Basketball travel team faces stiff competition

By Blake H.

The eighth grade boys travel team, known as the Bearcats, have not done particularly well this season. But there is a good explanation for this, namely, the intense competition. If you think the conference Peacock's basketball conference is competitive, think again. The travel team competition is much faster, and the skill level is higher.

"I think the competition is very tough," team member Justin F. commented, "but it's a lot of fun playing with my friends on the team." The Bearcats were formed to expose eight or ten players to a higher level of play, in order to prepare them for high school basketball. "Everyone on the team has greatly improved and I think all of us have an excellent chance of playing basketball at Lake Park," said Kurt M., another team member. The Bearcats play on most Saturdays at the Itasca Recreation Center at 2:30 P.M.

Bearcats

Blake H.

Matt M.

Craig G.

Brett L.

Matt F.

Kurt M.

Stefan I.

Justin F.

Coaches

Tom Maes

Oscar Garza

Rocky Hughes

Other travel teams

Woodridge

Darien

Riverside Brookfield

Addison

Lisle

LaGrange

Downers Grove

Bollingbrook

Bloomingdale

Aurora

U.S. figure skating championship previews the competition in Nagano

By Liz F.

The 1998 National Figure Skating Championships were held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 6-10. In the premiere event of the competition, Michelle Kwan won first place in the ladies division, followed closely by Tara Lepinski, with Nicole Bobek rounding out the top three. These three young women are considered strong contenders for Olympic medals.

The men's title went to Todd Eldredge, who was ranked first by seven of nine judges. Eldredge is currently ranked second in the world. Michael Weiss followed Eldredge with a strong second place performance. Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen took first place in the pair competition, followed by the team of Lyons and Wells.

Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow took first in the Original Dance category with a dominating display. These five-time national champions will be making their second Olympic appearance in Nagano. Right behind them, with a strong finish in the Original Dance and coming up from third place into second place, were Jessica Joseph and Charles Butler. They are the first U.S. duo to go from junior competitions to the Olympics in one year.

In the Juniors competition, Sarah Hughes and Scott Smith each took first place. Elizabeth Kwon won first place for Novice Ladies in the Free Dance/Novice group, and Parker Penmington won the Novice Men's category. Jaszewski and Murphy won first place in the Pairs/Novice grouping. We will probably be seeing more of these Novice winners in the future.

NHL All-Stars play for their countries

By Joe C. and Eric T.

The National Hockey League successfully used a new format for this year's All-Star game. Previously, the Eastern and Western conferences played each other. This year, however, a team from North America faced off against a team of all-stars from the rest of the world, in this case, Finland, Russia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Germany. North America was embarrassed fifty-three seconds into the game by a goal from Teemu Selanne (right winger from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks) followed by another goal by Jaromir Jagr (center for the Pittsburgh Penguins). Selanne then scored another goal, which put the world team ahead 3-0. North America then fired back with a goal by John LeClair (Philadelphia Flyer's left winger) and Keith Tkachuk (left winger for the Phoenix Coyotes). With only 1:35 left in the first period, Scott Niedermayer (New Jersey Devil's defense man) evened up the score at 3-3.

After the 2nd period, the score was 5-6 in favor of North America. In this period Selanne scored his third goal to complete a hat trick and become only the tenth person to do so in an All-Star game. North America went on to win by a final score of 8-7.

The only negative parts of the new-style All-Star game were the incredibly long introductions. At least they didn't sing all of the national anthems of the players represented. For fans of the Chicago Blackhawks, defenseman Chris Chelios got three assists in the game and right winger Tony Amonte scored a goal in the second period.

In the spirit of the All-Star season, Joe and Eric name their top five NHL players of all-time.

Joe

5. Bobby Hull

4. Gordie Howe

3. Mario Lemieux

2. Bobby Orr

1. Wayne Gretzky

Eric

5. Mario Lemieux

4. Gordie Howe

3. Bobby Hull

2. Wayne Gretzky

1. Bobby Orr

Don't miss their play-off predictions and NHL awards in the next issue.

Winter Games in Nagano now underway

By Bob K.

It's 1998, and that means it is time for the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. This year there is a new event, men's and women's snowboarding. Along with snowboarding, there will be all the favorites of past games, including hockey, bobsled racing and figure skating. Because of the time difference between Japan and the United States (Japan is fourteen hours ahead) many of the events are on later than usual. The following is a list of the dates, times and events:

NEW YORK - CBS Television Network and Turner Network Television's schedule of events to be broadcast (subject

to change; all times Eastern):

Friday, Feb. 6

7-10 p.m. - (CBS) Opening Ceremonies

Saturday, Feb. 7

3-7 p.m. - (CBS) Men's downhill and women's ice hockey previews.

6-7 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: snowboarding.

7-10 p.m.; 12:35 p.m.-11:35 a.m. - (CBS) Men's downhill, freestyle and cross-country skiing.

5-6 p.m. - (TNT) Preview: alpine skiing, figure skating, skiing, snowboarding, hockey, luge, speedskating,

nordic skiing.

Sunday, Feb. 8

2-5 p.m. - (CBS) Men's luge, men's speed skating and women's ice hockey

7-10 p.m.; 12:35 p.m.-11:35 a.m. - (CBS) Men's combined downhill, pairs figure skating, men's snowboarding and

men's cross-country skiing.

Monday, Feb. 9

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: snowboarding, biathlon, hockey, luge. Preview: alpine skiing. Review:

snowboarding, hockey, freestyle skiing.

7-10 p.m.; 10:35 p.m.-11:35 a.m. - (CBS) Women's Super G, men's speed skating, men's singles luge and women's

snowboarding.

Tuesday, Feb. 10

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: luge, nordic skiing, curling, figure skating. Preview: ski jumping,

speedskating. Review: hockey, alpine skiing.

7-12:30 p.m.; 12:05-1:05 a.m. - (CBS) Ski jumping, pairs figure skating, men's speed skating, women's luge,

women's cross-country skiing and a report on men's ice hockey.

Wednesday, Feb. 11

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: alpine skiing, speedskating, hockey, luge, biathlon. Preview: skiing,

snowboarding. Review: hockey, figure skating, ski jumping, speedskating.

7-10 p.m.; 11:35-12:35 a.m. - (CBS) Freestyle skiing, alpine skiing, women's luge, women's speed skating, a

report of women's ice hockey and a preview of men's figure skating.

Thursday, Feb. 12

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: snowboarding, hockey, alpine skiing, nordic skiing, curling. Review: hockey.

7-10 p.m.; 11:35-2 a.m. - (CBS) Alpine skiing, men's figure skating, men's speed skating, men's and women's

cross-country skiing, men's and women's snowboarding, previews of men's ice hockey and women's downhill, men's

ice hockey game against Sweden.

Friday, Feb. 13

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: hockey, nordic skiing, luge. Preview: alpine skiing, curling. Review: alpine

skiing, hockey, speedskating, snowboarding.

7-10 p.m.; 10:35 p.m-2 a.m. - (CBS) Women's downhill, men's ice hockey game, ice dancing, women's speed

skating, doubles luge and a men's ice hockey report.

Saturday, Feb. 14

1:30-5 p.m. - (CBS) Men's and women's ice hockey and nordic combined.

5-6 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: bobsled, curling, nordic skiing. Preview: speedskating, ski jumping. Review:

hockey.

7-10 p.m.; 10:35 p.m.-11:35 p.m. - (CBS) Women's combined downhill, men's figure skating, women's speed

skating, men's cross-country skiing, two-man bobsled, men's and women's ice hockey reports and a men's ice

hockey game.

Sunday, Feb. 15

3-5 p.m. - (CBS) Men's ice hockey, figure skating, ski jumping and a feature on curling.

6-7 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: curling. Preview: speedskating, freestyle skiing. Review: hockey, figure

skating, speedskating, nordic combined.

7-10 p.m.; 10:35 p.m.-11:35 a.m. - (CBS) Ice dancing, two-man bobsled, men's speed skating, men's ice hockey

game and men's ice hockey game with Canada.

Monday, Feb. 16

1-6 p.m. - (CBS) Men's ice hockey and cross-country skiing.

8-11:30 p.m.; 1:05-3:30 a.m. - (CBS) Women's speed skating, men's and women's freestyle skiing, ice dancing,

ski jumping and women's gold medal ice hockey game.

Tuesday, Feb. 17

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: alpine skiing, speedskating, hockey, short track speedskating, biathlon.

7-10 p.m.; 11:35-2 a.m. - (CBS) Men's and women's freestyle skiing, alpine skiing, men's and women's

short-track speed skating, a wrap-up of women's ice hockey, a preview of ladies figure skating and

quarterfinal men's ice hockey.

Wednesday, Feb. 18

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: alpine skiing, hockey, nordic skiing.

7-10 p.m.; 11:35-12:35 a.m. - (CBS) Ladies figure skating, alpine skiing, men's cross-country skiing and a

men's ice hockey preview.

Thursday, Feb. 19

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: nordic combined jumping, biathlon, short track speedskating.

7-10 p.m.; 11:35-12:35 a.m. - (CBS) Ladies figure skating, alpine skiing, women's speed skating, men's and

women's short-track speed skating, nordic combined and semifinals men's ice hockey.

Friday, Feb. 20

12-5 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: figure skating, alpine skiing, bobsled, nordic skiing.

7-10:30 p.m.; 12:05-2:30 a.m. - (CBS) Ladies figure skating, alpine skiing, four-man bobsled, women's

cross-country skiing, a men's ice hockey report and the men's bronze medal ice hockey game.

Satuday, Feb. 21

12-5 p.m. - (CBS) Women's speed skating, nordic combined, men's biathlon, alpine skiing, and a recap of figure

skating events.

5-6 p.m. - (TNT) Event Coverage: short track speedskating. Preview: hockey, nordic skiing.

6-10 p.m.; 12:35 p.m.-1 a.m. - (CBS) Figure skating exhibition with the medal winners, alpine skiing, four-man

bobsled, men's and women's short-track speed skating and the men's gold medal ice hockey game.

Sunday, Feb. 22

11:00-12:00; 2:30-5 p.m. - (CBS) Men's cross-country skiing, a recap of the men's ice hockey and overall review of

the games.

7-10 p.m.; 10:35 p.m.-11:35 p.m. - (CBS) Closing ceremonies and a recap of the games.

Bobby's NHL update

By Bobby E.

What do you know! The Chicago Blackhawks are finally coming around--at the Olympic break they are a winning team. The Blackhawks are finally over 500. The Blackhawks leading scorers are Eric Daze with 21 goals, and Tony Amonte with 20. In the Western Conference (Central Division), the Dallas Stars are in first with 28 wins. In the Pacific Division, the Colorado Avalanche are in first with 22 wins. In the Eastern Conference (Atlantic Division), New Jersey has 28 wins. As the season progresses, the tension mounts. It is imposssible to predict who is going to be in the playoffs until a few weeks of the season end. If the Montreal Canadians and the Dallas Stars make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, Dallas (formerly the Minnesota North Stars) could their first Stanley Cup win in quite a while.