By STEVE PORTER
Everybody is playing for keeps now in the American Senior Legion baseball season. It’s either advance or pack the bags and call it a season.
You can call it the elimination round.
The District 22 league playoffs are wrapping up this weekend, with the North finals playing out in Bethalto and the South putting the finishing touches on its tournament in Fairview Heights.
The next stop is the Fifth Division Tournament, then it’s back to Southwestern Illinois for the state finals at Whitey Herzog Field in Belleville.
The local teams that come out of the District 22 fracas should fare well at Marion and perhaps even make a run for the state championship. Belleville and Edwardsville are among the local favorites, but Bethalto is enjoying its finest season in a long, long time. In short, anything can happen.
The playoff games are nine innings, instead of seven, so it’s more taxing on pitching staffs. And when you are playing just about every day, it takes depth to suceed.
By next week, the successful teams will be more obvious. For now, let’s see who can get there sustaining the least amount of damage.
As with anything else in baseball, it’s location, location, location.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

By STEVE PORTER
You know it and I know it. The 2008 prep football season is right around the corner.
The last time I peeked at the calendar it was mid-July, meaning IHSA grid practices begin in less than a month. The season gets going for most on Friday, Aug. 29. Others start Saturday, Aug. 30.
I’m guessing that the larger schools in The Telegraph area will take big strides of improvement. Edwardsville (4-5), Alton (3-6), Civic Memorial (2-7) and Jersey (1-8) figure they can be better and there’s no reason to doubt them.
The Tigers and Redbirds intend to join the frantic fight for second place in the Southwestern Conference. East St. Louis is in a class all by itself.
AHS will find out a lot about iitself the first two weeks of the season. The Redbirds play host to Quincy and then go to Cahokia for the first time since 1993.
CM’s Eagles and Jersey’s Panthers aim to scrap with Mississippi Valley Conference co-champs Mascoutah and Triad for a slice of the Valley pie.
Carlinville, which features speed — remember the Cavaliers took second in the Class A state track finals — might have a step on everybody else in the South Central Conference West. Mount Olive should be in the thick of things in the Prairie State.
It’s the final season for two divisions in the SCC. Gillespie and Staunton are heading to the revised Prairie State in 2009. It’ll be interesting to see if new coach Don Borgini can revitalize the Miners. Most assume he will have a big impact on the program.
Well, I’m getting ahead of myself, though it’s fun to look forward. Believe me, nobody wants to look backward.
If you do, you’ll discover somebody is gaining on you.

The openings for varsity coaches in baseball and girls basketball at Alton High are expected to be filled at the district’s board meeting on July 15, according to athletics director Scott Harper.
The baseball vacancy was created when Harper moved into the AD opening created with Mike Brey’s move to an assistant principal at AHS. Girls basketball came open when Tammy Talbert resigned as coach at the end of the school year.
Harper was reluctant to give up coaching after spending 10 years as an assistant with the Redbirds before he got his shot to lead the program in 2007. Then as now, the opening came because of a coach moving into administration with Michael Bellm moving to an assistant principal’s role.
Harper, a Roxana High graduate, posted a two-year record of 38-27, including a 21-10 season in 2008. He guided the Redbirds to a regional championship in 2007. The leading in-house candidate is Todd Haug, though at least one top Southwestern Conference assistance coach has applied for the job, assuming a teaching position is available.
Alton had hoped to have the girls basketball job filled by the end of June, but was unable to meet that soft deadline. Talbert’s resignation came after six seasons that saw the program unable to lift itself out of the cellar in the SWC.
Talbert, who took Marquette Catholic to the Class A State Finals in 2000 and had a 160-51 record in eight seasons with the Explorers, could never translate that success to Alton. Talbert spent two seasons coaching in Missouri before taking the Redbirds job.
Her hiring came at the same time Edwardsville made a splash by luring Lori Blade away from Carrollton after phenomenal success at the small-school level. And while the Tigers have gone 146-40 with four Elite Eight berths in six seasons under Blade, the Redbirds have labored through six straight losing seasons and a 43-116 record.
To be fair, Blade took over a program that was in much better shape than Alton’s. But still, the results for the Redbirds have been disappointing. Alton has gone 2-12 in SWC play in each of the past three seasons. And going back two seasons before Talbert arrived, Alton girls basketball has a 12-100 record in SWC play since 2001.
The SWC graduated its marquee players from 2008, including Division I recruits TeAndrea Smith (Illinois) of East St. Louis, Morgan Harrington (Missouri State) and Suzanne Grossnickle (Ball State) of Belleville East, and Anya Covington (Wisconsin), Eryn Stepherson (Southern Illinois Carbondale) and Moneisha Davis (Morgan State) of Edwardsville.
So a step up the SWC ladder is a reasonable expectation for an Alton program would be satisfied with baby steps at this point.
– GREG SHASHACK