Junior Bryan Lee and sophomores Joe Hays and Brendan Moriarty were able to land three hard earned keeper bass for Brother Rice for a total weight of just under five pounds.  Boat captain Ted Lowery ’73 pulled out all the stops in his game plan under the tough conditions, but the fish just didn’t cooperate.  The team caught a few smaller fish but they were not able to add to their total.  However, the three keeper bass were enough for a 3^rd place finish for the day.

Coupled with their 1^st place win in the District 230 Spring Showdown several weeks ago, the 3^rd place finish qualified the team for the District 230 Classic Championship on the DesPlaines River in Channahon, Illinois on Saturday, May 19.  The Classic Championship will pit the top finishing teams from previous District 230 tournaments.  This tournament will close out the 2012 season and conclude an outstanding year for our Crusader anglers, who have added three new trophies to our display case this year (so far).  Great job men!  Best of luck and Go Crusaders!

The Crusader lacrosse program is now wrapping up its second year of existence and the first year as a varsity program. The varsity squad was able to earn the first win of the season with a hard fought victory of Nazareth Academy in the first game. The Crusaders would then fall to their next four opponents before adding the second win of the season against Montini Catholic and the first home win at in Gary Little Stadium in the history of Brother Rice lacrosse. The Crusaders would then not see the win column for the rest of the season, bringing their record to two and nine at this point in the season. The team still looks to finish the season and gain momentum for the play-offs beginning Monday May, 21. With Harlan Academy and Fenwick still remaining on the schedule, the Crusaders look to close out the season strong and send away the two seniors with a win and a play-off push.

In the first year of varsity lacrosse, the Crusaders will be saying good-by to two seniors from the team. Goalie Kevin Mertic and defensive midfielder Greg Ludwig played important roles for the team this season. Each was a defensive standout in his two year career with the Brother Rice lacrosse program. Both joined the team to try something new; goalie Kevin Mertic said, “I started playing lacrosse because it seemed like a fun new sport at Rice.” Mertic volunteered as goalie and has loved playing with the team since. Both Kevin and Greg played defense for the Crusaders, supplying great midfield play from Greg and brick wall saves from Kevin. The coaching staff will have to replace the two with young talent, but the next goalie and defensive midfield have large shoes to fill. The two seniors will be honored before the game against Harlan Academy on Tuesday.

With the season coming to a close, the Crusader varsity lacrosse team will try to end the season on a high note and go far into the play-offs. Both Harlan Academy and Fenwick games promise to be great match-ups and great lacrosse play is expected for the remainder of the season. Play-offs will start next week on Monday, May 21, with a probable opponent of Bartlett. The Crusaders will look to use the great playing from the seniors, make a long push in the post season, and plan to build even more on the platform that the seniors have built.

Further information and registration forms can be found here. The application deadline for the league is Friday, June 22^nd.

Results

This weekend, the varsity plays at the Richards Tournament with matches Friday, May 11, at 5:00 PM vs. Reavis and 7:00 PM vs. St. Rita.  Play continues Saturday morning at Richards.

Friday and Saturday, May 11 and 12, Brother Rice hosts the 2nd Annual Freshman Chicagoland Catholic Volleyball Tournament Championship. The complete schedule for both the freshman ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams is posted on the volleyball bulletin board outside of the cafeteria.

Congratulations and good luck Crusaders!

Then in the 19th minute, the Crusaders had an excellent opportunity to attack with a scrum center 20 yards out.  Derek McMahon did a great job to keep a loose ball alive, and after some strong picks and jams by the forward pack, Dan Schmidt took another over for the score.  Danny Lyons was successful with the conversion and a 7-0 Rice lead. Lyons would later hit a penalty to add to the lead as Brother Rice took that 10-0 lead into halftime.

The Stallions of Arlington came out strong to start the second half.  Despite their intent to come out firing, the Crusader defense weathered the storm and protected their try line.  Strong backline defense led by the kick chase and counter attacking ability of Nolan Corley, Alex Lynch, and Justin Vainer kept the Stallions out.

The Crusaders came back into Arlington territory and again found themselves with favorable attacking position to utilize a slit backs formation.  Mike Houston took the ball strong side, threw a “dummy pass” to Pat Watson, and fed Justin Vainer down the near touchline.  Houston showed great effort on the play by supporting Vainer and taking the next ball up another 10 meters.  Vainer, in turn, took the next pass from McMahon into contact before McMahon found Ryan Flynn in space as the flanker broke a tackle and dashed 20 yards for the score.  Lyons again was good on the conversion and a 17-0 Rice lead

Brother Rice kept the pressure on, and Houston again took initiative by taking a quick tap penalty from 25 yards out.  He tried to offload to Yusif Ismail but put the ball on the ground.  Ismail was quick to pounce on it and take it forward.  James Gannon ran a hard charging line for what looked like another score.  Regardless, the Crusaders were able to recycle, and Flynn again dotted down for the try and 24-0 margin.

Morales tried to put the nail in the coffin with another quick tap penalty but would be denied.  However, Bart Oborka, making his first start, took control of an overthrown Stallion lineout and charged forward to get the Crusaders on the front foot.  McMahon then took a snipe around the right fringe and came up just short of the tryline.  When the Stallions couldn’t roll away, it left the Crusaders with a scrum 5 meters out.    Lyons “dummied” Houston, who took out 2 defenders on the play, and Lyons was able to go through untouched for the final score.  Lyons converted his own try to round out the 31-0 victory.

The Crusaders move onto the state semi-finals and will host the winner of Mt. Carmel and Naperville.  That game is being played Saturday, May 12, at 10:00 A.M. in Naperville and is the rematch of an earlier season Mt. Carmel win.

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TRIES: Schmidt, Flynn (2), Lyons

Conversions: Lyons 3 of 3

Penalties: Lyons 1 of 1

Columbia offers a wide range of programs including beginning through advanced sailing education.  Students learn basic sailing/seamanship and safety through advanced levels of sailing and racing depending on skills and experience.  Time is split between classroom theory and on-the-water practice.  The program is run in 2 to 3 week sessions and, as well, an entire summer program is available at a deeply discounted rate.  Sailing begins at 9 AM and runs through 5 PM Monday through Friday.  Depending on skill level, students may be able to compete in summer regattas (racing events) on the weekends.

Four of our team members took advantage of the full summer program last year and the progress that they achieved with this intensive program in their sailing abilities was incredible

Although in its beginning years, our Crusaders have moved up into the middle of the pack in Midwestern Interscholastic High School Sailing (MISSA) and have already competed in the Junior 420 Nationals, the Great Oaks National High School Regatta, and in 3 Junior Olympics competitions.  We have traveled throughout the Midwest and ‘out of our zone’ to Miami and New Orleans to represent our schools.  We are growing as a team and would love to see the team continue to become more competitive in this rapidly growing sport.  (The growth of MISSA has been a blockbuster now including over 55 teams including Loyola Academy and St. Ignatius Prep from our conference.)

The summer sailing program offers students who may have an interest in sailing or considering becoming part of the sailing team a chance to experience what this sport is all about.

Information about the Brother Rice – Mother McAuley sailing team is available on the Brother Rice web page at: www.athletics.brotherrice.org  under ‘sailing’.

Kate Mullane, BR parent advisor for the sailing team, is available to answer questions regarding the Rice – McAuley program at katee.mullane [at] gmail [dot] com.

Information and registration forms for the Columbia summer sailing program are available on the Columbia website under ‘sailing school’ at: www.columbiayachtclub.org.

With the exception of a few storm delays on both days, the tournament this year produced several new records.   On the first day alone, ninety-percent of the teams weighed limits of 5 bass; 254 bass were caught for a total of 542 pounds; several 5 pound plus and 6 pound plus fish were weighed, with two additional fish just under 7 pounds.   With those kinds of numbers being produced, just about every team participating had a chance to win it all on day two.   Second day totals were pretty much the same.  Complete totals can be found on the IHSA web site.

Senior Luke Opoka, junior Bryan Lee, and sophomores Joe Hayes and Brendan Moriarty represented Brother Rice very well.   Their intensity and skill kept the Crusaders in contention right up to the final weigh in.  Boat captain Ted Lowery ’73 put the team on the fish early on both days.   Junior Bryan Lee hammered a nearly 5 pound bruiser early Saturday morning.   The team culled many smaller fish on both Friday and Saturday but never found the additional “kicker” fish they needed to put them over the top.  Pictures of our Crusaders in action can be found here.

The skill and professionalism demonstrated by the team certainly made its mark in the tournament and established Brother Rice bass fishermen as a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.   Great job men and congratulations!

The team now moves on to the District 230 “Three Rivers Qualifier” on the DesPlaines River in Channahon, Illinois, on Saturday, May 12.  They finish the season by returning to the DesPlaines on Saturday, May 19, in the District 230 “Classic Championship.”   Best of luck and Go Crusaders!

Coach Badke will address the gathering and then host a question-and-answer session regarding the program; he will also introduce the members of his staff.  After the talks, everyone is welcome to mingle and chat with the coach and his staff.

On Saturday, May 5, the varsity team placed 4th at Thornton.  Third place finishes came from Pat Maguire in the mile, Cody Stull in the discus, Pat Mahoney in the 300 hurdles, and the 4×200 team of Steve Perez, Shaq Ridgner, Sean Lysaught and Tim Barry.  Finishing in 2nd place were Sam Jaros in the pole vault and Kevin Jones in the high jump.  Event Champions were Aaron Larson in the 2 mile, Dennis Hasty in the 800, and Dan Caddigan in the mile.  This Saturday, the team will compete in the Catholic League Championship at Loyola.

Results