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ILLINOIS WATER POLO
2005 SEASON
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SECTIONAL ANALYSIS
By Aaron Brown
ILLINOIS -- For the third straight year, the IHSA has made sectional assignments for water polo that have been more confusing than they are sensible. The song remains the same in 2005, as everything ranging from sectional assignments, state tournament brackets, and even host sites have been criticized by many players and coaches.
Once again, things have shifted in Illinois Water Polo, as there are some differences in who is hosting sectionals as well as who is playing at each site. As always, there are teams that end up with a favorable draw to help them advance to state, while there are others who no matter what they do, will likely have little to no chance to win against a state powerhouse.
Take the example of Lyons Township and Brother Rice. With two weeks left in the season, both teams remain undefeated. Since they are both in the Lyons Sectional, only one of them will be able to advance to the state tournament and play as one of the top eight teams in the state. The same holds true for a Top 15 teams like Sandburg and St Rita, who could end up as third and fourth seeds in that very same Lyons Sectional.
Another criticism of the playoff system lies with the blind draw for the state tournament brackets. Assuming all of the top seeds at each sectional advance to state, #1 Brother Rice would meet #2 Fenwick for the second straight year, meaning that only one of the top two teams in Illinois will be playing on the final Saturday of the season for a chance to win the state title.
The major debacle in 2005 was in figuring out who would host the TBA Sectional, which included Brother Rice, Lyons, Sandburg, and St Rita for the boys and Sandburg, Mother McAuley, and Stagg for the girls. Since the Lyons girls are in the Fenwick sectional, Lyons can only host the boys sectional but not the girls. That means that Bremen, which has a "very" shallow end and is just bigger than five lanes will host a girls sectional. The overall problem is that a state qualifier will be determined in a shallow-deep pool instead of in an all-deep facility.
With that said, there will be some excellent competition over the next few weeks, which will help determine who will advance to the state tournament. The following teams have seemingly either lucked out or been negatively affected by their sectional draw in 2005 (plus some additional analysis):
Schools who lucked out:
BOYS
Conant-The Palatine sectional is wide open, meaning the Cougars will have a solid chance to get to state.
Lincoln Way East-Gets to play at home; no other team in their sectional is in the Top 20.
GIRLS
Flossmoor-Have easily beaten every team that they have faced in their sectional.
Fremd/Barrington/Buffalo Grove/Conant/Palatine-Almost every team will have a shot at state in the wide-open Palatine Sectional.
Schools who may be disappointed:
BOYS
St Patrick-Top 10 team will have to beat Fenwick (as always) to advance to state.
Prospect/Wheeling-Must fight with Loyola/New Trier/Evanston at the Glenbrook North Sectional instead of playing in the wide-open Palatine Sectional.
GIRLS
Mother McAuley-Will be forced to play in a shallow-deep pool at Bremen to get to state.
Sandburg-Faces the same problem as McAuley; will need to win in a shallow-deep pool.
Prospect/Wheeling-Face a field that includes Stevenson and Mundelein at the Vernon Hills Sectional, instead of a chance at state against fellow Mid-Suburban League teams in the Palatine Sectional.
Most intriguing semifinals
BOYS
Glenbrook North Sectional-Depending on the seeding, one major rivalry game between the likes of Evanston, New Trier, and Loyola should happen at GBN.
Lyons Sectional-Brother Rice could matchup with fellow Catholic League school St Rita, while Lyons and Sandburg could face each other on the other side of the bracket.
GIRLS
Glenbrook North Sectional-Evanston, St Viator, Loyola, and New Trier could all be playing each other on Friday night for a chance to advance to the title game.
Neuqua Valley Sectional-Put all four Naperville rivals into a tournament and anything can happen.
Upset Potential
BOYS
Conant-The Cougars have the talent to surprise either Palatine or Fremd at the Palatine Sectional
St Ignatius-Talented squad could give Latin a run for their money at UIC.
GIRLS
Northside Prep-Should have a shot at either Latin or St Ignatius in the semifinals at UIC.
Mundelein-Gave Stevenson a scare in the sectional finals last year, and always have the potential to surprise any team in a "survival" game.
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