Brother Rice’s experience and talent at some of the glamorous offensive positions is well-known.

Jack Lausch, a Notre Dame recruit for baseball and football, is back at quarterback. Illinois recruit Henry Boyer, a 6-6, 235-pound tight end, is a blocking force. And the Crusaders added one of the best running backs in the area in Aaron Vaughn, who transferred from Providence.

”Honestly, [Vaughn] gave us fits when we played him two years ago,” Boyer said. ”And now we’ve got him. It’s a big pickup. He’s just a physical, fast back that can do it all.”

But the reason the No. 3 Crusaders should be among the elite teams in the state this season is their line play.

”We have a lot of experience back on both lines, which will help us in the trenches and open up other things for us,” Brother Rice coach Brian Badke said.

Jackson Judeh, Carter McAlilly and Patrick Galeher return on the offensive line. The Crusaders have seven starters back on offense overall.

”[Lausch] can make every throw,” Badke said. ”He’s a three-year varsity player, a captain. And we have high expectations for him. He’s a dual threat. He can throw on the run, and that is very difficult for defenses, especially when we have a really good offensive line.”

Six starters return on defense, led by linemen Kevin Frazier and Trey Pierce, linebacker Henry Ivers and defensive back Dameon Hall.

Also keep an eye on 6-2, 205-pound senior Khary Shaw, who has played all over the field the last two seasons.

Badke’s primary worry heading into the season is depth.

”We need to see who is going to step up when guys get banged up during the season,” Badke said. ”We have some question marks at linebacker and in the secondary, too.”

Defensive lineman Kevin Frazier (6) of Brother Rice battles during practice.Quinn Harris/For the Sun-Times

Entering the season as the top-ranked team in the mighty CCL/ESCC Blue is no small feat, but Brother Rice’s players don’t seem fazed by it. The confidence all around the program is high.

”We are just excited,” Lausch said. ”So many guys are back, and we have young guys that are ready to play and contribute. I’m sure all the great programs will be really good again this year, so every game will be a challenge.”

Lausch said he has been working on the mental aspect of his game.

”I’m focusing on commanding the game and knowing the situation better,” Lausch said. ”Just knowing when we need a big play and when we need to move the chains.”

This will be Badke’s last season as the Crusaders’ coach. He has compiled a 64-38 record in 10 years and led them to a second-place finish in Class 8A in 2018.

Brother Rice already has hired Badke’s replacement. Casey Quedenfeld, who has coached in Texas and California, will take over the program next season. He’ll be an assistant with the Crusaders this season.

BROTHER RICE SCHEDULE

Aug. 27 at Hillcrest

Sep. 3 at Perspectives

Sep. 10 vs. Benet

Sep. 17 vs. Loyola

Sep. 24 at De La Salle

Oct. 1 at Mount Carmel

Oct. 8 vs. Joliet Catholic

Oct. 15 at Marian Catholic

Oct. 22 at Marist

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At least seven people were killed and 39 others were wounded in weekend gun violence in Chicago that included two mass shootings.

— One of the fatal attacks occurred outside a gas station Saturday morning in Austin on the West Side.

A man, 52, and two women, 62 and 24, were with about 20 other people in the 5100 block of West Madison Street when someone in a black Dodge Charger opened fire about 2:55 a.m., according to Chicago Police.

The man suffered gunshot wounds to the head and leg, the 62-year-old to the head, abdomen and lower backside, and the 24-year-old to the back, police said.

The 62-year-old was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital ,where she died, police said. The 52-year-old was taken to the hospital in critical condition, police said.

The 24-year-old went to Stroger Hospital and was listed in critical condition, police said.

— Later that day, a man was killed in West Garfield Park. The 34-year-old was in a parked car in the 3900 block of West Jackson Boulevard when someone fired shots about 2:05 p.m., police said.

He was shot in the neck and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. He hasn’t been identified.

— Hours later in Back of the Yards, a gunman approached a 19-year-old man in the 4700 block of South Wolcott Avenue and opened fire about 6:40 p.m., Chicago police said.

Israel L. Luna was hit in the chest and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he died, police said.

— Minutes later in Marquette Park, a man was killed and another was critically wounded when someone fired at their car in the 3000 block of West 65th Street about 7 p.m., police said. The driver crashed into a nearby parked car.

Sergio Ochoa, 30, was shot in the head and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

A 36-year-old man was struck in the shoulder and was transported to Holy Cross Hospital in critical condition, police said.

— Around 9:10 p.m. in Calumet Heights, one person was killed and five others wounded when two gunmen opened fire in a parking lot in the 1600 block of East 87th Place, police said.

A 39-year-old man was struck in the abdomen and went to Jackson Park Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. He hasn’t been identified. Another man, 40, was shot in the back and leg and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, police said. Another 39-year old man was struck in the ankle and was transported to the hospital in fair condition.

A fourth man, 32, was shot in the leg and went to Trinity Hospital in good condition, police said.

A 44-year-old woman was struck in the leg and went to the University of Chicago Medical Center in fair condition, police said.

The sixth person, 25, was shot in the arm and also went to Trinity Hospital.

— About four hours later, one person was killed and four others wounded in another mass shooting, this one on the West Side. Officers responded to a call about 1 a.m. in the 3400 block of West Lake Street and discovered five people — four males and a female — shot, police said.

Marcus Edwards, 29, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

A 17-year-old boy was shot in the shoulder and an 18-year-old woman was wounded in the torso, police said. They were both taken to Stroger where the boy was in fair condition and the woman in serious condition, police said.

A 34-year-old man was shot in the arm and a 28-year-old in the arm and chest, police said. They were both taken to Mount Sinai where they were listed in fair condition, police said.

At least 28 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday.

Last weekend, 56 people were shot, eight fatally, in Chicago.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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From the outside, the Donohue Building, an 1883 red-brick fortress at 727 South Dearborn Street, just looks like an especially excellent example of Chicago’s famed Romanesque architecture. But the Printers Row edifice is also a treasure-trove of firsts: It was the first building with a timber infrastructure constructed after the Great Chicago Fire; the first structure in the country to include a sprinkler system; and home to one of two original publishers of the children’s classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

In 1979, it was also Chicago’s first factory converted into residential condos. “It’s the grandaddy of loft spaces,” says Susan Dickman, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago. The penthouse, which Dickman is representing, is listed for $1.175 million. Owners Nancy and Bruce Johnson are downsizing from their 3,500-square-foot, three-bedroom corner unit now that Bruce is retiring.

The Land of Oz is exactly what comes to mind upon entering the couple’s home. A vaulted 40-by-20-foot skylight serves as the condo’s centerpiece, flooding the living room with natural light. The Johnsons installed the modern dome in place of the original industrial skylight. Climb a spiral staircase to a door in the side of the dome and you’ll find a private 3,100-square-foot rooftop with 360-degree views of the city.

The office and library both feature expansive built-in bookshelves. Exposed brick reminds you it was a factory, too. But alongside the charm are plenty of modern comforts, including a steam shower, walk-in closets, and a garage parking spot (for an extra fee). All together now: There’s no place like this home.

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Don’t call the new “Candyman” film a sequel.

A reboot? A remake?

Not in the least bit — try again.

The film’s director, Nia DaCosta, a Harlem, New York, native who grew up across the street from public housing, says she wanted to “reimagine” the legend of the original 1992 film. Widely regarded as one of the best horror movies of all time, it’s told from the perspective of graduate student Helen Lyle (played by Virginia Madsen), who went to the Cabrini-Green Homes, a housing project known for heartbreaking violence, neglect and gentrification, for her thesis research.

“It really started with” co-writers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, DaCosta said. “They had a very strong idea that they wanted the film to be more expansive than a reboot or remake. If we’re going to do ‘Candyman,’ we should do more than just copy what was there before.

“When I came on, it was really important to me that we do more with the legend, and make it expansive. I think it was fun to me that we shoot the POV with less Helen, but a lot more of the Black experience.”

Children run along the Cabrini-Green Homes six months after Mayor Jane Byrne briefly moved in there in 1981 to bring attention to Cabrini’s troubles. John H. White/Sun-Times

“Candyman,” which opens Thursday in theaters, has themes encompassing race, police brutality, gentrification, cultural appropriation and the responsibility institutions have when it comes to public housing blight.

In one scene, an art director explaining the type of content audiences are interested in tells Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s character: “The South Side is played.”

The film also mentions the horrific 1997 case of a 9-year-old girl, then known as “Girl X,” who was raped, strangled, poisoned, and left for dead in a Cabrini-Green stairwell. Two months after the original film’s debut, 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot and killed by a sniper’s stray bullet as he walked to school with his mother.

“That line of exploiting racial pain in order to make art for white people was really what that was all about,” said DaCosta. “But also struggling with your own history, and how as an artist — or a person — do you reconcile it?”

While filming in Chicago, DaCosta took a walk around the area where the sprawling housing project once stood, and took in the fact that a Target now sits on the land.

“You’d see yuppies walking their dogs, and then a little further up a Target,” said DaCosta. “It is really interesting the amount of development that’s happened around the community that didn’t seem to be able to get into the community, which is part of what the movie is about.

“I think it informs why we knew it was imperative that we expand this beyond ‘Oh, this is one sort of evil demonic killer and his story happens in the 1800s.’ We just talked about the systemic issues. … It’s cyclical and every generation we have this violence, and it changes and it warps, and it shifts so it looks differently. It’s all part of our history. So it definitely informed why we said, ‘OK, we’re going to take this ‘Candyman’ legend and make it work for us a little bit more.’ “

Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) walks through the Cabrini Rowhouses in “Candyman.”Universal Pictures

DaCosta, who says Near North’s Marina City apartment buildings/condos are her favorite local filming location, also states the importance of surrounding the main cast — Emmy winner Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, and Colman Domingo — with local actors.

She says local actors Rebecca Spence (of Steppenwolf’s “Mary Page Marlowe”), and Carl Clemons-Hopkins (“Hacks” on HBO Max) are standout performers in the film.

“Chicago has a great wall of talent, and I was so impressed with everyone,” said DaCosta. “I think for me the [Chicago cast] added a certain level of authenticity because they were like if there’s something felt lost, they would correct it. That was so useful to have in the cast. … I think that’s a better way to do it.”

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