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Blue Thunder roll due
By Chris Johnson
The post-season is fairly close to being realized for a lot of schools across the state of Illinois.
At Belvidere North High School, the reality of the post-season is the chance at a new start.
On Thursday,Dec. 29, Belvidere North defeated Huntley. Since the post-Christmas engagement, Blue Thunder has struggled. The schedule wasn’t kind to start 2017 as games at Boylan, Auburn, and Sterling waited before many teams stopped for area MLK Memorial Tournaments.
Belvidere North worked through the tournament schedule and ran into Willowbrook on Monday, Jan. 16. They fell by six.
Later in the week, Jefferson had its turn and silenced the Blue Thunder 78-51.
The focus of the week is Belvidere for Belvidere North. The District rivals face off in NIC-10 play. Road matches at Harlem and Guilford are in store before the Blue Thunder head home to face Hononegah on Wednesday, Feb. 8.
As the season moves into the final days of January, Blue Thunder has yet to find a combination that works to the extent of achieving a win streak.
The end of the regular season is more than just a calendar event. The idea of possibly not playing basketball again, in an organized fashion, in team-format, approaches every student. There is still the spring season and baseball, track-and-field, and other activities to look forward to though. Shortly after that, May arrives and graduation commences.
The post-season gives every student a second chance to make a final push. Everyone gets in. The IHSA Selection Committee will meet to determine where all the teams will play and at how high of a seed. Then, it is up to the athletes to “give it all they got,” as they work towards their educational completeness.
Belvidere North entered the final week of January well out of contention for a NIC-10 title.
Boylan is in firm control and carries a two game lead in the loss column to its nearest competitor, Hononegah. However, they do have a chance to get things back in focus as they work through the final weeks of the regular season and discover that win streak, that roll that will carry them into March.
The Blue Thunder will compete in the Elgin High School Class 4A Sectional. It will be a grouping of some of the largest and most powerful teams in the greater Chicagoland western and northwestern suburbs, as well as a lot of friends from the NIC-10.
Because the IHSA Selection Committee will not meet until the second week of February, it isn’t clear, exactly, where Belvidere North will start. If they find a win streak they will end no less than Hoffman Estates and the Sears Center Super-Sectional into the second week of March.
It is known the two host locations involving Belvidere North are Jefferson and Hononegah. Until seeds are issued, it’s fairly open to interpretation at this point. The teams included in the regional fill-in complex include Rockford Lutheran, Hononegah, Guilford, Jefferson, East, Auburn, Boylan, Harlem, Huntley, and Hampshire.
After seeds are issued, the teams will be placed and each one will be given the key to start their post season.
