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Please send scores and corrections to preps @suntimes.com

Monday, March 8, 2021

CATHOLIC – BLUE

Brother Rice at DePaul, 7:00

Fenwick at St. Laurence, 7:15

Loyola at Mount Carmel, PPD/CNL

St. Rita at Leo, 7:00

CATHOLIC – WHITE

De La Salle at St. Ignatius, PPD/CNL

Marmion at Montini, 6:30

Providence-St. Mel at St. Joseph, 7:30

CENTRAL SUBURBAN – SOUTH

Glenbrook South at New Trier, 5:30

DU PAGE VALLEY

DeKalb at Neuqua Valley, 7:00

EAST SUBURBAN CATHOLIC

Marian Central at St. Viator, 7:00

ILLINOIS CENTRAL EIGHT

Reed-Custer at Peotone, 7:00

INTERSTATE EIGHT

LaSalle-Peru at Kaneland, PPD/CNL

Morris at Ottawa, 7:00

Sandwich at Sycamore, 6:00

LITTLE TEN

DePue at LaMoille-Ohio, 7:00

MID-SUBURBAN – EAST

Elk Grove at Wheeling, 7:30

NORTHEASTERN ATHLETIC

Christian Liberty at Schaumburg Christian, 7:30

PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-CENTRAL

Tilden at Lindblom, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-WEST

Austin at Collins, 5:00

RIVER VALLEY

Grant Park at Beecher, 7:00

SOUTH SUBURBAN – BLUE

Lemont at Bremen, 5:00

SOUTH SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER

Evergreen Park at Tinley Park, 5:00

SOUTHLAND

Crete-Monee at Thornwood, 5:00

Kankakee at Thornridge, 7:00

Rich at Thornton, 5:00

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER

Lockport at Lincoln-Way West

NON CONFERENCE

Ashton-Franklin Center at South Beloit, 7:00

Collins at Curie, 5:30

Comer at Kennedy, 6:30

Dwight at Seneca, PPD/CNL

Harvest Christian at Wheaton Academy, 6:00

Horizon-McKinley at Goode, 2:00

Jones at Latin, 6:00

Lincoln Park at Mather, 5:00

Maine South at Notre Dame, 6:30

McNamara at Herscher, 7:00

Midland at Stark County, 7:00

Nazareth at Loyola, 5:00

North Shore at Lake Forest Academy, 7:00

Ogden at Westinghouse, 5:00

Pespectives-MSA at Corliss, 5:00

Plano at Hinckley-Big Rock, 7:00

Providence at Marist, 7:00

Serena at Putnam County, 7:00

Somonauk at Amboy, 7:30

South Elgin at Buffalo Grove, 7:30

St. Charles East at Northridge, 6:15

St. Ignatius at University High, 7:30

Taft at Lane, 7:00

BIG NORTHERN TOURNAMENT

North Boone at Oregon, 6:00

Rock Falls at Stillman Valley, 7:15

Dixon at Winnebago, 6:00

Byron at Rockford Lutheran, 7:00

Rockford Christian at Genoa-Kingston, 6:00

SOUTHWEST PRAIRIE TOURNAMENT

First Round

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The city of Chicago announced on Monday that both the Cubs and White Sox will be allowed to have fans at Opening Day and for the rest of the season at a limited capacity.

The post City of Chicago to allow fans at Cubs, White Sox games this season first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

Altin Gün kicked off last year with a Grammy nomination (their 2019 release Gece was up for Best World Music Album) and major festival bookings such as SXSW and Coachella. But like virtually every other working band, they got sidelined by circumstances beyond their control.…Read More

Catherine Ringer’s famous duo, Les Rita Mitsouko, are no more—but she performed their punky, jazzy synth-pop songs for a recent live release.

I don’t remember exactly what year it was when I first heard French band Les Rita Mitsouko.…Read More

“We needed the [fans], so that’s great news,” Sox manager Tony La Russa says.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Players feed off the fans’ energy and dig playing in front of crowds more than fans might know.

They listen, they watch and they thrive off crowds, which were absent last season because of the coronavirus pandemic, and until Monday, were still not officially known to be in the plans for some teams during the 2021 season.

And so when Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s expected and welcome announcement that fans, on a limited basis, will return to Guaranteed Rate Field to watch the White Sox beginning April 8 when they host the Royals, the reaction was nothing but thumbs up.

It will be baseball back to being baseball as it was meant to be.

“The way the game was explained to me, we’re all complementary to the two most important things,” Sox manager Tony La Russa said Monday. “The players who play and the fans who pay to watch them and be entertained. You have half the equation if the players are playing. We needed the other side, so that’s great news.”

Fans have been allowed on a limited basis at Cactus League spring training games in the Phoenix area. Most crowds have been below 2,000 fans, but it’s much better than nothing.

“It definitely is a different feeling, a different vibe to have fans in the stands right now,” first baseman Jose Abreu said last week through translator Billy Russo. “But at the same time, we have to be glad that last season was what it was. We were able to play and do what we could do. Now just seeing the fans in the stands and being able to see them enjoy the game again and cheering for us, it’s good. It makes you feel good.”

Second baseman Nick Madrigal, who played his first game of the Cactus League Monday — he is coming back from shoulder surgery — will play his first major league game in front of fans in April after breaking into the majors last season.

“Once the game happens, we’re out there competing, no matter if there are fans in the stands or if there’s not,” Madrigal said. “But there was a part of the game missing. I think everyone kind of missed that. There’s just that extra adrenaline when the crowd’s screaming and you get the base hit.

“Another side of it that people don’t really think about is base running. Sometimes that helps you to hear the crowd kind of roar if you’re going first to third, or if someone makes a diving catch, the crowd roars. Those are things that a lot of people don’t think about. So I miss that. There was a side of the game that was missing last year.”

Said chairman Jerry Reinsdorf in a statement: “We are proud of the important and historic role baseball plays in our country, offering respite during some of the most difficult times or in providing fans with a sense of comfort when circumstances seemed uncertain. We believe this is a moment when baseball can indeed serve our fans and our communities again as we all hope for a gradual return to normal. It’s why we applaud Mayor Lightfoot, the leadership role she and Governor Pritzker have played for our city and state, and the decision today — guided by an unwavering commitment to public health and safety — to allow fans to return to Guaranteed Rate Field for Opening Day.”

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Here’s the latest news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois.

The latest

Student mental health struggles intensify as high schools remain closed year into pandemic

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

When the coronavirus pandemic first closed schools last year, one Chicago mother watched as her son — then a freshman at a public school on the North Side — became hyper-focused on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s daily briefings, spurring disappointment every time he announced a delay in reopening schools.

As Chicago Public Schools remained closed for the rest of the year and did not reopen in the fall, the mother said her son’s anxiety and depression manifested more severely as he became too angry to function.

He remains “emotionally miserable,” said the woman, who asked not to be named. “He’s in therapy, he’s taking medication. This has never been true before.”

High school students in CPS still have no idea when they will return in person this school year, even as kindergarten through fifth graders returned to classrooms last week and 6-8 graders return Monday. CPS officials on Friday said high school students could opt-in for in-person learning possibly later this spring, but no deal has been reached with the Chicago Teachers Union, and no details of how schools would look if they open their doors have been released.

Now nearing a year of schools being closed, students are suffering from more intense symptoms of depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses, according to mental health experts.

Nationwide, the number of children’s mental health-related emergency department visits increased steadily from April to October 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For children ages 12-17, the number of visits increased by 31% compared to 2019.

At Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, from September 2020 to January 2021, the rate of emergency department visits for mental health concerns doubled compared to the year before, rising from 2.4% to 4.2% of all cases. While the pandemic more than halved the number of emergency room visits overall, the number of mental health visits remained about the same as the prior year.

Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, an emergency room physician at Lurie, said although there was a hesitancy to visit the emergency room during the pandemic, mental health concerns for some children were so high that families deemed the risk necessary.

Keep reading Clare Proctor’s story here.

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News

2 p.m. 12:51 p.m. Health officials report 1,182 new COVID-19 cases, 5 deaths

Illinois public health officials announced 1,182 new cases of the coronavirus Monday as well as five deaths — the lowest daily fatality count in nearly six months.

The new cases come from a batch of 39,636 tests. As of Sunday night, 1,178 people with COVID-19 were reported to be in the hospital. Of that number, 266 patients were in intensive care units throughout the state; 118 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

The state’s preliminary seven-day statewide case positivity is 2.3%.

The last time the state saw a daily death toll this low was Sept. 14, when the state logged five deaths. Illinois hasn’t seen a single-digit daily death rate since early Oct. 11, when health officials announced nine deaths.

The deaths reported Monday bring the state’s total COVID-19 toll to 20,767 people.

Health officials also reported 3.38 million vaccines have been administered so far, with an average of of 90,135 doses administered daily in the past seven days, slightly less than the 93,183 rolling average of shots reported Sunday.

Read the full story from Rachel Hinton here.

1:07 p.m. CPS welcomes back middle school students Monday

Chicago Public Schools reached a milestone of sorts Monday, with all elementary school grades open districtwide for in-person learning — even though most parents continued to keep their kids at home in remote learning.

The district welcomed back sixth through eighth grade students Monday.

“It never gets old seeing kids come back to school — some of them excited, some of them not so excited about it. But at the end of the day, we know it’s the best place for them,” said Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson, speaking to reporters outside Robert J. Richardson Middle School, 6018 S. Karlov.

Just before Jackson spoke, students lined up — socially distanced — outside the school, as a staff member with a laptop quizzed them about any recent sickness and out-of-state travel, among other questions.

Staff at Richardson were expecting 185 out of 1,083 students to return for the current quarter.

Overall, about 18,500 students in sixth to eighth grades were expected to return to their classrooms Monday. That’s on top of the 37,000 K-5 students that went back last week. About 145,000 elementary students will continue learning remotely through at least April.

Jackson said that, to date, CPS has offered coronavirus vaccinations to about 25,000 school employees — about 60% of the total.

She said the district has received many questions about the levels of in-person staffing.

“After one week of instruction with K-5 back last week, we don’t have any reports of widespread staffing shortages,” she said.

Read the full story from Stefano Esposito here.

11:45 a.m. Fully vaccinated people can gather without masks, CDC says

Fully vaccinated Americans can gather with other vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing, according to long-awaited guidance from federal health officials.

The recommendations also say that vaccinated people can come together in the same way — in a single household — with people considered at low-risk for severe disease, such as in the case of vaccinated grandparents visiting healthy children and grandchildren.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the guidance Monday.

The guidance is designed to address a growing demand, as more adults have been getting vaccinated and wondering if it gives them greater freedom to visit family members, travel, or do other things like they did before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world last year.

Read the full story here.

11:10 a.m. Sox, Cubs, can have fans attend games, mayor says

The Cubs and Sox will play before real fans, instead of cardboard cut-outs.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot gave both teams the go-ahead to sell 20% of the seats at Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field citing the “remarkable” progress Chicago has made toward containing the coronavirus and vaccinating its residents.

“As a diehard sports fan myself, I’m personally excited to have Chicago take its first, cautious steps toward safely reopening our beloved baseball stadiums to fans this season,” Lightfoot, a Sox season ticket holder, was quoted as saying in a press release.

“We’re able to do that thanks to the commitment of our city’s two great baseball franchises who continue to work in close partnership with Chicago’s public health officials to find solutions that are not only safe, but offer a path forward toward safely increasing stadium capacity as we move closer into our COVID-19 recovery.”

Guaranteed Rate has a seating capacity of 40,000. The city’s gradual reopening plan will limit the crowd to 8,122 fans with at least six feet between parties, starting with the home opener on April 8.

Wrigley Field has a capacity crowd of 41,374. There a 20% rule will allow the Cubs to sell 8,274 seats, beginning with the home opener on April 1.

The reopening of both ballparks will start at 20% “with additional restrictions and potentially open to more fans as vaccination and recovery efforts continue,” City Hall said.

Get the full story from Fran Spielman here.

9:50 a.m. Polar Plunge goes virtual amid COVID-19

Every year for the last two decades, thousands of people ascend to North Avenue to dive into the frigid waters of Lake Michigan to raise money for Special Olympics Chicago and Special Children’s Charities.

In 2020, nearly 5,000 people charged into the lake, raising a record-setting $2.2 million during what turned out to be one of the last major events in the city to take place before the pandemic uprooted life as we knew it.

But that wasn’t the case this year. Like so many other traditions, this year’s Polar Plunge was forced to take place virtually, with Sunday marking the final day of the weeklong event.

Many participants got creative with the reimagined Polar Plunge.

Some still made the trip to the lakefront to take a dip in Lake Michigan, while another group constructed a homemade dunk tank that they set up in an alleyway. On Saturday, students and teachers at St. Patrick High School hosted a fun-filled event outside on the school’s football field and raised about $10,700.

Find out how others participated in the Polar Plunge this year.

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New cases

• State health officials reported 1,068 new probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases Sunday, the fewest new cases recorded in a day since July 21. Sunday’s cases were found among the 68,094 tests processed by the Illinois Department of Public Health, for a daily positivity rate of roughly 1.6%.
• Illinois’ daily caseload has surpassed 2,000 only twice in March, 10 times in the last month and twice in March. Because of this, the state’s seven-day positivity rate has dropped close to an all-time low. On Sunday, that figure, which experts use to gauge the spread of the virus across the state, was 2.3% — down a full percentage point from one month ago.
• Officials also announced 14 virus-related deaths, marking the smallest daily pandemic death toll since October. Five of those fatalities were reported in the Chicago area.
• Statewide hospitalizations have returned to pre-peak levels, too. As of Saturday night, 1,141 beds were occupied statewide by coronavirus patients, with 255 of those patients in intensive care units and 112 on ventilators, officials said.

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Matthew “Sweaters” Knight, 47, could face more than a year in prison after admitting to his role in a gambling conspiracy. Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice and Todd Blanken also pleaded guilty in the case earlier this year. 

A fourth defendant in the federal sports gambling case that once involved Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher pleaded guilty Monday.

Matthew “Sweaters” Knight, 47, could face more than a year in prison after admitting to his role in a gambling conspiracy. Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice and Todd Blanken also pleaded guilty in the case earlier this year.

DelGiudice’s father, Eugene “Geno” DelGiudice, pleaded guilty last summer. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall sentenced him to three months of home detention.

A 28-page indictment filed in the case early in 2020 alleges that Vincent DelGiudice recruited Knight, Blanken, Urlacher and others to work as agents for the illegal, multimillion-dollar gambling ring DelGiudice has admitted to running from 2016 to 2019 around Chicago. The feds say it involved as many as 1,000 gamblers.

The indictment alleged that Knight collected $500 in gambling losses from a gambler he met in Frankfort in September 2018, and that he sent a text message the next month to a gambler that read, “Morning Bronco, going through figs, can you please tell Bronco 33 to pay or play, hasn’t played since February, down 938.”

Knight and Vincent DelGiudice also discussed money owed to and by certain gamblers in October 2018, the indictment said. And in November 2018, it said Knight sent a message to a gambler that read, “Owe u 2254, will drop.”

Before Knight pleaded guilty Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Kinney told Kendall that evidence in the case is made up of several secret recordings, as well as “surveillance evidence” of Knight meeting with gamblers, either to pay them or accept money from them.

Knight’s sentencing has been set for June 25. Meanwhile, Donald Trump decided in the final hours of his presidency in January to pardon Urlacher, brother of Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher.

Casey Urlacher is now running for reelection in Mettawa.

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The proposed $65 million worth of projects are part of City Hall’s plan to encourage investment in neglected areas.

Three areas targeted for improvement under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West program will get an estimated $65 million in commercial development under plans announced Monday.

The projects are supposed to revitalize commercial stretches of Auburn Gresham, Austin and Englewood. The city’s planning department, after sessions with community groups, selected the winners from among 12 development teams who answered a call for proposals made last year.

The favored projects include 56 units of affordable housing with a playground and private gardens in Auburn Gresham; a blues museum and commercial and residential development that includes a landmark building in Austin; and a new phase of the Englewood Square Shopping Center at 63^rd and Halsted streets that would turn an old firehouse into a commercial kitchen and a business incubator for culinary startups.

Lightfoot, in announcing the projects at an event in Austin, said each will inspire other private investments nearby while providing employment. “Initiatives such as Invest South/West are critical in advancing our goal to enhance the socioeconomic vibrancy of our historic South and West Sides,” Lightfoot said in prepared remarks. “Each of these winning proposals will contribute to this goal by giving residents access to new and exciting cultural, affordable housing and employment resources.”

Factors an evaluation committee used in picking the winners included design quality, financial viability and diverse ownership of the development teams. Officials said it was the first time proposals have been reviewed with an explicit goal of encouraging minority-owned firms.

Each project will require zoning changes subject to City Council approval. If there are no hitches, construction could begin by the end of the year, officials said.

The development teams selected:

• In Auburn Gresham at 838 W. 79^th St., Evergreen Real Estate Group and Imagine Group’s plan for affordable housing and open space involves construction of 77,150 square feet to complement a healthy lifestyle hub across the street.

• In Austin at 5200 W. Chicago Ave., Heartland Housing Alliance and Oak Park Regional Housing’s plan includes a multistory rental building and public plaza with a renovation of the former Laramie State Bank into a blues museum, bank branch, café and business incubator.

• In Englewood on the 800 block of West 63^rd Parkway, Ignite Technology, Innovation and DL3 Realty’s plans include a container market for a rotating group of merchants, a coffee shop and coworking space. A landmarked former firehouse would be a centerpiece of what’s imagined as a town square. DL3 was the firm that developed the adjacent Whole Foods-anchored Englewood Square.

The properties are city-owned or in private hands. The proposals were developed in consultation with the owners.

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The weekend’s last fatal shooting left a 51-year-old man dead in Avalon Park on the South Side.

Twenty-two people were shot, two of them fatally, this weekend in Chicago, including a wounded 11-year-old boy who was the second child that age shot in a week.

The period was less violent than last weekend, when six people were killed and 21 others hurt in shootings between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday.

Avalon Park homicide

The weekend’s last fatal attack left 51-year-old Matthew Harlan dead Sunday in Avalon Park on the South Side.

He was inside a vehicle about 7:25 p.m. in the 1600 block of East 83rd Street, when he heard shots and felt a pain, Chicago police said. He was shot in the head and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he died. He was identified as Harlan, of Chatham, by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

60-year-old shot dead, burned in Englewood

On Saturday, a 60-year-old man was fatally shot and then lit on fire in an abandoned building in Englewood. Officers arrived about 3:10 p.m. and found the man in the 5900 block of South Sangamon Street, police said. He died at the scene. The medical examiner’s office said the man, 60, died of multiple gunshot wounds to his back. His name hasn’t been released.

Minors wounded

Several minors were among those wounded in the weekend’s nonfatal attacks, including an 11-year-old boy who was shot Sunday in West Pullman on the Far South Side.

The boy was inside a vehicle about 5:45 p.m. in the 400 block of West 119th Street, when a white Honda pulled up alongside and someone inside fired shots at his vehicle, police said. The boy was struck in the arm and brought to Comer Children’s Hospital where he was stabilized.

He was the second 11-year-old wounded this month. On March 1, an 11-year-old girl was critically hurt by a stray bullet at a gas station on the Far South Side.

Also Sunday, a 15-year-old boy was shot in East Garfield Park on the West Side. He was in the parking lot of a convenience store in the 3900 block of West Monroe Street when someone walked up to him and fired shots, police said. He was shot in the abdomen and brought to Stroger Hospital.

On Saturday, two teenagers were wounded in a shooting in Brighton Park on the Southwest Side. They were outside about 4:20 p.m. when someone in a light-colored SUV fired shots at them in the 4400 block of South Homan Avenue, police said. A 19-year-old man and 17-year-old boy were each struck in a leg, and were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.

Other nonfatal attacks

Saturday night, two people were shot after a fight in Longwood Manor on the Far South Side. About 10:40 p.m., the two were at a gathering inside a residence in the 10100 block of South Winston Avenue when a fight broke out and someone fired shots, striking them both, police said.

A 29-year-old man suffered four gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen, hip and lower backside, and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for treatment, police said. A 31-year-old woman was also struck four times in the lower backside and brought by a friend to the same hospital, where she was listed in fair condition.

Double shooting in Englewood

Two men were wounded in a drive-by Saturday afternoon in Englewood on the South Side. About 4:45 p.m., the men, 18 and 27, were on the front porch of a residence in the 6300 block of South Elizabeth Street when someone in a dark-colored car pulled up and opened fire, police said.

The 18-year-old was struck in the left leg and the older man was struck in the right leg and buttocks, police said. They were both brought to the University of Chicago Medical Center for treatment.

Woman grazed in Chatham

In the weekend’s first shooting, a 26-year-old woman was grazed in Chatham. She was arguing with her ex-boyfriend through the door of her home about 8:40 p.m. Friday in the 8100 block of South Ellis Avenue, police said.

When the woman refused to let the 27-year-old man in, he fired shots into the home, grazing her on the chest, police said. The woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center for treatment.

At least 11 other people were wounded in citywide shootings over the weekend.

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

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