Magazine sees Richmond as a RISE-ing star
News you can use ... or maybe not.
Check out the cover of the November issue of ESPN RISE, which is a magazine that focuses on high-school sports.
(News-Sun file)
Our own Jereme Richmond of Waukegan High is on the cover of the edition of the magazine which was distributed in the Chicago area.
For the record, the story covers no new ground about the Bulldog senior star ... basically rehashing his yoyo-like prep hoops career and centering it around his halfcourt shot that gave Waukegan a win over Warren in last year's IHSA Class 4A sectional final.
FYI: The clip of that shot still gets heavy play on the YouTube Web site.
Waukegan will open its 2009-2010 prep hoop season next week Wednesday at Warren High on Almond Road. North Chicago will be the opponent.
n More on Waukegan hoops: The ante just went up for the prep basketball game on Thursday, Dec. 17, featuring our Bulldogs at Ames (Iowa) High.
Ames went 26-0 last year and won the Iowa state hoops title and its star player -- 6-foot-8 senior Harrison Barnes -- just signed his letter of intent to play next year at North Caroina.
Barnes is ranked in some circles as the No. 1 senior hoopster in the nation, and the chance to match him against Jereme head-to-head is why that game will air live on cable TV channel ESPN.
Incidentally, for those who are wondering/worrying, Waukegan's school district isn't going to break the bank to play a game in Iowa.
The promoter of the game will pick up most of the tab, and fund-raising will cover the rest. The team will take a coach bus for the 300-mile trip. If the bus averages 50 mph, that's a six-hour ride which, if nothing else, should make the March trip of 150 miles from Waukegan to Peoria for the IHSA Class 4A state finals seem like a drive from the Waukegan High on Jackson Street to the Waukegan High on Brookside.
n And still more on Waukegan hoops ... sort of: Colin Nickerson, the second-best player on Waukegan's team last year, started in Game 1 of his freshman year at Fairfield University in Connecticut.
The Stags opened their season last week with a 67-58 win over Central Connecticut State, and Nickerson, a 6-foot-3 guard, played 34 minutes, and hit 2 of 3 shots from behind the arc for six points.
n Ronald Steward, a four-year varsity player at Zion-Benton High, is playing heavy minutes this winter at Angelina Junior College in Texas.
The Roadrunners are 4-0 and Steward, a 5-foot-8 freshman guard, scored 15, 9, 0 and 8 points, respectively, in the games. He started the first three games, then came off the bench after going 0 for 6 from the field in a Game 3 win.
n The number of talented young bowlers we have in this area rivals the number of talented hoopsters we have.
Consider Vernon Hills High's boys bowling team. In a season-opening match, five Cougars rolled 600-plus series and the team averaged 211 for 15 total games.
Erik Hencier led with 265-211-213--689, and Steve Linda, Jim Tyrcha, Shaefer Shepard and Alex Wong all cracked 600.
FYI: Shephard, now 15, was featured in this newspaper more than two years ago as a promising young BASEBALL player. There was no mention of his amazing bowling skills.
n The prep girls basketball season starts this week, with big-time tournaments being hosted by Deerfield, Vernon Hills and Mundelein (Doesn't it seem like Mundelein hosts everything???)
A preseason ranking of the top 25 teams in the Chicago area failed to mention a single school from our area.
We, of course, prefer to think that the guys doing that preseason ranking are the same guys who predicted that Bears QB Jay Cutler would pick the 49ers' defensive backfield apart last Thursday night.
