Local Sports News
Brother Rice tops Marist for first Pulaski Post
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent Classes and athletics competitions across Illinois were called off due to bone-chilling temperatures early this week. That did not stop two of the area’s hottest teams from duking it out in the Battle of Pulaski. Brother Rice senior forward Zavier Fitch scored 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead Brother…
Swanson signs record deal to remain with Red Stars
From Staff Reports Chicago Red Stars forward Mallory Swanson has re-signed with the franchise in what is reportedly the richest deal in NWSL history. Swanson, who was a free agent for the first time in her career this offseason, agreed to stay in Chicago on a deal worth a reported $2 million, including a fifth-year…
Boys Hoops Wrap | Oak Lawn beats Richards in crosstown tilt; Br. Rice, Mt. Carmel and Curie keep winning
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent Oak Lawn junior guard Dante Montgomery scored a game-high 19 points and the Spartans defeated Richards, 49-43, in what will be the only regular-season matchup this season between the crosstown rivals. The South Suburban Red teams battled for most of the game, but Oak Lawn (11-5, 4-0) walked away with their…
Evergreen Park tops Bremen in game called after fight between players
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent On the eve of the area’s first winter storm of 2024 rolling in and eventually bringing with it sub-zero temperatures, Evergreen Park was heating up their gym with one of their most sizzling performances of the season. Unfortunately, things got a little too heated. With Evergreen Park dominating Bremen in a…
Area Sports Roundup | Marist tabs Mike Fitzgerald to lead football program
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent There is a change at the top. Mike Fitzgerald, who over the past six seasons helped build York into a Class 8A power, has been named Marist’s new football coach. Fitzgerald replaces Ron Dawczak, who resigned. Marist announced the hire on Jan. 8. Fitzgerald is a former RedHawks assistant. He led…
Red Stars get NWSL Defender of Year finalist Staab for draft pick
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent The Chicago Red Stars may not have a general manager, but whomever is pulling the strings and making the big decisions had a few busy days last week. After adding Masaki Hemmi to the mix as an assistant coach, the Stars wheeled and dealed and set up a revolving door during…
Girls Hoops Wrap | Mother McAuley’s Morgan Feil hits milestone; Macs assistant honored by Maroons
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent Mother McAuley’s Morgan Feil hit the 1,000-point milestone on Jan. 11 against DePaul Prep. Three days later, one of her coaches was honored for passing that mark last season. For Feil, hitting that milestone was a big deal, but she added to that big night by getting the game-winning basket in…
Boys Hoops Wrap | Mount Carmel makes statement with beating of Benet
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent In. a highly anticipated matchup, Mount Carmel used a second-half surge to top Benet, 50-36, at the 5th annual Steve Pappas Shootout hosted by DePaul Prep. The Caravan (17-2, 2-0 Chicago Catholic Blue) held a three-point lead at halftime, but outscored the Redwings 29-18 over the final two quarters. Benet’s 36…
Boys Basketball | Marist routs Carmel and St. Rita
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent After closing out 2023 with a loss and runner-up finish at the 80th Annual Centralia Holiday Tournament, Marist got back to its winning ways with routs of Carmel and St. Rita. The RedHawks topped the East Suburban Catholic rival Corsairs, 73-42, on Jan. 5 and best the Mustangs of the Chicago…
Area College Report | SXU, Trinity men’s volleyball getting ready to roll
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent While basketball has dominated the area college scene this winter, men’s volleyball is just around the corner. Practice is in full swing and matches start later this month. Saint Xavier wants to keep its best stretch of winning in program history going. Excluding the shortened 2020 pandemic season, the Cougars have…
Girls Hoops Wrap | Young and older have fun in Oak Lawn
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent It was a little of the old and new mixing together at Oak Lawn. The current Spartans beat Crete-Monee, 54-42, in a nonconference game on Jan. 7. In the crowd were players from the 2013-14 Oak Lawn squad that finished 28-2. After the game, alumni players engaged in a game of…
Area Sports Report | Kendall Coyne Schofield part of history as PWHL game sets attendance record
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent Add a new chapter to the Kendall Coyne Schofield story. The Palos Heights native and Sandburg graduate, who has won gold and silver Olympic medals in women’s hockey, helped launch the new Professional Women’s Hockey League and is a team captain for the Minnesota franchise. Minnesota and the league’s five other…
Area Sports Roundup | Messi and Miami to visit Fire in August
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent Let the guessing games begin. The Chicago Fire released its MLS schedule for 2024, and there is a chance the team will have to move some of its games from Soldier Field to SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview. The Fire called SeatGeek its home stadium from 2006 to 2019. From August through…
Girls Hoops Wrap | Stagg stuns Bloom to take Hillcrest Holiday Classic
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent Stagg’s girls basketball team heads into the 2024 portion of the season with a good-but-not-great 10-7 record. But the way the Chargers closed out the 2023 portion of the campaign was spectacular. The Chargers won the 16-team Hillcrest Holiday Classic, held Dec. 27-29 in Country Club Hills. They earned a 45-44…
College Sports Reports | Hoops programs seek net gains in 2024
By Jeff Vorva Correspondent A good chunk of the college basketball season has been completed. What have we learned about the men and women’s programs at Saint Xavier University, Trinity Christian College, Moraine Valley Community College and Morton College? Plenty. But there is more to be learned in the next few months. A look at…
Boys Hoops Wrap | Mt. Carmel wins Pekin Holiday Tourney; Brother Rice’s 15-game win streak ends at Hinsdale
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent Mount Carmel extended its win streak to five games after defeating Normal West, East St. Louis and Lake Park at the Pekin Insurance Holiday Tournament. The Caravan’s 60-41 win over Lake Park earned them their third straight Pekin title. In the title game, Angelo Ciaravino finished with nine points, eight rebounds,…
Tosh Classic maintains spot among top holiday hoops tourneys in Illinois
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent The 49th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic took place at York High School from December 26-30. The holiday season mainstay that would have been in its 50th year, but for the Covid-abridged 2020-2021 season, consisted of 32-teams, including some that are highly rated or expected to be contenders for deep postseason…
College Sports Report | Scorers light it up for SXU, Trinity, Morton
By Jeff Vorva Staff Writer Boom, boom, boom. Three area men’s college basketball players’ offensive games exploded on Dec. 16. At Saint Xavier, Cedric Johnson had 27 points as the Cougars topped Indiana University Northwest, 77-68, in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference matchup. Johnson shot 11-of-14 from the floor and scored the game’s first two…
Area Sports Report | Evergreen Park Wiffle Ball players aid Toys for Tots
By Jeff Vorva Staff Writer Toys for Tots was the big winner, but the players also had some fun. The Mustang Baseball Academy (MBA) joined the Evergreen Park High School baseball team for the third annual Wiffle Ball Tournament, held Dec. 13 at high school’s sports complex. Each player who participated got a spot in the…
Girls Hoops Wrap | Mother McAuley Class 4A Sectional will have local flavor
By Jeff Vorva Staff Writer The IHSA has announced its postseason assignments for girls basketball, and Mother McAuley will be the place to be in Class 4A. The 18-team McAuley Sectional features the hosts and Class 3A defending state champion Nazareth along with fellow area programs Morton, Reavis, Curie, Kelly, Lyons, Oak Lawn, Richards, Riverside-Brookfield…
Boys Hoops Wrap | Brother Rice, Sandburg win at Shootout
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent Sandburg hosted 11 other schools in their inaugural Shot Clock Charity Shootout. Twelve teams participated in the event, which Sandburg coach John Daniels dedicated to his friend and former Stagg assistant coach Ray Milnes, who died in 2019. Milnes, an Orland Park native, was a volunteer varsity basketball coach for the…
Boys Hoops | Chicago Christian gives Bulls the horns
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent Chicago Christian has three seniors on its roster this season and, among them, only one starter. This has opened the door for the Knights’ younger players to fill holes and step up. Junior guard Malachi Kreider did that by scoring a season-high 21 points to carry the Knights to a 58-34…
Boys Hoops | Chargers hand Spartans first loss
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent Through six years as head coach at Stagg, Marty Strus and the Chargers had never beaten Oak Lawn. That changed in lucky year number seven, as the Chargers topped the Spartans, 49-42, on Dec. 14 in Palos Hills. The victory knocked Oak Lawn from the ranks of the unbeaten, after the…
Boys Net Roundup | Oak Lawn, Brother Rice among Illinois unbeatens
By Xavier Sanchez Correspondent A wrap of area boys basketball teams from games played between December 4 and 10. Argo (1-7, 0-3 South Suburban Red) The Argonauts are 1-7, with their only win coming against U-High in the John McBride Classic over Thanksgiving weekend. They dropped South Suburban Conference crossovers to T. F. South…
Area Sports Report | Stagg flag football coach invited to Super Bowl
By Jeff Vorva Staff Writer Saja Alnajjar said she became a football fan growing up, and one of the first games she watched was Super Bowl XLI between the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts in February 2007. Little did she know then that she would someday be a football coach. And little did she know…
Local News
Biz groups battle over names, logos
. UBAM, MCC trade barbs . By Dermot Connolly and Tim Hadac The leader of one Midway-area business association is accusing the other of bad faith, and the leader of the other is scratching her head over the dustup. United Business Association of Midway Executive Director Anita Cummings recently claimed that a rival group has…
Chicago Lawn native’s book is ‘off the hook’
. Longtime journalist shares humor columns . By Tim Hadac Nancy (Emerson) Besonen has made a career as a news reporter and humor columnist for a weekly paper in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. But her roots are in Chicago Lawn, and it showed during a recent conversation. Like most true Southwest Siders, she didn’t call Marquette…
‘Horrific and unacceptable’
. Police, neighbors decry shooting at family party . By Tim Hadac Drive-by shootings have become not at all unusual in recent years in Back of the Yards. Some might even call them common. What is still uncommon is for drive-by crimes to injure or even kill young children. But that is exactly what happened…
A blue salute in Scottsdale
. Family, friends, co-workers and neighbors of the late CPD Officer James R. Svec Jr. –as well as elected and appointed officials– gathered at 77th and Kolmar last Saturday to unveil an honorary street sign saluting him for his sacrifice. Officer Svec died at age 59 in December 2021 from causes related to COVID-19 infection.…
County vets offer reduced-price vax clinics
. From staff reports The Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control is running its annual Partners in Prevention clinics now through mid-October. ARC is partnering with local animal organizations to offer reduced-cost or free one-year rabies vaccinations, as well as microchips. The partnerships are designed to link pet owners to organizations in their…
Twisted Shamrock hosts Masters-inspired fun
. The drive from Chicago to Augusta, Ga. (home of the 2024 Masters professional golf tournament) is more than 800 miles, but those unwilling to make the trek recently had the option of simply heading over to Twisted Shamrock Pub, 6462 S. Central, for some Masters-inspired fun on Sunday, April 14. Both golfers and spectators…
Hunt man who tried to rob Chase Bank
. FBI looking for tips from public . From staff reports FBI officials are appealing to the public for help in finding a man who attempted to rob a Southwest Side bank branch. The bandit tried to rob the Chase Bank branch at 5687 S. Archer (just west of Laramie) at about 11 a.m. Wednesday,…
Worth Library offers seeds for free
By Kelly White A seed library collects and stores seeds and shares them with members of the community for free. Similar to a normal library, gardeners borrow seeds from the seed library at planting time. At the end of the growing seasons, they save seeds from the plants and return a portion of the seeds…
Paisans Pizza eyes May opening in Oak Lawn
By Joe Boyle Paisans Pizzeria is a step closer to opening in Oak Lawn with the approval of a liquor license for the establishment that will be part of the Stony Creek Promenade. Plans for the restaurant were originally approved at an Oak Lawn Village Board meeting in March of 2022. Tom Phelan, the village…
Palos Park residents, mosque reps discuss noise issues at council meeting
By Jeff Vorva What could have been an explosive situation was actually quite civil. Some Palos Park residents were angry about loud activity and behavior of some members of the Palos Islamic Center the past two years and sounded off at the April 8 village council meeting. Fresh on their minds was noise late into…