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Troy McAllister, the only Public League coach to win a state football championship, has left Phillips to take over at Sandburg. 

Troy McAllister, the only Public League coach to win a state football championship, has left Phillips to take over at Sandburg.

“It was a unique opportunity at Sandburg,” McAllister said. “It’s a Class 8A program playing in what is probably the toughest public school conference in the state. There’s never a good time to leave but for me it felt like the right moment to make a move and push my professional career.”

McAllister was 94-28 in 11 years with the Wildcats. He led Phillips to the Class 4A state championship in 2015-16 and the Class 5A state championship in 2017-18. Those are the only state football titles in Public League history.

McAllister won a national coaching award sponsored by Gatorade in 2018. The Phillips program has been the face of the Public League for nearly a decade. McAllister says he’s leaving the team in good hands. Joe Winslow, the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator for the last 10 years, will take over as head coach.

“Joe was a city championship quarterback at Dunbar,” McAllister said. “He has earned this and he deserves it. He’s going to do great things at Phillips.”

The past year was emotional and challenging for every football program in the area, but even more so for Phillips. Longtime defensive coordinator Mike Larson, one of McAllister’s best friends, died in January.

“You try to put aside the emotions when you make decisions but obviously everything that has transpired in the past year takes a toll and changes what you do,” McAllister said. “The loss of [Larson] put things in perspective and sometimes you have to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.”

Sandburg was 1-5 last season under coach Scott Peters, who resigned. The Eagles were once a powerhouse, but haven’t qualified for the playoffs in five years.

“Troy’s commitment to cultivating positive experiences for student athletes was evident throughout our process,” Sandburg Principal Derrick Smith said. “He values developing players’ football skills, but he has also designed impressive learning opportunities that support character development and real-world life skills.”

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Like ‘Booksmart,’ the sharp-witted film boasts breakthrough performances and a funny, feminist spin.

A painfully awkward sexual encounter. An impromptu road trip. A tested friendship. No, the outlines of Natalie Morales’ “Plan B” aren’t revolutionary. This is the tried and true framework of the high-school comedy. But teen comedies, almost as a rule, are made by their leads. And with Kuhoo Verma and Victoria Moroles, “Plan B” is overwhelmingly a winner.

Morales’ film seems destined to be compared to Olivia Wilde’s “Booksmart,” which arrived in theaters almost exactly two years ago. Both are helmed with a veteran filmmaker’s sense of timing by actors-turned-first-time-directors. (Morales has been a familiar face in film and TV for the past 15 years.) Both feature a pair of breakthrough performances. And both bring a funny, feminist spin to a traditionally boyish and often boorish movie genre.

But “Plan B” is it’s its own thing. It has a comic rhythm and perspective of its own. And while most teen comedies have gone for packed movie theaters, “Plan B” — more scruffily indie, more all-the-way R-rated — is only streaming (on Hulu).

Verma, who had a small role in “The Big Sick,” stars as Sunny, the high-achieving, low-self-esteem daughter of demanding Indian American parents. Her best friend Lupe (Moroles, from MTV’s “Teen Wolf” and the Disney Channel’s “Liv and Maddie”) is more self-possessed than most adults. But her brash style and two-tone hair are regularly ridiculed by her more conservative father. Both Sunny and Lupe are outsiders in small-town South Dakota, where their ethnicities are only foggily understood. Mostly, they shrug it off. When one boy, intending a compliment, tells Verma she’s “got that whole Princess Jasmine thing going,” she sheepishly notes that it’s the wrong ethnic group, but “it’s kind of the closest princess we’ve got so I’ll take it.”

The sharp-witted script, by Prathi Srinivasan and Joshua Levy, is best in the movie’s first half, set largely around high school and, as the genre’s laws decree, at a party thrown by Sunny when her parents are away. If you think you’ve seen enough Sex Ed scenes by now, you’ll want to make an exception for one with Rachel Dratch as an in-over-her-head teacher, helpless when her students take a car metaphor for virginity and run with it. The party scene, too, has its tropes (a poorly concocted punch) and its unique touches. Sunny, feeling spurned by her crush (played by Michael Provost), ends up in the bathroom instead with Kyle (Mason Cook), a sincere kid into both magic and Jesus — and to Sunny about the most regrettable person in South Dakota to lose her virginity to.

The next morning, panic sets in and Sunny needs a morning-after pill. Yet when Lupe (speaking for the too-ashamed Sunny) asks the pharmacist (Jay Chandrasekhar, the comedy director-actor of “Super Troopers”), he declines on the basis of the state’s “conscience clause,” which gives pharmacists a right of refusal due to religious beliefs.

Here, “Plan B” doesn’t turn sober, by any means. There are still scenes to come involving a drug dealer’s pierced penis, an accidental dose of speed and a stolen car. But the film’s inherent set-up is, like the comic equivalent to “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” a poignant commentary on the hurdles to abortion. Sunny and Lupe drive Sunny’s mom’s Honda minivan to a Planned Parenthood in Rapid City, a three-hour trip that turns longer and more surreal than most Dakota drives. Here, “Plan B” sometimes drifts off course, but all of their adventures are a reminder why the typical conquests of the teen comedy are more complicated for young women.

But “Plan B” never turns didactic. Pointed as the message of “Plan B” is, nothing supersedes just letting these two characters — traditionally bit players at best in high-school comedies — be themselves. They’re a pair of the most authentic 17-year-olds lately seen at the movies, something owed very definitely to two stars in the making in Verma and Moroles. Verma is remarkably natural and soulful, while the so, so good Moroles swaggers through the film as a creature all her own. She’ll even convince you that Christian trap music can rock.

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U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood ordered Venkatesh Bhogireddy taken into custody shortly after jurors convicted him on five of six counts.

A federal jury convicted a Chicago man Thursday of a chilling plot to pay a hit man $8,000 to murder his wife’s uncle amid a contentious divorce.

Venkatesh Bhogireddy spent the last week on trial at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, accused of trying to have the uncle murdered by someone he thought was a hit man — but who turned out to be an undercover ATF agent.

Bhogireddy even sent the undercover agent to New Jersey to conduct surveillance, and he told him to “plan, plan, plan.”

U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood ordered Bhogireddy taken into custody shortly after jurors convicted him on five of six counts. Before he was taken out of the courtroom, his lawyer asked the judge if Bhogireddy could hug his mother.

The judge gave Bhogireddy permission only to turn around and say goodbye. Bhogireddy turned and nodded.

Meanwhile, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien told the judge that Bhogireddy faced a likely sentence of at least 17 years in prison.

Prosecutors offered jurors multiple audio and video recordings of Bhogireddy as he plotted with the person he knew as “Joe.” That person turned out to be ATF special agent Andrew Karceski, who testified about his various meetings with Bhogireddy, including in a Joliet warehouse.

Jurors could see Bhogireddy meeting with the agent in a room decorated with what appeared to be a picture of Al Pacino in the movie “Scarface.” A water bottle, beer can and Crown Royal bag could be seen on a desk in one meeting while music played in the background.

“I cannot look guilty,” Bhogireddy said in another meeting in June 2019.

Bhogireddy reached out to an acquaintance in May 2019 looking for someone who could “take care of a problem” for him for money, court records show. That person called law enforcement, and he was told to have Bhogireddy call Karceski.

The men first met at the warehouse in Joliet on June 6, 2019. That’s where Bhogireddy explained he’d been having problems with his wife. He said she had been acting “crazy” and accused him in court of doing things to their children. Bhogireddy said he suspected his wife’s uncle in New Jersey had been behind the accusations made by his wife.

When the agent asked Bhogireddy whether he wanted the uncle hurt or killed, Bhogireddy said any injury to the uncle should put him in a “coma.” He agreed to pay the agent $8,000, and he even sent Karceski to New Jersey for the purpose of studying the uncle’s movements.

The men finally met at La Mex restaurant in Joliet in October 2019. When Bhogireddy arrived, records show he immediately handed Karceski a wad of cash and said, “That’s two grand.” Bhogireddy said he wanted it “done” and made to look like an accident.

“Like accident dead?” Karceski asked.

Bhogireddy replied, “yeah, yeah.”

Karceski told Bhogireddy he’d been thinking about pushing the uncle in front of a subway train. Bhogireddy left the meeting but soon walked back to the table and said, “The train thing is good.”

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PITTSBURGH — What a difference a month makes.

The Cubs were reeling the last time they left Pittsburgh in April and after dropping two of three games against the bottom-feeder of the NL Central, appeared to be headed toward some serious changes this summer if things did not improve.

But seven weeks later, not only did they take care of business with a sweep of the Pirates, but the team’s outlook has also started to change as they continue to trend upward.

“These guys kind of found who they are and kind of settled into the season after what went on last year,” manager David Ross said. “I think I think we figured some things out as well. I think you know, some things have gotten settled down in the bullpen and the starters have gotten back to who they are. I mean, it really is a complete turnaround in almost every area.”

The Cubs are now tied for first place in the NL Central and despite not being at full strength health-wise, they’ve now gone 15-7 in May and won six of their last seven series.

When the team returns to Chicago, they’ll be greeted by the largest crowd at Wrigley Field since September 2019, as the team will increase capacity to 60%.

“It’s fun,” Cubs president Jed Hoyer said at PNC Park. “Even with the capacity we’ve had [at 25%] it’s been a huge difference from last year. And I think 60%, there’ll be a ton of buzz in there.”

The increase in capacity means an increase in revenue, and after being in wait-and-see mode to determine the team’s financial situation, the larger crowds create some new possibilities.

The Cubs have been viewed as a potential seller since the offseason and as things currently sit with MLB trade season approaching, they may be in a position to be a buyer, if the team’s success continues.

“As far as flexibility, I think we’ve had these projections for a little bit and feel like we’re a bit ahead of schedule,” Hoyer said. “I think there’s definitely flexibility to make moves in-season if the right thing presents itself.”

The Cubs have played their best baseball of the season over the last four weeks and now sit a season-high five games over .500 with June just a few days away.

And with some of the team’s recent injuries and now seeing their weaknesses, the Cubs have some areas of need where they could look to improve with an addition.

The last season’s impact on the revenue around the game has been well-documented with few teams doing much in terms of spending. But with most MLB parks at least 50% capacity, the financial outlook has come as a surprise.

“I think everyone in baseball probably is a little bit,” Hoyer said. “I think that the vaccine rollout probably went a little better than everyone anticipated, and therefore, increased capacities are probably moving a little faster than we had anticipated, which is a great thing. And so yeah, I think it’s fair to say we’re a little bit ahead of schedule with those [financial] projections.”

As things currently stand, the Cubs are now heavily in the thick of things in the NL Central. Each team in the division has a strength, but they’re also flawed, which may be an added benefit for the Cubs.

While the Cubs’ upcoming series against the Reds and NL West-leading Padres next week with a west coast trip looming next week, there’s no denying their groove right now. With a few players returning from the injured list in the coming weeks, it’s not unrealistic to see the Cubs pick their lane if the good baseball continues.

“We’re playing with an edge right now,” Ross said. “That comes from confidence. That comes from guys executing in the moment and coming through. … All the areas of importance have picked up.”

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Chicago’s first new Boys & Girls Club in a generation will be built on the campus of the police and fire training academy in West Garfield Park, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Thursday, in a move denounced by critics as a “slap in the face” to Black youth.

“This is just sugar-coating a plan that is due to fail…This whole campus should be a youth center where young people can grow and thrive. Instead, it’s a police academy. The real investment is going to police,” said former mayoral challenger Ja’Mal Green.

The $95 million training academy being built in the 4400-block of W. Chicago Ave. has drawn opposition from Chance the Rapper, college students in Chicago and across the nation and local youth organized under the #NoCopAcademy.

It became a symbol of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s misplaced spending priorities. During countless protests, they argued that the money would be better spent on recreational and education programs for young people along with mental health.

On Thursday, Lightfoot and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago responded to those demands, but in a way that infuriated the #NoCopAcademy movement.

They announced that an 18,000 square-foot youth development center would be built on the 34-acre campus of the police and fire training academy on 20,000 square feet of land that the city will lease to the club for $1-a-year.

The 55-year lease–with the potential for a 20-year extension–will be introduced to the City Council this summer.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35^th) called the decision to co-locate the two projects a “bad move.” In fact, he accused the mayor of “playing political games.”

“This is absolutely an attempt to try and sell something that young Black youth have consistently said they don’t want to see built on the West Side,” said Ramirez-Rosa, dean of the City Council’s Socialist Caucus.

“The NoCopAcademy organizers were demanding a community center, a youth center. And this is just a slap in their face to say, `You’re gonna get the youth center, but guess what? It’s also gonna be right next to the swimming pool and shooting range for cops.’ “

As desperately as Chicago needs youth programming, Ramirez-Rosa predicted that many young people would shun the Boys & Girls Club located on the training campus.

“I worked with many Black youth from the West Side on the NoCopAcademy campaign. One of the things they consistently told me is, `We don’t feel safe around Chicago Police officers,’ ” Ramirez-Rosa said.

“We can look at the shooting of Adam Toledo to know that so many of our young people have reason to be afraid.”

Destiny Harris, a youth organizer for the #NoCopAcademy campaign, said a new Boys & Girls Club of Chicago is a “beautiful thing.” But not on the site of the police academy that young people fought so hard to stop.

“This is strictly a p.r. move. It’s the mayor trying to make this project more palatable so that, when youth of NoCopAcademy are like, `No, we don’t want this cop academy. This isn’t the best use of $95 million,’ that we actually look like the bad people,” Harris said.

“Police officers don’t make Black children feel safe…How can you expect Black and Brown children to come into this space and feel comfortable?”

In a news release announcing the project, Lightfoot was quoted as saying that Boys & Girls Clubs across the country “provide important opportunities for young people to develop their talents, connect with like-minded peers and begin to chart out their path toward success.”

“I look forward to seeing how it enriches the lives of our young people living on the West Side,” the mayor was quoted as saying.

In March 2018, then-Police Board President Lightfoot told the City Club of Chicago that CPD “desperately needs” a new training facility, but Emanuel’s plan to build the complex in West Garfield Park was “ill-conceived.”

“Putting this edifice to policing in this high-crime, impoverished neighborhood where relations between the police and the community are fraught, without a clear plan for community engagement, is a mistake,” Lightfoot said then.

“The allocation of any funds for a police academy is viewed by many as further affirmation that needs of the people will never be prioritized over those of the police.”

A month after taking office, Lightfoot dramatically changed her tune.

After touring the current police academy and seeing recruits apprehending mock suspects in a dark hallway, Lightfoot came away more convinced than ever a new academy is essential to improve training that the U.S. Justice Department found so sorely lacking.

But Lightfoot was not at all certain the two-building campus was “big enough” to house a training facility that will be “best-in-class” not just when it opens, but for decades afterward.

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The long-awaiting reopening of 22 city beaches on Friday lifts our spirits as it hints to us that Chicago summers are coming back.

Because of COVID-19, Chicago’s celebrated beaches haven’t been open to the public since Sept. 2, 2019, which seems so long ago. Wading or swimming along miles and miles of sandy shoreline feels like a distant memory.

But now the signs of summer are around us. After a year of hiatus, Buckingham Fountain’s spectacular displays are back. Navy Pier began a phased reopening on April 30. Strolling along the city’s Riverwalk beckons us. Lollapalooza will return to Grant Park in August.

Chicago summers are what make it worth enduring The Hawk as it blasts us with winter’s icy gusts. Summers are why we put up with autumns that turn frigid too soon and springs that are so reluctant to emerge from overcast skies and slushy sidewalks.

Summer in Chicago feels like a season-long holiday. Music, street fairs and festivals — and their accompanying aromas of varied and sumptuous food — brighten almost every neighborhood. Diners enjoy sidewalk cafes. Chicagoans wander through art fairs and farmer’s markets. Kayakers paddle along the North Branch of the Chicago River. Rooftop dining offers panoramic views of the city. Artists and organizations perform around the city in Night Out in the Parks. SummerDance brings music and dancing. You can picnic in a park or walk through the neighborhoods and get tacos or barbecue or pierogi or hang out to watch the Sox or Cubs in a bar, where the beers are cheaper than in the ballpark.

Illinois hasn’t yet beaten COVID-19. On Thursday, the state announced 891 new cases and 42 more deaths. But 66% of adult Illinoisans have received at least one shot of a vaccine, and the state and city are loosening restrictions.

Enforcement of beach closings was, shall we say, less than aggressive. But now beachgoers can frolic in the water again without worrying about running afoul of the law. They can take in the sights that amaze tourists: expanses of blue water or wavy days set against a city skyline, sailboats in the distance and cyclists, joggers and strollers enjoying the lakefront trails. Lifeguards will be back.

The beaches are open. Summers are returning. It’s a moment Chicago long has awaited.

Send letters to [email protected].

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An exhibit at the Chicago History Museum offers a new perspective on the enigmatic photographer’s work.

Something very interesting happens when a person encounters a Vivian Maier photograph.…Read More

Alex Grelle’s second livestream special breaks out of the confines of his home for something bigger than ever.

In February 2020 Alex Grelle was hitting his stride. He just put up his dream show at the Chopin Theatre, the David Bowie homage Floor Show, and was starting to think of other theater spaces to tackle, maybe even possibly, dare he say, starting his own company.…Read More

“Let’s say I improvise,” Baez said. “I’m pretty good at tagging and not letting people tag me.”

PITTSBURGH — Javy Baez isn’t called “El Mago” for no reason and the Pirates learned the hard way in the Cubs’ 5-3 win.

Baez has been known to do some amazing things on a field, but leave it to him to turn what would normally be an easy out into an adventure for an opposing defense.

“I think you can see different stuff in baseball,” Baez said. “You never stop learning different things in baseball.”

After hitting a sharp ground ball to third base with two outs in the third inning, Baez began to run toward first base. But after the throw from third base was offline, Baez stopped in his tracks and started to retreat toward the plate.

“Let’s say I improvise,” he said. “I can react pretty fast to things like contact and stuff. … I’m pretty good at tagging and not letting people tag me.”

Pirates first baseman Will Craig had a mental lapse, forgetting he could have stepped on the bag to end the inning and proceeded to run after the Cubs’ shortstop.

Catcher Willson Contreras, who was on second base, advanced to third and started to race home as Baez got himself into a rundown. As Baez approached the batter’s box, Contreras slid in and scored, beating the throw home.

“I’ve never seen it,” starter Kyle Hendricks said. “I don’t think you’ll ever see it again.”

After celebrating Contreras scoring mid-play, Baez realized there was no one occupying first base and beat the nearest Pirates defender to first, even forcing a throwing error to reach second base. He would score on the next play on Ian Happ’s RBI single.

“Only Javy disappears on the basepaths more than any person I’ve seen,” manager David Ross said. “It really is a magic act. He just creates havoc, man.”

Hendricks keeps it rolling, wins third straight

It was only a matter of time before Hendricks returned to form and the Cubs right-hander kept his strong month of May going with another good start.

Hendricks tossed seven innings in the Cubs’ win over the Pirates, winning his third consecutive start and fourth in his last five.

During his recent run of success, he’s been able to get himself into a rhythm and stay there. On Thursday, Hendricks did that, allowing one hit through his first three innings.

Even after back-to-back homers by Bryan Reynolds and Gregory Polanco, Hendricks limited the damage and made it through seven innings, finishing the game with five strikeouts and no walks.

Hendricks is now 4-1 in May with a 2.67 ERA with three walks and 47 strikeouts.

“I just got to be a little bit better mentally,” Hendricks said. “Physically, I was making good pitches, just got a little bit lazy mentally. … Going forward, I just need to lock it in just a touch more, have better intent on the pitches I’m trying to throw pitch-to-pitch and go from there.”

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