Led by 6-7 Junior center Miki Ljuboja and Junior guard Damonta Henry, the Bulldogs have competed against some of the top talent in the Chicagoland area. In the season opener at home, the Dogs faced off against a very talented Urban Prep squad. Although they lost a close one by a score of 75-72, the Bulldogs showed a lot of grit and toughness. Henry led RB with a game high 26 points along with 9 rebounds.
On December 4^th, RB squared off with rival LT in an exciting game featuring two of the top programs in the area. Led by the Sixth Man cheering section, who sported a blackout for the game, the Bulldogs played with passion and fire for the full 32 minutes. Senior guard Andrew Hanley and forward Nazareth transfer Louis Marino both chipped in with 15 points each. Luke Nortier, nickname “Nortis” by the Sixth Man, had a great all around game with 8points, 6 rebounds, and 10 assists.

The Bulldogs have also played very well in non-conference games with victories over Maine South, St. Laurence, and St. Francis with Ljuboja and Henry leading the way.

Henry has paced the Bulldogs with a team-high 17.7 points a game. He has, without a doubt, done a great job of replacing Ryan Jackson who led the Dogs with over 20 points a game last season. He has been very clutch this season and has performed well in the biggest games, including a 25 point performance against Timothy Christian.

The Bulldogs have a very tough schedule down the stretch, one that includes seven straight road games, six of which are against conference opponents, followed up by two home games before the start of Regional’s. It seems as if this next month will determine how far the Dogs will go this season. The Bulldogs play this Friday, the 27^th against the Rebels from Ridgewood.

Coming into the season, the Bulldogs had extremely high expectations and were expected by most to win their 11^th straight conference title. They appear to be well on their way to capturing another title and making a deep run through the IHSA playoffs. Only time will tell if these Bulldogs are as good as their predecessors.

With the season in progress, the cheerleaders are hard at work. They have taken place in a few competitions and have a first place finish at Wilmington under their belt. With their successes have also come some disappointments. They came in 8th at Sandburg and 6th at Elk Grove.

Junior Hannah Likness said, “Our season’s been a little rocky. We haven’t been consistent with our competitions but every practice we’re working hard and accomplishing the skills we need and are working towards.”

12-year varsity coach Chris Borzym has a sense of perspective on the season. “We have had our ups and downs … along with injuries but were healthy now,” he said. The team has now set its sights on State and equaling or improving on their second place finish from two years ago. Last year, the team made it to State but did not place or proceed beyond the first day of competition.

Borzym said, “This team is better than last year’s and can be as good as two years ago.”

The team will be hosting conference at RB on January 24th. After that they will move on to hosting sectionals on the 28th. The top five teams move on to state in on February 3rd and 4th.

Poms aiming to return to State for 5th straight year

Head Poms coach Mo Gorman said,” Our main goal is to qualify for state and to strive for professionalism in our routines.” Poms has qualified for State in each of the past four years, all under Gorman’s coaching.

“We are trying hard to qualify for state and have high hopes on doing so,” said senior Kara Kruse.

Pom’s is not an IHSA sport but will become one next year. As of now, they compete in Team Dance Illinois AA open pom. The Poms squad has already placed 1st, 2nd and 5th in their three competitions. They will compete at Waukegan on January 22nd, at Oswego East on February 5th, at Lincoln West on February 11th and at Andrew on February 18th.

They also host conference the same day as the Cheerleaders on January 24th. Sections will be on January 28th and State takes place on March 4th in Peoria.

Junior Luke Keller said, “One of the obstacles we have to overcome are the three and a half hour practices. They drain you.”

Freshman Kevin Garza said, “Waking up is the hardest part, but I’m adjusting well.”

So far the boys have won most of their meets and are working extra hard to drop their times as sectionals approach in February.  Senior John Copp has been doing well with handling the pressure to make sectionals and qualify for state. 

Keller said, “Copp has been working hard. Everyone expects a lot out of him.”

Senior Ken Castle has been working hard preparing for races as well.  Junior Dan Somers has been trying to improve his time. Keller has had good times and he is working to drop them.  Senior Sean DeMuro has been dropping time and has been doing exceptionally well in his races. Senior Nick Lazzara has been working hard as well.  

Some of the past swimmers are astonished by the amount of talent the freshmen have to offer.  Freshmen Anthony Colon, Garza, Risley, Dominic Rosa, and Tim Walsh have been improving and showing their skills off. Garza, along with Risely, are on varsity and plan on swimming for the next four years.

Garza said, “I’m doing the best I have so far, my times are right where I want them to be.”

Keller said, “They are so talented because they have been swimming for years.”

Although the boys are having a rough time waking up early and getting into the cold water, they find ways to keep practice fun. 

Keller said, “Sometimes we go out to eat as a team and we have team slumber parties.”

Risley said, “We get rowdy and push people into the water, that’s our fun.”

Although the meet on Thursday the 12^th was cancelled, the boys swim team hosted the 58^th annual RB invite.  Overall they came in first, taking top honors for the first time since 1964.

Freshman Louie Griggoletti is wrestling on the varsity squad and so far this season has a record of 6-10. He hopes that by the end of the season he will have a positive record. When asked how his first year of wrestling is going, he responded by saying, “It’s a great experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering it as a sport. I’ve met some new people and made a lot of new friends. Throughout the season I feel that I have been getting stronger which will end up helping me with football next season.” Griggoletti said that the team has an invite this weekend at Oak Park River Forest where he hopes that he can place and receive a medal.

Junior Joey Odeh has been doing better than he expected so far this season and his record as of now is 15-6. Odeh said that he is very happy with his record but hopes to improve it before the end of the season. Odeh is looking forward to competing in the regional meet in a few weeks and hopes that he can make it to state this season.

The varsity team has four meets left before their postseason starts with Regionals on Saturday, February 4th.

Senior gymnast Cayla Cerny said, “There are no real teams, but six of seven girls compete on the varsity team every competition, and the rest remain on the JV.” The girls have a competition at least once a week and attend invitationals on the weekend.

Cerny said, “The reason I participate in gymnastics is because it’s really fun to bond with the team and I like to bend my body in not normal ways.”

Freshmen Mary Penckofer said, “My favorite part of the season so far was attending the Varsity Invitational because it was very fun and it was a great time for the team to bond with each other.” Penckofer is new to gymnastics, but that has not affected her season. Her coach has helped her learn new tricks and develop her routines.

Junior Rachel Decosola has helped lead the team with a season record of 8.30. She is ranked number three all around at RB, while individually ranking number two on beam. 

Senior Kristen Santoro has been the leader of the team with her career high scores and being voted team captain. She continues to finish out her final season with receiving scores that have beaten her personal records.

The team finishes their season February 1, 2012.

Recently, the RB Special Olympics team earned recognition by being invited to join Project Unify.  According to the Special Olympics web site, Project Unify is “an education-based project that uses sports and education programs to activate young people to develop school communities where all youth are agents of change.”

RB’s Special Olympics program was added to Project U because of their demonstration of the key characteristics of this national program. Only one other school in Cook County and 16 statewide have so far been adeed to Project Unify. Project Unify was put together to create a school environment of respect and tolerance for all students, especially those with learning disabilities.

As a Project Unify school, RB is sending representatives to a local youth forum, participating in “Spread the Word to End the Word” movements, using the Get Into It Curriculum in health classes to encourage awareness, and hosting a Unified sports activity. This year, the RB Girls Basketball team will scrimmage with the RB Special Olympics basketball team. Because of all of these efforts, RB will be given financial support to purchase resources and materials needed to continue existing programs.

Project Unify is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and works with 42 U.S. State Programs. The project attracts more than 600,000 young people participating in projects in over 1,700 schools.

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 The captains of the squad are Rachel Konopacz and Marika Floros. Floros commented that the season is looking good because they already won the first competition. Both Floros and Konopacz said, “ The season is looking good because we won our first tournament.

Two years ago the cheerleading team placed second at state and have been placing top ten down state every year until last year they got eleventh place in state. When asked why she cheers Konopacz laughed and said,” I grew up doing it.”

 Both sophomore Hayden Claire and Floros said, “we like the bonds that we’ve with teammates throughout the season.”

The Cheer has a competition at Sandburg this Sunday. They will be competing against arch rivals Lemont who beat them at state two years ago. The other teams that will be good competition are Prairie Ridge and St. Vidor these teams will be good competition for the girls as they prepare to go down state to cheer.

When asked what makes her keep cheering throughout all the seasons, Konopacz said,” I love doing cheer because the competitions and cheering at the basketball games are so much fun.”

The Pupettes season also starts in around two weeks and they are ready to start the season. Captain Meredyth DiVittorio said, “that the season is looking good and that they are looking forward to dancing during the basketball games.”

Sophomore Andrew Misiorowski has been wrestling for two years. 

He said, “The reason I wrestle is because of football.” 

He uses the techniques and workout to his advantage, practicing for the football season.  Some techniques in wrestling are running and weight lifting.  It helps get the wrestlers in condition and stronger.

Misiorowski said, “I don’t play a more mainstream sport like basketball because I’m terrible at it.”

Junior Zach Regnier has other reasons. 

He said, “I wrestle because I like it.”

Regnier likes wrestling because it’s not like football.  He likes the individuality of the sport. This could explain why he doesn’t play a more mainstream sport. 

Regnier said, “I have been wrestling for six years, thanks to my brothers.  They got me into wrestling.”

Senior Tyler Torres became involved in wrestling through his brother as well.  Torres has been wrestling for four years.

Torres said, “I wrestle for my brother.  I look up to him.”

He also likes the contact wrestling has to offer. 

He said, “Of course I’m going to be on varsity this year; I have huge goals for the upcoming season.”

Wrestling Coach William Sisson said, “Different things attract kids to wrestling. Some kids wrestle because it’s something new and different, others because they want to stay in shape during the off season.”

The focus of the upcoming season is conditioning.  Wrestling keeps the kids fit and active, both physically and mentally.  Conditioning will help the wrestlers not only perform better but be better.  Being in a sport teaches kids how to interact with other people and work as a team.  Although when you wrestle you don’t wrestle as a team you still work as a team to give insight to other wrestlers.

 Tom McCloskey returns for his 16^th season as the head coach of the boys’ varsity squad, looking to continue an excellent tradition of winning at the school. As the head coach of RB, McCloskey has won 70% of his games overall, with a winning percentage of 89% in conference games. McCloskey looks to add to this mark this upcoming season.

The team will take a big hit with the losses of former center Alex Dziagwa, and guard Ryan Jackson who averaged 25.2 points a game. Both are playing college basketball this year, at Augustana and Lewis University respectively. Senior forwards Chris Duplancich and Louis Marino will be expected to make the jump into the starting lineup and contribute in a big way.

Also, a strong junior class, who won the conference title as sophomores, will be expected to emerge as key contributors on the bench. One such contributor, 5’11’’ guard Hunter Claire, will add a needed toughness and grittiness on defense. Claire will look to improve on a strong sophomore campaign and carry that success to the varsity level.

“I really want to improve my shooting, get my three to fall on a consistent basis, and be able to handle pressure when dribbling the ball,” said Claire.

The biggest question mark coming into the season is who will take on the bulk of the scoring now that Jackson has graduated. The scoring is most likely going to come from Junior Damonta Henry, a combo guard, who’s capable of doing multiple things on the court. He’s lightning quick and can get into the paint with ease, but he has the leaping ability to rebound with the best of them. It’ll be interesting to see if he can step up and lead the Bulldogs to a conference title.

The Bulldogs open their season with the annual Thanksgiving Tournament in December. The Bulldogs will also compete in the Derrick Rose Shootout against Farragut. Then, the conference schedule begins where Dogs look to take control early, and bring home yet another title.