Thursday's are "Football Fever" days. Basically, I have set myself into a fall routine with the hectic IHSSN items to update. On Sundays, I finish the weekly stat leaders, and begin on the following week's broadcast schedule (http://www.ihssn.net/2010/week-six-football-games). The broadcast schedule gets finished on Monday night. Tuesday is Coaches Poll day (http://www.ihssn.net/2010-football/preseason), while also getting some other web pages finished (such as the videos page: http://www.ihssn.net/football/2010-illinois-high-school-volleyball.
Wednesday has been the work ahead day, getting basketball previews in. http://www.ihssn.net/table/2010-11-boy-s-basketball/.
Thursday is when the preparation goes into overload for the weekend's football broadcasts. It is very hard to juggle a Friday night high school broadcast, followed by a Saturday afternoon college broadcast, but I map it out well ahead of time to be prepared.
This week, in looking at the local sports schedule, I noticed that Galesburg was hosting multiple events on the GHS campus. The Galesburg pregame interview is done following the Streaks Thursday football practice, as I watch the final 30-40 minutes of practice and then talk to coach Wes Olson.
After our talk today, I picked up the video camera and headed over to the tennis courts, as the Streaks were hosting Peoria Notre Dame. It was a beautiful afternoon, with temperatures in the upper 60's to low 70's and the sun beating down. Video was shot from center court, where Galesburg's Rachel Sensabaugh was battling Notre Dame's Kelly Rice. Video will be added to the IHSSN video page later. Sensabaugh would win that matchup, 6-3, 6-3.
I headed over to the other court where Notre Dame's Maggie Shadid was facing Galesburg's Jessica Witherell. Shadid won, 7-5, 6-7, 10-4.
In the middle of the latter matchup, I noticed it was getting later and the soccer match would be wrapping up. Walking across the GHS campus past the football grandstand, the Monmouth-Roseville/Galesburg soccer match was tied, 1-1, early in the second half. Standing along the far sideline, some video was shot (also heading to the IHSSN video page shortly). Nothing much of significance was taken, and the score would end in a tie.
After taking some video, I walked across near the scorer's table and talked with Marty Touchette of the Monmouth Review-Atlas and Jeff Holt from Galesburg's The Paper. Marty and I discussed different things in our respective media fields, and where the future of local media could be headed.
Spoke with both head coaches following the game, Monmouth-Roseville's Aaron Sikorski and Galesburg's Tim Redington.
One more contest to take in before calling it a night. United Township was in town for a Western Big 6 volleyball match with the Silver Streaks. The sophomore match was in the middle of the second set when arriving. I ducked into the near tunnel next to the bleachers and spoke with Pete Thierry briefly.
At the end of the sophomore match, I exited that area as the varsity was getting ready to run out onto the court. I made my way over behind the benches near the scorer's table and said hello to Robb Strack (Galesburg Register-Mail). During warmups, I was able to avoid some errant volleyballs. Every volleyball match I cover, it seems as though at least a dozen people get hit in the face with loose volleyballs. I should take video of warmups, and put together a collage of those....or maybe not!
Galesburg freshman football coach Brad Swanson and sophomore basketball coach Ryan Hart emerged from the coaches room area, and talked with them for a few minutes. Swanson stuck around for the volleyball match and talked about some of the girls. He is also a fresh/soph softball coach, and many of the girls played the spring sport.
Injured Silver Streak Kelsey Meredith sang the National Anthem and did a tremendous job, garnering a lot of cheers from the fans.
I was impressed with the athleticsm of Galesburg's Jorden Thomas. Amy Blucker also had a good night, with 11 kills. United Township got some very timely hitting, with some very key blocks and digs throughout both sets in their 25-17, 25-19 win. Erin Walker led UTHS with 9 kills, and along with Bailey Escontrias, had a great game for the Panthers.
After the match, I spoke with Marla Clay for a few minutes to get postgame comments. She felt the defense was where the Streaks lacked in the loss, that dropped them to 8-10 on the season, and 1-4 in the Western Big 6.
A long day, but a lot accomplished. More work to get done, and it's a Football Friday!!!
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