Grayslake finally gets one hoops move right

FILE PHOTO Is the idea of legalizing video-poker machines in Illinois a good idea? Not necessarily.

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THE HIRING OF Brian Moe as Grayslake Central High's varsity boys basketball coach actually makes sense in a situation that, up until now, has lacked any semblance of logic.

Coach Tim Bowen, who led his team to a 22-7 season last year, was not rehired for reasons unstated.

Click to enlarge image

Maine South High football coach Charlie Bliss talks to players during a camp this summer that the Hawks hosted in Park Ridge. There is a huge gap in resources and quality of facilities between schools such as Maine South and New Trier, and some other public schools.

Unofficial word was that Bowen was too tough on his charges.

Never mind the fact that he sucked it up two years ago with basically this same group of kids and endured a horrible, losing season by starting a mostly sophomore (with one freshman) lineup.

Bowen saw greatness in those kids and molded them for two seasons. They began "getting it" as a unit last season, one year earlier than expected, winning conference and regional titles.

Then, two members of the School Board (that's right, TWO) voted twice not to renew Bowen's contact prior to the year when all of the effort was about to pay big dividends.

Bowen losing his team was just plain wrong.

Especially with only two people officially voting not to rehire him.

The gutlessness of the situation cannot be overemphasized. Most of the team's players and a great deal of the Grayslake community showed support for Bowen prior to and in the wake of this ridiculous decision.

I was most impressed by the passionate support of junior Andrew Sipes, one of the stars of the team, who started for Bowen as a freshman.

If Bowen was too tough on the kids, wouldn't Sipes be carrying emotional scars from his tender freshman year instead of speaking out on the coach's behalf?

Moe was at Bowen's side all of last year as an assistant coach and knows the kids, the system and concept Bowen has been emphasizing. In Bowen's absence, this is a reasonable choice to guide this now-veteran group.

Perhaps, however, the new coach should invite the two School Board members in question to a week's worth of practice so that they can indicate the boundary lines for yelling, wind-sprints, disciplinary action and other possible coaching maneuvers that might bring forth objections.

Squeaky wheel deserves our support

The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is absolutely right in its recent vociferous outcries regarding the inequalities of state funding in Illinois' public school system.

How can anyone possibly argue that kids who attend Lake Forest High School or New Trier are not way better off than those going to North Chicago High or Waukegan High?

Speaking strictly from a sports writer's perspective, it is impossible to over-emphasize how far apart these schools are in terms of facilities, coaching staffs and athletic equipment.

Last year, when Maine South's football team came to play at Waukegan, the financial gap between these programs could be plainly seen on the goal posts, where the visitors mounted robotic end-zone cameras to film the game for teaching purposes. The home team might get something of that advanced technology in, maybe, the 22nd century.

Every elected politician seems to include school reform in their list of promises, but difference-making measures never happen.

Drastic moves need to be taken to close the funding gap in public schools. Under the current property-tax funding system, the have-nots of the prep sports world will continue to operate at a distinct disadvantage.

Richer school districts are always going to have an advantage, but equally distributed income-tax dispersal would level the playing field somewhat.

As things now stand, we ask the kids in the poorer, minority-dominant districts to compete in sports on a regular basis in situations where they sometimes have no hope.

It's time to actually do something about this separate, AND unequal situation.

Dinner with Dave: Who wants in?

Our paper is running a series of articles called "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," where a reporter is "invited" to someone's house or tailgating party.

The reporter writes about the evening, a photographer takes pictures (what else would a photog do?) and a recipe from the evening is published with the account.

This series includes sports reporters, so I am in the awkward position of having to invite myself to someone's house for a meal.

According to my assignment, I can go anywhere as long as it's not Waukegan, North Chicago, Zion, Lake Forest, Winthrop Harbor, Gurnee or Grayslake.

My dinner family (one which preferably likes sports) will get a gift basket, courtesy of this publication. I will assure you that I am a member of the Clean Plate Club.

Please e-mail dmasterson@scn1.com if you're interested.