For the fortunate, Bracket Day is well worth celebrating
There will be 256 high schools and communities in Illinois celebrating on Saturday because their football season is continuing for at least another week.
Some of them have known for weeks they are going to the state playoffs. Others are still nervously needing a win - and in some cases help from other teams around the state - this weekend to get in on the big state-wide party.
Every team has their own way of enjoying what has become one of the IHSA's signature events, with the televised Saturday night announcement of the pairings in the eight classes. Naturally, the joy for some turns to disdain or disgust with the inevitable complaints that include the way the IHSA split up the brackets in certain classes, and why classes aren't just seeded 1 through 32.
But the anticipation and speculation helps make this such a lively party. Teams such as Barrington and Rolling Meadows have made it a big event with gatherings that include players and their parents and coaches and their families.
Barrington has done that for years under coach Joe Sanchez. So has Meadows coach and former Hoffman Estates quarterback Matt Mishler, who did need to audible this year with his school's theater unavailable because of the fall play.
The big group outgrew Mishler's house a few years ago. This year they will watch the pairings show in a back room at Jerseys Pizza and Grill in Hoffman Estates.
"They love it because they're hanging out and it's always really exciting," said Mishler, whose team appears to be on the classification bubble between Class 6A or 7A. "They wind up hanging out for a couple of hours by the time the pairings are set for our class.
"You wait around and wait around and then there's a minute of excitement when you see what you get. After that it's, 'Let's go to work.' "
The Palatine and Fremd coaching staffs will have smaller gatherings with their wives while the players get together on their own.
Second-year Palatine coach Rick Splitt said that's what the program for the Saturday pairings announcement was when he was an assistant to Tyler Donnelly.
"We don't get to do too much of that during the season," Splitt said. "It's our way of saying thanks."
Fremd coach Lou Sponsel said his staff and wives will have dinner and watch the pairings at defensive coordinator Dan Davis' house this year.
"It's our time to hang out with the coaches and wives and families of the staff," Sponsel said. "It's nice to spend time with the wives because they're the ones who do the dirty work all season."
That dirty work will continue for at least another week. Depending on the class a team is in, by 9:30 p.m., the party is basically over and the preparation and sleep deprivation begins.
"Unfortunately it's about a 10-minute thing," Splitt said of the excitement of the pairings. "As soon as you know who you are playing everyone goes into coaching mode. That's just the reality of it."
The Pairings Show: Comcast Sports Net Chicago will broadcast the playoff pairings show from 8 p.m.-10 p.m. Saturday. The first-round matchups in all eight classes - starting with 1A - will be announced along with highlights of teams, interviews and analysis of the brackets.
Daily Herald DuPage County prep guru Kevin Schmit will be among the media members providing analysis during the broadcast. The coaches scheduled to be interviewed include former Elk Grove coach Bruce Bazsali, now at undefeated Rockford Lutheran, former Driscoll and current Nazareth coach Tim Racki, Stevenson coach Bill McNamara and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin coach Ken Leonard, who played at Harper College for John Eliasik.
IHSA-TV announcers Dave Bernhard and Matt Rodewald, Kankakee Daily Journal sports writer and football bracketologist Steve Soucie and CSN prep football expert "Edgy" Tim O'Halloran will also be part of the broadcast with CSN anchor Kelly Crull.
• Marty Maciaszek is a freelance columnist for the Daily Herald who can be reached at marty.maciaszek@gmail.com.