Another fabulous sports year had many shining moments

It's been another bountiful year in Fox Valley area high school sports.

How do I know this? Well, when sitting down to consider the Top Ten local sports stories of the year, the list grew, and grew, and grew some more.

Earlier this week, the Daily Herald's Jerry Fitzpatrick chronicled some of the best moment's he witnessed in 2007-08, so after much deliberation I've decided on my best moment this year and it's also one of the Top 10 stories.

My favorite moment involving a Fox Valley area event this school year was sitting down on press row at NIU's Convocation Center to cover the Elgin High boys basketball team playing Zion-Benton in the supersectional. There is no question that the one story that always takes the highest billing in our minds is that of Maroons boys basketball. It has a more storied history than any other single athletic program in our area and to see the adversity the guys on Maroon Drive overcame this winter to advance to the Elite Eight was about as good as it gets.

Now, that out of the way we'll move on to one guy's opinion of the Top Ten Fox Valley high school sports stories of the 2007-08 school year, in reverse order of course.

10) The Crystal Lake South softball team overcame ACL injuries to two of its top players -- sisters Kaitlin and Megan Hardie -- and made a mad dash through the postseason and to the Elite Eight, falling this past Monday to defending state runner-up Barrington, 4-3 in 10 innings at the NIU supersectional. Coaches Scott Busam and Mark Hardie and all the Gator players showed the magic of May Mayhem and June Jubilation can be alive and well regardless of a mediocre regular season.

9) An ongoing story, Prairie Ridge's baseball team, under first-year coach Dave Haskins, advanced to a state final tournament for the first time with its 5-4 win over Carmel in Monday's Class 4A supersectional. The Wolves also registered their 30th win for the first time in program history. They take on Neuqua Valley in today's state semifinals in Joliet.

8) A year ago the St. Edward softball program was struggling, having had to replace a non-certified coach and then just winning 6 of the 21 games it was able to play. This year, under a new coaching staff led by Larkin graduate Mike Rolando, also the St. Edward football coach, the Green Wave got on a postseason roll that ended with a 6-4 extra-inning loss to Morrison in a Class 2A supersectional. In addition to the varsity success, through the efforts of Rolando, Scot Brocker, Eloy Diaz and Jaci Corn, the program also was able to field teams at three levels for the first time in several years.

7) Speaking of St. Edward, the girls soccer team, under veteran coach Tim Brieger, advanced to the Class A Elite Eight for the first time. And who knows what might have happened if not for a header that went the wrong way in the state quarterfinals.

6) Not many schools experience a spring like the one Hampshire just had. Not only did the Whip-Purs win a regional title in softball and advance to a supersectional in baseball, they also advanced to the Class A state finals in girls soccer for the third straight year, and this time played for the state championship before falling to Rochester. And to top it all off, senior Quinn Walker brought home a state championship medal as well as third-place hardware in the Class A state 300 and 110-meter hurdle events respectively. Quite a way for the white and purple to exit the old school and move to the new building.

5) In a combined 43 years coaching girls basketball and baseball, respectively, at Dundee-Crown, Joe Komaromy and Fred Bencriscutto retired together. Coach K was 450-268 in 25 years as the only coach in D-C girls basketball history and Coach Ben put together a 309-286-6 mark in his 18 years as the Chargers' baseball boss. That's a total of 1,339 D-C contests the two most likeable coaches around ran their teams in.

4) They had been on the brink the last couple of years but this past fall the Hampshire (yes, that school again) girls volleyball team made it to Redbird Arena and played for the Class 2A state championship. But, like the soccer team would in the spring, coach Karen Whitehouse's troops came up just short, falling to Breese Central in three grueling games.

3) The Dundee-Crown wrestling program has long been the staple of consistency and this year was no different. The bonus to all the hard work the Chargers put in came twofold when longtime coach and mentor Al Zinke won his 500th career dual match during the season, and then senior 189-pounder Mike Lukowski capped off a 42-5 season and a fabulous career with a Class AA state championship.

2) Their coach was let go for a DUI just before the season, the sophomore coach stepped in and the Elgin High boys basketball team struggled to a 6-7 record after going 1-3 in its own Christmas tournament. But then things started coming together and the Maroons, under the leadership of interim and now permanent coach Mike Sitter, proved once again that it's not how you start it's how you finish. Elgin went on a 15-3 run to close the season and shocked Hononegah and Rockford Boylan to win the Class 4A Jacobs sectional championship. For the first time in 10 years Elgin was in a supersectional, but the run ended at NIU's Convocation Center with a 64-50 loss to eventual state runner-up Zion-Benton.

1) This won't take a lengthy explanation. By far the one story above all others that impacted area high school sports in the past 9 months has been the expansion of the IHSA state tournament series to four classes. Has it been a good thing? We needed to let this school year play out and we could write more than space allows on the topic but the final opinion here is that, no, it has not. Three classes might be OK but four has watered things down too much and made a mess of regional and sectional pairings. But since no one at the IHSA is asking my opinion, it looks like we're stuck with it for the foreseeable future. Hey, maybe gas will be 5 bucks a gallon by this time next year … just think about that for a minute when South Elgin has to play a regional opener in Rockford or some craziness of the like.

That's it -- 2007-08 in a nutshell. To all the student-athletes, coaches, athletic secretaries, fans, and above all, our loyal readers, thanks for another great year.

Football practice opens Wednesday, Aug. 6. See ya then!