Time is growing short in conference races

As of today, less than a month remains in the regular season.

All the conference races are still in contention. There's great dogfights with local angles in the West Suburban Conference, the Suburban Catholic and, if Naperville Central or Wheaton North can get some help and help themselves against West Aurora, the DuPage Valley.

Two area teams hold tenuous conference leads -- Fenton and Waubonsie Valley.

In the Metro Suburban defending champion Fenton is a game up on both Ridgewood and Riverside-Brookfield. Each has four games remaining in the four-team league.

Fenton has split two games with R-B thus far and plays there Feb. 8.

The Bison beat Ridgewood 74-63 on Dec. 14 and play the hot Rebels tonight in Norridge. The decisive contest may be Ridgewood at Fenton on Feb. 15.

Waubonsie Valley hopes to maintain its 1-game lead over Neuqua Valley in the Upstate Eight and take the title for the first time since 2002-03.

As Warriors coach Steve Weemer said, "No one's going to give it to us."

Waubonsie benefited mentally and in the standings with its game-of-the-century win over nemesis Neuqua Valley on Jan. 11.

Should Waubonsie fall, however, Neuqua's lighter remaining schedule should have the Wildcats in position for a tie or outright title.

Of Waubonsie's final four UEC opponents -- St. Charles North, East Aurora, Elgin and St. Charles East -- all but the latter are above .500, and the Saints are 3-3 in the UEC.

Weemer said his Warriors are playing with confidence, sharing the ball and feeling comfortable.

But not too comfortable.

"The main emphasis is still going to be consistently giving a great effort on defense, and then I think offensively it's got to be shot selection," he said.

"We're going to have to have pretty good shot selection down the stretch to win some of these games."

Man for all seasons: For now David Schwabe is Driscoll's third-leading scorer on the basketball court, a guard and team leader for the Highlanders.

In the fall he took over at quarterback 12 days before the football season opened, then led the Highlanders to their seventh straight state championship.

On the baseball diamond in 2007, Schwabe hit .491 with 42 runs scored, 28 RBI and 20 steals while playing shortstop.

He'll play baseball in college. Schwabe recently signed a letter of intent to play at the University of St. Francis. Other schools were interested in him, he said, but St. Francis was the first to offer.

All in jest: After York beat Glenbard West last Friday, York coach Al Biancalana told of a conversation he had with a referee concerning York's defense on 6-foot-8 Northwestern recruit John Shurna.

Right off the bat in the first quarter he said, "He already has his scholarship, there's no sense in protecting him."

Not just funny, Biancalana is gracious in victory and in defeat. He complimented Shurna on more than his basketball ability.

"He's a special player, and a great kid, he really is," Biancalana said.

"I've always enjoyed competing against him because he does it the right way."

Battle at Biester: Speaking of Shurna, he'll go head-to-head with another of the area's top big men on Tuesday.

Driscoll, headed by 6-foot-10 Albany-bound center Jake Lindfors, comes to Glenbard West for a nonconference game at 7 p.m.

Biester Gymnasium will be declared a "Zone-free Zone" as the giants battle inside.

Field trip to remember: Particular to the Wheaton Academy curriculum is Winterim, a two-week period in which classroom instruction is often augmented by internships or travel pertaining to a student's field of interest.

One of the Wheaton Academy boys basketball team's fields of interest is, naturally, the basketball court.

After a week of instruction on the topic, "Spiritual Leadership," the Warriors flew to Orlando, Fla., for two games against local talent and other neat stuff.

First, it must be mentioned that coach Paul Ferguson seemingly has contacts in every U.S. city with a pro or college basketball team.

During last year's Winterim trip to Texas, Dallas Mavericks president Donnie Nelson -- a graduate of Wheaton College, where Ferguson coached for seven years -- invited the Warriors to his office. They also practiced at Baylor University.

This year, in addition to a trip to SeaWorld and a Q & A session with Patrick Morley, author of "The Young Man in the Mirror," they saw the Bulls play in Miami and also attended a game at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.

A big highlight was a side trip to Gainesville and the University of Florida. St. Francis graduate Joey Dal Santo, a student there, led their campus tour.

Ferguson knows Florida assistant basketball coach Larry Shyatt, who spoke to the Warriors in the Florida "war room" and introduced them to Gators players at the basketball facility. Then Wheaton Academy held a practice there.

The Warriors found time to go 2-0 against Florida prep teams from The Master's Academy and Orangewood Christian -- whose coach is a friend of Ferguson.

Next year's Winterim location is undecided, though Charlotte, N.C., is in the running. Tom Jamerson, Wheaton Academy's athletic director prior to Ferguson, is at Charlotte Christian School. Ferguson has a contact with the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Wherever they go, it's worth the trip.

"It was definitely a real bonding experience watching them live together for a week, just the various activities they did and some of the studying they did," Ferguson said. "It was just kind of neat to see some of the unity that developed on the trip."

New faces:ŒDespite being stuck in a five-game losing streak, Glenbard East remains optimistic.

An influx of new talent is a prime reason why.

Six-foot-four junior forward Paul Sanders joined the team for last Friday's DuPage Valley Conference game against West Aurora and tallied 10 points while grabbing 8 rebounds. Sanders, a transfer from Willowbrook, became eligible at the start of the semester.

Another new face is quite familiar to Rams coach Scott Miller. It's his son, Zach, who was promoted to varsity on Jan. 11. Just a freshman, he scored 10 points and dished 9 assists in his varsity debut against Glenbard North.

The Rams (9-8, 4-3), who jumped out to an 8-2 start this season, look to get back to winning tonight at Naperville North.

"We've been knocking on the door, we just haven't been able to finish off games," Scott Miller said. "We won early, and now we're struggling. We need to get them back believing they can win these close games."

While the Rams continue to be led by senior guard Derak Stanback, their lone returning starter, the team is young overall. At one point against West Aurora, Glenbard East had two sophomores, a freshman and a junior on the court.

"And we were winning," coach Miller said. "The record doesn't indicate it right now, but I think we're playing better basketball than we have all season. We just need to get over the hump."

Fast Fenton fact:ŒDamian Sieradzki, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, nearly set two program records during Fenton's 84-73 Metro Suburban Conference victory over Riverside-Brookfield last Friday.

His 41 points came 2 points shy of a 43-point performance by Tony Petrovich in the 1993-94 season. Sieradzki made 15 of 22 field goals, including five 3-pointers, and 6 of 7 free throws.

Sieradzki also snared 14 rebounds, two shy of the program record of 16 boards set last year by John Tangen.

Although Sieradzki fell short of records in both categories, Bison coach Dennis Cromer believes the combination of scoring and rebounding has to rank Sieradzki's single-game effort among the overall best in program history.

And, while impressive individually, the crucial win over the Bulldogs also put Fenton (9-10, 4-1) alone atop the MSC standings.

"Damian's been making strides all year," Cromer said. "He's had the ability to score, but he's also become a better rebounder as the season's gone along."

His game Thursday:ŒFor a second straight week, and for the third time this season, Willowbrook played a rare Thursday game this week.

Last week's game against Morton normally would have been contested on Friday, but the McDonald's Shootout forced the West Suburban Gold matchup to be switched to the day before.

This Thursday provided another quirk to the schedule as the Warriors welcomed Downers Grove South to Villa Park for their Gold showdown.

Willowbrook (13-4, 4-2), which beat Fenton in Tuesday's nonconference game, hasn't played on a Friday since Jan. 11. Coach Tim Lavorato, though, doesn't mind the scheduling -- especially since it adds a day to prepare for the team's Saturday Gold game at Leyden.

"We can go out and play Thursday, then have a day of preparation to correct any mistakes, and then play again on Saturday," he said. "That's really the way basketball should be. I really like it."