'Holiday' tourneys on tap; Mattini resurfaces
Holiday tournaments, like holiday lights and holiday shopping, seem to start a little earlier every year.
Five Fox Valley area girls basketball teams begin play in “holiday” tournaments this weekend when the annual tourneys at Oswego and Mundelein get under way.
At Oswego, Hampshire and Larkin are the local entrants along with Neuqua Valley, Batavia, Glenbard East, Minooka and Rosary.
Hampshire (7-0) is the top seed in the Blue Division and plays its first pool game against Rosary at 3 p.m. Saturday, just after Larkin (1-6) takes on Minooka.
The Whip-Purs and Royals both have conference games this week Hampshire plays Stillman Valley in a Big Northern crossover tonight then hosts Harvard in the BNC-East opener on Thursday, while Larkin plays back-to-back Upstate Eight River games, traveling across town to face Elgin on Thursday and then hosting Batavia on Friday.
The Oswego tournament continues Dec. 13-16 with Hampshire playing Larkin on Dec. 14 at 7 p.m.
Undefeated Neuqua Valley is the top seed in the Orange Division of the tournament. The Wildcats take on Waubonsie Valley tonight in a key early-season UEC Valley matchup.
The Mundelein tournament plays host to Cary-Grove, Streamwood and Huntley as well as undefeated Libertyville, Belvidere, Conant, Hoffman Estates, Grant, Waukegan, Rolling Meadows, Vernon Hills, Rockford Auburn, Prairie Ridge, Zion-Benton and Lake Park.
In addition to Libertyville, there are three other undefeated teams at Mundelein Streamwood, Hoffman and Meadows.
Saturday's action has Streamwood taking on 6-1 Conant, Huntley facing the host school and Cary-Grove (7-1) battling Waukegan.
The first round of the bracketed tournament plays Saturday, but then they take a week off and return for the next round on Dec. 18. Games are also played Dec. 20, 21, 22 with the championship on Dec. 23.
Back in the game: It's been several years since former St. Edward coach Ken Mattini has landed a new high school coaching job, but the only girls basketball coach in the Fox Valley area to win a state championship is back in the game. Mattini, who coached at St. Edward from 1983 until 1990, was fired, then returned from 2001 through 2004 before being fired again, has resurfaced at Pecatonica, a Class 1A school in far northwestern Illinois. Mattini, who has over 350 varsity coaching wins, has coached at numerous schools since and after St. Edward, including St. Scholastica, Glenbard West, Ottawa Marquette and Westminster Christian. Also a former boys golf coach at St. Edward, Mattini started his coaching career in 1980 at Stevenson, where he also coached softball. He coached at Dundee in 1983 before moving to St. Edward where his teams won the 1985 state title, finished third in 1986 and second in 1988. He was fired due to continual volatile conduct after the 1989-90 season and again after the 2003-04 season, when the school also didn't renew his teaching contract. A Google search showed that Mattini, a St. Viator graduate and longtime Wheeling resident, is currently a physical education teacher at Transfiguration Catholic Elementary School in Wauconda. No results on Pecatonica are available past its first two games of the Dakota Thanksgiving Tournament, which were both losses.
Money in the bank: Joe Cotton Ford donates $100 to the girls basketball program at Bartlett if a chosen person can, at halftime, make a layup, a 2-point shot from the free-throw line area, and a 3-pointer in 30 seconds. At last week's Hawks' game against Waubonsie Valley, the dealership could have written the check before halftime. Lindsay Schrader, the Hawks' all-time leading scorer who just completed a stellar career at Notre Dame after leading Bartlett to a state runner-up finish in the 2005 Class AA state tournament, was the chosen shooter. The layup and the 2-pointer were easy enough and after a couple of bricks on her first two 3-point attempts, Schrader was all net and the Hawks had $100. Schrader's goal is to become a college athletic director and she is currently doing an internship focused on governance and compliance with the Big Ten office in Park Ridge.
Good stuff: A couple of good nonconference games on tap tonight with Huntley playing at Barrington and Cary-Grove at St. Charles North. On Thursday, Streamwood puts its undefeated record on the line at home against St. Charles North and on Friday Montini, the top-ranked team in Class 3A and in the Daily Herald Top 20, comes to Elgin to face St. Edward in a Suburban Christian Blue matchup.
jradtke@dailyherald.com