DeSmetBilliken

>4) DeSmet gets good, solid players to play basketball most >years. There have been many years they have beaten superior >athletic teams on coaching and discipline. That is simply >fact. Most years they have better players than a lot of >teams, but not necessarily better athletes. when DeSmet >beat Vashon for title in 1999, they weren't as athletic, not >close. When they then beat Hazelwood Central in quarters a >few years ago, by 30 points, they weren't as athletic. The year DeSmet beat Hazelwood Central in the quarters by 30 was 2002, which was my senior year at DeSmet. Keep in mind that Blake Ahearn missed the entire postseason because he got injured late in the regular season by trying to be a big-shot and dunking the ball. He broke his wrist on the play. As much as it pains me to say it, I consider my senior class of 2002 to be somewhat of a dying breed at DeSmet. We didn't have the amazing athletes like some of the other clases after us did, but my classmates were some of the grittiest, most determined bunch of guys I've seen play. In soccer, we came in 4th in state playing with a lineup of all seniors, none of which played D-1 soccer. It was all heart and determination. In basketball, even though the season ended poorly with a 55 point loss in the state final to an incredible Vashon team, they went from a team not considered to warrant any votes in the PD preseason poll to a state runner-up. Once again the seniors never gave up, even though only one of them went on to play beyond DeSmet. Unfortunately, in the two years since my graduation, I have seen too many DeSmet players play like they don't have to hustle or play with grit like so many players that graduated from 1972-2002 did. By the way, one of my favorite things about Jared Leonard is that he plays with the grit that I think all DeSmet players should play with.

While Chaminade has had great success in recent years with their state titles in 2001 and 2002, plus their runner-up finish in 2003, MCC soccer is still very even. Normally each year 4 of the top 5 teams in the area are all form the MCC and it is very common to see 2 or 3 MCC teams ranked in the national top 25. When it comes to regular season success over the last 10-15 years, I'd say that CBC is a cut above the rest. DeSmet won 4 state titles in a 7 year span from 1991-1997. Before finally getting over the hump and winning their two titles in 2001 and 2002, Chaminade had had championship caliber teams that couldn't get it done in the postseason. SLUH won in 2003 with a great team, but had some great teams with Taylor Twellman in the mid to late 90s. I'd say that each year at least 4, possibly all 5, MCC teams have a legit shot of taking home the state soccer title.

I meant beast in high school. My bad.

While talented players do come to DeSmet, I wouldn't say that has incredible talent. If you look at most successful DeSmet teams over the years in any sport, the common link you will usually find is hard work, team play, and determination. I would say that Jared Leonard is probably the most physically talented player to play for DeSmet since Matt Baniak graduated in 1997. While Matt was a disappointment at SLU, he was a beast in college from what I understand. That's also no knock on players like Joe Ries, Bob Keppel, Eric Blancett, and Blake Ahearn, I just think that Jared is better. It will be interesting to see DeSmet play over the next two years with Jared as the star of the team, since most DeSmet teams are made up of hard working, interchangeable parts.

While Dawkins would be a possibility, I would also have to consider Tommy Amaker and Mike Brey as possibilities as well.

Gee, now I'm upset they didn't go with the name I liked. SEMO had a website where people could submit ideas, and my favorite from the list was the Fighting Okra. I think its about time that a team is named after a vegetable. :-)

If the press conference had been in the afternoon, I would have definitely been there. I don't get off work until around 12:30, so 11:00 was out of the question. I considered making a quick run over to the reception afterwards, but in the end decided against it. I'm glad Levick was impressive. It's also great to see that the St. Louis sports media flocked to this press conference where they could see in person just how impressive Levick was.

>I believe it was Winston Churchill who said something along >the lines of the following: if you're twenty and you're not >a liberal, you don't have a heart, but if you're forty and >you're not a conservative, you don't have a brain. Well, I'm 20 and definitely a conservative, so when I hear that quote I prefer to say that I am just wise beyond my years! :-)

I'm not suggesting that Kroenke was a billionaire. Honestly I don't know how much money he had before he got married. All I'm saying is that he does sound like he had some business success prior to marrying, and that he and his family sound like they are good, classy people from what I've heard from someone who I consider to be a good source on this. Bill Laurie is a different story. He was a high school basketball coach prior to marrying a Walton(nothing wrong with that, in fact the person I heard this from is also a high school coach). My guess is that Laurie was probably always a jerk, just the billions of dollars gave him a better opportunity to exhibit it.

From what I've heard, Stan Kroenke had money before he ever married into the Wal-Mart money. While that definitely increased his wealth, it is my understanding that the Kroenke family owns a very successful construction company in Columbia, similar to something like Alberici in St. Louis. Apparently the Kroenke's company has built quite a few buildings and parking structures on the Mizzou campus. A lifelong Columbia resident that I know speaks very highly about the Kroenke family and speaks very negatively about the Lauries. From what I've heard about Paige Laurie of Paige Sports Arena fame, she sounds like the Columbia version of Paris Hilton, and I don't mean that in a positive way. So yes, I do agree that there must be something about Bill Laurie that quite a few people don't like, but Kroenke seems OK to them. The only other way to explain it is if the only reason Laurie kept getting shunned by the other owners was solely that they didn't want him moving a team to St. Louis while they were confident that Kroenke would keep his teams in Denver.

Actually, I think Biondi and Joe Weixlman(University Provost) will both be able to make the official press conference, which will be Tuesday, June 29. I think they were both leaving to go overseas tommorow and are supposed to be back on the 28th, so I think the reason the press conference will be on the 29th is to make it possible for them to attend. Great hire by SLU.

Apparently the announcement hs been put on hold because of an illness in Levick's family. At the current time, her meetings today, as well as a press conference to announce her hiring were cancelled. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...+placed+on+hold

:-) Congrats David!!!!!!!

I have to say that this comes as a surprise. While I didn't know too much about O'Brien and Ohio State, I've always gotten the idea that he was a respected coach. In fact, when I wrote an article on Coach Soderberg before this past season, one of the questions I asked him in an interview was "Aside from Coach Bennett, what other coaches around college basketball do you look up to or highly respect?" The three names he mentioned were Tom Izzo, Bill Self, and Jim O'Brien.

I know Highmark went to West, but not sure about Pederson. I think he may have gone on some kind of religious mission during his career, so he and Scott might not have played together. I could be wrong though. If I had to guess, I'd say that the St. Charles West team that had Ryan and Troy Robertson that won the state championship(1995?) was probably one of the best teams to come out of that area.

With Catholic high schools, especially in St. Louis, some of the MCC schools do have good baseball teams. DeSmet won state in 2000 and SLUH, Chaminade, and I believe CBC have had good teams in baseball. With soccer in St. Louis, it does make sense that the Catholic schools are better at soccer since the game has been historically played by Catholics in St. Louis, especially a few decades ago. The only Catholic college that I can think of that has a good baseball team is Notre Dame. It has been posted here before that St. Louis' location hurts SLU baseball as well as high tuition with small available scholarship money. Many really good baseball schools are located in either the South or California where the weather is much warmer. If you look at those areas, there are not all that many major Catholic universities there, with some exceptions in California. That could explain why Catholic schools traditionally have good baseball teams.

I hate it too when they boo our National Anthem, but on the other side of the coin, Canadians have been very kind to me when I have gone there, so I'm willing to chalk the booing up to some idiots who poorly represent Canadians. Plus, I am 25% French-Canadian. I never said I thought the Lightning weren't any good, they are a very good team. I just think that the phrase "The Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning" sounds a little strange, partially because of their location, and partially because I guess I still forget that they aren't the Lightning of the 1990s, when they were a perennial doormat. Probably the same feeling some people had when the Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV.

Sorry Schasz, but I'm going to have to root for Calgary. I think it's cool to see a Canadian team make the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in ten years. Hockey is Canada's national sport, and I'd like to see the Flames bring the Cup back to Canada. Plus, I haven't been a huge fan of the massive expansion that has gone on in the NHL over the past 15 years, which I think is one of the biggest reasons the NHL is in such bad shape, there are too many teams in the league. Some of them have gone well, but to see the Stanley Cup reside in Tampa just doesn't sound right to me.

Last year, they decided to have the game between two prep schools for I think the first time, and one of them was South Kent. Maybe it can happen again. Dorell Wright, who committed to DePaul but last I heard he was going to the NBA, played there. Looking through my program from the Shootout, South Kent had Wright, who was an absolutely stud, plus Cheyenne Moore, who committed to Clemson, then a guy going to College of Charleston and one to Siena. They were handled pretty well by Mount Zion, who probably could've made the NCAA Tournament this season, that how good Mount Zion was. South Kent should be good for Tommie because they aren't a powerhouse like Mount Zion, yet are still very good, so he should get plenty of playing time against great competition, while his PT might have been limited had he gone somewhere that had a few D-1 players coming off the bench.

I went to the Hall of Champions two years ago. It was awesome. In the entry area they have banners of every national championship team from the past year. If SLU wins a national championship in soccer n the next couple years, I might have to go back there to see the Billiken banner hanging from the rafters. I probably could spend an entire day in that place.

I saw Leonard and Tyus each play a couple times last season. Right now, Tyus is the better player. It will be very interesting to see how they both do as juniors when they become the star of the team, as Mike Kalicak and David Ward graduated from DeSmet and Kalen Grimes and Aaron Jackson graduated from Hazelwood Central. Since I read here that SLU was interested in Jared, I would watch his play closely when I went to DeSmet games this past season. I am very excited to see how he progresses over the next two years, as he is silky smooth out on the court and very talented. He also showed an intensity that I haven't seen in DeSmet basketball players since I graduated 2 years ago. Overall, I think that Tyus probably does have the skills, assuming they continue to develop, to play at one of the schools he is listing. I also would be very happy to see Jared Leonard in a Billiken uniform in two years.

Roy, I'm almost positive that Dr. Ross teaches mainly graduate students, but he does teach a section of the Intro to Psychology course each Fall. I had him for that class my first semester at SLU, and he was a very good teacher. I just thought that this info might be of some benefit to you since your son will be starting at SLU soon.

It said that Dr. Michael Ross, who is the faculty athletics representative for SLU, will head up the search committee.

From Saturday's Bernie Bits: "An intriguing candidate for St. Louis U.'s AD job is St. Louisan John Lewandowski, who for the past eight years has served as an assistant athletics director at Michigan State. Before that, Lewandowski was an assistant AD at Utah State, and he also worked at Auburn for nine years. Lewandowski, 42, is a 1980 graduate of Chaminade and an '84 grad of Notre Dame." http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/co...+SkyHawks+coach

The little e-mail campaign actually did slip my mind, probably because I don't remember participating in it.