Ed’s Word: Number: 9 February 1, 2009
1. Have some more bad news to report: Esther Sherman, wife of Hall of Famer Walt of Glenbrook and Mother of Hall of Famer Dan, has passed away. There are preliminary plans to honor Esther at the Village Presbyterian Church on Cherry street in Northbrook on February 28th. Walt’s address is: 940 Lee Rd. Northbrook, Il 60002.
2. Hall of Famer Henry Pillard recently underwent Triple By-Pass surgery. He is recovering quite well. Cards will reach him at 815 Diamond K Lane, Joliet, Il 60433.
3. On January 8th the Illinois High School Association reported that IHSA schools rejected a proposal that those schools affected by the 1.65 enrollment multiplier could petition for a waiver. The vote was 218-197 against, with 53 percent of member schools participating in electronic voting. That means for the time being that schools that wanted to change classification upwards would be denied. Member schools is around 750 with about 410 involved in Wrestling. It boggles the mind why non-wrestling schools should vote on wrestling issues.
4. Selecting wrestlers to compete in the Nationals Division I has added another tool for determing who goes. That will be the final rankings. There are 4 or 5 more criteria involved. I believe the Big 10 only gets 5 automatics. The rest of the Big 10 would have to be selected. As of now, Conference and Qualifying tournaments Champions are automatics, then overall records; quality of competition; now final rankings and I believe head to head. I know that it sounds fair, but consider this. A Champion from a qualifying tournament qualifies with lets say a 15-10 record, while the sixth place fininsher in the Big 10 happens to be 37-5. He might have a problem getting in, etc. Make up your own scenario. True there have been qualifiers that at times were 0-2 and out. This is supposed to get a better group?
5. I have just heard that the father of Rich Purgatorio, has passed away. I do not have any addresses. Rich, I know wrestled for Leyden East years ago.
6. Steven K. LeBlanc, son of Downers Grove South’s Head coach has received a scholarship from the Martin Luther King Foundation. He and 8 others were recognized on Monday the 19th at Wheaton College.
7. I mentioned before that Wheaton North has established their Wall of Fame and I listed the new inductees. Added to that group are Mike Howard; Scott Duncan; Coach Jack Schomig; Coach Al Woodward and Johnny Sadakukas.
8. I believe Wheaton College is looking for a coach, as Dan Weber is taking a leave of abscense. This is a great enviornment, with support. It is difficult to recruit because of some restrictions. They compete in the Illinois college conference and Division 3. Well worth looking into if you are qualified.
9. The Midlands will be December 29th and 30th in 2009.
10. Jeff Hill of Petersburg-Porta got his 400th Win recently.
11. At the National Duals, McKendree College placed 4th in the NAIA and Harper finished 7th in the Junior College Division. No other Illinois schools involved. There is a lot of enthusiasm for making this a NCAA sponsored event, but so far no action taken. It will be at Northern Iowa again in January 2010.
12. Conference Tournaments are over and all are preparing for the Regionals, which are in some cases going to take a lot of patience on the part of coaches and those running the events. I believe 3 of the 4 Regionals in Division AAA will have 11 teams. This means 3 pig tails, which could cause a wrestler to compete 6 times when the rules state 5 maximum in a day. That may be unlikely, but it can happen. An obvious way to avoid that problem would be to eliminate from the tournament the 3 losers in the pigtails from further competition, even thougfh the tournament is double elimination. Most of the pig tails will have extreme losing records, and even the winner will have a losing record and is highly unlikely of advancing too far. Anyway - be patient. Top 3 from Regionals go to Sectionals; Top 4 from Sectionals advance to State. Seems to me that seeding at the Regional level is very important. Sectionals are paired as usual. State will have some seeding procedures, which were mapped out in terms and conditions.
13. Glenbard North on the strength of State champions Tony Ramos and Jimmy Chase won their 11th consecutive DuPage Valley Conference Championship. This of course is a record. Probably a record regardless of the sport in that conference. Ramos became the 4th 4 time Champion in its 34 year history.
It is books that are a key to the wide world; if yoiu can’t do anything else, read all that yoiu can.
The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.
There is one right I would not grant anyone, and that is the right to be indifferent.
You can get by on charm for about 15 minutes. After that, you better know something.
Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.
A perfect method for adding drama to life is to waait until the deadline looms large. Ed
