Riverside-Brookfield Summer Shootout 2024

The Riverside-Brookfield Summer Shootout this past weekend was a good look at teams in advance this year’s upcoming tournament. I mostly cover the Chicago Catholic League and the Chicago Public League so I wanted to get a look at as many of those teams as I could. But I could only be there on Friday.

I got a look at DePaul Prep in games against Lake Zurich and DeLaSalle. The Rams have plugged in junior guard/wing Rykan Woo, a transfer from Whitney Young. The Rams return Makai Kvamme, AJ Chambers, Rob Walls and Rashawn Porter. They should pick up where they left off.

The Lane Tech Champions also looked like they picked up where they left off. Despite losing Shaheed Solebo to graduation, the Champions return Dalton Scantlebury, a top player in the 2025 class. The returning group of seniors, Braydon Rosenkrantz, Drew Bartoli, Mike Remotigue and Zach Mazanowski. Despite a close lose to Simeon in their first game, the Champions looked good.

The St. Ignatius Wolfpack looked very good against East St. Louis. Returning top player Phoenix Gill looked bigger, stronger and faster. A new group of starters, make this pack of wolves appear especially dangerous in the coming season.

I saw DeLaSalle against DePaul Prep. Meteors coach Gary DeCesare will have this talent group ready. They looked good but not good enough against the Rams.

I saw the first half of St. Laurence against Glenbard West. Jason Opeka had his Hilltoppers playing their 1-3-1 defense that was giving the talented group of Vikings, lead be returning EJ Mosley, some trouble. I didn’t get a good chance to see much of what Roshawn Russell and this Vikings will have in store for the league this winter. I asked one observer about St. Laurence. He said, “We’ll see.”

I also got a look at El Paso-Gridley. A newcomer to the R-B, the Comets look to show off their top performer Jonah Funk. The 6-9 forward didn’t dominate and played on the perimeter more that I expected. The 2-A Comets were overmatched in the game I some them play against DeKalb. It’s difficult to say how well the Comets will fair this season even with Funk. But I got a look at Funk, he will dominate the Comets conference opponents. I intend to get down to El Paso at least once this year to see Funk play, if he stays in El Paso.

I also got a look at Lou Adams’ Rich Township squad. I figured it was only a matter of time before Adams working Rich into a top team. That time appears to have arrived. Look for Rich to make a splash.

I got a look at Benet. The Redwings look special even without one of last year’s top contributor, Gabe Sularski. Sularski a couple court’s over after returning to his home town Lemont team. Sularski had a couple chippy exchanges with Whitney Young’s Antonio Munoz in their matchup.

Whitney Young is, well, Whitney Young. They will be very good as usual—maybe special. Antonio Munoz looks itching to get after a state title.

So those are my impressions of Friday. Here are a few photos from the day.

Lane Tech Falls to Orr 66-59

I made my way over the Orr High School last Friday for the Lane v. Orr game. I have seen Lane a couple times this year and they are on the verge of some big victories against powerhouse teams. Could this be the day.

As usual, never a dull moment at Orr. For some reason there were only two referees. A questionable call exercised Lane’s energetic coach Nick LoGalbo to the point of a technical foul. Things just unravelled after that. There were excessive foul shots. They took two points off the board because the wrong player took the initial technical foul shots. I have never seen points coming for the board before that game.

The game continued. The Lane Basketball Team played well. Orr’s size just provided that extra boost with some inside dunks late in the fourth to left the Spartans to a 66-59 victory.

Now that Orr has new lights, it is not quite as challenging to take photos there was it once was. But I still love going there. It’s fun place to see a game. It was only about half full but it is a loud of a gym as one will find. I hope you like the photos.

Lane Falls to Orr 72-53

Last night (Jan. 18, 2019), the Lane Tech Indians fell to the Orr Spartans 72-53 at Lane. Lane played their hearts out but Orr was just too good.

I wish I could write more about the game. But last night, more than usual, I wasn’t paying much attention to the game. I was concentrating on the getting good shots, on being in the right position to get good shots and on anticipating the action.

As it turns out, I did okay. Not my best work, but respectable work on short notice without an opportunity to prepare. A good day. The day of my first photo credit in the Chicago Sun-Times.

I hope you like the photos.

Team Rose Shootout--Sunday Edition

I saw three really good games on Sunday (December 9, 2018). It was the first time I saw Leo this year. They looked really talented if a little undisciplined. The Lions came back and beat Bloomington. Bloomington is talented by not closers.

Kenwood v. Hillcrest was next. Those were two big, strong and talented teams. It was great to see them. It gave a some great perspective on the good teams out here.

The third game I saw was Orr v. Oak Park-River Forest. It was my first time seeing Orr this year. It is not the same Orr team as it has been for the last few years, but still very talented—and entertaining. The same Lou Adams. Lou has to be my favorite coach to photograph. I have talked to him a few times over the years. He is a very nice man.

Oak Park is good. They caught Orr in the last to minutes and then quickly closed the deal. Wasn’t even close at the end. I was impressed. It was a bit of a sloppy ending. Technical fouls, officiating screw-ups, pissed off coaches. Nevertheless, it was very entertaining.

I experimented with the settings on my camera. I changed around the auto-focus settings to see what works best for basketball. I moved the ISO around. The photos seem quite grainy to me but look okay on the webpages.

These are not my best photos. Not sure why. I have to keep working at it.

Simeon Wins CPS City Championship

I photographed the Simeon v. Orr CPS championship game today (Feb. 18, 2018) at Chicago State's Convocation Center. Great game. Great venue. Great light. 

The Sun-Times' Michael O'Brien wrote a very good account of the game which I won't try to best here. I have seen Orr many times over the past three years and, of course, I read Rick Telander's wonderful series last year about the team. So I was kind of hoping they could continue the Cinderella story by knocking off powerhouse Simeon. Ya, that didn't happen. Simeon is good. Really good. Workmanlike. Never-in-doubt kind of really good. Great even. 

Here are my photos. Of two state championship teams.