The State Football Playoff pairings

Well, if we make it back, it won't be a rematch.

Over at Benet, we are doing the "duck and cover". We drew WW South in the first round. After watching the Joliet Catholic game last Thursday, this matchup might have the clock running nonstop by the 2nd quarter. This is what happens when you go 5-4.

Prediction . . . WWS will have the clock running by the second quarter against most of the teams they face, not just Benet.

BTW, in 4 years, Chad Hetlet could not have been more dead on than he was with the following statement:

"They are a good football team," Glenbard West coach Chad Hetlet said. "Give them credit. They showed up and played a good game. I guess they wanted the conference championship more than we did. I think as a program we've gotten complacent. We expect to win without a great effort. We didn't show up today."

Yesterday's game aside, GW had a pretty exciting season. Injuries will make it tough to get through the bracket again . . . along with those college boys at WWS . . . but hats off to these kids. Good job.

What is the date/time for the GW game?

Saturday, 10/30/2010 Round 1 state play-off vs. Plainfield North (7-2) 1:00 PM Duchon Field

Hetlet should be coaching the Bears, at least when his players don't show up he's willing to call them on it.

Well . . . it was the first time they "didn't show" for in 27 regular season games. That's 27. As in . . . they won 27 freakin' regular season games in a row. Can't win all of them. Tough game to lose physically as it looks like the number one QB was hurt again. Plainfield N. is not a team you look past.

East St. Louis Football Team Forced To Forfeit Victories, Removed From 2010 IHSA Football Playoff Field

Bloomington, IL. -- The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) announced today (October 26) that East St. Louis High School’s football team will be forced to forfeit five of its nine regular-season victories from the 2010 season and all 10 of its victories from 2009, including three playoff victories, after the team was found to have used an ineligible player in the contests.

As the result of the forfeitures, East St. Louis is no longer eligible for the 2010 IHSA Football Playoffs, which are scheduled to begin on Friday.

“No one wins in these type of situations, ” said IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman. “And while we appreciate the school’s cooperation with our investigation, member schools have an obligation to abide by our association by-laws, including the need to have clear enrollment processes in place and the ability to verify residence issues.”

The IHSA opened an investigation on one East St. Louis football player after Week 5 of the regular-season. That player did not play after the fifth game and was eventually found to be ineligible on October 14, while a second player from the team was also found to be ineligible on October 22. Both investigations centered around issues related to IHSA Residency By-laws.

Information recently obtained from the St. Clair County State’s Attorney contradicted previous information from the investigation on one of the players that led to the forfeitures. The State’s Attorney verified that one of the players had a pre-trial electronic monitoring bracelet at an address in Belleville in April, 2009. The address associated with the bracelet was transferred to a residence in East St. Louis in September 2009, but remained there for just over a month before being transferred back to the original address in Belleville in October 2009.

East St. Louis’ scheduled first round playoff opponent in Class 7A, Belleville West, will now travel to play Belleville East in the first round of the playoffs. O’Fallon High School, who becomes the top seed in the quadrant as the result of earning a victory from an East St. Louis forfeit, will now receive a bye in the first round and face the winner of Belleville East vs. Belleville West in the second round.

“Certainly, the timing of this matter is less than ideal, but as much as some would have liked for us to move faster with this investigation, to do so would have been unfair to both the student-athletes and East St. Louis High School. It was imperative for everyone involved that we gave due diligence to the process and uncovered all applicable information before reaching a decision, ” said Hickman.

The updated playoff seeding and schedule for the quadrant is located below:

Seed School Record Playoff Points
1 O’Fallon 8-1 36
2 Plainfield South 8-1 34
3 Minooka 8-1 33
4 Belleville East 7-2 34
5 Quincy 7-2 31
6 Bradley-Bourbonnais 6-3 43
7 Belleville West 5-4 39

CLASS 7A FIRST ROUND GAMES
(7) Belleville West at (4) Belleville East
(1) O’Fallon ? BYE, plays winner of (4) vs. (7)

(6) Bradley- Bourbonnais at (2) Plainfield South
(5) Quincy at (3) Minooka


“After giving careful consideration to all options, we felt that the option that impacted the fewest amount of schools and would enable the playoffs to begin as planned was to adjust the quadrant in which East St. Louis had been assigned,” added Hickman. “The fact of the matter is that we had a complete field of 256 teams on Saturday. To have included the first non-qualifier as a replacement for East St. Louis in the field of qualifiers would have impacted nearly 100 schools, and, in the end, we didn’t believe it was fair to those schools that had made travel and scouting plans for their assigned first round games.”

Does this judge have jurisdiction over the IHSA?

Please go to the game Saturday at 1:00 PM regardless of weather conditions.

At the half.

GBW 28
Lincoln way 13

With 6:48 left in the third.

GW 35
LW 28

Final score

GW 42
LW 28

despite some poor officiating calls, west pulls it out.

The quartet that sang the National Anthem was the best group I have ever heard at a high school football game!!!

For those of you who are interested, Wheaton North plays at Wheaton-Warrenville South tonight at 7. The winner of that game will play GBW next weekend.
The fam will be taking a drive around 8 pm this evening to check out the scoreboard from the warm Yigo92 mobile!

Go Hitters!

Drove by during the game. As much as I don't care for football or HS athletics, that scene on a day like today is definitely GE at its best!

Worst officiating I have ever seen in any sport...period. Awesome to see the Hitters overcome it all despite the 12th man for LWE. Beautiful day. Beautiful outcome.

Fatty Arbuckle just didn't seem like he really knew what he was doing. It was as if he had been trained last week and let on the field this week. I have never seen so many delayed, oddball calls in a football game. All against one team. Best guess . . . that crew doesn't make it's way down to Champaign.



Worst Official To Grace Duchon in Years

Did you see him address the stands, mouthing 'no'? I have never seen a high school official engage the crowd before!

We drove by the WWS/WN game and the score with 3:19 left in the 3rd quarter was 35-0 WWS. It looks like next weekend will be a repeat of last years game in Champaign. Hopefully with a different outcome!