May 2009 Archives

Derrick Rose is a role model for every kid who grows up in Englewood or any other poverty-stricken neighborhood, utilizes his God-given and self-imposed talents while striving to overcome one obstacle after another that society throws in his path and finally achieves riches and stardom.

Good for him. It's a good Hollywood script.

But Rose sends the wrong message if he uses those physical and athletic skills to manipulate a system designed to determine right from wrong, morally or ethically or legally. It worked for him. But how many other kids who desire to be "the next Derrick Rose" will realize his dream?

Bill Rees served as an assistant coach, recruiting coordinator, scout and director of player-personnel for more than 30 years. He spent 16 years at UCLA and 15 years in the NFL, mostly with the Chicago Bears. Now he is intrigued by how other coaches evaluate his son, Tommy, a junior at Lake Forest who is one of the top-rated quarterbacks in the Chicago area in the class of 2010.

Rees is a 1972 graduate of New Trier. He played quarterback for coach Chick Cichowski. Later, he launched his coaching career at Northwestern for three years under John Pont and Rick Venturi. Then he joined Terry Donahue's staff at UCLA.

To compete with crosstown rival USC, UCLA had to become a national recruiter. Rees was in charge of UCLA's national recruiting plan. There was no recruiting calendar in those days, no restrictions, so Rees traveled extensively from the end of spring practice to June, attending jamborees and 7-on-7 events in Florida and elsewhere, wherever there was talent to evaluate.

I'm old enough to remember where I was when Don Larsen pitched his perfect game in the World Series and President Kennedy was shot. And I was covering professional golf for the Chicago Daily News when Johnny Miller won the 1973 U.S. Open with a closing 63.

But I didn't see Red Grange play for Wheaton High School and I was a college student when Dick Butkus was terrorizing opponents at Chicago Vocational.

So who were the best high school football players I ever saw, my all-time team dating to 1957 when I was awed by Leroy Jackson and his unbeaten Bloom team, players I covered while working for 33 years at the Daily News and Sun-Times?

We can agree to disagree, of course. Everyone has his favorites. You might come up with 22 different players. But I doubt it. Before you are quick to nominate someone who you think belongs on the all-time team, however, think about it. Who do you drop to make room for him? Why?

After leading Wheaton North to a resounding 34-14 victory over Mount Carmel and the Class 5A championship in 1986 and being named the Chicago Sun-Times' Player of the Year, Kent Graham emerged as one of the most widely recruited players in the country.

He admits he got caught up in the hoopla and glamour of the recruiting process and committed to Notre Dame. But he soon realized the offense didn't fit his talents and abilities so he transferred to Ohio State, which was running a pro-style offense instead of an option. It prepared him for an 11-year career in the NFL.

Today, as he goes through the process with his son Taylor, a highly recruited quarterback at Wheaton North, Kent shakes his head at what he sees. He is amazed at how recruiting has changed in the last 20 years.

Last April, while arguing that high school, college and professional basketball isn't what it used to be, that in my view the game hadn't changed for the better, I confessed that I enjoyed watching the Stanley Cup finals more than the World Series, the Final Four, Super Bowl and NBA playoffs.

Have you been watching the Blackhawks lately? Is there anything more exciting than an evening at the UC? Talk about entertainment...the whole package, Kane, Toews, Havlat, Khabibulin, , the National Anthem, nonstop action, Pat Foley, Eddie Olyczyk. It's so good that you even forgot how much you had to pay to park your car, right?

But the Stanley Cup is more than the Blackhawks. Did you see the Red Wings/Ducks series or the Penguins/Capitals series or the Bruins/Hurricanes series? Crosby vs. Ovechkin. Never a dull moment. No television timeouts, just a lot of overtime periods. Sensational skating. Great shots.

A pair of Bradley-bound seniors were judged to be the leading performers among 250 participants at recruiting analyst Bill Flanagan's 15th annual Flash's Spring Hoops Review, which was conducted recently at Markin Center in Peoria.

Best in show were 6-3 point guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards of Downstate Washington and 6-8 forward Jordan Prosser of Eureka, who are committed to Bradley coach Jim Les.

According to Flanagan, the rest of the top 15 players in the camp were underclassmen, some regarded among the most widely recruited prospects in the state and others with promise and potential who are on the cusp of gaining exposure to big-time college coaches.

When it comes to evaluating football prospects, Randy Taylor has good credentials. Over the last 30 years, he has experienced recruiting as a high school player and a college coach and has been on the cutting edge of technological and administrative changes that have impacted on the process.

Taylor was an all-state lineman for coach Joe Marini at LaSalle-Peru in 1974, played under Bob Blackman and Gary Moeller at Illinois, was a grad assistant under Moeller, was an assistant on Mike White's staff until after the 1984 Rose Bowl, then coached at Kansas State, Nevada-Las Vegas, San Jose State and UCLA.

Today, he is football recruiting coordinator for Chicago-based National Collegiate Scouting Association. He has launched an extended program for Division I coaches to see film of hundreds of players from the Chicago area and across the country. He also does a lot of public speaking to educate athletes and parents about the recruiting process.

I remember the good old days of track and field in Illinois, when the Chicago Public League was an annual contender for the state championship, when the city, suburbs and Downstate produced Olympic sprinters, hurdlers, distance runners and jumpers. But that era has passes as swiftly as the stopwatch.

I was a freshman baseball player at Blue Island (now Eisenhower) in 1955 when Willie May emerged as the most dominant hurdler in state history.

Whenever Willie was scheduled to compete in the highs or lows on the adjacent track, everything and everybody would stop what they were doing. "The gun's up, Willie's gonna run," someone would shout. And baseball practice would stop while everyone watched Willie run. Nobody ever caught him.