Chicago Sports

The most valuable and devastating weapon a defense can have is an unstoppable pass rush. And even after trading Khalil Mack, the Bears should still be pretty good in that aspect.

They have the franchise’s single-season sack king in defensive end Robert Quinn on one side, and Al-Quadin Muhammad — hand-picked by coach Matt Eberflus from their days together with Colts — opposite him. And they can sprinkle in promising upstart Trevis Gipson, who had seven sacks last season, and rangy rookie Dominique Robinson.

Yet the Bears have just seven sacks in their first four games. Just one of those was by Quinn.

They’re creating pressure on 29.7% of opponents’ passes, which ranks fourth, but rarely taking down the quarterback. Pressures are good, but sacks change games. Sticking an opponent with third-and-16 creates prime time for takeaways.

“It’s really just staying motivated and not getting too discouraged,” Gipson said. “It’s just continuing to work hard. It’s going to click for these guys.”

As always in football, everything is interdependent.

If the Bears tightened up their run defense, for example, one byproduct would be more frequent and more advantageous pass rushing opportunities.

As the Bears have been bulldozed for an NFL-high 183.3 yards rushing per game, they’ve faced the fewest passes in the league. Why drop back against Robert Quinn and throw into a secondary that has safeties Eddie Jackson and Jaquan Brisker scanning for interceptions when running is relatively safe and easy?

“You have to create good situations for them to rush in, which is something we’ve got to do better — and that would tie into the run defense,” Eberflus said. “You get your run defense going and you’re better in first-down efficiency, now you have the right to rush the passer. Now it’s second-and-longer, third-and-longer, and you get the situations that you like.”

Every defense craves obvious passing scenarios, and every offense is desperate to avoid them.

The Bears opponents have had an average of 6.8 yards to go on third downs, which ranks 15th in the NFL. The Bears are allowing 5.5 yards per play on first down and have given up a first down on 26.6% of their first or second downs.

The Giants had five or fewer yards to go on seven of their 15 third downs last week, which eliminated that predictability that a pass rusher wants. They ran on five of those. The Bears’ run defense was so bad that the Giants were able to run for 262 yards and six per carry despite playing without a healthy quarterback.

When a problem like that persists this long, it’s not an aberration. So with this much video of the Bears flailing at running backs, defensive coordinator Alan Williams anticipated that being the Vikings’ plan Sunday.

“They’re gonna come in and say, ‘Hey, they’re coming in our house and we’re gonnaruntheballdowntheirthroat,and then play-action pass and get overtheirhead,'” Williams said. “That’s whatthestats say to do. So we’ll see ifthestats lie or not.”

They usually don’t.

And while the Vikings’ offense hasn’t been remarkable, it has the potential to present a lot of problems.

Running back Dalvin Cook doesn’t have a 100-yard game yet and is averaging a career-low 4.4 yards per carry, but he’s surely looking at this as an opportunity to ignite his season. And the ripple effect of his success would affect the Bears’ other deficiencies and minimize their opportunities to rush Kirk Cousins.

Every quarterback prefers to avoid pressure, but few see their performance swing as wildly as Cousins’. Pro Football Focus rated him the No. 1 clean-pocket passer in the NFL last season, but 17th when pressured.

Which version will the Bears see? That depends, of course, on whether they create pressure. And that depends on whether they can finally stop the run.

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For all the things that are fundamentally wrong with quarterback Justin Fields and his offense, the Bears are one of the best teams in the NFL on opening drives. Only two teams have scored more often on the first possession than the Bears, who have kicked two field goals and scored one touchdown in four games.

Then teams figure the Bears out. Fields knows how to start hot– but he needs to find a way to stay that way.

The Bears have scored 13 points on the first drive — and 51 the rest of the game. They average six yards per play on the first drive — seven if you take out the season-opener played in a monsoon — and only 4.7 the rest of the way.

“That’s this league, right?” offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. “I can’t tell you how many games that I’ve watched this year that it’s like 7-3 the first two drives and then no one scores until the fourth quarter. These guys are really good, right? And they make it really hard.”

No quarterback makes it look harder than Fields, who ranks last among 32 starters in passer rating, passing yards, completion percentage and sack percentage. He needs to show improvement quickly — and there’s no faster way to do it than to, for the first time this season, take advantage of momentum the Bears gain on the first drive.

“That would be great that you have that,” head coach Matt Eberflus said. “We’re always trying to score a touchdown every single time we touch the ball, of course. We just got to have consistency of execution.”

It hasn’t happened yet. Fields’ passer rating in the first quarter has been brutal this season — 40.4, the worst of any of his four frames.

When Bears coaches talk to Fields about how his development is a process, they use the old saying about how long it takes to eat an elephant. The answer: one bite at a time.

“We’re taking one bite of the elephant all the time,” quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko said. “As things progress, and we keep progressing, those things that go from good to great translate into wins.”

The Bears used to have the opposite problem. Former head coach Matt Nagy schemed touchdowns on three of his first four opening drives in 2018 — and then watched the team go scoreless in 20 of the next 23 opening drives. That prompted legitimate questions about the Nagy’s preparedness.

Getsy, a first-time NFL play-caller, needs to sharpen the ways in which he deals with defensive adjustments after the first drive. It’s one thing to score while using the 15 scripted plays that all offenses prepare in advance–and another to make changes on the fly the rest of the game.

Getsy pointed to the Bears’ lack of red zone success — they’ve scored touchdowns on half their trips, which ranks 23rd in the league — as a reason the team has been stuck in the mud later in the game. Life gets harder inside the 20s.

“A lot of defenses that you play now–[the Vikings are] is one of them– they create that shell defense,” Getsy said. “You’re going to see DBs 20 yards deep and not letting you get behind them.”

Receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, who has the Bears’ only red zone receiving touchdown, chalked up the initial success — and ensuing failure — to execution more than scheme.

“They’re adjusting, we’re adjusting ….” he said. “It’s really up to us. We’re on the field. We’re the ones making plays, not making plays. Every coach has a scheme. The players make it work.”

It’s worked on the first drive. But the Bears — and their quarterback — need more.

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Seven years ago today, Jake Arrieta and the Chicago Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2015 Wild Card Game.

Jake Arrieta was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball in 2015. With him on the mound, it felt like the Cubs could’ve beaten anyone in a winner-take-all game. Unfortunately for the Pittsburgh Pirates, they ran straight into the buzzsaw that was Jake Arrieta.

Before the game, Jake Arrieta sent a tweet that perfectly encapsulated how much confidence he had going into that matchup.

Naturally, Jake Arrieta threw a complete game shutout as the Cubs won 4-0. Arrieta finished the game with 11 strikeouts and allowed only four hits. The Cubs seemed to be in command for the entire game. Momentum swung hugely in the Cubs’ direction early on when Kyle Schwarber hit one of the most colossal home runs in franchise history.

Rookie Kyle Schwarber drove in three runs in this game – his first playoff game. Dexter Fowler managed to score three times, including a solo home run in the 5th inning. Sadly, these two players would collide with each other at the beginning of the following season. That would cause Schwarber to miss nearly all of 2016 with an ACL tear until his triumphant World Series return.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have not returned to the playoffs since this game. For the Cubs, this game was their first playoff win since 2003. This core went on to make the playoffs in each of the next three seasons and then again in 2020. Of course, the Cubs would win the World Series the following year in 2016. The legendary 2015 Wild Card Game is where this memorable playoff run all began.

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Now that Tony La Russa has resumed his retirement, the White Sox can go back to being … the White Sox.

Does that make you feel any better?

It apparently delights Rick Hahn, whom we all know had nothing to do with the disastrous decision to bring back La Russa, but can be held accountable for stockpiling first basemen and designated hitters in a misguided survivalist tactic. Facing questions this week about his own job security, Hahn broke into more of a smile than a sweat.

“If it ever got to the point where I felt like I wasn’t the right person in my role, I’d step aside,” Hahn said. “And I’m lucky enough, again, to have the support [from chairman Jerry Reinsdorf].”

Ah, there it is, the support of Jerry Reinsdorf. In the sports world, this is the golden ticket that only a precious few enjoy. Their paychecks carry the logos of the Bulls and White Sox. Hahn and Ken Williams –remember him? –get a free pass because Reinsdorf adores them.

Forget a fanbase that was enraged this season after enduring a flawed rebuild that was six years in the making. For all that pain and cash, the Sox went .500 in baseball’s weakest division. Those angry fans surely will show their frustration in the form of empty seats at Guaranteed Rate Field in 2023. Hahn and Williams are liked by Jerry –in the same way La Russa was treasured –so they’re safe. Fans will just have to wear it.

Reinsdorf surprisingly broke down two years ago and cut loose John Paxson and Gar Forman –the Bulls’ equivalent of Williams and Hahn. That reluctant move came at the urging of son Michael, who handles business for Jerry on the Bulls side in a role that remains vacant on the Sox side.

So Hahn and Williams will be rolling along next spring training in their respective golf carts, snickering and ducking responsibility along the way.

“There’s only 30 of these jobs and I’m fortunate enough to be able to do this in my hometown,” Hahn said. “Whether we won this division by 10 games or lost it by 10 games, I’m ridiculously blessed to be able to have this opportunity.”

In the Sox’ messed-up world, winning the division by 10 games or losing it by 10 really doesn’t matter either way.

You certainly can’t fault Hahn for hiring La Russa. That was 100% Reinsdorf’s decision. But Hahn gets blame for assembling a fundamentally flawed roster that couldn’t stay healthy and was exposed for being dangerously shallow.

He laid out this week a make-good plan that includes promised change for next season. Raise your hand if you believe those changes will lead to success.

Hahn has been with the Sox since 2002 and became general manager in 2013, when Williams was kicked upstairs to a loosely defined role as executive vice president. Hahn’s a likable guy with an impressive resume that includes New Trier High School, Michigan undergrad and a law degree from Harvard.

When major-league teams were scrambling to replicate the Boston Red Sox’ recipe for success under then-general manager Theo Epstein, an Ivy League diploma weighed more heavily than a baseball background.

Hahn, who also has an MBA from Kellogg, was originally tasked with handling contracts. Agents preferred dealing with him over Williams. General managers –after Williams’ disastrous Shouldergate deal with the Blue Jays –also gravitated toward Hahn.

When Hahn became a hot Ivy League wunderkind in baseball circles –being courted by the Cardinals and Pirates –Reinsdorf fought off the suitors by giving him the GM title before the 2013 season.

On the Chicago sports landscape, every other major-league team –Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Sky and Fire — have changed general managers during Hahn’s tenure. And what has he done to deserve such solid job security?

Hahn had losing seasons from 2013 to 2019, a winning record in the pandemic-shortened forgettable 2020 season (35-25), one division title in 2021 (93-69) and a 2-5 postseason record. Overall, the Sox have gone 700-817 (a .461 winning percentage) during Hahn’s tenure. Evidently, only the pandemic could make the Sox look good.

And now Hahn is again telling Sox fans: Don’t stop believin’.

“I’m not looking to stand up here with a blindfold and a cigarette just for fun,” he said during La Russa’s going-away party. “We have to believe that we’re capable of getting ourselves to the level we need and be able to critically look at things that we didn’t do well in the past …”

And?

“Find a way to get better,” he continued, “and have faith in ourselves that we’re the right people.”

Jerry couldn’t have said it any better.

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First, I must express a bit of shock.I simply was not expecting to fall in love with “The Notebook,” the new musical version of Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 over-the-top romantic novel, turned into a solid film of romantically saturated colors by director Nick Cassavetes, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.

But I have.

I was expecting teary and hoping for sincere.But I also must admit that, with a writer — Bekah Brunstetter, best known for her work on the shamelessly manipulative TV soap opera “This Is Us” –and a first-time theater composer, Ingrid Michaelson, arguably best known for the slew of songs that featured on the TV soap opera “Grey’s Anatomy” — I thought this musical version might aggressively aim for the tear ducts from start to finish.

For the unfamiliar, “The Notebook” tells the story of Allie and Noah, each played here by three different performers to represent the characters — as the teenagers Younger Allie and Younger Noah (Jordan Tyson and John Cardoza); in their late 20s as Middle Allie and Middle Noah (Joy Woods and Ryan Vasquez); and as Older Allie and Older Noah, elderly inhabitants of a nursing home (Maryann Plunkett and, at opening night, Jerome Harmann-Hardeman understudying for John Beasley).

The nursing home setting forms the frame, with Noah reading to Alzheimer’s patient Allie every day from the titular notebook that tells their own story, hoping for flashes that Allie remembers.The younger performers then play that history out, with the differently aged versions of the characters often onstage simultaneously.

Taking this time-spanning romance of a love that overcomes barriers of class differences, parental resistance, long-term separation, competing relationships, and even severe dementia, and setting it all to music on a big stage certainly runs the risk of going really sappy, really fast.

But what we see at Chicago Shakespeare is a pre-Broadway production that is not just safe for the skeptical. It’s a significant leap in artistic quality over its sources, which it respects, while also providing a clear, resonant, and unique voice of its own.

Brunstetter (who has also written well-respected plays like “The Cake”) and Michaelson (the very model of an indie singer-songwriter) adapt — in the best sense of the word — “The Notebook” into what feels like a deeply personal expression.

The book and score blend together so seamlessly that you can’t always tell them apart, and rather than amping this tale up to the larger-than-life, they go the opposite direction, making this more of a chamber musical about ordinary humans that also works, under the direction of Michael Greif and Schele Williams. They are assisted by an ace design team, at the Broadway scale, with mostly simple flourishes but also an impressive onstage rainstorm.

Michaelson’s songs are just beautiful, her lyrics poetic and specific and only seemingly simple, bringing us instantly, for example, into Allie’s feelings when she sees Noah on the front page of a newspaper after a decade apart: “What happens to a person who forgets how to breathe?/ Who forgets who she is/ Who forgets where she is…”

With every solo and duet, every cast member feels emotionally connected to the moment with every word and note.It helps too, of course, that they are stellar singers.

There are so many extraordinarily smart choices here that I can’t even list them.But take, for example, the challenge of a character with Alzheimer’s, played with wondrous exactitude by Plunkett, in a romantic musical.How can she sing about her confusion when anything she’d sing would be too articulate to convey confusion?The brilliant choice:have her younger selves sing it for her: “Is it time for dinner/ Is it time for forever/ I didn’t know the last time I’d leave the house/ Was the last time I’d leave the house.”

That song, “I Wanna Go Back,” is so poignant, and also so restrained, that it should be studied carefully for the way Michaelson differentiates sentiment and sentimentality, a quality this entire show excels at.

And kudos to Greif and Williams for the cross-racial casting choices even with the same character at different ages.Once we’re settled comfortably into the theatrical device, it becomes an underlying expression of the universality of this specific work.

That choice, as well as the contemporary sound and a gentle updating of the time periods, makes “The Notebook” aesthetically very current and fresh.

And likely, hopefully, very lasting.

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We’re looking back at some of the most memorable moments from the Chicago Cubs 2022 campaign.

MLB’s regular season has come to an end. The Chicago Cubs have played their final game until next Spring Training. Many fans are already looking toward next season, but it’s important to appreciate some of the memorable moments of 2022. Many would consider this season a disappointment, and by most metrics, it probably was. At the end of the day, the team performed about how they were expected to. Many projections and betting lines had the Cubs winning around 75 games before the season. Ultimately, they wrapped up their season with a record of 74-88.

Although this season wasn’t one that fans dream of, there were definitely several positive moments and takeaways that fans should appreciate.

Christopher Morel’s debut and on-base streak

Fans won’t soon forget rookie Christopher Morel’s debut back in May. Morel sent a home run onto Waveland in his first major league at-bat.

Morel broke onto the scene with this home run, but he didn’t stop there. The Cubs rookie got on base in 22 straight games to start his career. According to Jesse Rogers, this hasn’t been accomplished since 2003.

Ian Happ and Willson Contreras rep the Cubs at the All-Star Game

A lot of noise surrounded Ian Happ and Willson Contreras in the first half. As the trade deadline got closer, that noise seemed to become louder. Happ and Contreras were recognized as All-Stars for 2022 and respesented the Cubs in Los Angeles. Around the same time, it seemed these two players were nearing the end of their time with the Chicago Cubs.

One of the “bigger-than-baseball” moments of the MLB season came when Willson Contreras and his brother William represented the National League together as All-Stars.

The Cubs at the Trade Deadline

Many fans were shocked to find out that the Cubs had not dealt either Happ or Contreras at the trade deadline. Fans were happy to welcome back two of their longest-tenured players to Wrigley.

Thankfully, the Cubs were still able to pull off some promising trades. Perhaps the biggest trade they made was with the New York Yankees. The Cubs received pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski for the young reliever Scott Effross.

Hayden Wesneski’s debut

Naturally, the next big moment of this season came when newly acquired Hayden Wesneski made his debut. Cubs fans were introduced to Wesneski’s strikeout strut back in early September. In fact, they got to see it eight times that night when he pitched five innings of shut-out ball and recorded the win.

Later that month, Wesneski even recorded an immaculate inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Pat Hughes Hall of Fame induction

One of the more memorable off-the-field moments came when longtime Cubs radio broadcaster, Pat Hughes, was informed that he will be inducted into the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame. Back in late August, Hughes was surprised with this news on-air by Crane Kenney.

Pete Crow-Armstrong turns heads

After coming over from the New York Mets at last year’s deadline, prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong quickly shot to the top of the Cubs pipeline. Crow-Armstrong had no shortage of web gem plays out in centerfield for South Bend and Myrtle Beach. PCA also slashed .312/.376/.520 in 2022 with 16 homers and perhaps even more impressively, 10 triples.

Cubs win at Field of Dreams

The Chicago Cubs faced the Cincinnati Reds in the 2nd annual Field of Dreams game. Unfortunately, the MLB isn’t expected to continue this yearly matchup for the time being. With Drew Smyly on the mound, the Cubs defeated the Reds 4-2 with a strong performance from Nick Madrigal and others.

Seiya Suzuki’s inside-the-park home run

One of the more chaotic plays of the 2022 season came on Independence Day in Milwaukee. Seiya Suzuki hit an inside-the-park homer off Josh Hader. Hader has been one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball the past few seasons, so this play came as a shock to everyone.

Cubs beat Pirates 21-0

Way back in April, the Chicago Cubs decimated the Pittsburgh Pirates. The score of 21-0 had several historical implications according to ESPN. Perhaps the craziest part about this onslaught from the Cubs was that they still managed to lose the series.

Optimism for 2023

It’s important to take some positives away from this season. The Cubs starting pitchers were dominant in the second half, and young players like Nico Hoerner, Justin Steele, Christopher Morel, and others showed great promise. The Chicago Cubs currently have the 9th-ranked farm system. These reinforcements will be huge for this club that went 39-31 in the second half this year.

Marcus Stroman recently stated that the Cubs are just a few pieces away from competing, and many expect the Cubs to spend quite generously this offseason. Hopefully, when Spring Training begins, the team will have bolstered its roster in more ways than one.

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Three players that the Chicago White Sox should look into trading this upcoming offseason

The White Sox are headed towards arguably their most important offseason in the past decade, yes even more important than last year. After a disappointing year, the White Sox are now at a crossroad where a few key moves could either make them contenders again or give them a jump start toward mediocracy. Now, whether White Sox fans trust this front office to make the right choices or not, they are in position where they have assets they could trade to acquire quality players to can compliment the roster, key word here is compliment, remember that. Here’s three players the White Sox have that can be used as trade assets this offseason.

LF/1B Andrew Vaughn

The White Sox in the 2022 were not the best defensive team in the league, specifically their outfield play was subpar. Given injuries to various players the team scramble to fill the position with players like Andrew Vaughn. The 25 year old, natural first baseman, played a whopping 84 games in the outfield and posted a -26.7 defensive rating. Taking the defense aspect of Vaughn aside, he’s still a above average hitter in the league. He just happened to play on the same team as Jose Abreu and Gavin Sheets who are also first baseman. Posting a .271/.321/.429 slash line and an wRC+ of 113, the White Sox could use Vaughn to acquire a better defensive player that could fix their issues in the outfield.

Think of the trade where the White Sox dealt Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik and Luis Vizcaino. Yes, on paper the Sox lost this deal in terms of talent but them acquiring Podsednik made the Sox a better defensive team and gave them a player that can get on base and create runs by playing “small ball.” This is a similar situation, Vaughn is a good hitter that can be great but you already have Gavin Sheets and Yasmani Grandal that take up that first baseman and DH spot. If the team also decides to bring back Jose Abreu, Vaughn can become flexible to get a player that can fix their defensive woes.

3B Yoan Moncada

When it comes to players taking a step back, Moncada fits the bill here. Coming off arguably his worst season of his career, the 27-year-old third baseman struggled to find his groove all season. Whether it was injuries or trying to get something going, Moncada posted a dismal .212/.273/.353 slash line and below league average wRC+ of 76. The Sox may be selling low here but a young third baseman that has potential that desperately needs a change in scenery could get the team a quality starter or a couple of promising players.

Its a 50/50 shot where there’s no wrong answer yet in whether the Sox should Moncada but should the right offer be presented at the table they should really consider moving him. Especially after a good two week run to end the season.

SP Lucas Giolito

The third option was a hard one, having bloated contracts that no team would want to acquire (Grandal, Lance Lynn) the most intriguing option here is Lucas Giolito. Amid a struggling season, the White Sox could decide to part ways with the 28-year-old former all-star. While the past season showed struggles the Sox could still sell high on Giolito just based on the potential alone. Depending on this option could dictate where the direction of the team goes, you can trade Giolito for pieces on the roster that can help, or acquire prospects that can provide a more balance future.

Thanks to the emergence of Dylan Cease, the Sox can make Giolito expendable for the right price of course but they can benefit from the fact that Giolito is still on a team friendly contract and has a potential comeback season in a new uniform. The other side of the coin is the Sox bet on Giolito to bounce back and have two quality starters in the front end of the rotation.

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Judah Mallette was a 12-year-old ballboy along for the ride when Phillips won its — and the Public League’s — second state football title in 2017.

”I was there for every game,” said Mallette, now a senior receiver with Power Five scholarship offers playing for Hope Academy. ”It was just like, to be honest, so far in my 17 years of living, one of the best experiences of my life. Seeing the journey from the beginning of the season to the height of the season and especially through all the adversity that they faced, it was definitely special. . . .

”I just thought to myself: ‘This is something that I want to be part of a few years down the road from now. And doing it with my dad would make it 10 times more special.’ ”

Mallette’s dad, Chris, was an assistant on that Phillips team, part of a run through the Public League that also included stops as an assistant at Simeon and Young. When Young wanted to reboot its program in 2018 after having to suspend it because of low numbers the year before, the school turned to Mallette.

He guided the Dolphins to an 8-0 record, then left after one season to take over at Hope. Four seasons later, the Mallettes have a chance to be part of more Illinois high school football history. No Chicago-area school has won a Class 1A title since Hampshire in 1979, and no West Side program — public or private — ever has won state.

In their fourth and final season together, the Mallettes were unbeaten through six games, near the top of Class 1A in the Associated Press’ rankings and dreaming big.

”We begin the season talking about state,” Chris Mallette said. ”The dream is to dream. . . . Our aspirations have always been to win state. I don’t believe in taking the dream and hiding it in the Porta Potty across the street. You put it on the mantel.”

Chris Mallette didn’t always expect to be chasing that dream at Hope Academy, a small private school (enrollment: 246) just west of the Illinois Medical District.

”When I went to Young, I thought I’d be at Whitney Young for 30 years,” he said. ”I thought I’d sunset coaching and my professional career at Young. I was willing to transition from practicing law and the things I was doing with the city of Chicago [in violence prevention] to just teaching. . . . Then it just wasn’t the right fit.”

Mallette talked with Hope Academy officials and decided the school would be a better fit with its faith-based approach and less restrictive policies.

”There were a lot of things going on in CPS to protect kids,” Mallette said. ”A lot of rules were instituted, but a lot of the rules . . . were counterintuitive to the role of high school football coach, especially the role of a high school football coach in the inner city.”

In CPS, Mallette said, if he knew of a student-athlete having suicidal thoughts, ”I’ve got to go through 10 hoops. Now I just drive to the house, take the kid out for a cup of coffee. We sit, we talk and we buy time as we get to the next step of how we’re going to get help.”

All of that is a way of saying Hope Academy football is about a lot more than what happens on the field — for Mallette and for his players. Among the team’s catchphrases are ”Practice is everything” and ”LEO [love each other].”

”This thing is about football, but when you really strip it down, this program is not about football at all,” Mallette said. ”It’s about brotherhood — and sisterhood. We have two girls on the team.”

Mallette’s blueprint at Hope includes nods to some of his Public League coaching mentors: Simeon’s Jesse Chick and Dante Culbreath, Phillips’ Troy McAllister and Dunbar’s Glenn Johnson.

Eddie Jenkins Jr., Hope’s senior quarterback, attests to Mallette’s influence.

”I was, like, the fourth-string quarterback when I got here,” said Jenkins, who had 1,317 total yards and 21 touchdowns through six games. ”And then I started to actually listen to coach Mallette and buy in to what he was saying. These last three years, he really changed my life. He really developed me into the young man and football player that I am right now.”

Judah Mallette, who had 734 all-purpose yards and eight touchdowns through six games, obviously has a lot longer history with his dad, dating to youth football.

”It’s definitely been a different experience playing for him in high school,” Judah said. ”But I feel like over time our relationship has gotten better, chemistry has gotten better. It makes me kind of emotional thinking this is my last year.”

If it ends on Thanksgiving weekend at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, that ballboy’s dream will have come true.

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Coaches and/or athletic directors, please email info on your team to [email protected]. Email is preferred, anything that arrives via Twitter DM will go out last. I’ll tweet out a preview on every team that sends in the information. You can follow along on Twitter @michaelsobrien or read the previews here. All Illinois schools are eligible, not just schools in the Sun-Times coverage area. Please include the following:

School:

Coach:

Cell Phone:

Outlook for this season:

Top Returning Players (Position, Height, Year in school):

Top Newcomers (Position, Height, Year in school):

Top teams in your conference:

Players on your team and in the conference to consider for the list of the area’s best:

Interesting story idea about your team:

The 2022-23 Twitter Previews

Schaumburg: Coach Jason Tucker takes over. Sophomore guards Jordan Tunis and Javonte McCoy will start. Good size with 6-8 Edvin Bosnjak, 6-7 Clark Easley and 6-6 Tyler March. Building year, program is loaded with young talent.

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Three people were killed and three others were wounded by gunfire Thursday across Chicago.

A man was found shot to death in West Englewood. Joseph Jackson, 32, was found in the 1300 block of West 73rd Street with multiple gunshot wounds about 3:50 a.m., Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He was transported to St. Bernard Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The circumstances of the shooting were unknown, according to police.Later Thursday, an 18-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. He was walking in the 4700 block of South Ashland Avenue about 9:05 p.m. when someone in a passing vehicle opened fire, police said. The man was shot in the chest and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.About an hour later, a man was found shot to death in Washington Heights on the South Side. Officers responding to shots fired about 10 p.m. found the 64-year-old unresponsive in an alley in the 10300 block of South Green Street, Chicago police said. He suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Three others were wounded by gunfire Thursday.

On Wednesday, a man was shot by officers inside a police station and a man was shot during a robbery in Chicago.

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