Lake County teams stung by injury, illness

Injuries have taken a toll on Lake County basketball this season, starting with the loss of Grayslake Central guard Andrew Sipes.

He was the first big name to go down when he tore the ligaments in his knee in one of the first games of the season.

Since then, numerous other players have suffered sprains, breaks, tears, illnesses, and other ailments that have either shelved them for good or kept them out of the lineup for an extended period of time.

Here's the latest update on all that is plaguing basketball in these parts:

Brust back - sort of: With a successful surgery behind him, Mundelein junior guard Ben Brust is already back at practice.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that Brust can't do anything but crutch around. He had surgery last week to repair the leg he broke earlier this month when he landed awkwardly after blocking a shot against Stevenson. He'll be out of commission for at least the next four months.

But it was important to him to get back in the swing of things as soon as he could so he could show his teammates some support.

"Yeah, he's coming to practices and games already. He's up and around," said Mundelein coach Dick Knar, who reported that Brust had two screws inserted in his right leg just above his ankle. "It's hard for him to watch everyone else play because he's not the type of kid who just sits around. But he's handling it really well, way better than I would have. He's being a good teammate and supporting the other guys."

Brust will be in a cast for about a month. He's been gathering signatures and well wishes from his teammates, classmates and friends.

"I'm a little disappointed because I haven't had a chance to sign it yet," said Knar, who was home earlier this week recovering from the flu. "I've got to get on that. I want to say, 'Get well soon.' I also want to write a short prayer that this never happens again."

Another one down: The injury bug that took a big bite out of the Mundelein lineup when Ben Brust went down with a broken leg earlier this month struck again last week.

Forward Ryan Sawvell suffered a severe ankle sprain the day before Mundelein played Lakes in a North Suburban crossover game. Sawvell, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, missed the game and is questionable for tonight's game against Libertyville.

"He wants to play and he's off crutches, but we'll see," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "It was a pretty bad sprain and sometimes those can be worse than even a break."

Without Sawvell, Mundelein lacks a defensive presence in the middle, a consistent rebounder and much more.

"What do we miss, well, besides our second-leading scorer, our leading rebounder, leading shot blocker and second-leading steals guy, not much I guess," Knar said with a slight chuckle. "Having Ryan out hurts us bad."

If Sawvell is a no-go, Knar says that senior Mike Gerton and junior Drew Herchenbach will see their minutes increase just as they did against Lakes.

Herchenbach is coming off a 29-point performance in a junior varsity game.

"I told (Herchenbach) that I'm going to be expecting that out of him from here on out," Knar said.

Anderson's ankle: Even Warren, the top team in the area, hasn't been able to escape the injury bug.

Senior forward Jake Anderson, a starter for the Blue Devils, is getting his legs back after missing last week's game against Lake Zurich because of a serious ankle sprain.

Warren edged Lake Zurich by just 53-50.

Anderson did play in Tuesday's game against Stevenson.

"We missed Jake in that Lake Zurich game," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "He's a very versatile player who does a lot of different things for us. We're hoping that he'll be back (to close to 100 percent) as soon as possible."

Good timing: Lakes faces North Suburban Conference Prairie Division power North Chicago tonight and has a little trick up its sleeve.

For the first time this season, the Eagles will head into a game with their entire roster intact and ready for action.

Lakes is 7-10 but started 0-6 in part because six players have been battling injuries and three have missed multiple games because of them.

"It was tough to go 0-6, but our kids were still showing up, still playing hard, still keeping a positive attitude," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "It will be nice for them that we'll finally be able to go full throttle now. We're definitely going to level up."

According to Phelan, guard Mike Scott (knee), guard Chris Boehm (arm), guard Tyler Swindle (hand), guard John Androus (ankle), forward Marcell KirkmanBey (ankle, flu) and forward Justin Hotle (broken nose) have all been bothered by various ailments and injuries.

Boehm broke his arm during the first game and didn't return until last week, Swindle missed a few games after cutting his hand on some glass and KirkmanBey has been out a combined six games between an ankle sprain and the flu bug.

"If the guys on your team don't have the right character, (the season) can go in a terrible direction when you have all that happen to you," Phelan said. "But we've got positive guys and we're overcoming it."

Hospital stay: It could have been food poisoning, but no one is exactly sure. Not even doctors.

All Stevenson guard Jeff Levitt knows is that he's missed three games in a row and had to spend three straight days in the hospital last week to recover from a serious intestinal infection.

"It was a pretty bad thing, much more than the flu," Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. "He's lost a lot of weight and strength. When he'll be feeling better and at full strength no one knows at this point. His status is very much unknown."

Levitt is Stevenson's point guard and its defensive stopper. Without him in the lineup, the Patriots have gone 1-2. They got a win over Lake Zurich, but lost to Evanston and Warren.

"We miss a lot with Jeff out," Ambrose said. "He plays lock-down defense and he's a great passer. Other people are really going to have to step up while he's out."

Junior guard Shaun Albert has been filling in so far for the Patriots.

"Shaun had a nice game against Lake Zurich," Ambrose said. "He's doing a nice job of handling the ball and helping us run the offense. It looks like he's pretty comfortable out there."

Funning landing: Antioch forward Eric Smith has got rebounding on the court down pat.

He averages 11.7 rebounds per game, one of the best marks in Lake County.

Now, Smith needs to figure out how to rebound off the court. He will likely miss tonight's game against Round Lake while he recuperates from a knee injury that occurred when he landed awkwardly in a game against Lakes last week.

Presidential pardon: When an athlete misses multiple practices to go on an out-of-town trip, it usually doesn't sit well with his coach.

Carmel junior forward Connor Sexson has missed a handful of practices over the last week to accommodate his travel plans.

"I guess there are things that are more important than basketball," Carmel coach John Ryan said.

Ryan was trying to be funny, tongue-in-cheek.

Of course Sexson's absences were excused, Ryan reported. Being a part of history is a pretty good reason for missing practice.

Sexson was in Washington for several days to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama. He was actually invited to do so.

"Connor was part of a national youth leadership conference last summer," Ryan said on Tuesday. "And he was part of a delegation that was chosen to go to the inauguration.

"I guess he's been on TV a few times in the background and his mom has been calling me with updates. It's a pretty neat thing."

Now, Ryan wants all the details.

In addition to playing catch-up on the court upon his return, Sexson will be busy dishing with his coaches and teammates.

"I think I'm going to have him give a presentation to the team about what it was like being there," Ryan said. "We all want to hear about it."

Grayslake North center Patrick Grim was also at the inauguration with a group of classmates.

King of the court: With the inauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday, Martin Luther King Day, which was observed the day before, seemed to take on even more significance than usual.

Not that that is necessarily influencing the Antioch and North Chicago basketball teams.

They're planning a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. prior to their game at Antioch on Feb. 6, but they would have done so anyway. Last year, they did the same thing and decided to make the tribute an annual event.

"As the only two African-American coaches in the North Suburban Conference, (North Chicago's Gerald Coleman) and I decided that we wanted to do something prior to our game in which we celebrated Dr. King," Antioch coach Mike Skinner said. "I coach at a predominantly white school and he's at a predominantly black school. We thought it would be cool to do something that would bring us all together in the spirit that Dr. King preached."

Last year, the teams exchanged shirts that were inscribed with some of King's inspiring words. Prior to the game, Antioch players presented the North Chicago players with red shirts and North Chicago gave the Antioch players black shirts.

"It's (symbolic of) what Dr. King dreamed," Skinner said. "You've got all these different colors of people in the world - and with our guys some have red shirts, some black shirts. But all the shirts have the same message on them. For Dr. King, his dream was to have different people living by the same message (of inclusion) in a positive way."

Skinner says that prior to last year's game at North Chicago, the players were inspired by the words of a firefighter and listened to a poem written by a student.

Decision time: It's not a decision that should be taken lightly, so Antioch guard Cameron White is determined to get it right.

That's why he'll miss Friday's game against Round Lake. He's going to visit Eastern Illinois over the weekend to decide if indeed the school is right for him as a student and an athlete.

White, the honorary captain of the Daily Herald's 2008 Lake County All-Area football team and the leading rusher in Antioch school history, may continue his career at Eastern Illinois. This will be his second visit to the school.

"From what I understand, Eastern is the school that has pursued him the most," said Antioch basketball coach Mike Skinner. "I don't think it's 100 percent yet, but it's looking like that's where he'll go."