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northbrooktower.com Sports<br />
the northbrook tower | December 6, 2018 | 47<br />
From the Sports Editor<br />
Appreciate different moments sports offer<br />
Michal Dwojak<br />
m.dwojak@22ndcenturymedia.com<br />
Life comes at you<br />
fast, and boy does<br />
that phrase come<br />
true when it comes to<br />
sports.<br />
At one moment, your<br />
team can be at the top of<br />
the mountain with all the<br />
glory, then before you can<br />
finish celebrating, you’re<br />
looking at draft projections<br />
because it all fell<br />
apart.<br />
This mentality can be<br />
different in professional<br />
and college sports, where<br />
years of bad performances<br />
can lead to eventual<br />
success. Yes, for a few<br />
seasons you’re wearing a<br />
brown bag because you’re<br />
embarrassed of your team,<br />
but then you get a high<br />
draft pick or get that fivestar<br />
recruit and everything<br />
is different.<br />
High school sports is<br />
such a different animal.<br />
There’s no tanking or<br />
building programs in high<br />
school sports — though<br />
The Glenbrook North football team was one of the fun stories from the young 2018-19 school year. 22nd Century Media File Photo<br />
many people will argue<br />
with me that schools have<br />
feeder programs that lead<br />
to continues success —<br />
so you’re relying on the<br />
talent that comes in each<br />
and every year, hoping<br />
you’ll find your Jon<br />
Scheyer, or Jason Kipnis,<br />
or Chris Collins.<br />
That’s what’s so special<br />
about high school sports:<br />
For the most part, you<br />
can’t predict when a<br />
Cinderella story will take<br />
place. Sure you can tell<br />
when a team is going<br />
to be good, but you can<br />
never truly tell a championship<br />
team, for the most<br />
part, until you’re really<br />
into the season.<br />
Some things will<br />
be constants for many<br />
schools, like football<br />
is at Loyola Academy,<br />
but the one thing I’ve<br />
learned during my time<br />
as the sports editor of<br />
The Tower is that things<br />
might seem like they will<br />
go one way, but don’t<br />
use last year’s record as<br />
any indication for how<br />
the next season will take<br />
place. One year’s group<br />
of seniors might be able<br />
to lead you to success,<br />
and then they graduate<br />
and move on.<br />
The reason I bring all<br />
of this up is because this<br />
fall showed how things<br />
might not go as we expect<br />
sometimes. Yes, we know<br />
the Glenbrook North<br />
football team would be<br />
ready to make a postseason<br />
push, but I didn’t<br />
expect them to have the<br />
success they did this year.<br />
The Spartans girls volleyball<br />
team faced a lot of<br />
adversity and managed to<br />
make it to the regionaltitle<br />
match and lost to a<br />
very talented team.<br />
So get out there and<br />
enjoy the different stories<br />
that are left to be told<br />
out there the rest of the<br />
school year. By the time<br />
the winter sports end, I<br />
guarantee there will be a<br />
fun story that we here at<br />
The Tower will be excited<br />
to tell you and I couldn’t<br />
predict to you as I sit here<br />
at my desk writing on a<br />
cold November day.<br />
That’s the beauty of<br />
sports: The best stories<br />
are the ones you don’t see<br />
coming.<br />
Hoops<br />
From Page 50<br />
these kids for a long time<br />
and we’ve always had<br />
team chemistry.”<br />
Two baskets from Press<br />
followed by two from Siegien<br />
got Glenbrook North<br />
(4-1, 1-0) off to a fast<br />
start, but Maine East (3-2,<br />
0-1) fought back and only<br />
trailed 16-13 after a quarter.<br />
The Spartans used an<br />
18-6 scoring edge in the<br />
second quarter to take<br />
firmer control, leading 34-<br />
19 at halftime. After intermission,<br />
it was Press’s<br />
turn on the receiving end<br />
of teammates passes for<br />
easy baskets.<br />
“I like the way Alex cuts<br />
to the basket and we were<br />
able to dump it to him a<br />
couple times,” Weber<br />
said. “These kids share<br />
the ball and hopefully we<br />
keep on doing it.”<br />
An alley-oop from Mirochnick<br />
to Press put the<br />
Spartans up 37-22 in the<br />
third quarter, and a Jack<br />
Joselit tip-in later made<br />
it 43-26. The Spartans<br />
didn’t reach their 20-point<br />
lead until Siegien found<br />
Press for a basket inside<br />
late in the game.<br />
Press was fouled on the<br />
play, he completed the<br />
three-point play to make<br />
it 57-37, and the night’s<br />
scoring was done.<br />
“I liked the fact that<br />
we got the ball inside<br />
tonight,” Weber said.<br />
“That’s our strength. We<br />
have a big kid in (Siegien),<br />
and Brian Johnson<br />
is a big kid at guard able<br />
to post people up.<br />
“We hit some shots<br />
early and I liked the way<br />
we ran the floor tonight,<br />
too. David Mirochnick,<br />
our point guard, is coming<br />
along, and Jeremy Gertz is<br />
giving us good minutes.”
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