Larkin hoping to end January futility
The Larkin boys basketball program and the month of January simply don't see eye to eye.
The Royals have not won a game in the first month of the year since Jan. 26, 2006, when they defeated St. Charles North 56-43.
Larkin has since dropped 26 straight January games. The dubious streak includes 5 losses in 2010, part of an 8-game slide overall. Larkin's last victory of this season came at the Elgin Holiday Tournament on Dec. 21, a 71-63 win against Rockford Guilford.
The Royals (7-11, 1-4 Upstate Eight) will attempt to end the skid tonight at St. Charles East (7-10, 1-4).
"We're looking forward to being able to match up size-wise, and I'm sure they're looking forward to the same thing," first-year Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. "Both teams are in the same spot in the standings, so it should be a good fight. We'll see who goes out there and wants it more."
Larkin freshman starter Carlito Singleton is expected back in the lineup against the Saints after sitting out the last two games for "team reasons."
Tune in: Tonight's District U-46 rivalry matchup between Bartlett and Streamwood will be televised for tape-delayed broadcast. The Comcast High School Game of the Week can be seen on Saturday at noon and 4 p.m. on Comcast Digital Cable Channel 100.
Interstating: Bartlett will welcome Madison (Wis.) LaFollette for a nonconference game on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
The unusual matchup came about shortly before the start of the season. In an effort to fill out its schedule, Bartlett posted its open dates on the IHSA Web site. LaFollette responded and a one-game agreement was struck.
The game date and time were changed recently to accommodate LaFollette, which was originally scheduled to visit Bartlett on Thursday night.
"I really don't know anything about their team, but we're excited to have them down here," Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "It's a Saturday, so it won't be as bad as the original schedule, which had them coming down here on Thursday night. That wouldn't have been a fun ride home for them with school the next day. Saturday is probably a better situation."
Extreme makeover: Bartlett's schedule will undergo a complete facelift next season. The Upstate Eight Conference will split into two, seven-team divisions for 2010-11 with the additions of new Naperville high school Metea Valley as well as Batavia and Geneva. Like every school in the new-look UEC, the Hawks will play each team in their division twice, which drops the number of available nonconference dates to approximately three.
Moreover, Bartlett has decided not to return to the Waukegan Thanksgiving Tournament in favor of competing in a Martin Luther King tournament in Moline, which will take place over the course of consecutive Saturdays next January. That means the Hawks will open next season with a UEC game in early December, tentatively scheduled against Neuqua Valley.
"The (Moline) tournament will be exciting, even though that means our first game next year will be a conference game against Neuqua," Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "What a way to start the year."
Hoops for Haiti: The Fox Valley Athletic Conference, a league comprised of seven private schools at the middle school level, will host a girls basketball tournament at The Einstein Academy in Elgin on Feb. 2 and Feb. 4. The tournament will feature three games each day with the final scheduled for Feb. 4 at 6:30 p.m.
All admission proceeds from "Hoops for Haiti" will go to the relief effort by the American Red Cross.
FVAC schools scheduled to compete in the seventh-and-eighth-grade tournament include Fox River Country Day School and Harvest Christian Academy of Elgin, Quest Academy of Palatine, Trinity Oaks Christian Academy of Cary and Faith Christian Academy of Geneva.