Fields of (playoff) dreams
Anytime the St. Charles East bigwigs want to hold a press conference to pat themselves on the back for the Mike Fields hire is fine by Coach Sly.
Anyone who saw the Saints sputter through back to back losses the first couple weeks has to be downright flabbergasted East is sittin' at 4-2 after going to Waubonsie and knocking off a team crosstown brothers St. Charles North couldn't handle at home.
The Saints are unbeaten in the conference and lookin' like a legit playoff team.
Clutch win, fellas. That East-North game on Week 9 looks like it's going to steal the thunder from Batavia-Geneva.
Speakin' of which ... at least when the Batavia defense was givin' up 70 points, the offense was scorin' 63. I know it was rainy and cold and muddy and nasty and windy and slick and miserable out there, but the Dogs have shown time and again this year they can't score enough points or play well enough late to win games. Losing a homecoming game to Yorkville, even in a down season, counts as a serious low point. Coach Sly is sure those B-town kids are hurtin' bad enough, so he'll leave it at that.
Coach Sly was a little disappointed to hear about Kaneland playing so flat in a pretty huge ballgame for the Knights. If you want to win a conference title, you've got to bring it better than that on your home field, even against a good team like Glenbard South. Sly thinks the Knights will find another gear for the stretch run. They'll need to or the Geneva game will be more of the same.
You might not think a 55-0 win over those poor Barbs means much for Geneva but Sly begs to differ. To be a great team, you've got to have the right mix of humility and swagger, and Sly thinks the Vikings need some swagger to finish the season and the playoffs after some close calls.
This is football! You gotta pound your chest once in a while, ya know?
One more thing ... Sly is asking everyone to lay off criticizing individual high school kids, by name, number, whatever. You can say "Geneva's secondary didn't play well against Sycamore" without saying so and so shouldn't see the field. Pretty simple. Capiche?
