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Since the Chicago Public League began participating in the state football playoff in 1979, its representatives rarely have been considered serious contenders to win a championship.
In fact, only one Public League team--Robeson in 1982--has advanced to the state final. And only five others--Lane Tech in 1980, Tilden in 1983, Morgan Park in 2004 and Hubbard in 2000 and 2005--reached the semifinals.
But Morgan Park's 2007 squad is best of all. Coach Lexie Spurlock, like most coaches who know a good thing when they see it, prefers to dance around the subject and is reluctant to toss out bouquets with so much of the season still to be determined. But his Mustangs are the real deal.
I have been observing Public League football since 1968. I saw Robeson's 1982 state runnerup. And the 1982 and 1983 Tilden teams with Dempsey Norman. And the good Lane Tech teams of Al Manasin and Sam Bronswick. And Carl Bonner's 1973 Phillips team. And Bernie O'Brien's outstanding teams at Vocational. And the recent powerhouses at Morgan Park and Hubbard.
But none of them was more impressed than Morgan Park in Thursday's 27-7 dismantling of Hubbard at Gately Stadium. The Mustangs are big, quick, strong, physical, deep, talented and balanced. They are hostile, mobile and agile.
Afterward, Spurlock said: "They can still do better." That's a scary thought. When pressed if he had ever seen a better defense in the Public League, he said his 2003 defense was great "but this team could be better."
How much better? Against Hubbard, Morgan Park recorded 17 negative-yardage plays. The Mustangs allowed 14 net yards in the first half and minus seven in the second half. The defense has permitted only one touchdown in the last five games.
College recruiters who evaluate Morgan Park's film will like what they see. Defensive end Craig Drummond, a 6-5, 250-pound junior, is fast emerging as one of the leading prospects in his class. Defensive end Jeremy Johnson, a 6-2, 245-pound senior, is another standout.
Other seniors who are Division I prospects are wide receiver Desmond Powell, who is being compared to former Morgan Park star Chris James, 6-1, 210-pound linebacker Jonathan Ridgner, 6-0, 210-pound linebacker Ernest Leonard and free safety Antwain Windmon.
Morgan Park is two-deep at quarterback. Senior Jelani Eddy usually gets the starting call but Spurlock opted for junior Victor Scott against Hubbard. Scott, who has a strong arm, responded by completing 10-of-23 passes for 125 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown pass to Powell on fourth-and-12.
The running attack is keyed by junior tailback Dominique Bell. He runs behind a big offensive line anchored by tackles Jazzano Barrios, a 6-3, 320-pound sophomore, and William Sargent, a 6-4, 350-pound senior, guards Terrance Allen, a 6-4, 315-pound junior, and Joshua Bryant, a 6-2, 275-pound senior, and junior center Jason Simmons, a 6-0, 250-pounder.
How good is Morgan Park's defense?
The only one I can recall that impressed me as much was Glenbrook North's undersized but quick defense that stopped favored Evanston at the goal line to win its first-round game in 1974, then went on to stun heavily favored East St. Louis 19-13 in overtime for the championship.
The East St. Louis team featured three future NFL players, including Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow. Glenbrook North was led by all-state linebacker Jack Moller, who went to Stanford, running back Greg Woodsum and 180-pound lineman Gary Rockoff. It still stands as the greatest upset in the history of the state playoff.
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Carmel Catholic High School of Mundelein (6-1, 5-0 conference) looks very poised to make a very legitimate run at the 7A championship and they have been under the radar in terms of rankings. Keep on eye on them in the playoffs! Led offensively by QB, David Venegoni and RB, Geoffrey Fields and defensively by extremely physical safeties, Ryan Williams(70 tackles) and Chris Salvi(4 interceptions) and D lineman, Charlie Wifler,(4 sacks) they have one of the best defenses in the state. We all know, defenses win championships. Should be fun to watch.
Your column on the Catholic Blue and DuPage Valley conference yesterday was great. I read it with great interest. But there's one thing that struck me as wrong.
Mendel's '68 City Championship team featured four very skilled running backs, Carl Smolinski, Mike Noyes, Steve Whitney, and Tim Sullivan but the most consistently productive offensive player was Mike Hinsberger from St. Ailbe's, a tight end/wide receiver who played at Illinois. The other tight ends, Pat Sheahan and Ed Morrissey also played in the Big Ten.
Mendel '68 played high scoring games against Brother Rice with Rich Demes, Mt. Carmel with Jerry Schumacher and Hales Franciscan with Ricky Brooks, all great receivers. The Hales game was 43-42, Mendel's favor, decided on the last play of the game and featuring lots of long passes. Rich Wyatt was a very good high school quarterback at Mendel, and was followed by the very skilled Bob Lopez, now at UCLA, and Bill Callaghan at Nebraska.
Of course, these games were physical, but they weren't unskilled or unimaginative. Weather kind of curtailed the passing game by playoff time, but we were capable of ringing up big numbers through the air.
Mike Foley
Morgan Park is not the best ever in the public league. Yes they have good talent but they either going to have a great season or a bad season. There are a lot of teams that can beat Morgan Park any give day. Hubbard and Simeon are just as qualified to be ranked in that possition also.
You might can say morgan Park is the best team this year but its a over statement saying they are the best ever. When i played at Percy Julian Highschool(87-90) under one of the great coaches in the state J.W. Smith they couldn't touch us.
Always is M.P. one of the greatest teams in Chicago Public League football history and it has been in the making for a really long time now and I am not the least bit surprised. Coach Lexie Spurlock and Assistant Keith Brookshier both has had to persevere through very tough times in the public league from a coaching stand point dealing with the legacies of great proven coaches such as: Coach Curry, Al Scott, JW Smith, and Coach Harris of Hubbard and sadly they were at this stage of the game self- admittedly the jokes of the public league, however it is their time now. I played for M.P. from 97- 2001 and started at tailback for three years, but the greatest accomplishment of all was going to college on a full football scholarship. Under coach Spurlock I've witnessed two Seniors receive and sign division 1AA football scholarships on the Feb. signing day my freshman year to over 23 guys to receive and sign division 1A football scholarships to major schools by the time I signed and left M.P. I said all of that to say that although we were not totally respected in the league at first college coaches continually seen what direction Coach was taking the team in as a result guy got the opportunity to keep playing football on the college level. As coach always have said we are student-athletes at M.P. student first and athlete second, because you have to be intelligent to be successful in this game as well in life. I'm happy for the program and pleased to see that really hard work does in fact pay off in a very positive way. Now there is no room for discussion or debate on M.P. being the greatest ever, because whoever your favorite public league team is M.P. as already demolished this team or will demolish them and at the end of the day M.P. will save more parents money for college than any other schools in the league, based off my experience others may feel different. By the way Taylor Bell is the most credible source in this matter without question he said it you know I believe it. My senior year he place a large color photo of me wearing that Green and Orange on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times that stated "Terry Atkins leads Mustangs to Victory" after a season opening four rushing TD performance to defeat Collin defending west side champs and I still have the paper to this day Man I tell you Mr. Bell is Illinois Prep Sports.
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.
Hi there, thanks for this fantastic article, a really great start to the new year, keep up the great work, Louise.