The 4 x 800 relay team said at the start of the year that if they didn’t make it to state, then the year would be a disappointment. Well, there is certainly no frustration among the group as they cruised to a sectional victory, finishing nearly 14 seconds ahead of the second place team. The team consists of Travis Trevizo, Jon Kingzette, Alex Amaya, and Keegan Buttimer and they are in good shape for the state meet since they ran the third fastest time of all the 2A state qualifiers. The lone individual for the Bulldogs who qualified for state was Amaya, who ran a time of 1:58 in the 800-meter run.

The state meet goes from May 26-28, and the 4 x 800 relay team has a good reason to believe that they not only will be the first RB boys relay team to place at state, but actually win state. Their sectional time was three seconds off of the top 4 x 800 qualifier (Yorkville), but the Bulldogs won their heat easily, so they could run even faster when there is another relay team running right beside them. They will run at 9:00 on Friday morning, and it can be seen live on the IHSA website at that time.

Other individuals set personal records for the Bulldogs at the Glenbard South sectional meet, though they came up just short of qualifying for the state meet. High jumpers Alex Huffines and Jayson Kerber both jumped 5’11 and sophomore Alex Campillanos ran a personal record in the finals of the 200 meter dash.

But then my Freshman English teacher Mrs. Cabaj, recommended that I write for the school newspaper the next year. I still wasn’t sure whether it was something I wanted to do, and a study hall looked more appealing at the moment. But she was insistent that it would be worth my while, and that I would have a good time on staff. So I went to my counselor and changed my schedule to include second period Clarion.

And after sophomore year, it was easy to pencil in Clarion each of the next two years because it was very enjoyable. I liked being on staff because it is a lot different than a traditional class at RB. You have the freedom to leave the class and get interviews at any point, and you can write pretty much any story that you please. Since I liked writing the stories as well, I’m glad that I joined Clarion.

It was definitely better than a study hall.

 The regular season started off slowly with the Blackhawks losing three of their first four games. No worry, said most Blackhawks fans, this slow start was just a small championship hangover that would obviously be cured with the Blackhawks’ skill. As the season progressed, it became evident that not only were the Blackhawks not the same team as last year, but that they would need to fight to make the playoffs. Going into the last game of the season, they still hadn’t secured a spot in the playoffs. It took a loss by the Dallas Stars on the final night of the regular season to push the Hawks into the eighth spot in the Western Conference.

In the playoffs, the eighth seeded Blackhawks had to face the top-seeded and President’s Trophy winner (most points) Vancouver Canucks. These Canucks were not the same team that the Blackhawks had beaten the last two years in the playoffs, and the Blackhawks did not come into the series with momentum like they had the past two years. The Canucks showed this by taking the first three games in the series. Led by goalie Roberto Luongo and an aggressive defense, the Canucks shut down the Blackhawks offense and held Patrick Kane and Jonathon Toews to just four assists combined with no goals scored.

But Games Four and Five brought hope to all Blackhawks supporters. They not only beat the Canucks in both games to bring the series to 3-2, but they won in blowout fashion. The Hawks took Game Four by a score of 7-2 and then shutout the Canucks by a score of 5-0 in game 5. In both games, the Canucks had to pull Luongo because of the onslaught of goals by the Blackhawks, but backup goalie for Cory Schneider did not fare much better. Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith provided most of the damage in Game 5 with two goals apiece.

In Game 6, the Canucks decided to bench Luongo and go with Schneider. But after Michael Frolik scored a penalty shot goal, Schneider cramped up and Luongo had to enter the game to the Hawks fans yelling “Lu” mockingly. Ben Smith scored the biggest goal of his career in overtime on a rebound and the Hawks guarenteed a Game 7 and showed that the Blackhawks are the team that most fans believed they would be from the start.  

Now the series goes to Vancouver for Game 7 tonight at 9:00 Chicago time and the Blackhawks definitely have the momentum. But they do have history working against them. In the NHL playoffs, only three times in the playoffs (1942, 1975 and 2010) has a team come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series. If the Blackhawks continue to play like the defending champs, they could become the fourth team to achieve this feat.

“This 4 x 800 relay team could be the best ever at RB. If we don’t go to state, it would be a disappointment,” said Amaya. 

Replacing McDonagh and Lyson are juniors Travis Treviso and Chris Dziagawa. It is evident that they are more than capable of filling in as the relay team broke the conference indoor record in the process at Glenbard South. They finished with a time of 8:50.10, which beat the second place finished by nearly ten seconds.

There are standouts for the Bulldogs in other events. Since the Glenbard South Invite, the Bulldogs have competed in meets at Lemont and in the Gary Johnson Bulldog Relays at RB. Jayson Kerber does the high jump for RB and was good enough for second at Glenbard South, and won the high jump at Lemont. Buttimer was also second in the individual 800 at Glenbard South.

Other individuals who should be strong this year include senior George Smith (200 meter) and junior John Kingzette.  The 4 x 400 should also be able to compete for first place in conference. Both Buttimer and Amaya are part of this relay and are able to run the quarter mile under 55 seconds. 

As for the team’s chances, Amaya is optimistic. “We should have a good team overall, too, “ he said.

At the first meet at Glenbard South, the team finished second to Glenbard South. Glenbard South had 199 points and RB finished with 85 points as six teams competed in the meet. At Lemont, the Bulldogs finished a modest fourth out of seventh team and they also had a good showing at the RB invite, despite several juniors missing to take the ACT. The Bulldogs finished fifth out of ten teams.

The team is coached by Tim Olson, Gary Johnson, Tim Brasic and Larry Forberg. The captains for the 2011 boys’ track team are Amaya, Buttimer, Treviso, John Schraidt, and Joey Malone. Malone and Treviso are both juniors, while Amaya, Buttimer, and Schraidt are seniors.

Everyone knows about the Miami’s big three of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. They are arguably the best players in the NBA. The Heat’s record is 48-22 and have been on a little slump lately.

Some teams they have lost to that don’t have the greatest records are: The Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and the Memphis Grizzlies etc. This shows that they can lose to any team and the big three still aren’t on the same page.

The Heat’s last game was against the Riverside Brookfield Bulldogs. The match was very tough and it was a bad beat for the Heat. The Bulldogs big three consists of: Ryan “Action” Jackson, Alex “Z” Dziagwa, and Charlie “Doc” Morrissey. These three can play together that’s for sure and they all put up huge numbers, so we all knew who would win this game.

The final score was 172 to 58 for the Bulldogs, it was just practice for them. The Bulldogs big three put up 160 out of the 172 points. Ryan “Action” Jackson put up 75 big points. Alex “Z” Dziagwa scored 40 points and put up a whopping 50 blocks. Charlie “Doc” Morrissey scored 45 points, all coming from beyond the three point line, that’s fifteen threes. Also some other small contributions from the team were Nate Hanley with 5 points, Luke Nortier also with 5 points, and Mike Lebeau with 2 points and five fouls.

This game was complete destruction from the Bulldogs, it was pretty much practice to them, that is practice that was on T.V. The Heat’s big three is no match for the Bulldogs big three.

After several long discussions, a few tears shed, and plenty of controversy, a new sport has been added at Riverside-Brookfield. Poker is the name of the game and it is going to be a sport, not a club.

Poker will be considered a winter sport and will have all of their games played in the main gym. It is a cut sport and from the looks of it, there will be a lot of competition to make the team. At the meeting to determine whether poker would be a sport at RB, exactly 1000 kids showed up, and all appeared determined to get poker to be a sport. Once the administration saw the how many students showed up, they immediately gave in to the demands. All of the one thousand kids say that they will try out in the winter of the 2011-2012 school year.

Even several kids from local schools such as Nazareth and Lyons Township were at the meeting because those schools don’t yet have poker teams. One student for a local high school said he would transfer now that RB got a poker.

The coaches have not been selected yet, but the administration says that they want the varsity head coach to have experience in the World Series of Poker, preferably having finished in the top five in a competition.

The addition of this poker team has not made everyone happy, though. Coaches of winter sports such as basketball, swimming, and wrestling are angry because nearly every star player has decided to try out for poker. The rosters for these other winter sports will most likely be made up of rejects from the poker team. The basketball coaches are especially mad because the poker matches will be held on Friday nights in the main gym. This means that the basketball home games will be held in the East gym or the field house. The enormously popular Sixth Man has also decided to stay in the main gym to cheer for the poker team, meaning that the crowd at the basketball game will plummet.

The winter sport coaches aren’t the only people angered by this. The class of 2011 is mad because they won’t be able to compete on the poker team because they are graduating. Several seniors are contemplating failing on purpose, so that they would have to come back as super-seniors, just so that they could try out for the poker team in 2011-2012.

One senior that is especially mad is 6-9 standout basketball senior Alex Dziagwa. He is going to college for basketball, but he swears that poker is his pastime. “I’m mad that they waited until I graduated to start a poker team. I would have quit basketball in a second to join the poker team. Every match I would wear my orange vest and it would be unstoppable,” he said.

More controversy is sure to follow until the team is finally selected in November.

The baseball and softball teams both finished last year losing in their sectional championship. Both teams will try to take the next step in advancing further, despite losing some key graduates. The softball team was ranked in the top ten in the area for much of last year, so expectations are high. The baseball squad also has high expectations, with their tryouts and early practices being held at 5:30 in the morning. All-time RB single season batting average Matt Scott record holder graduated so the Bulldogs need a big bat to fill the number three spot in the batting order. 

As for the girls’ and boys’ track teams, they both return a lot of key members. The boys’ team has several runners coming back that ran in the state meet. Alex Amaya and Keegan Buttimer were on last year’s 4 x 800 meter relay team and are seniors this year. Amaya and Jason Pomey (now a senior) were both on the 4 x 400-meter relay team that went down state. Two girls went down state last year for the girls’ track and field team: Alexis Adams (graduate) and Brenna Mossman (now a senior). Adams took third in state in the discus and Mossman took 12^th. Look for Mossman among others to make it to Eastern Illinois for state in 2011.

The boys’ volleyball team holds tryouts a week after most spring teams, but this is most likely because they don’t play a game until they open against Morton on March 24. They have a strong schedule with plenty of games against bigger schools. The Bulldogs have games against OPRF, Hinsdale Central, and Hinsdale South, in addition to the teams they will face at tournaments during the season. This schedule should help the volleyball team in the playoffs.

The other spring sports at RB that started February 28 include boys’ and girls’ water polo, badminton, girls’ soccer, and boys’ tennis. These  are all no cut sports for spring excluding girls’ soccer.

Did Boozer deserve this reaction? He isn’t Lebron James returning to Cleveland in a Miami Heat jersey, and it was pretty obvious that he was going to leave as a free agent. Most of the animosity towards Boozer came from him missing 138 games during his stint in Utah, including the final game of the 2010 regular season, which would have improved their playoff seed if they had won. Fans thought he could have played through some of those injuries because none of them required surgery of any kind.

I think each case of a player returning to face his former team should be treated differently. Fans get too emotional over a player’s return and tend to forget what that player did for several years. The Lebron case is an exception because James handled things pretty poorly. Boozer, on the other hand, had a little bit of a rocky ending, but that does not cancel out his six years in Utah. When he was playing there, the Utah fans could not question his effort and production for the Jazz. Since he had been an all-star in Utah and that’s where he became a star in the league, it was hard for the fans to let go.

It is obvious that role players that return to their former teams do not get the same reaction as Boozer in most cases. This was apparent when Bulls reserves and former Jazz members checked into the game for the first time since their departures. Ronnie Brewer entered the game in the first quarter to loud cheers that seemed even louder when contrasted with Boozer’s entrance. Kyle Korver received the same reception when he checked in during the second quarter. The fans were not as attached to these players, so that is why they were welcomed when they came back. 

Each scenario of a player returning to face his former team is different, and Boozer should not have gotten booed. He looked bothered by it during the game as he was forcing shots at times. He finished with 14 points and six rebounds on just 6 of 16 shooting. The Jazz fans apparently got what they wanted, though the Bulls won in the end. Boozer deserved a better reunion, especially as a long time Jazz star.

The Dogs are still undefeated in conference play, and aim to run the table in their remaining conference games leading up to the state playoffs. Last year the Bulldogs’ season ended in heartbreaking fashion after a buzzer beater sent the game into overtime against the eventual victors Marshall Commandos.

The Bulldogs have also received solid play from seniors Charlie Morrissey, Alex Dziagwa, Nate Hanley, Jake Johnson, Watoris Slater, and Mike LeBeau. In addition, one of their biggest contributors this season is sophomore Damonta Henry, who led the sophomore team last year as a freshman. Junior Luke Nortier has also been solid off the bench thus far, and is earning more and more minutes each game.

Friday, the Bulldogs will welcome the Ridgewood Rebels and also feature the Alumni Game. The senior guard Morrissey is not taking Ridgewood lightly. However, he feels that there’s a few important ways to beat the Rebels, “The Rebels have 12 or 13 guards on their team, so I think if we can stop their three-point shooting and protect against the drive and kick-out offense we should be able to win.”

The team has lost quite a bit of depth from last season, but they feel that they still have the talent to recapture last season’s success and build on it. Coach Tom McCloskey has his kids playing at a high level, something that he feels confident in. They have nine games left on their regular season schedule and seven of them are conference games.

They will have the tough task of traveling to North Park University on Saturday to play Farragut Career Academy, ranked #3 in the state. They also host Morton on Tuesday, February 22^nd, which is Senior Night at RB. In all likelihood the Dogs will be in a good position to receive a higher seed come playoff time, most likely receiving a #5 or #6 seed in their Sectional.