'Burno's Inferno' definitely hot spot at Marmion

In his second year as head coach with Marmion's basketball team, Rashon Burno has established his own cheering section with the students. It's called "Burno's Inferno" - and it was certainly live and on fire Friday night, when the Cadets beat Montini in Aurora.

"Most of those guys (in Burno's Inferno) are the older guys, juniors and seniors," said Burno, a former basketball star at DePaul. "Last year, we didn't have quite the fans, but this year, the (students are) making an effort to support one another, and that's always helpful."

Two brand-new coaches in the Tri-Cities area, Geneva's Phil Ralston and Aurora Christian's Marc Davidson, don't have a cheering section (yet?) - but so far, they both are loving their new gigs.

Coincidentally, both teams had several players join their respective basketball teams late because of the successful football seasons. Now with full rosters, both coaches are also glad they have a complete team.

"I love it," Ralston said of his new job at Geneva. "It's easy to say you love your job when you have great kids to work with. That's what I have. They listen, they work hard for me every day, and that's what I like about them."

As for Davidson, his Eagles started the season 0-3 at Batavia's Thanksgiving tournament. They won their last two games over Somonauk and IMSA and are 2-3 through Monday's games.

"It's going really well," Davidson said. "I'm really enjoying it. We have a great group of kids."

Davidson took the job over from his father, longtime coach Don Davidson, who is still the athletic director at Aurora Christian. If son ever needs advice from dad, his office is right next door at the school.

The fight for the WSC title in full swing: So much for undefeated Geneva traveling to undefeated Batavia for a Friday night showdown this week. That all went out the window last Friday when the Bulldogs lost at home to Glenbard South and the Vikings fell at DeKalb.

At least the undefeated part went out the window. Geneva is still traveling to Batavia, and it will still be a showdown between the two rivals. This is just the type of up-and-down conference race Raiders coach Wade Hardtke expects this year in the Western Sun.

"It's wide open," Hardtke said. "Geneva is at the top, Batavia will be there, I think DeKalb is going to be there down the stretch. There's a logjam up there and there's going to be some big battles on Friday nights and Tuesday nights."

Both Batavia and Geneva need to get off to better starts than they did last week. The Bulldogs fell behind by 22 points in the second quarter to the Raiders, which led to an intense halftime and a much better second half that saw them almost rally all the way back for the win.

"We got a pretty hard speech from one of our coaches in the locker room at half and I think it woke up a bunch of guys up," senior Jordan Coffey said. "Unfortunately, we had some poor defense and missed free throws in the first half that ended up costing us in the second half."

The Bulldogs will have a new rotation Friday without Coffey, who underwent shoulder surgery Monday. The 6-foot-5 senior will be there cheering on his teammates, including younger brother Jesse, a sophomore guard who hit two 3s to help their second-half comeback against the Raiders.

"I guess it's kind of nice to get these lessons early in the season when it doesn't matter as much," Jordan Coffey said of learning from the slow start Friday. "Hopefully we get stronger from it."

Fabulous frosh: It hasn't taken long for freshman Juwan Starks to make an impact at West Aurora. The 6-3, 160-pound forward led the Blackhawks with 11 points in their 49-32 win over Lake Park on Saturday night.

Coupled with 6-7 sophomore Kyle Pilmer, the two give West Aurora a young, bright future on their front line.

"I think he's (Starks) playing a lot better than people expected," West Aurora senior forward Jamal Blackmond said. "To come in with all the pressure, I think he's handling it pretty well. And Kyle is doing a lot better job. As long as the season keeps going we'll get better and better."

Blackhawks coach Gordie Kerkman agrees. He's been impressed with the range Starks has, along with the ability to score around the basket.

"He's getting better all the time," Kerkman said. "I don't know if it's anything we are doing with coaching, it's just he's getting familiar with varsity speed and varsity-type players.

"I anticipate he's going to get a lot better. He can shoot the ball. Some people say you don't want Starks shooting 3s, if you saw him the other night at practice you'd wonder why he doesn't shoot them more. He can knock down 3s. He's got a nice shot. And he's really not intimidated playing against varsity competition."

After a lopsided loss at Naperville Central to start DVC play two weeks ago, their 2-0 record last weekend should give the 4-3 Blackhawks a boost.

"Confidence," Kerkman said was what will help the team most. "I think Naperville Central, we didn't play particularly good. I definitely was not satisfied, I thought we could have played a better ballgame. To come back and win two this week (is a confidence-builder). Our defense has been pretty good for the most part. Right now it has been getting a little better. We're starting to get more patient all the time (offensively)."

Not 100 percent: St. Charles North senior Jon DeMoss is still working his way back into basketball shape. DeMoss injured his elbow during the football season. Following last Thursday's 4-point loss to Neuqua Valley, DeMoss said the elbow is still bothering him but it's an injury he'll play through.

"Some of us are still getting back in the swing of basketball," DeMoss said. "My elbow still hurts. All the time I wasn't playing football, I wasn't doing anything at all. That hurt. I wasn't playing basketball. It hurts but I try to get everything going for the team. I feel like once everyone gets going, we could be good, we could be dangerous. That's something to look forward to."