Coach Sly: Coaching 'em up

Lots of good coaching in the area, but Coach Sly's of the mind to single out the jobs being turned in by a couple hoops coaches, one on the boys side, one on the girls side.

Starting on the boys side, you've got to be awfully impressed with Geneva taking down Waubonsie Valley in OT. Beating Elgin and Waubonsie Valley within the first month of the season are a couple huge wins for the Vikings.

Plain and simple, Geneva is outmanned against teams of that caliber, even moreso without their full squad of players. So to pull out wins like that, you certainly applaud the kids for some gutty play, but you also have to credit coach Ralston for really coaching the fellas up.

Similarly, Sly doffs his cap to the coaching job being turned in so far by Colleen Brennan over at STCN. For Brennan to get her girls to 4-1 in the conference is quite a feat, considering how little the North Stars returned this year.

Taking down rival St. Charles East this week was a sweet win. The Saints, on paper, are the superior team, and the North Stars were even without one of their top scorers in the game, but still found a way to pull out the game.

The Stars started the season 0-5 but didn't sulk. Instead they've gotten better and are way outplaying expectations to this point. Now North still has to play Geneva a couple times and those might not be pretty, but even being in the mix near the top of the conference this year would be much to Brennan and the Stars' credit.

Lots of other coaches are doing good work, too, but considering what Ralston and Brennan have to work with, the jobs they've done so far are at the top of Sly's list.