|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sports
Large field descends upon Oswego East : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisLarge field descends upon Oswego East
| Annual shootout expands to 36 teams this year
| by Matt Daniels
| 6/9/2011
|
The Oswego East Shootout is the first significant event for many area high school boys basketball teams this summer.
The seventh annual event started out with only 13 teams and grew into a 24-team event. Now it's up to 36 teams that will descend upon Oswego East, along with Plank Junior High and Bednarcik Junior High, this Friday and Saturday.
"I think we're kind of getting a reputation for hosting a good tournament and with that, word spreads," Oswego East head coach Jason Buckley said. "We've got some pretty solid teams."
Among them are Warren, last year's runner-up in Class 4A, and Glenbard East, who finished third in Class 4A. Other reputable school making the trek to Oswego East include Neuqua Valley, East Aurora and Downers Grove South. Danville is traveling the farthest while Rockford Jefferson, Rock Falls and Bradley-Bourbonnais are also making the jaunt.
Action gets underway at 9 a.m. on Friday with games on five courts at Oswego East, and play continues every 50 minutes with the last games starting at 6:20 p.m. on Friday night. Action resumes at 8 a.m. on Saturday on the five courts at Oswego East, along with games taking place on two courts at Plank and two courts at Bednarcik.
The single-elimination tournament starts at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, with the championship game taking place at 4 p.m.
All of the action makes for a long weekend for Buckley, the tournament director, who said planning began in February this year with the first e-mail sent out.
"That is a little earlier than normal," he said. "It worked out because we had a solid core of teams all set to go. It's good, and to be able to host something big at our facility is even better. It's going to be good and an interesting challenge this year."
Oswego East will have two teams - a Blue and a Silver team - at the event while District 308 counterpart Oswego will also compete this weekend. Oswego East Blue plays Warren at 2:10 p.m. on Friday, DeKalb at 3 p.m. and Glenbard North at 4:40 p.m. Oswego East Silver plays Naperville North Orange at 3:50 p.m. on Friday, Downers Grove South at 5:30 p.m. and Walther Lutheran at 6:20 p.m.
Oswego, meanwhile, plays Downers Grove South at 3:50 p.m. on Friday, Naperville North Orange at 5:30 p.m. and East Aurora at 6:20 p.m.
On Saturday, Oswego East Blue plays Bolingbrook at 8 a.m., Rockford Jefferson at 8:50 a.m., Burlington Central at 9:40 a.m. and Downers Grove North at 10:30 a.m. Oswego East Silver takes on Minooka at 8 a.m. and Hinsdale Central at 9:40 a.m. while Oswego plays Neuqua Valley at 8 a.m. and Sandwich at 9:40 a.m.
Oswego head coach Kevin Schnable has a busy summer planned for his team, which will return all five of its starters from last year's 18-9 team in senior-to-be Ryan West along with juniors-to-be Elliot McGaughy, Miles Simelton, Jamaal Richardson and Jack Kwiatkowski. The Panthers also receive a boost with the transfer of junior-to-be guard Thomas Wilder, who contributed last year at Oswego East.
"We will maximize all 25 days of contact through practices and also have an opportunity to compete in at least 50 games," said Schnable, who will have his team play on Sunday at the Illinois-Chicago Shootout, the Lincoln Shootout on June 17-18, the Southwest Prairie Conference Shootout at Plainfield South on June 23, the Illinois Wesleyan Shootout on June 25-26, the Morris Shootout June 29-30 and the Riverside-Brookfield Shootout on July 8-9. "In June, we will focus on system improvement, team building and role identification. We need to sharpen our competitive edge and shore things up with our team defense, both man and 1-2-2 ball presses. In July, we shift our concentration to individual improvement, player development, fundamentals/skills, position play and shooting."
Buckley will have his team busy throughout June, playing in the West Aurora Shootout June 17-18, the Lincoln-Way West Shootout on June 20, the East Aurora Shootout on June 21, the SPC Shootout on June 23 and the Illinois Wesleyan Shootout on June 25-26.
The Wolves, who went 16-11 last year but graduated key players in guards Wesley Brooks and Adam Reaves, along with forwards Sean Gant and Marcus Jones, will spend the summer trying to find a point guard to replace Wilder, who would have assumed Brooks' role in the 2011-12 season. Senior-to-be forwards Kalmon Stokes and Jermaine Campbell, along with junior-to-be guard CJ Vaughan are some of the proven commodities the Wolves have back from last year.
"We've got to figure out a lot of different things," Buckley said. "We've got to figure out who's going to play the point for us and what exactly what we have. It's a big unknown at this point. This will be the first year that we don't know who our point guard is going to be going into the season."
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
