Emotions ran high Saturday at the IHSA tournament at Redbird Arena among both winners and losers. But win or lose, most agreed they were just happy to be back on the court this fall. (Photos by Dave Ruggles) By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorAnother IHSA tournament is in the books. Let’s pray that 2020 is the last time the tournament is cancelled. Recommendation to avoid future cancellations? Encourage folks to get vaccinated. (P.S. Just another reason not to like Aaron Rodgers).My biggest beef of last weekend? The prices at the conc...

Teams like unranked Wheaton North will get a fresh start when the IHSA tournament begins tonight. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Even if you were paying attention, based on the organization’s fixation on football you probably didn’t know there was an IHSA girls’ volleyball tournament beginning this week.A television show to present pairings? Endless tweets? Shutting down the website for an entire day so as not to interrupt people going to the website to check out the pairings? An early sneak peek for the press so they can beat their deadlines...

Barrington's Jessica Horwath (2) and the Fillies handed Class 3A No. 1 Belvidere North its first loss of the season Saturday at the Huntley tournament. (Photo by Dave Ruggles). (Editor's note: There will be no rankings Monday, October 18. The final regular-season rankings will run Monday, October 25.)The “rolling of the peas” took place Monday morning at the IHSA offices in Bloomington to determine the semifinals pairings for all four classes November 12-13 at Redbird Arena.No one should expect all the top seeds to survive their sectio...

New Trier outside hitter Julia Hall (12) tries to split a pair of Assumption (Louisville, Kentucky) defenders during last weekend's Asics Challenge at Mother McAuley. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) The Asics Challenge has come and gone. Mother McAuley and Marist met for the second time this season, albeit it for third place, not first, and the result was the same, although the rematch was much closer than the teams' first meeting. Not that there wasn’t any interest in an all-Kentucky championship match, but there’s something special about the...

You need to break out your yellow hardhats when your school's biggest rival shows up at your door on the south side of Chicago. There are a number of big games on the schedule tonight – Hartsburg-Emden vs. Jacksonville Routt as Stags coach Jennifer Hayes goes for win No. 700, Pleasant Plans vs. Springfield Lutheran in the Sangamon County, Tolono Unity vs. St. Teresa.Later this week, the annual Asics Challenge is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Mother McAuley. The tournament has been the playground for Louisville Assumption, but it...

Marist's Kamryn Chaney (right) is back from injured reserve and was named MVP of the Wheaton Classic last weekend. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) So what did we learn last week?For starters, we learned that Marist, now that the RedHawks have senior superstar outside hitter Kamryn Chaney back off the disabled list, are every bit the No. 1 ranked team in Class 4A they were crowned in the preseason.Marist rolled through the Wheaton Classic field last Saturday. Eight-time tournament champion Benet Academy, which for some inexplicable reason was p...

Wheaton Warrenville South and sophomore Rebecca Bellows (17) hope to get another shot at top-seeded Loyola at this week's Wheaton Classic. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Breese Mater Dei, Illprepvb.com’s No. 1 team in Class 2A, had its own way last weekend at the Crossroads Classic at Effingham. This weekend, it’s the big schools' turn.The annual Wheaton Classic begins Wednesday with pool play at Wheaton Warrenville South and Wheaton North. And if all goes well, the championship match should wrap up sometime Saturday before midnight.Loyola, un...

Plainfield North's Ella Wrobel (17, far right) is widely considered the best player in the state and will join Big Ten power Wisconsin after graduating this spring. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) You know the season is thisclose when somebody starts asking about rankings. So here we go. Maybe not the answer they’re looking for, but by all calculations, our best guess.Marist, Illprepvb.com’s No. 1 Class 4A team in the preseason in 2018 and again in 2019, is the preseason favorite in 4A again this fall. Marist went on to win it all in 2018, b...

Zayna Meyer (left) and Wheaton Warrenville South rode some mid-season changes to the IHSA Class 4A finals at Redbird Arena. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) The 2019 season is in the record books.Newark and Sterling repeated. Benet denied Marist’s bid to three-peat. St. Teresa ruled Class 2A. But once again, the tournament reinforced the idea that the final eight teams in each class, if not the final 16, should be seeded, and the “rolling of the peas” abandoned. And while they’re at it, “geographic representation” should be trashed, too.The...

Fremd's Rian Baker (17) set the Vikings to the Mid-Suburban League championship Wednesday. (Photos by Dave Ruggles) Et ludos incipere. (That’s Latin for “Let the games begin.” Fr. Puchalski would be proud). 13675...