A season worth waiting for ... we hope

It's been 247 days since Waukegan's bid for the 2009 IHSA Class 4A state championship ended in a shoulda/woulda/coulda loss to Young High of Chicago in the final game of the season.

It will be another 118 days until our area finally ends a string of 102 years without capturing a state title in the sport of boys basketball.

And it's 2 days until Waukegan High plays Game 1 on its quest to put a bigger trophy next to last year's second-place-in-state award, as the Bulldogs play at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday against North Chicago in the Warren Thanksgiving tournament.

With that in mind, today it's all things Waukegan hoops ... as in, random thoughts garnered from watching the Bulldogs play their annual intrasquad game on Saturday night:

n J.R. -- Jereme Richmond -- looks physically bigger than last year, which is a good thing considering that in another 12 months, he'll be banging bodies while playing for the University of Illinois in the rugged Big Ten Conference.

n The team's new uniforms -- white with plenty of purple/gold trim for home games and purple with plenty of gold trim for road games -- are impressive, with "Waukegan" on the front of both sets. And, yes, they feature gigantic-size shorts/

n With the Fab Five -- J.R., cousins Mike and Akeem Springs, Quan Connor and Aaron Johnson -- assured big minutes on the court, there basically are 13 players vying for three heavy-rotation spots in the lineup.

If "Noche" isn't one of the three, this Bulldog backer promises to give up eating Chuckles for the next 102 years (or until the Cubs win the World Series, whichever comes first).

"Noche" is 6-foot-2 junior Denocchio Pierce, who looked during the scrimmage as though he recognized this was serious business and a real opportunity, and played hard at both ends of the floor.

He also seems to have developed the kind of on-the-court chemistry with the Fab Five that is vitally important to team success. Plus, he gives coach Ron Ashlaw the flexibility to shuffle the pieces around J.R., depending on which player needs to come out for a rest or because of foul trouble.

n As for the best of the rest on Saturday, a couple of the bigger players did some positive things.

Anton Williams is about 6-4 and in terms of year-to-year improvement, he ranks near the top.

Another kid who looked like a contributor was 6-3 junior Matt Wozniak. While he sometimes seemed to treat the basketball like a hot potato -- looking to get it into the hands of one of the star players after grabbing a rebound -- the point is, he WAS grabbing rebounds, and beating players to loose balls, and generally looking like he belonged.

n Bulldog fans who followed the team last year will need to get used to a couple of number changes. Mike Springs has switched from No. 1 to No. 3, and Aaron Johnson has switched from No. 20 to No. 1.

Johnson looks as though he'll man the spot vacated by the graduated Colin Nickerson, though they are not the same type of player.

Nickerson is now starting as a freshman at guard for Fairfield University. The Stags are 2-1, though Colin is scuffling a bit with his shooting in the early going.

n Tuesday, Waukegan hoops fans are urged to have dinner at Culver's on Sheridan Road in Zion. The restaurant is donating 10 percent of food orders placed between 4-8 p.m. to the school's cash-strapped athletic program.

Just tell the waitress when you order that you are there to support the Bulldogs.

n Almost unbelievably, four of the side baskets in the Dawg Pound that are used for practice feature tin backboards.

Tin backboards, people, went out with 8-track players. The school could probably auction them off on eBay and get top dollar from collectors of antiques.

n Things look way better for Waukegan High's chances of winning the state basketball title than they do for Waukegan High winning $5,000 for its athletic program in the Red Gold Tomato Company's "Feed Your School Spirit" contest.

The company, you can probably assume, is running the contest to collect names and e-mail addresses, presumably for use in its promotions or to sell.

But that said, $5,000 is still $5,000, and Waukegan High's athletic program really needs that $5,000 which will be awarded to the school that gets the most votes in the online contest.

Unfortunately, with a week to go before the contest ends, Oswego East High is crushing the Purple/Gold by more than 700 votes.

Which means, we need EVERYBODY'S help here. The eight regular visitors to this corner of your local daily newspaper need to vote for the Bulldogs, and then get two friends to vote, and each of those friends needs to get two more friends to vote, and so on, and so on.

That is the only hope. In all honesty, it would be cool to see the entire area -- Lake Forest, Zion, Gurnee, Round Lake, etc. -- rally to the cause to help out a school whose boys hoops program is drawing positive attention to our area.

If you can help, the Web site is www.redgold.com/chicago.

We need to start the season the same way we're going to end it ... with a win for a county school.