In class 6a there is a team that has gotten no respect. The team is the Oswego Panthers. So far this year they only have one loss and are a two seed. But it seems like nobody is recognizing them. I looked at this websites predictions for 6a and they are not mentioned once. They are gonna shock people when they win state. It is alot like in 2003 when they flew under the radar and won state.
I think the problem was that the Panthers, along with Plainfield SOuth were playing in what was preceieved & still is, an off year for teh Sothwest Conference. Add to that the lack of a player making noise on the state wide level and this has a lot to do with Oswego getting overlooked.
I hate saying it, but Oswego might not get a lot of love unless they take down Geneva next week.
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Vincent Johnson/Editor-in-Chief
www.IHSFW.com
Somebody has to cover the entire state.
Don't forget about the other "Fox Valley" school, Cary-Grove (hence, the name of our conference). Must be something in that Fox River water!
C-G had the same problem in '04- no respect. I don't think we appeared in Sakamoto's top 20 until the 6th or 7th week of the season, and nobody gave us a chance against Morgan Park in the semi's. Same thing last year; an undefeated regular season meant nothing in the rankings.
We're finally getting a little bit of recognition this year; I hope we can live up to it.
Although I was pulling for Prairie Ridge (a fellow FVC team), I think the 4 best teams survived in our half of the bracket - that didn't happen in many of the brackets, as there were a lot of surprising upsets.
Good luck to all this week. May everybody play up to their abilities - should make for some great games.
Thats right 4 valley teams in top bracket! I was at geneva game sat. afternoon & geveva has good D and good QB. What oswego has is speed. they are on the small size, and dont have the great D of the past, but have lots of speed on O. hubbard seemed slow on sat. i have seen many great RBs over the past 15 years & hubbards RB was not one of them. the great one's take over games like john dergo did.geneva will probably score some against oswego, but will they shut down an offense that can run & pass? oswego has just started to run, most of the season they passed for most of their scores. they can truly do both this year unlike most years in past when they just pounded teams on the ground. it will be a great game i'm sure, & we will see how much geneva, batavia & kaneland have improved after this weeks playoff round.
believe me when i say: nobody is overlooking anybody now, the coaching staffs of every 6A school knows who every team is regardless of rankings or ratings.. it is crunch time for all to buckle down and huncker in. playoff football is getting juicy. this is when boys become men.
cgfbdad, was kinda looking forward to maybe meeting, but gotta win to stay in. good luck to all 6A teams left, i will watch you on t.v..well maybe a later broadcast, i am going on cruise that week. if we would have continued, then my son and myself would have missed the cruise, well the glass is half full...
Northern Border, don't forget- the Fox winds its way through a good part of McHenry county, so you also get the benefit of those magic waters! I think you're probably facing your biggest bump in the road with Aledo; if you get by them, the road should smooth out a little next week. Good luck to the Giants this week; also the Hornets, 'canes, and of course, the Trojans.
BulldogDad, I too was disappointed (and a bit surprised) by your loss last week. Congrats to Richards for a good season and to Coach K for all his accomplishments; I'm sure you'll have another successful season next year. Maybe we'll meet then; my son will be back next year also.
Maybe if things keep going the McHenry County way, that might be the new football hot bed in the state, competing with the teams southwest of Chicago along I-80. It will be the Fox River corridor
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Vincent Johnson/Editor-in-Chief
www.IHSFW.com
Somebody has to cover the entire state.
I'm a little surprised that Batavia believes that the Fox Valley Conference is a "lesser" conference simply based on their game with Crystal Lake Central. At this point in the playoffs it is obvious to me that all teams are deserving to be there regardless of their conferences.
Confidence is a necessary and wonderful ingredient to sucess. Respect for your opponent is another. Bulletin board material can be quite destructive at the most inopportune time.
Batavia is a big, strong and fast team that has played great football all year in a good strong conference. Cary-Grove is a big, strong and fast team that has played great football all year in a good strong conference.
We can't wait to play Batavia. It should be a great game. Good luck Batavia....Go Trojans!
I will say this year is a little better quality in the quarterfinals than last year, because of bracket restucturing, but you can still have a few teams that are not near the level of some of their opponents.
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Vincent Johnson/Editor-in-Chief
www.IHSFW.com
Somebody has to cover the entire state.
Fox Valley teams definitely have a presence in 6A football. However, there is a group of schools to the south that are in the play-offs year after year, and have made it to the finals the last four years straight. Three for Bloomington, and Normal Community last year. Normal will probably get there this year again. The twin cities is a hotbed of football talent, as evidenced by Bloomington Central Catholic's tradition, Bloomington's tradition, and Normal's tradition, while Normal West is building a program that has upset more than one dynasty the last couple of years. Normal's coaching staff has a gazillion total years of experience as Hud Venerable has surrounded himself with retired successful area coaches that really know how to break down offenses and defenses. Normal is loaded on both sides of the ball- I wouldn't be surprised to see them in Champaign again.
Hide the woman and children, Batavia/Geneva is going to be an epic battle along the lines of last season's JCA/Morris game. These two towns do not like one another and this rivalry stems much deeper than just football. I'm sure Geneva is going to be pumped up after losing to Batavia on the last weekend of the regular season. The Western Sun is guaranteed at least one team in the finals in 6A and possibly another in 5A (Kaneland - a 52-45 winner last evening).
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Live in Aurora, attended East Aurora High School in the late 80's and currently reside in the Oswego East School District.
I think it's a little early to be crowning the Western Sun as the next "power conference". Sure, they're having a good run this year, but the historical playoff performance of the WS teams has been no better than average compared to other conferences. The Fox Valley conference has had similar years ('97 - 2 semifinal teams, one of which won the title), but for some reason we're still considered to be a doormat conference.
Comparing the Western Sun (historically) to the Fox Valley Valley division, each has only 1 team that has won titles (Woodstock 2, Kaneland 2). The FVV has had 12 quarterfinalists or better in the last 10 years; the WS, 8. The lifetime combined playoff records: FVV, 70/137, 51% winning percentage; WS, 84/153, 55% winning percentage. Take away McHenry (the FVC's perennial playoff loser) and the FVV rises to 60/108, 56% winning percentage. Before anyone points out the discrepancy in playoff appearances, keep in mind that the FVV has only 6 teams; the WS, 8 teams. In head-to-head competition, the conferences are 2-2 (3-3, for both FVC divisions). Yet, you won't find many people arguing that the Fox Valley is a "power conference".
These winning percentages are comparable to most conferences in the larger classes. There are only a few true "power conferences", such as the Chicago Catholic Blue and the Dupage Valley. Many conferences are essentially one team conferences, such as the East Suburban Catholic (Joliet Catholic) and the South Suburban Red (Richards). Take away that one team, and the rest of the conference has a sub-.500 combined playoff record.
The Western Sun's historical success has been due primarily to 2 teams - Kaneland and Geneva. In fact, Geneva has probably the best playoff winning percentage (20/28, 71% including this year) of any team that has never won a title.
The FVV has 3 historically strong teams based on playoff records- Cary-Grove, Crystal Lake South and Woodstock (although Woodstock had a down year this year). McHenry is probably the single biggest reason for the FVC's weak reputation; for a team that has made the playoffs 19 consecutive years, they have 35% winning percentage (10/29) and have advanced to the quarters only twice.
Forgive me for this short book, but all I'm trying to say is that you can't judge a conference by a single year's performance. The Fox Valley still hasn't been able to shake it's reputation as a weak conference despite having a better playoff record than many other conferences around the state.
I've been reading through the posts and I dont' think anyone has said the Fox Valley was a weak conference. CL south and Cary Grove have been title contenders for I think the last 5 years or so and I think everyone around the state respects that.
Good luck to Batavia, Geneva, and Kaneland this week. I've been reading the Mchenrycountysports.com and just reading some of those comments by the Marian fans, they think they're going to walk all over Kaneland. 9 different people said something along the lines of "Get your bags packed for Champaign". At least I know the head coach is a good guy and from readin the quotes from the kids, they seem to be level headed, now if they could only talk to their fans...
Tincup, I'll agree that there haven't been any anti-Fox Valley posts on this board; posters here tend to be more respectful and level-headed than at most other websites. That's what I really like about this one; here you can actually have intelligent discussions without being bombarded by trash-talk. However, if you've been following McHenryCountySports.com, the Tribune and other sites all season, you'll know what I mean. Last week, Batavia fans were saying that C-G was "untested" because we we "hadn't played anybody"; even Sakamoto himself inferred the same. If winning 6 games against 5 playoff teams by big margins is being "untested" then how do you get tested? The inference is that the Fox Valley teams are weak and don't provide the same level of competition as found outside the conference.
The C-G / CLS games were never mentioned as one of the games of the week either on this site or by the Tribune or Sun Times, even though they were HUGE in McHenry county (on at least the same level as the Geneva / Batavia matchup).
This year C-G and CLS met in round 2; the 2 previous years they met in the quarterfinals. Because of the bracket, we end up eliminating each other to prevent a more successful outcome for the conference. The Western Sun would not look so strong this year if Batavia and Geneva had met in round 2.
Anyway, I guess that's enough of the sour grapes for now; good luck to all the WS teams this week. May the best teams win. (Gotta admit, I'm pullin' for fellow McHenry county team Marian Central over Kaneland.)
I understand what you are saying about facing teams early and therefore not being able to advance more teams, however, Batavia and Geneva earned their seeds by going 8-1. If one had two losses than maybe they would have met earlier. Last season had they both won, they'd have face each other in the quarters, but they ran into Morris and Joliet Catholic.
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Live in Aurora, attended East Aurora High School in the late 80's and currently reside in the Oswego East School District.
Glad you brought up last season. After the regular season, C-G was 9-0; CLS was 8-1 (only loss to C-G); better than the Batavia / Geneva combo this year. And yet, C-G and CLS still met in the quarters, probably due mainly to the quadrant system.
Morris & JCA also met in the quarters last year; many people considered this to be the true state championship contest, but JCA was sent home early. At any rate, because of the bracket only one of the teams could advance to the finals anyway, just as is the case with Batavia & Geneva this year.
Maybe the single bracket with all teams seeded 1-32 is still the fairest setup, even though some teams may have to travel further in early rounds.
I don't think that Geneva/Batavia were screwed at all this year. Last year was the year the were both 8-1 and had to face JCA and Morris in the second round. This year they've earned there way to where they are at. Batavia beat two higher seeds (Viator and C-G on the road) and Geneva beat one (Oswego) on the road.
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Live in Aurora, attended East Aurora High School in the late 80's and currently reside in the Oswego East School District.
I must say that I have to agree with the 1 - 32 seeding process regardless of travel. This I think is the fairest way. I believe we have seen some almighty games thus far. This weekend will be no different.
Missing34, no argument from me. Yes, indeed, the Western Sun teams have earned their positions in the semi's; you gotta win your games to advance, and the WS teams have done that. Regardless of the outcome this week, the WS has had a very successful year, even including Rochelle, who as a 16 seed knocked off top seed Geneseo in round 1. For that, I congratulate you.
The point of my earlier posts was simply to show that it's too early to dub the WS as the new "power conference" (as IHSFW suggested) based on a single year. If they can keep up this level of performance for a few more years, they will have earned that title.
Few teams & fewer conferences have been able to maintain a consistently high level of performance year after year; some have a good run, but then fall back into the pack.
Rockford East has an overall playoff record of 13-2 with 2 titles; they've never been knocked out earlier than the quarterfinals. Does this make them a "power team"? I don't think so - they've only qualified 4 times in their history; only once since 1986. To their credit, they've made the most of those appearances.
On the flip side, Prospect has had an amazing run since 2001; 21-1 in the playoffs, with 3 titles (& still alive & looking for their 4th). Over that span, they've been the 2nd most successful team in the state, after Driscoll. Before that, though, they had qualified only 4 times, losing in the 1st round each time. Will they eventually slip back into obscurity? Only time will tell.
Well, I've said my piece and now will shut my mouth (or my fingers, anyway), and slip back into obscurity myself. Good luck to all remaining teams this week; just 1 win away from a trip to Champaign!
I agree that you can't dub them that, in fact I'm more of a UEC, DVC fan than any other, but this year I got more into 6A than in previous years.
For those who did not know, Channel 50 is showing Providence/St. Rita tonight and LWE/Mt. Carmel tomorrow night.
Good luck to all teams.
Hey Missing,
I would love to see both of those games; however, I live in downstate Illinois so I have to settle for the boring brand of Missouri high school football playoffs tonight. I hate Missouri football playoffs because they don't have a true playoff format. Come on, they still use districts so you could see a 3 and 6 team in the playoffs and have a more deserving team, let say a 7 and 2 team, sitting at home because they got upset in district play.
Regarding the WSC - can anyone tell me when was the last time a conference had THREE teams in the Semifinals?
ya there is another conference. the CCL Blue also has 3 with St. Rita, Provi, and Mt. Carmel.
A better question to ask is: How many people outside the WSC and people who have played the WSC know that there are 3 teams left in the semis? The answer is not surprisingly, very small.
I think all 5A/6A schools and a lot of Western/Central Illinois has... but its sad that not many from the chicagoland have.
I think that it's very possible that there could have been more conferences with mulitiple teams in the semis if 2A & 3A had 1-16 seeds. It's realy hard to get more than 1 team into the semis unless they're in different classes.
On a similar note, there are 4 conferences that could have multiple state champs this year; The Big River - Morrison & Bureau Valley Suburban Catholic - Marian & Driscoll Western Sun - Geneva, Kaneland & Batavia Chicago Catholic Blue - St. Rita, Mt. Carmel
__________________
Vincent Johnson/Editor-in-Chief
www.IHSFW.com
Somebody has to cover the entire state.
