OK, we've thrown out this disclaimer before, but we'll say it again: What you're reading in this and past previews ain't journalism. It's an attempt to shine a spotlight on whatever sectional we're covering on that particular day. We're googling what we can and combining it with background information we're receiving from a few sources. But there are still plenty of blanks we can't fill. (We have no idea, for example, why we can't find Racine St. Catherine's on the results from last year's playoffs.) Even the most basic help would be much appreciated. Thanks and now on with the preview...Another day, another sectional preview. Today, we turn our attention to boys sectional six, which features seven teams: Greendale, Greenfield, Heritage Christian, Racine Case, Racine Horlick, Racine Park and Racine St. Catherine’s.
And this sectional can probably be summed up in two words: Congratulations, graduate.
Baker, Pfeilstifter, Cheever, Jaskulske, Larsen (no, not that Larsen), Marita, you name it. Probably no sectional in the state lost more go-to players to graduation than sectional six. At the head of that list, of course, is Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel player of the year John Baker, who will play for Cal State-Northridge this year.
So who lost the least?
Not Greenfield. Last season's Woodland Conference runner-up lost its fair share of '08s, including Matt Maciejewski, who will play at UW-Oshkosh, and Woodland Conference player of the year, Andy Cheever, who's off to Lakeland College.
Not Racine Case. They lost middle Steve Jaskulske and setter Dan Esgar.
And certainly not the Class of '08-stacked Racine Park, which lost to Catholic Memorial last year in that 21-19 five-game state quarterfinal thriller. In addition to the aforementioned Baker, they'll have to replace Ben Pfeilstifter, Eric Meeusen and Sam Schultz, among others.
Maybe it's Racine St. Catherine's. It appears as though they'll return a quality player in senior outside hitter Jake Thomas.
But no, it's probably not them, either. The team that lost the least to graduation is no doubt Racine Horlick. Yes, they lost stars like senior rightside Kevin Larsen, but they'll return the big-time play of senior middle Jamil Wilson, who will be racking up kills as fast as senior setter Kurt Larsen will be scoring assists.
Others in this sectional include Greendale (which we don't know much about) and Heritage Christian, which recently completed a rough inaugural season in the Woodland Conference. The Patriots' JV did, however, win three matches, which prompted the following optimistic words on their site: "We are looking forward to next year to be more of a force in our conference and beyond."
If anyone can supply any additional insight, we'll adjust the post as needed.
Our prediction: Racine Horlick over Racine Park in three.
Tomorrow: Boys Sectional Seven
5 comments:
We appreciate comments. A lot. But we don't necessarily publish all of them. For example, someone just left a comment about a player transferring from one school to another. We're thankful for the heads-up, but it's our blog's policy not to publicly announce any transfer until we see it on the official roster of the new school.
St. Cats was not recognized by the WIAA last year, that is why you don't see them on the bracket from 2007. They are this year.
Thanks.
This is more of a list of who is not there instead of who is. I appreciate the difficulty in finding out who is there, but last year's roster might help.
We agree with your criticism completely. This particular post is full of holes! Our feeling, however, is that it's better to try and fail than never to have tried at all so we're going to keep plugging along with these previews, flawed as they are. They're intended to be updated and returned to regularly as more information surfaces. If anyone has insights, schedules, rosters (including last year's), whatever, add it as comments to the posts or e-mail vbuberalles@gmail.com. We won't even reveal where the information came from. Thanks.
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