Not a lot of great games expected in Lake County on Wednesday. Mundelein/Lakes could be interesting on Friday as Lakes has played better of late and Mundelein struggled within conference. In the other half of the supersectional Hersey/Barrington could also be good on Friday.

Sadly this week is about staying healthy ad getting to next week.

Hey Joe,

I have been following the HS girls game for only three seasons so my perspective is neither broad or deep. But, lets go back to when the IHSA tossed out the Chicago Public School League and split into A and AA - 2003. In the 2008 IHSA Class AA Series there are 285 teams entered, in 2003 there were 167. At the same time the Class A entries were halved from 161 in 2003 to 80 this year. I'm not sure what to make of that correlation, I guess migration from A to AA. That is a 70% increase in teams in 5 years in AA though. Are there 70% more good coaches, facilities and youth programs...I am doubtful. The pool of have-nots grows a great deal and the elite programs grow, but grow less. One subjective observation: the better players are MUCH better, on a skill development scale. This truly is a team game, but the highly skilled players can have great impact game to game. So to answer your question: significant increase in the total number of teams will water down the field and the top players on the top teams have taken play to a higher level. It's ant-parity and I assume the game quality is victimized by the success of the sport. Or...it could be because 2008 is an even-numbered year.

TROST RESPONDS: Agreed.

Joe,

Not that you'll be out in McHenry County area, but there is a great Regional semi-final match up between Cary Grove and Crystal Lake South. It should be a fantastic match and a shame it has to happen so early due to the wonderful IHSA-(AYSO) geographical setup. The 2 have played each other twice within the past two weeks with Cary winning in a shootout after a 0-0 game and CLS winning 1-0 the following week. Both are the class of the Fox Valley Conference and shared the Valley Division title.

TROST RESPONDS: I'm just glad Crystal Lake South got games in this season. I remember a point this year when some teams had played 10 games already, and CLS had only one in - a win over Barrington nonetheless - because of the great spring weather.

Friday's matchup of St. Charles East and Wheaton South should be good. This is the third year in a row that they have met in this situation with WWS winning in 06 and STCE in 07. This game will be at East on Friday if both win their regional semi final games.

Joe,

I'm a little confused. In an earlier blog you mention that it's wrong that the top teams play one another early in the playoffs (in which I agree), but here you claim that there are no good games to watch. What kinds of riviting match-ups were you expecting this early in the state playoffs? Aren't you wanting your cake and trying to eat it too?

TROST RESPONDS: The key is as a whole, there are not many good regional semis. Look at the scores from yesterday and the case is made. There are only a handful of good regional games this year, and some of those games feature ranked teams playing one another in a regional final when you have many, many other areas with poor regional finals. But as a whole this year, there are even less "good" regional games....because some believe high school soccer is down.

To the above writer, did you say Barrington-Hersey will be a good final? Oh, Lake Zurich won. 1-0 3OT

LZ and Hersey will be a great game. Both games in that regional semi were very good. Wauconda was seeded lower than they deserved, and had numerous skilled players. Zurich and Barrington were pretty evenly matched, and both teams had quality chances. That is a pretty tough group of four teams.

Rainstreet - I stand corrected. I did not see the game, and should not have made the assumption that seeds would hold with Barrington/LZ. Sounds like I missed a good game yesterday.

Don't count Fremd out. It's very hard to beat a team three times in a season. Hersey vs Fremd is the real championship game of that sectional. Too bad it wasn't set up as the actual final.

Hersey vs. Fremd will be the Sectional Final Hounder100.

Stevenson survived a very good CLS team in the Regional final, and will likely cause Fremd problems for a little while, and Hersey must get through Palatine at Palatine which is never easy, but I still believe both teams advance and set up a terrific Sectional final. I agree, beating a team 3 times in a season, especially the quality of Fremd is very difficult, so I believe Fremd advances once again.

a little late, i know...

but I guess the quality of Hersey is just a little bit more difficult, Fremd never advanced.