The Best...a look at the lighter side of sports
For many people, fall is their favorite season.
But as the leaves turn so does the weather, forcing spectators and athletes into conditions as fickle as a fifth-grade crush.
Indoors, though, the shrieks of victorious girls volleyball players raise to the rafters unabated by harsh winds ... except at Illinois State University's Redbird Arena in Normal.
Players often say the air circulation system affects the flight of serves and high sets. On the other hand the seats are close to the action and "it's a good arena to watch volleyball and basketball."
But this is indoor volleyball, not beach volleyball. When outdoor phenomena affect indoor sports something's amiss.
In assessing a state title venue we've got to consider the "downstate" factor. Hosting the boys soccer championships since 2001, North Central College's Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium is a beautiful facility. But it's right here. Past title competitors from Neuqua Valley, Benet and Downers Grove South barely needed to pack a lunch much less a suitcase. Parking? It can be dicey.
Multisport coach Andy Nussbaum of Naperville Central knows his championship stuff. He's partial to Redbird Arena, mainly due to Redhawks' girls basketball success.
He also appreciates that state football championships are played on a Big Ten field, at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium.
Still, it's on a Big Ten field in front of 55,000 empty seats. Fans of both teams seem like warring tribes posturing from the shadows of their mountain lair, overlooking a green plastic valley.
As Nussbaum said, the view from the press box is remarkable, but fans don't have that access.
Golf? For the mid-October boys and girls championship rounds, five different courses were used for five classes. Too scattered. Might as well call it the Sybil Open.
The girls swimming and diving championships will be held this year at Evanston. A reportedly raucous affair, particularly for the preliminary races, tradition is thick at both Evanston and New Trier, which switch off hosting about every two years.
An arena setting, it's jam-packed with fans screaming at the top of their lungs for their athlete of choice. One coach recalled an Olympian saying Illinois' meet was more pressure-packed than even the Olympics.
It's also one of the hardest championship tickets to get due to limited seating and a large number of participants. Thus, swimmers who didn't make the finals have been known to scalp tickets the next day.
Mix 90 percent humidity with people arriving in winter coats crammed shoulder-to-shoulder and what do you get? Malaria?
We'll take our sweat outdoors, where fall sports should bid farewell to the last remnants of palatable weather.
Detweiller Park in Peoria has hosted state cross country since 1970. It is forgiving to the athlete - boys, girls, all classes run there - in that it's bordered by the Illinois River and picturesque bluffs but fairly flat. Hinsdale Central girls cross country coach Mark McCabe said a representative from the Nike Outdoor Nationals visited this mecca and dubbed it "Speed City USA."
Neuqua Valley track coach Mike Kennedy could vouch for that last year after watching Wildcats star Chris Derrick complete the 3-mile course in 13 minutes, 52 seconds, the second-fastest time ever at Detweiller. Runners stride mainly on the perimeter as fans patrol the interior.
"The fans are incredible and there are tons of them," Kennedy said. "Watching 10,000 people run from one side of the park to the next so that they can see as much of the race as possible is something that you will never forget. As athletes pass, the roar of the crowd is deafening."
McCabe said even coaches and fans need a strategy to wrangle the best vantage points to watch developing action while absorbing the minimum of collisions.
That's a spectator sport.