The following are posts related to specific shoots. And other things that I cannot stop myself from writing about.
The DePaul Prep Rams entered Catholic League play Thursday evening at St. Rita High School with a 59-14 victory over the Mustangs. The Rams improved to 5-0 and 1-0 in the Catholic League.
Tomorrow is the Chicago Elite Classic where the Rams will face neighbor Lane Tech in the final game of the night.
41 degrees is about as cold as I can take when photographing a baseball game.
The DePaul Prep Rams faced the St. Rita Mustangs at Kerry Wood Field to open Chicago Catholic League conference play.
I left after the fourth inning when the Rams were down 6-2. Other things to do unfortunately so I don’t know who won the game.
I am getting back into the swing of shooting baseball. I did not have my 300mm lens with me so these were taken from some weird angles from behind the screen. I had the GoPro going so I will get that video up soon also.
Preview of my Inside Publications article this week.
No. 17 Mount Carmel defeats DePaul Prep 42-41
DePaul Prep Rams lost to Mount Carmel Caravan 42-41 at Mount Carmel Friday night. The Rams are struggling through an uncharacteristic three-game losing streak in the Chicago Catholic League’s Blue division.
The Rams (4-3, 0-3) opened the game outscoring the 17th ranked Caravan (7-1, 2-0) five to zero. The Caravan then went on a 10-0 run to close the quarter. They would hold the lead that eventually dwindled to a single point at the buzzer to survive a young and injured Rams team.
The early run by the Caravan was aided by some sloppy Rams ball handling. “They picked us up a little bit, trapped us a couple times when we were lazy with the ball. We have bad habits in practice right now in passing. They are leading to the game,” said Rams head coach and former DePaul University star Tom Kleinschmidt.
The young Rams start three sophomores, center Jonas Johnson, guard Makai Kvamme and guard Rob Walls, one junior, PJ Chambers and one senior, guard and leading scorer Maurice Thomas. Out with injuries for the moment are junior standouts and returning starters Payton Kamin and Jaylan McElroy.
Despite the Rams having two of their best players on the court, they opened the season 4-0 winning the Battle of the Bridge Tournament hosted by DePaul Prep along with Lane Tech. Catholic League Blue conference play has been a different story. Coming into this game, the Rams were on a two-game losing streak in the conference play dropping games to St. Lawrence and DeLaSalle.
There are encouraging signs for the Rams. Mount Carmel’s transfer Lee Marks emerged as a force for the Caravan at last weekend’s Chicago Elite Classic. The Rams shut him down. “We scouted him pretty well. Our gap defense shut his driving lanes down a little bit. We did a nice job keeping him off the boards. He is a fantastic rebounder. He had seventeen rebounds against Laurence,” said Kleinschmidt.
The Caravan never blow the game wide open. The largest lead they managed was seven points. Then curiously, early in the third quarter, Caravan head coach Phil Segorves slowed down the pace of game. At one point midway through the fourth quarter, Caravan point guard Deandre Craig put the ball on his hip in classic style and waited for the Rams to come out and defend.
“I think they wanted to pull us out and get us in the bonus. [Deandre] Craig is one of the two or three best point guards in the league. I think [Mount Carmel head coach Phil Segorves] wanted to put the ball senior point guard’s hands and control the game, get fouls and go to the line,” Kleinschmidt added.
The Rams chiseled away at the Caravan lead making it a one possession game for the last couple minutes. Only a questionable turn over call and foul pushed the lead to four. The Rams made it a one-point game with a three before the buzzer.
The fact that the young Rams can play with the seventh ranked CCL powerhouse Caravan has to be encouraging for Rams fans. This adversity early in the season is going to help them when they get their scorers back. “1000%. Everybody is getting minutes. This time that they are getting you normally can’t get it. And they are playing well. We are stretching our bench. When we get everybody back, we will be in good shape,” said Kleinschmidt.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire for the young Rams who host 5th ranked St. Rita Mustangs next Friday the DePaul Prep’s Tom Winiecki Gym on Friday. St. Rita will be riding high after defeating the 6th ranked and previously unbeaten Brother Rice Crusaders 57-51 at Brother Rice.
Wow! Huge 41-32 win for the DePaul Prep Rams over a talented and big St. Rita Mustangs team. I try play it straight and not to be such a fan in these posts but with these top Chicago Catholic League games at the end of the season, I just give that up.
It was just great to see the Rams beat St. Rita last night in probably one of the last games in the Tom Winiecki Gym. The Rams are not going to be CCL champs this year but these wins over Loyola, Brother Rice and St. Rita in recent days sure are nice. That 20-4 overall record is pretty impressive. Three losses in the CCL hurts but these big wins at the end take some of the sting out of that.
St. Rita was without their star sophomore point guard Jaedin Reyna. They missed him. The Mustangs struggled even to take outside shots. And they still almost won the game.
There was a really cool moment early in the game. The Rams were passing the ball around looking for a shot. The gym fell a little quiet. The whole gym could hear Coach Klienschmidt yell to his team, “Michigan. Everything we talked about we are not doing. Flash to the ball.”
That was cool. You just don’t get that in other sports.
Like so many Gordon Tech and DePaul Prep teams lead by Tom Kleinschmidt, if they get a lead late in a game, it so hard to beat them. Tom’s teams handle the ball well and make their free throws—usually. They struggled a little with that early in the season but not anymore.
The Rams made their free throws at the end last night and won by nine points over the vary talented 24th ranked St. Rita team. The Mustangs are in second place in the CCL Blue at 10-2 with a 19-10 overall record. CCL Blue second place will be at stake on Tuesday. The Mustangs take on Brother Rice and the Rams travel to Leo. If the Rams win and the Mustangs lose, DePaul Prep will finish in second place by virtue of the head-to-head victory of St. Rita.
Leo and Marian Catholic are left for the Rams before the 2A playoffs. Leo is having an historic season and I am glad for them. They are CCL Blue champs and deserve to be. We will see if the Rams can go to Leo on Tuesday and come away with a win.
As for the photos, I have been working on my “Kirsten Stickney Reaction Shots.” Didn’t get many good ones but I am going to keep working on them.
Coach Kleinschmidt called for team photo after the game. He wanted to savor this last regular season home game in the Tom Winiecki Gym. The photos turned out well.
The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Chicago Vocational Career Academy 64-46 in the Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving Tournament.
The Rams jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. The Rams defense simply stifled the CVS’s scoring attempts and and turned around and scored layups in transition. It was 20 to 6 and at the end of the first quarter and 43 to 18 at the half. Rams’ Jr. guard Tyler Johnson finished with eighteen points. Center Brian Matthews had 13. Brian is playing with confidence and he is scoring. Lance Mosley had seven points.
Last year I wrote a season preview so I thought I should again. I am a little late with the Rams having already played two games but I thought I might offer some thoughts anyway.
Last year I wrote, “The Rams are also seen by many observers as among the top teams in 3A with Morgan Park, Bogan, St. Viator and St. Rita. So the expectations are high for a deep run into the IHSA 3A playoffs.” The Rams did not disappoint. They won the Grayslake Sectional over a very good St. Viator team. The Super-sectional game never happened because of a fight in the sectional championship between Farragut and North Lawndale. After falling to Bogan in the 3A semi-final, the Rams won the 3A Third Place last March over Peoria Manual.
In the words of Joe Henricksen, “Under Tom Kleinschmidt, DePaul Prep has arrived as a full-fledged, legitimate basketball program in Illinois.” Last year’s success made believers of Joe Henricksen and the Sun-Times reporter Michael O’Brien. The Rams look to take the next step from upstart to perennial powerhouse.
A look ahead at this year’s schedule has some opportunities for the Rams to pile up wins. The Chicago Catholic League poses its usual problems, Fenwick, Loyola, St. Joseph. I don’t know what to expect out of Br. Rice and St. Laurence with their two stars graduated or transferred. I would say the Catholic League Blue is wide open and the Rams have as good a chance as anybody.
The second major tournament is the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic. This will be the Rams third year in Hinsdale for Christmas week. Hinsdale has a number of ranked teams including Marian Catholic, Stevenson, Homewood-Flossmoor, Westinghouse and CCL rival St. Rita. The Rams could make a run at this title. It would be difficult and would require some good fortune but they could win.
The Second Annual Steve Pappas Shootout brings Deerfield to the Tom Winicki Gym. Deerfield is good but they are not Morgan Park. Personally, I think it was genius to bring in Morgan Park last year. It got last year’s team into a big game against a potential state tournament favorite. The narrow defeat gave the 2018/2019 Rams the confidence they needed for their deep playoff run.
This year’s St. Patrick Shootout will bring St. Viator. Even without St. Viator’s graduated stars, Hernandez and Calvin, my beloved Lions are more than just dangerous. Lions forward Connor Kochera is drawing rave reviews for his performances over the summer.
Non-conference games include Ridgewood, Peoria Manual, Benet and Mather (for senior night).
The 3A landscape is a little different this year. This is not your father’s 3A. Changing enrollment classifications have dropped some traditional 4A schools into 3A. Among those schools moving from 4A to 3A are Notre Dame, Deerfield, Benet, Fenwick, Kenwood and Riverside-Brookfield. All these 4A playoff teams in 2018/2019 are in 3A this year. Throw in powerhouse teams like Morgan Park and Bogan and 3A is a whole new world.
So here we go:
1. Battle of the Bridge
2. CCL Part 1
3. Hinsdale Christmas Tournament
4. CCL Championship
5. 3A Playoffs
How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
No other way to put this, the DePaul Prep Rams took a shellacking at the hands of the St. Rita Mustangs, 12-0, at Kerry Wood Field Saturday morning. I wasn’t there to write a story so I am a little short on details. The details wouldn’t be pretty anyway.
I was there to get some good daylight baseball photos. There was a low haze this late morning. A little overcast too. I set up the 5D with the 24-300mm 5.6 to get some behind the plate. I set the shutter speed at 1/2000. It worked. I got some good shots with a frozen baseball. I had to push the ISO to 400 but that doesn’t make much of a difference on a full frame 5D Mark IV. The photos from the 70-200mm 2.8 are noticeably sharper that the 24-300. I really need to get one of those 300mm 2.8 lenses.
I wanted to settle on the best positions for baseball as well. It seems that the first and third base sides just back the dugouts are the best place for the most shots. Behind the plate is only good for photos of the pitcher. One can’t get good shots of action in the field from there.
So here are the photos. I have a lot more work to do getting good photos of this year’s edition of Rams Baseball.
