Learning the A, B, Cs of playoff football
Anyone with a 3-year-old and 1-year-old knows once you get the "A-B-C-D-E-F-G" song in your head, it can stay there for awhile.
See what I mean?
And since I can't get it out of mine, at least I thought I'd put it to good use getting ready for the 2007-08 playoffs, Tri-Cities style.
A Aurora Christian, what a great place to start. Make that a perfect place.
The Eagles went 9-0, which left them and Geneva as the area's only unbeaten teams.
Coach Don Beebe has a team that can move the ball through the air with junior quarterback Jordan Roberts or on the ground with backs Sean O'Boyle and John Smith.
The key to an extended Class 3A playoff run could be the continued emergence of the Eagles' defense, which improved by leaps and bounds this year especially against Aurora Christian's toughest opponents.
B Be prepared to travel. Just ask Batavia.
East St. Louis? Are you kidding?
The IHSA wasn't, sending Batavia there for an opening round game in the Class 7A playoffs. All the Bulldogs need to do is leave the high school at 7 a.m. Saturday and drive 301 miles south and west.
At least Batavia should be used to the early wakeup call. The Bulldogs left at 6 a.m. last year for Champaign when they played in the 10 a.m. Class 6A championship.
C Champaign. It's the one time of year where it's not just crazy diehard Illini fans like myself love to visit Champaign, but 256 football teams from across the state and their legions of fans hope to wind up at Memorial Stadium.
The last state championship game played in Normal came in 1998, a 42-14 win for Wheaton Warrenville South over Barrington back when Class 6A was the largest class.
The University of Illinois has hosted ever since, and next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the championship games taking place in Champaign.
D Defense, defense, defense. We've got some great units on the defensive side this year, led by St. Charles East and Geneva allowing only 200 and 203 yards per game, respectively.
Batavia's defense has allowed a few more yards per game at 299, but the Bulldogs have been the best at creating turnovers -- 29 and counting.
E Eight classes. Eight champions. It wasn't a popular move when the IHSA expanded from six classes to eight in 2001-02. The first 7A and 8A championship that year were classics, a 19-14 win for Prospect and a 34-31 victory for Downers Grove South over Naperville Central in 8A.
You don't hear many complaints about eight classes now.
F Formula for a long postseason run? Good question.
There's the old truths about defense wins championship and the team that runs the ball for more yards usually wins. No doubt there's a lot of truth to each, or they wouldn't be recited so often.
But when you meet the kinds of quality teams in you see in the playoffs, especially as you advance, those teams also are pretty darn good defensively and can run the ball. So it helps to have a balanced offense that can throw the ball when it has to, and can keep the opponent guessing.
You'll see coaches go a little deeper in the playbooks, and you've always got to make sure you don't lose the turnover battle.
And it certainly doesn't hurt to get a few…
G …Good breaks, you need to catch a few. The wonderful opportunity last Nov. 25 presented to 13,000-plus Batavia fans to roadtrip to Champaign and cheer on the Bulldogs in the state championship game wouldn't have happened if not for a tipped pass that went for a 70-yard touchdown in the second round to beat St. Viator.
It's certainly true that good teams make their own breaks.
But no matter how good you are, you can bet there will be a game or two along the way that you'll need a break or two to go your way to advance.
H Home field advantage. It certainly helps when you get a pair of quality teams on your home turf, when there isn't much to separate the teams.
How do you figure out who hosts each round? It goes to the better seed in the first round. After that, it goes to whichever team has played fewer home games. If both teams have played the same number of home games, the team with the better seed gets to host.
I Interceptions. You want the momentum-changing play from your secondary? When Casey Emanuel from Geneva intercepted a pass against Batavia last week, it gave him 4 on the season -- and tied him with teammate Jake Conforti for the most in the area.
J Jordan. Pick your favorite Jordan quarterback -- Roberts at Aurora Christian or Coffey at Batavia. They combined for over 3,100 yards passing and 36 touchdowns.
And sticking to the J theme, they are both only juniors.
K Kicking game. If Marmion winds up in a nail-biter with undefeated Prairie Ridge, the Cadets have a weapon few high schools possess -- kicker Alex Piccini.
He booted 6 field goals this year, or twice as many as anyone else in the area.
If your team winds up trying to play the field position game, punters like Jordan Church at Batavia (33.3 yards per kick), Mike Hoscheit at St. Charles East (32.7) and Geneva's Mike Mayszak (31.8) are good to have on your side.
L Looking ahead. Of course you won't get a coach telling you they are doing it -- and they obviously can't afford to -- but that certainly is part of the fun for fans.
If Geneva and St. Charles East both win, they'll play next week in the Class 7A second round.
If Batavia and St. Charles North both win, they'll play in the Class 7A second round.
And if all four of those teams win this weekend, we'll have our own two-week Tri-Cities Tournament in the middle of the IHSA playoffs, with the Saints and Vikings playing in one semifinal, the North Stars and Bulldogs in the other, and the two winners meeting the following weekend for the title of Tri-Cities Champion -- and also a spot in the Class 7A semifinals.
See, half the fun in the playoffs can be dreaming of potential matchups. And then when one of those dreams comes true, you have a scene like last year's Class 6A semifinal between Batavia and Geneva.
M Michael Ratay, it sure is nice for Geneva fans to have you healthy. The junior running back scored an area-best 23 touchdowns in the regular season, including two last week in a 14-12 win at Batavia.
N Nervous Nellies? There's no room for them now. The teams who advance are the ones who stay calm under pressure, which is easier said than done when a loss ends your season.
O Offense. We gave the top defenses their props earlier. Aurora Christian led the area in offense at 424 yards a game while also scoring an area best 404 points.
Batavia wasn't far behind at 398 yards a game. Interestingly, two teams who did not qualify for the playoffs, Kaneland and Aurora Central Catholic, were both among the top offensive teams. So maybe there is something to that "defense wins championships" cliché.
P Phew! How many more letters are there? It sure doesn't take this long singing the song at home.
Q Quality opponents, it sure helps to have seen a few during the regular season. Remember Batavia, Geneva and Kaneland rolling through the playoffs last year? It sure helped each of them to beat up on each other during the season to get ready for the kind of pressure-packed games they saw in the playoffs.
Look for this to pay dividends this year for Ted Monken's St. Charles East Saints. Opening the year at Batavia and at home against Lincoln-Way East -- even though both of those teams struggled a little more than they usually do -- prepared the Saints to knock off Waubonsie Valley to start the Upstate Eight in Week 3.
And it will have them ready for whatever comes their way in the playoffs.
R Relative newcomer to the playoffs, Granite City. The Saints' first round opponent is making just its third playoff appearance with an all-time record of 1-2.
Contrast that to Batavia's first round opponent, East St. Louis and its rich tradition -- 28 appearances, 63-21 all-time record, and 6 state championships.
Interestingly, only Geneva has winning record among the local playoff teams with an impressive all-time record of 20-9.
Other area playoff records: Aurora Christian (4-5), Batavia (9-11), Marmion (7-8), St. Charles East (13-16) and St. Charles North (1-5).
S Same old, same old. This is the sixth straight year St. Charles North and Aurora Christian are in the playoffs, the best streak in the area.
The North Stars and Eagles have company with playoff consistency.
Batavia in for the fifth straight year, Geneva four, St. Charles East three in a row
T Tough act to follow, those 2006 playoffs. Kaneland and Geneva both advanced to the semifinals in Class 5A and 6A, respectively, and Batavia made it all the way to the state championship game in Champaign.
What will we see for an encore?
U Underdogs? So what. It's the playoffs, anything can happen. You might not see many 5-4 teams upset the 9-0, No. 1 seeds, but it has happened in the past.
And we'll have three area teams trying to put their names in the history books as 5-4 teams moving on -- Batavia, St. Charles North and Marmion.
V Victory isn't everything. OK, I know I left out the second half of the saying, and I know it flies in the face of everything Vince Lombardi and most everyone else teaches. But all of these teams already have had more than their share of shining moments.
Only eight teams out of those 256 in the playoffs are going to end their seasons with a win. So if a season-ending loss comes, be it this week or in four or five weeks, look back at everything you've enjoyed in football that will last a lot longer than wins and losses.
Working together with your teammates for a common goal, sacrifice, discipline, hard work, learning how to win and lose with class, and so many other important life lessons -- football can be a great tool to teach kids about much more than Xs and Os. And that's even more true when led by the kind of coaches we have in this area: Don Beebe, Mike Gaspari, Mark Gould, Ted Monken Dan Thorpe and Rob Wicinski.
W Welcome to the party, Marmion. The Cadets are back in the playoffs for the first time since 1998, when they reached the state quarterfinals with an 11-0 record before losing 17-6 to Geneseo Darnall.
X xcellent matchups, right off the bat. (Did I forget an E or something? You try finding something that starts with X.)
Sometimes you have to wait a round or two to find a game you can't wait to see. But this year it seems there are several intriguing ones right away.
Can St. Charles North win two years in a row at Moline? Can Batavia travel across the state to beat East St. Louis? Can Geneva, St. Charles East and Aurora Christian avoid first-round upsets?
Y Yes! Just one letter to go.
Z Zoom, zip. You know, a fast word just like your team needs to get off to a quick start. The team that scores first has a big advantage in any game, but even moreso the playoffs when it is so important to keep momentum on your sideline.
You made it through all 26 letters! Hopefully you have enough football thoughts to get your mind off the "A-B-C" song.