at QB....Rogers is hurt, return unknown...Blainey Dowling is the Soph is talented and tough as nails but needs a ton of extra work over the summer. Stay tuned!
I have to agree with you. My first question is, were all of the HS teams fielding the same players this spring who would have played last fall? I would have to think, the answer to that is no. Just a couple players not playing in the spring could have made a big difference. But, I would guess most of them played.
The other thing, to me, is this. I don't think it's fair to even compare any team that went 6-0 to teams that had to go through 14 games to win a state championship. Why would anyone want to compare a team that played what amounted to 43% of the season to other successful teams that played 100% of it?
This is the same argument I make when people say the Dodgers WS win is equal to all the others. No, it isn't.
If you want to make a comparison of the 6-0 teams this spring to others teams over the first six weeks of their fall seasons, fine, that's acceptable. But, you gotta play all 14 in my mind. I will give you an example of what I mean. In 2004 Lockport went through the regular season 9-0. They had the number one ranking the whole way, from pre-season to the end of the regular season and into the first round of the playoffs. Many people here thought that team was as good or better than the other 2 state champion teams they had fielded in recent years.
So, what happened in round one of the playoffs that year? LWE came to Lockport and beat them and eliminated them from the playoffs. I didn't know a single person who would have predicted that. But, if the season had ended after 9 games, you would have had people saying Lockport was the best team in the state and maybe ever. The playoffs took care of that thought.
Someone on the board recently posted, this spring season just wasn't the same. Enthusiasm on this board wasn't the same either. I agree with that. We knew it wouldn't be the same. But, no playoffs or anything pretty much makes some of it pointless. Then there were some who said, it's better than nothing. That is a true statement. But, people who settle for "better than nothing," will always end up with something that is better...only...than nothing.
I wouldn't say anyone "settled" for "better than nothing", nobody really had a choice, but to accept what was given and make the most of it. Those of us that had to actually go through this on a personal level likely understand it more than those that were just missing out on High School football.
Actually to add to your comment, I think declaring a 6-0 fb team one of the GOATS is akin to declaring the Montreal Expos one of the GOATS because they were an MLB best 73-40 (on place to win 100 games) when 1994 season ended with a strike so no playoffs of any sort to determine a champion.
I love an Expos hat though, it may be the GOAT.
First of all, I think it is an accepted fact that high schools in Illinois could have played football last fall. Especially when you look at the fact that all the states that border Illinois did.
Second, you really aren't seeing the big picture here. We most definitely did have a choice. Oh, we had a choice. But that choice came in November of 2018 and the people of Illinois failed miserably in making that choice. Instead of putting a leader in who would have moved heaven and earth to make sure fall sports were played, we got a guy seeking nothing more than power who doesn't give a crap about kids or people in general.
No doubt in my mind, this guy had no intention of having HS football last fall, no matter what he said. It was, "wait and see" till it was too late to have "wait and see." People complained and he turned a deaf ear to it all in the pursuit of power. People showed him science. But because it wasn't science he liked, he pushed it to the side.
The guy who came before the fat boy may not have been the best ever. But, I would bet HS football would have been played last fall if he was in command.
Yes, we definitely did have a choice. The choice was made and everyone ended up getting "better than nothing" this spring.
So your big picture has a Magic Mirror in it? How would anyone, for or against Pritzker, know we were headed for a pandemic? and that the country was going to be split on how to handle it.
While I don't disagree with anything after that, nobody had any idea the governor was going to be put in a position to make decision about High School sports in 2020/21.
Now, being someone that had to travel around the Midwest to meet with coaches (on my dime) for recruiting, made continuous calls to politicians, superintendents, coaches, AD's, principals, the IHSA and even put some friendships on the line by calling out My own kids coaches (of which some live on my block and are my friends) to become more vocal and stand up for the athletes, I can assure you we didn't settle. We didn't have a choice.
Weren't you one of the people defending some of the "mandates" in the fall? I seem to remember you discussing the people you knew at Rush Copley and how bad everything was at the time with rising numbers and few hospital beds.
While I don't disagree with anything after that, nobody had any idea the governor was going to be put in a position to make decision about High School sports in 2020/21.
Now, being someone that had to travel around the Midwest to meet with coaches (on my dime) for recruiting, made continuous calls to politicians, superintendents, coaches, AD's, principals, the IHSA and even put some friendships on the line by calling out My own kids coaches (of which some live on my block and are my friends) to become more vocal and stand up for the athletes, I can assure you we didn't settle. We didn't have a choice.
Weren't you one of the people defending some of the "mandates" in the fall? I seem to remember you discussing the people you knew at Rush Copley and how bad everything was at the time with rising numbers and few hospital beds.
Not once did I defend the mandates, especially when I saw the kids in other states playing football. You must be thinking of someone else. All I did was report what I hear at Rush.
And why did you feel it was important to say "on my dime?"
Again, we had a choice in November of 2018 and the people of Illinois failed badly. No one could have predicted a pandemic that was this bad. But one thing I can say for sure. If the people of Illinois had made the right choice in 2018 the kids would have played football in the fall of 2020. I am certain of that.
I realize it's all water under the bridge now. But, a lot of us were saying this guy is wrong. So, now the question becomes...will the people in Illinois be just as stupid in 2022 as they were in 2018? Or, will enough of they finally wake up and take this state in a different direction?
With all the lost businesses and kids and adults suffering. If this isn't enough to go in a new direction, nothing will be, and the people of Illinois will continue to suffer.
Choose wisely....
Of course he was wrong, I'm not disputing that, but the point is, we didn't have a choice in 2020 if our kids played or not (unless you moved out of state).
I'll be the person with the sign in my yard showing all the states around us playing fall sports while we were not with the text "Remember this?".
I couldn’t agree with you more. If you don’t play an entire season and then the playoffs you really can’t say your the best team. A lot of things happen during the state championship run. Games get a lot tougher as you move through the playoffs.
By the way my son played in that game for LWE. I was at that game and I will tell you everyone of those kids on that team believed they were going to win that game. LP was heavily favored but we knew we had something special with that group of players. They showed it by beating them on their home field.
They next year 2005 LWE ran the table with their 1st ever 8A state championship.
The questions going forward still remain. Will the people of Illinois be stupid again next year, like they were in 2018? Will they continue to make the same old dumb mistakes instead of taking the state in a different direction?
Most people don't pay attention to events unless those events affect them directly. That is a big mistake. This had an effect on everyone...not just HS fall sports. I find it hard to believe that people would put these same ones in charge again with all that has happened. And I don't just mean recently. I mean for decades.
Being that this is a football site, that's what I was discussing, not an election 2.5 years ago or one 1.5 years from now, even if I agree with you.
That is true. But 2018 did affect HS football in a very negative way and was the reason for the outcome wasn't it? It sure was. Let's not let that happen again. That's what I am saying.
That's much better than saying we had a choice in 2018 to prevent something none of us had ever lived through in 2020.
That's what I said before when I said it was water under the bridge. I never said we had a choice to prevent something in 2018 that none of us ever lived through till 2020. I said the wrong choice was made and it bit everyone in their backside. I also said, if we made the other choice, we wouldn't be talking about the kids not playing last fall. We would be thankful that choice was made.
It amazes me how so many people have complained about this, yet so few have actually identified the real cause of the problem. You want to solve a problem? You identify the actual cause and then take care of it.
Something I noticed decades ago when playing sports, and later getting into business is this. People who take on challenges and get things done face obstacles along the way. Some of those obstacles are other people standing in the way and saying, "it can't be done." If you're put in a position of leadership, lead or GTF out of the way.
Finally, if everyone around the country had decided to cancel the HS fall football season I may have complained about it. But, I might not have a leg to stand on because I wouldn't have evidence it could work if no one was trying it. But, some people, who are actual leaders, did take the challenge head on and made it work. The evidence was there and the people here decided to ignore it. They didn't even try, even when it was working. That is shameful and a whole bunch of kids and adults were hurt.
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Leadership is the key to anything being successful. Whether it is a high school coach, high school player on the team, business CEO's, or even politicians. All anyone has to do is look and see where successful HS sports programs, businesses, municipalities, etc., are on a regular basis and a real leader will be at the helm. Some states and cities are losing residents and other states cities are gaining them. Look around and see for yourself. Enough said!
What does this have to do with Loyola vs Marist? 
You should check out some minor league hats, there are some truly spectacular ones.
One of my downstate buddies was supposed to get me one of the fantastic Cornbelters hats. I can't even decide which one I like the most in Google searches.
