Cool weather does wonders for Shootout competition

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The 24th Annual Morris Boys Shootout has come and gone.

Much like the O'Fallon Panthers, who outlasted Lockport 63-51 in the title game of the Shootout Wednesday night in the MCHS gymnasium.

O'Fallon, from down near St. Louis, won seven consecutive games to claim the championship.

But as the Shootout program proclaimed : "32 teams, four courts, two days, one champion."

But even though one team was crowned the overall champ, there were lots of interesting sub-plots to the extravaganza.

The IHSA Class A Dwight Trojans joined the Shootout this season, along with the Wilmington Wildcats out of the Interstate Eight Conference. Both were two of the smaller schools involved in the Shootout. Both Dwight and Wilmington will have new coaches for the 2009-10 basketball campaign.

Former Coal City assistant Matt Hines takes over in Wilmington while Chris Gibson will replace Mark Porter at Dwight. Gibson is also a former assistant coach in CoalerLand.

Probably the most talked about subject during the two days ... other than wins and losses of the teams involved ... was the weather.

Unlike the Girls Shootout held in the same time juncture last week and the Braidwood Boys Shootout staged last Friday and Saturday, the temps this Tuesday and Wednesday were coolish.

Which ... in turn ... helped with the caliber of play and the sportsmanship displayed by the players.

Without the blistering heat and humidity that made the environs mostly inhospitable for much of the time, the 60-ish and low 70-ish temps this week were a welcome relief to what transpired for weather last week.

The lower temps and humidity enabled the players to remain fresher longer and not fatigue so quickly. And certainly helped with the mental aspect of player four, five, six or seven games within a two-day span.

Of course, coaches with a long bench got more subs in the contest. Those with a shorter bench (or Hines, in the case of Wilmington for the final two games ... no one on the bench) had to worry less about the frequent changes just to hydrate the individuals racing up and down the floor.

One of the unique aspects of the Shootout that involves 32 teams from across LincolnLand was for every team you are used to seeing from around here — like Morris, Minooka, Dwight and Southwest Prairie Schools such as Oswego, Plainfield North, Plainfield South and Romeoville; those in attendance also got to view teams from far flung areas of Illinois such as Galesburg, Quincy Notre Dame and Springfield besides O'Fallon.

With Morris joining the NCIC this fall, it gave the Redskins fans a chance to see what NCIC schools La Salle-Peru and Ottawa might offer on the hardwood this winter.

A lot of the games were very competitive, with more than usual coming down to a possession or two at the end. And that's the way Shootout Diretor Joe Blumberg (and most fans) would like it.

Close games keep the viewer's attention. And give coaches a real chance to see how his new team reacts to pressure situations.

Besides causing less stress on the body, the lack of heat also helped keep the injuries to a minimum. The players were able to not lose so much body fluid in the form of sweat. There were only a couple of stoppages of play for injury, certainly a positive element of chance.

I will go into a little more in-depth explanation of what transpired for the Wilmington Wildcats and Hines in a future article.

One of the highlights of any Shootout covered by any sportswriter is the hospitality room.

And the chow certainly did not disappoint. Of course, I was working SO hard that I rarely got to visit such environ.

Well, maybe once.

Or twice.

The pizza wasn't bad. The pork burgers were tasty. All in all, everything on the menu was appetizing.

Thanks to the hostesses.

And the smiles were the icing on the cake.

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