The wild and wacky Southwestern Conference postseason tournament comes to an end tonight in Granite City, where either East St. Louis or Alton will earn the right to dance with Normal (24-6) or Moline (19-12) for the sectional title Friday in the Class 4A Moline Sectional.
East St. Louis, which finished fourth (8-6 league record), and Alton, which wound up tied for fifth (6-8) in the final regular-season conference standings, face off in the sectional semifinal at 7:30 p.m.
The fourth-seeded Flyers (22-8) knocked out O'Fallon, the co-conference champs with Belleville West, then beat Belleville East 65-59 to claim the Belleville West Regional title. It was the first championship for East Side since 2006, the 26th in school history.
At Collinsville, the third-seeded Redbirds (18-12) scored a 44-41 victory over second-seeded Collinsville before needing overtime to beat No. 1 seed Edwardsville 64-54 for the regional championship. It was Alton's first title since 2007, the 19th in school history. The Redbirds last won a sectional championship in 2005.
"I always thought we had a shot, even from the beginning of the season," said Alton coach Will Gordon, whose team split its two games with East St. Louis during the regular season. "The demeanor of the kids was just so strong and positive, even though we were losing. They just competed and competed. The kids just kept fighting."
Alton's leader is 6-foot-3 senior Tony Bradley, who averages 15.4 points and 6.4 rebounds. He's shooting 64 percent from the field and 74.9 percent from inside the 3-point arc.
Bradley credits Gordon's non-stop work and dedication during the summer as the reason for the team playing in the sectional semifinal.
"Coach had us doing a whole bunch of college stuff," Bradley said. "Doing tiles, running, conditioning. We didn't even touch a ball. I think all that stuff has paid off. Now we're going to sectionals."
The return of 6-6 senior center Montez Williams after the holiday break (he was academically ineligible) has been one of the keys for East St. Louis. As well, the recent play of 6-3 sophomore swingman Deshawn Munson, who missed time during the season because of a violation of team rules, has put the Flyers in line for a possible trip to the sectional final, which hasn't happened since 2006.
Williams has averaged 10.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in 13 games, and Munson is averaging 15.7 points, 7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.7 steals.
"We were not surprised that we would come out of (the regional)," East St. Louis coach Ray Coleman said. "We prepared for the postseason all season long. Once we got that last (regular season) victory at O'Fallon, we were confident we could beat O'Fallon three times. We knew it was what we had to do, and that's what we prepared for to try to go deep into the playoffs.
"We had the mindset that whatever we had to do, that's what we needed to do."
The Flyers are likely to be without 6-2 senior guard and Arkansas football signee Keante Minor. He severely sprained his left ankle in the Belleville East triumph. His 18 points and 7.5 rebounds are tops on the team.
"I doubt it," Coleman said when asked if Minor would play. "I saw him at the hospital, and the good thing is it's not broken. There's just excessive swelling."
WANTED: BOYS COACH AT COLLINSVILLE
After 10 years on the job, Kahoks soccer coach Chris Digirolamo has stepped down.
"Time has caught up with me," said Digirolamo, who will turn 40 in November. "That seems to be the coaching magic number. It's just at that point where you need time of evaluate your life. And I'm missing too much with my kids." His daughters are 4 and 5 and his stepson is 12.
Digirolamo, who does not teach but works for Wells Fargo Financial, is a 1989 graduate of Collinsville. He played under coach Jim Strand. He took over Collinsville's program in 2001 from Ron Rowden and recorded a 121-77-26 career mark, including 15-7-1 this past season in which he didn't know who would play in certain games.
"We dealt with an injury-plagued season where I had sometimes six or seven starters out of the lineup," he said. "There were a lot of factors last year."
Digirolamo, who has been coaching high school and club soccer for 24 years, told Collinsville's administration after last season that he would continue as the coach for the 2011-12 season. But once the holidays rolled around, he had a change of heart. On Feb. 3, he told administrators he was stepping down.
"I care enough of the program to give them time to look for somebody new," he said. "It's time to get a new coach. Somebody that's a little more vibrant. I hated losing. I hated it, but I've learned to accept it more.
"We weren't drawing the same type athletes we had been, and that's not a knock on the school. There's just a lot more teaching involved now. It's time to get somebody who can put their nose into it. Be on top of scouting. Looking at all that ... I didn't want to hang on and cause them problems in recruiting a coach. I wanted it to be a seamless transition."
O'FALLON TURF SHOULD BE READY FOR BASEBALL OPENER
Despite the recent spate of wet weather, the new RamTurf being installed in O'Fallon City Park for the O'Fallon baseball team should be ready to go by the time the Panthers open their home conference season March 31 against Granite City.
"We're about 2½ weeks out (from laying turf)," O'Fallon baseball coach Jason Portz said. "We're not in dire straits. We should be pretty darn good. My gut feeling is by the 31st, we won't have any problem."
Portz said it takes about 10 days to lay the 33,000 square feet of turf, which will be green for the "grassy" areas and brown for the "infield," including base paths, pitcher's mound and batter's box.
ATG Sports Industries of Andover, Kan., is the company that will lay the field. It has put in 13 artificial fields at various high schools in the St. Louis area, including the O'Fallon football field, which is three blocks away.
Portz said everything from the back of the infield to the dugouts to the backstop of Blazier Field will be turf and will cost about $150,000. The entire project has been privately funded through an unnamed individual donor.
The project was scheduled to start in November, but Portz said "there was some red tape to cut through because it is a city park" that forced the transition to start in January.
Even though it was a snowy month of January, workers plowed their way through the snow and mud to finish the necessary ground work to begin the final process of laying rock before putting the turf down.
Portz said the field had been under a tarp because of Friday night's heavy rains to keep the process on schedule.
"This is a community project," he noted. "It's going to benefit everybody in our community. It's a nice thing."
O'FALLON VOLLEYBALL STREAK IS AT 20 GAMES
Since the Southwestern Conference was formed for boys volleyball in 2008-09, O'Fallon has won 20 straight league games, including last year when it was 10-0 in conference and 25-3-1 overall.
In fact, the Panthers lost only nine games last season, including two straight to eventual fourth-place finisher Minooka 25-12, 25-22 in the Naperville Neuqua Valley Sectional final.
"You can look at it two ways, we're the favorites until somebody beats us," said fifth-year coach Tim Gagen, whose team started practice Monday. "Or most teams would recognize it's a three-horse race for the conference with us, Edwardsville and Belleville East. But until somebody beats us, I guess we are the team."
