Good luck seeding this sectional

Benet boys basketball coach Gene Heidkamp won't start looking at it until next week ... but he's planning for a deep dive.

Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder is already preparing the printer ink and scissors to make sure he's ready.

With seeding for the Class 4A Bartlett sectional poised to take place at the end of next week - the seeds should be announced by the IHSA on Feb. 14, and the pairings revealed the next day - coaches are gearing up for a bumpy ride.

The bulk of the seeds are truly up for grabs.

"It'll be very difficult to figure out," Heidkamp said. "I'll spend a lot of time looking at it because you want to be fair to everyone."

The best advice for coaches in the Bartlett sectional?

"It's going to take a lot of homework," Heidkamp said.

The top seed should be Geneva (23-1) without much issue. Benet (18-6), based on its tough schedule, is in line for the second seed.

Beyond that the coaches could seed the remaining 20 teams at Bartlett in any number of ways.

Downers Grove South (17-6) and Glenbard West (17-6) have the fewest number of losses, and that alone could land them in the top four. But not necessarily.

Downers Grove North (18-8) beat Glenbard West on Friday and Willowbrook (14-9), winners of four straight, might knock off Downers South this weekend. Nine teams at Bartlett have between eight and 10 losses, and some have eyes on a top-four seed.

That's quite a mess for the coaches to figure out.

"We spend a ton of time on seeding because you just want to get it right ... or as right as you can get it," Hoder said. "It's going to be really hard. I'll print everything out and cut and paste all the teams in different spots. It's quite a process, but I think it's important to put the work into it."

In the end, though, the seeds won't matter as much as where you're sent and who you're matched up against.

Whatever the bracket looks like, you'd better be playing well.

"You've got to be ready to play," Heidkamp said. "The seeding is an inexact science, and you just try to do your best with it. When it's all said and done, though, you have to be playing well no matter where you're seeded."

Welch does it all:

Loyola Ramblers basketball recruit. Gatorade Illinois soccer player of the year and three-time state champion.

Naperville North senior Tom Welch can add another title to his resume: philanthropist.

Inspired by a speaker during Naperville North's Hoops for Healing basketball tournament in November, Welch is the force behind a charity effort for the Bloomingdale-based Team Karen Foundation, which provides financial and overall support for those fighting Stage 4 breast cancer.

Welch plans to raise money and awareness when the Huskies host Rich East at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"I wanted to have a charity game to impact people that are less fortunate," he said. "At the Hoops for Healing I heard one of their sponsors talk and I realized how fortunate I am."

The Team Karen Foundation is named for Karen Carlquist, a married mother of four children who passed away in December 2017 from breast cancer after 16 months of treatment at the Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center in Warrenville.

Welch chose Team Karen because "it's a little more personal," he said. Rather than donate to a general fund, Team Karen donates to individuals or families.

"This money's going straight to the source," Welch said.

He's planned to have a breast cancer survivor address both Naperville North and Rich East teams before the game. Naperville North will sell awareness wrist bands throughout the evening, and at halftime Welch will take the microphone to discuss the good works of the Team Karen Foundation while players collect donations.

"We'll call it the 'Miracle Minute,'" said Welch, who averages around 22 points and 8 rebounds on the court. He's one of three team captains along with senior guard Netzah Aldana and junior guard Myles Barry.

Sitting in first place in the DuPage Valley Conference, Naperville North (13-10, 5-1 through Tuesday) may not typically draw much for a nonconference game against a faraway foe like Rich East. Welch hopes his pals in the Dog Pound student cheering section, and the Naperville North community as a whole, respond.

"I kind of feel like the community supports me," he said. "I kind of took it upon myself to use what I think is my presence and influence to make a difference."

Welch obviously wishes to raise truck loads of donations, but he said the overall goal is more about awareness than cash.

"At the end of the day, the message I want people to know is to be grateful for what you have," he said.

The right direction:

Playing teams such as Lake Park, St. Viator, Brother Rice and Highland Park, St. Francis got off to a 2-11 start. The Spartans also started 0-3 in the Metro Suburban Blue.

On Monday, St. Francis (10-17, 4-5) beat a 20-win Aurora Christian team for the second time in three weeks, improving to 8-6 in its last 14 games overall.

"I like where we're headed," coach Erin Dwyer said. "We've had each player get a little bit better. Each player limits some of the mistakes they've been making, coaches have done a little better coaching and we're just focusing in on things that win games."

Dwyer said for this team, it comes down to taking care of the ball. Seniors Mike Cascella and Sean Conley, juniors Danny Blank and Jake Tangorra and freshman Sebastian Miller are getting it done. (Sebastian's senior brother, Evan, is "captain of our bench mob," Dwyer said.)

St. Francis also can rebound the ball with 6-foot-4 Robert Nocek and 6-7 Bryce Walker, a pair of juniors. Dwyer said Walker has missed "probably six, seven" games due to the volleyball recruiting circuit. The coach said Loyola, Pepperdine and Ohio State are among those looking at Walker.

St. Francis trusts each other, remains poised under pressure and has applied its scouting reports better, Dwyer said. He also likes the fact that any number of players, including Eric Welch, Marcus Ingold and Nick Kosmetatos and those previously mentioned, can score in double figures on any given night. Tangorra came off the bench for 14 points Monday against Aurora Christian.

"I don't even know what our record is, but we don't think like a 'losing-record' team," Dwyer said. "I've been through losing records before and this team, they've got a pretty tough, persevering mindset."

Twitter: @doberhelman1

Twitter: @kevin_schmit