U-46 events off; some Fox Valley events on
The Blizzard of 2011 has created chaos with Fox Valley area high school athletic events, most specifically in Elgin Area School District U-46, which essentially has shut down until Monday, although athletes scheduled to participate in Upstate Eight Conference tournaments or IHSA state series events will be allowed to compete, but they will have to provide their own transportation to the event.
All basketball games scheduled for U-46 schools for Thursday, Friday and Saturday have been postponed. That list includes the following boys games:
South Elgin at Bartlett, Batavia at Streamwood and St. Charles North at Elgin scheduled for Friday.
And, the following girls games have been postponed:
Lake Park at Bartlett, St. Charles East at Streamwood, Larkin at Batavia and Geneva at Elgin, scheduled for tonight. The Geneva-Elgin game and the Lake Park-Bartlett game will be played Monday. No firm reschedule date for the others was available Thursday afternoon.
Additionally, girls basketball games scheduled for Saturday are postponed. They are:
Streamwood at Geneva, St. Charles North at Larkin, and Batavia at Elgin. No reschedule information is available for those games.
While the boys basketball schedule has a little leeway to it, the girls schedule doesn’t. Next week is the final week of the girls regular season. IHSA regional tournaments begin on Monday, Feb. 14.
“Never in 30 years of coaching have I experienced anything like this,” said Streamwood girls basketball coach George Rosner Thursday afternoon. “It’s not just the canceling of games, it’s the timing of it. If it was December or early January you could work it out. But right here at the end of the season makes it tough.”
Rosner, whose team is in a first-place tie in the Upstate Eight River race, said he and boys basketball coach Tim Jones are scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Friday with assistant principal Brian Moran to discuss options for rescheduling.
U-46 athletes scheduled to participate in postseason events this weekend will be allowed to do so, but district transportation to those events, as of Thursday afternoon, will not be available.
“We’re asking that the athletes make arrangements to get themselves to the events,” said Elgin High athletic director Gwen Poore. “We’ll do our best to help provide transportation with coaches and parents where need be.”
Bartlett athletic director Jeff Bral said the one saving grace is that most of the events are not all that far away. U-46 wrestlers are to compete in the Schaumburg regional on Saturday, girls bowlers are at the Lake Park sectional at Brunswick Zone in Roselle and boys swimmers are at the Upstate Eight meet at St. Charles North. All of those events are still scheduled to be held.
“It’s very hard,” Bral said of the rescheduling process. “But luckily (with wrestling, bowling and swimming) everybody’s close. We’re not traveling more than 5-10 miles. It’s putting a lot on the athletes but we’re going to get our kids where they have to be to compete. The kids deserve to compete. They’ve worked all season for this.”
The South Elgin/Bartlett/Streamwood co-op girls gymnastics team will compete in the New Trier regional on Friday evening.
Elsewhere around the Fox Valley, most Thursday night events were called off but schools are planning to play games this weekend. Following is a list of events that have been scheduled or rescheduled for Friday and Saturday that, as of Thursday afternoon, were still scheduled to be played.
Friday
Boys basketball: Cary-Grove at Dundee-Crown, Alden-Hebron at Westminster Christian.
Girls basketball: Dundee-Crown at Jacobs, Cary-Grove at Huntley, Crystal Lake South at McHenry, Burlington Central at Hampshire, and Immaculate Conception at St. Edward.
Saturday
Boys basketball: Jacobs vs. West Aurora at Batavia’s Night of Hoops, Fremd at Dundee-Crown, Crystal Lake South at Huntley, IMSA at Westminster Christian, North Boone at Burlington Central, St. Edward at Wheaton Academy and Hampshire at Richmond-Burton.
Girls basketball: Jacobs at Cary-Grove, Dundee-Crown at Crystal Lake South, Marengo at Huntley, Westminster Christian at IMSA.
Wrestling: Elgin, Larkin, South Elgin, Streamwood and Bartlett at Schaumburg regional; Jacobs, Dundee-Crown, Cary-Grove, CL South and Huntley at Jacobs regional; Burlington Central and Hampshire at Sycamore regional; St. Edward at Walther Lutheran regional.
Boys swimming: Upstate Eight meet at St. Charles North.
Girls bowling: All area teams at Lake Park sectional at Brunswick Zone in Roselle.
Also, Hampshire’s scheduled boys basketball game against Marengo was postponed again Thursday and will be played at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday. The girls basketball game against Richmond-Burton on Tuesday will be played at 5:45 p.m.