Notebook: Taft at Deerfield
By Bill McLean
DEERFIELD — Deerfield nearly had to scrap its Senior Night match Tuesday night.
The Warriors’ scheduled opponent, Payton’s Grizzlies, had to back out of the matchup when the school secured a berth in a Chicago Public School tournament semifinal Tuesday afternoon.
Taft coach Jeff Lucco, whose club lost 3-1 to Washington in a CPS tourney quarterfinal Saturday, wanted to play one more match before the start of the state playoffs next week.
Lucco texted Patrick Z. McGavin about putting a tweet out from Chicagoland Soccer that Taft was looking for a game. McGavin contacted website publisher Dave Surico, who’d put two and two together about Deerfield’s situation.
Electronic messages were exchanged and the game was made official on Monday. Taft would visit Deerfield the next day.
The one day’s notice didn’t bother Lucco in the least, and both teams got their money’s worth out of the game which ended 0-0 and featured a practice shootout at the end.
The Voice: Have you heard Deerfield’s PA announcer at soccer games?
It’s an utter treat, mostly because Deerfield senior Ian Van Every’s voice is uber-distinctive. His PA voice, actually. It’s deep, intentionally over-the-top, old-timey.
And all-out delightful.
It would have sounded normal as the official voice introducing players at a World Series game in the 1950s, maybe earlier.
The mad-about-sports Van Every, who’s considering Iowa, Drake and Butler for his next academic stop, is a paid member of Deerfield’s sports information club.
Dennis Chmielewski is the group’s sponsor.
From his spot in between the Taft and Deerfield benches Tuesday night, Chmielewski walkie-talkie’d the jersey numbers of substitutes to Van Every in the press box.
“Great group of students,” Chmielewski said, adding the recent increase in the number of sports information club females has heartened him.
Free on Tuesday, at 6:30 p.m.? If not, rearrange your plans. That’s when Deerfield (8-5-3) entertains Lakes in a Class AA regional semifinal. And when Van Every will entertain anyone near Adams Field.
He’s still a keeper: Karl Lindblad made an impressive save — from a sideline, no kidding — in the second half of the Taft-Deerfield scoreless tie Tuesday night. But he didn’t get credit for one since he’d used up his high school eligibility years ago in Minnesota.
Now a Deerfield athletics trainer, Lindblad, a former goalkeeper at Trinity International University in Deerfield, cleanly caught an errant kick in front of the school’s trainer vehicle (visualize a souped-up golf cart).
A 2013 TIU graduate, Lindblad is in his third year at Deerfield and eighth overall in the field of sports medicine.
Tough draw: Taft (4-7-7) drew New Trier (15-1-1), the top team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs. The Eagles will attempt to fly and hang with the Trevians on Oct. 20 in a Glenbrook North Regional semifinal beginning at 4:30 p.m.
One internet outlet ranks New Trier the no. 18 in the nation.
Coach Matt Ravenscraft’s Trevs have scored 40 goals and allowed 10 this fall. An assist has preceded 32 of NT’s tallies.
Goalkeeper Aidan Crawford is a two-time Chicagoland Soccer all-stater. With a GAA of 0.667 and 70 saves, he’s on his to a third honor.
New Trier’s only loss came at the feet of Evanston.
Taft was 0-4-1 when it tied Glenbrook North 0-0 at the Barrington Classic on Sept. 2.
The Eagles have gone 4-3-6 since then.
Chuckle Dept.: Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig made sure to share each of his seniors’ nicknames with spectators as he recognized them on Senior Night on Tuesday.
After announcing Ben Whiteman’s name, Hurtig said the forward’s nickname is “BMW.”
Then the coach added, “I just made that up.”
By Bill McLean
DEERFIELD — Deerfield nearly had to scrap its Senior Night match Tuesday night.
The Warriors’ scheduled opponent, Payton’s Grizzlies, had to back out of the matchup when the school secured a berth in a Chicago Public School tournament semifinal Tuesday afternoon.
Taft coach Jeff Lucco, whose club lost 3-1 to Washington in a CPS tourney quarterfinal Saturday, wanted to play one more match before the start of the state playoffs next week.
Lucco texted Patrick Z. McGavin about putting a tweet out from Chicagoland Soccer that Taft was looking for a game. McGavin contacted website publisher Dave Surico, who’d put two and two together about Deerfield’s situation.
Electronic messages were exchanged and the game was made official on Monday. Taft would visit Deerfield the next day.
The one day’s notice didn’t bother Lucco in the least, and both teams got their money’s worth out of the game which ended 0-0 and featured a practice shootout at the end.
The Voice: Have you heard Deerfield’s PA announcer at soccer games?
It’s an utter treat, mostly because Deerfield senior Ian Van Every’s voice is uber-distinctive. His PA voice, actually. It’s deep, intentionally over-the-top, old-timey.
And all-out delightful.
It would have sounded normal as the official voice introducing players at a World Series game in the 1950s, maybe earlier.
The mad-about-sports Van Every, who’s considering Iowa, Drake and Butler for his next academic stop, is a paid member of Deerfield’s sports information club.
Dennis Chmielewski is the group’s sponsor.
From his spot in between the Taft and Deerfield benches Tuesday night, Chmielewski walkie-talkie’d the jersey numbers of substitutes to Van Every in the press box.
“Great group of students,” Chmielewski said, adding the recent increase in the number of sports information club females has heartened him.
Free on Tuesday, at 6:30 p.m.? If not, rearrange your plans. That’s when Deerfield (8-5-3) entertains Lakes in a Class AA regional semifinal. And when Van Every will entertain anyone near Adams Field.
He’s still a keeper: Karl Lindblad made an impressive save — from a sideline, no kidding — in the second half of the Taft-Deerfield scoreless tie Tuesday night. But he didn’t get credit for one since he’d used up his high school eligibility years ago in Minnesota.
Now a Deerfield athletics trainer, Lindblad, a former goalkeeper at Trinity International University in Deerfield, cleanly caught an errant kick in front of the school’s trainer vehicle (visualize a souped-up golf cart).
A 2013 TIU graduate, Lindblad is in his third year at Deerfield and eighth overall in the field of sports medicine.
Tough draw: Taft (4-7-7) drew New Trier (15-1-1), the top team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs. The Eagles will attempt to fly and hang with the Trevians on Oct. 20 in a Glenbrook North Regional semifinal beginning at 4:30 p.m.
One internet outlet ranks New Trier the no. 18 in the nation.
Coach Matt Ravenscraft’s Trevs have scored 40 goals and allowed 10 this fall. An assist has preceded 32 of NT’s tallies.
Goalkeeper Aidan Crawford is a two-time Chicagoland Soccer all-stater. With a GAA of 0.667 and 70 saves, he’s on his to a third honor.
New Trier’s only loss came at the feet of Evanston.
Taft was 0-4-1 when it tied Glenbrook North 0-0 at the Barrington Classic on Sept. 2.
The Eagles have gone 4-3-6 since then.
Chuckle Dept.: Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig made sure to share each of his seniors’ nicknames with spectators as he recognized them on Senior Night on Tuesday.
After announcing Ben Whiteman’s name, Hurtig said the forward’s nickname is “BMW.”
Then the coach added, “I just made that up.”