USA-365.com's Predictions for 2005

A special USA-365 supplement by Mark Smith 1-2-2005 CROWN POINT (1-2-2005)While the tradition in the media is to look back with prejudice in late December on what occurred and how it played, the focus again here is to look ahead. The trick is to guess what will happen in the next 12 months, not re-hash what has happened. But, nobody knows what will happen? Everything is just a guess? I can't know? Are you sure? Check back with me in 12 months. Among my 2004 predictions. 1. Wheeler basketball would reach the state finals.  Didn't happen. Noll stopped them at the sectional. 2. The Bears would not make the playoffs I know it seems obvious now but optimism was very high at the start of the year, remember? 3. The Cubs would NOT make the playoffs. A vast majority thought they would, but as stated here, the decision to go without a true leadoff man left Dusty Baker's boys without a post-season. They'll make it this season. 4. The DAC would keep the 14-game round-robin format for another year. Even though it was disliked, there was no way they were going to abandon the concept after one year. 5. Andrean girls would win a sectional title with a sub. -.500 record. Well, I had the sub. 500 part right. But Lew Wallace defeated them. I'll bet the 59er girls make it this year. I should mention again that a 'true' prediction is something that is not a foregone conclusion.  It has to be an occurrence that also has a good chance of NOT happening as well.  So to predict that David Terrell will makes more excuses than catches, that Hilary Duff will make another lame CD or that a US soldier will die in Iraq in each of the 52 weeks in 2005 is not really a prediction. It's a foregone conclusion.

Predictions for 2005:

1.) The 14-game Duneland Athletic Conference basketball season will finally be voted out. The change may not take effect in 2005 and those in charge may still resist something as very lucrative and fan-friendly as a DAC championship tournament, but the infamous 'double round robin' will go. Almost nothing in prep sports in northwest Indiana is so universally disliked. It does not matter if it was a good idea or if it might have eventually been beneficial, you can't find anyone who likes it with a search party. Something that loses money and angers everyone involved simply will end on its own word. 

2.) Andrean will win a state title in some sport other than football in 2005. This time, look at baseball and softball. The 59ers should have been in the softball finals last season. They return two top pitchers (Kristen Ivancich and Lori Knopf) and a solid catcher in Samantha Markowksi. Here's one Sammy who won't be traded. In baseball, Andrean returns half of their state finals boys including pitcher Steve Augsburger and middle infielder Tommy Finn. They could go to the finals if they can beat Griffith when it counts. 

3. ) Hanover will make a third consecutive trip  to the state softball finals.  Hanover will return pitcher Amanda Wendlinger, top hitter Kelly Lapota, leadoff girl Rachel Williams and regulars Christie Wick, Heather Rebeneck and Andria Trock. They will be expected to win most games, but with both pitchers returning that won't be a major issue. The Lady Cats may lose to South Central in the PCC tournament, but they will be on the field for the state finals again in June. And when it's all over, the daily newspapers will again find a way NOT to vote Amanda Wendlinger Player of the Year and again NOT make coach Larry McMillan coach of the year, again giving those 'awards' to someone from north Lake County. To name the Munster coach coach-of-the-year in a season where Munster was crushed at the sectional level indicates a bias towards certain schools. 

4.) Plans will be announced or rumored that Wirt will close in Gary. The furthest east of the Gary high schools is down under 700 students, far less than the available capacity in Lew Wallace and Roosevelt. The decision has to do with the age of the building and cost of the upkeep. Truth be told, Gary, which had less that 4,000 high school students total this year, simply does not need four high schools. Wirt is the oldest and the smallest. The inevitable thought to close Wirt will hopefully be packaged in a proposal for a new Roosevelt or Wallace school building to be built east of Broadway. A high school like the kind constructed in CP or Chesterton would bring families back to Gary. It is not fair for kids to be educated differently based on the affluence of their neighborhood. It is also not fair to give vouchers to certain kids to attend private schools while public schools crumble around the kids we don't care about. Maybe casinos or ex-ballplayers or present ballplayers can start fund-raising for a new high school. There's an opportunity here.  

5.) Lowell will win a third consecutive sectional football championship in 2005 after losing the season opener to Crown Point.  While the Devils have done it five of the last six seasons, Lowell can't beat CP every year and with Bulldog QB Matt Jansen, runners Donny Keiser and Jon Sertich plus WR Matt Ernest returning, Lowell will go down on opening night. But the Devils will rally to again win three playoff games and take a third consecutive sectional title, an unprecedented feat for Lowell football. Lowell returns two capable quarterbacks plus running threats in Jeff Clemens and Scott Gray. In the championship showdown between Lowell and Hobart, the Devils will triumph for a third consecutive season. Will they finally win the regional? Uh, let me get back to you on that one. 

6.) Plans will be announced to close Hobart's Brickie Bowl.  Despite all the promises to the contrary, this is almost inevitable. Crown Point went through the same thing with the old Courthouse Field west of the downtown square. Everybody loved it. But if there's no school there, football can't stay there. It's no secret that Brickie Bowl is not in good condition. No one has the money to repair it if it's not part of a school. Hobart needs to play football at the new Hobart high school which is scheduled to open in 2008. Everyone will talk about how the Brickie Bowl must be saved and how it is the MotherLand of prep football, but it has to go. The builders will make every effort to make the new 'Bowl' resemble the old one while old-timers grumble about the demolition of tradition. But the decision has to be made soon where to put the new field. And it's a no-brainer. No school desires a situation where there's athletic events held away from the school. Think about this from a taxpayer's point of view. You don't build a new school campus so you can play the schools' marquee sport someplace else at a place taxpayers will have to renovate and refurbish. Think about how difficult a sell that would be to the community. 

7.) Barry Bonds will retire.  In a rare case of a bad guy getting what he deserves, Bonds will suffer a back injury in 2005 and will announce his retirement, short of the all-time home run record. The decision will be fueled by intense booing that Bonds will receive in every ballpark except San Francisco. Bonds, who has snubbed fans and the press for 20 years, will face a severe backlash as his performance level drops. His admission to using steroids will be his undoing. While the corrupt Baseball Players Union will not allow Bonds or any other steroid user to be suspended (much as they covered for cocaine users in the 70s & 80s), the fans will not accept him as a worthy legend or record holder. Children or grandchildren of famous or accomplished individuals (Chip Caray, Rich Daley, Kobe Bryant, Paris Hilton, George W. Bush) more often than not seem to act like they're Prince Charles looking down on the rest of us 'lower class people.' Few who aren't steroid salesmen will shed a tear at Bonds leaving baseball. 

8.) The National Hockey League strike will not be resolved in 2005.  Never mind that the NHL had less fans than Radio Disney.  When a 25% reduction in salaries is proposed and refused, the goal is to bust the union. It probably should be. Players consume too much of hockey's income in salaries. Same problem baseball has. But hockey has far fewer revenue sources.  A total shutdown is what baseball needed 20 years ago to get rid of the arbitration process. The NHL owners will succeed in defeating the players union. There may be some type of reorganization or pro hockey into another league before the fall of 2005, but there's no urgency so the strike will continue next season. Folks miss the TV show 'LAX' more than they miss the LA Kings. While the league is down, they might want to work on improving the game by eliminating the center line and promoting 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 situations. Hockey was a dying sport BEFORE the strike. The options for an unpopular league which sits out an entire year are uncharted. Basketball is such an all-encompassing sport (so many teams at so many levels) that it easily filled the void that hockey left. But the NHL season will not resume next fall and we'll all survive. 

9.) Sammy Sosa will not be traded by the Cubs.  Sammy is an egomaniac, but he's also about as consistent as American Foreign Policy. If Frank Thomas can be cheered now by White Sox fans, Sammy Sosa can repair his image with Cubs fans, providing he can still jump the fence with 40-50 homers. Besides, his contract is insane and no one wants him. And if the Cubs sign Magglio Ordonez to play left field and bat Todd Walker leadoff, they'll make the playoffs. 

10.) Andrean's Shane Power will be drafted into the NBA.  The former Andrean star who, amazingly, is not a local media favorite (for reasons I cannot even guess) is averaging solid numbers as a small forward/big guard at Mississippi State. He is a mature player (something most NBA teams desperately need) with a good shooting touch. Power, Lake County's all-time leading scorer, has had an NBA body since he was a freshman in high school. His experience in big-time competition and ability to play two positions, make him a good choice for the young, up-and-coming (in theory) Bulls. 

11.) Radio station WLTH will be sold to someone who will actually run programming.  For about a half dozen years, the former home of Cosmo Currier, Tommy Williams and Carmelo Reyes has been operating without a studio, beaming as many obscure network radio programs as they can possibly find. Management either doesn't exist or has no plan of what they might want to do with the station. The station manager is harder to find than Jimmy Hoffa and the format harder to explain than the first three seasons of 'Alias'. But money talks and, with AM issue-oriented talk radio dead until the next presidential election, WLTH's 'ownership' might want to get out of the business they have never really been in. 

12.) The University of Indiana will discuss the rehiring of basketball coach Bobby Knight.  Knight is a basketball coach in a football state and talk of him going to USC is far fetched. Mike Davis is not getting the job done. IU can never go undefeated again, but they can't get the best players in Indiana and that cannot go on. Like it or not, Notre Dame dumped Tyrone Willingham because losing 38-0 was an embarrassment to the University and football, of all things, cannot be a source of ridicule for ND. Basketball is approaching the level of "embarrassment' for a school with as much pride and tradition as IU. Only one man can guarantee that IU will return to glory. IU will find pride easier to swallow than a losing men's basketball record.

Care to share your own predictions?  E-mail us with your comments on these predictions for 2005, and let us know your own:  usa365@ameritech.net

 

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Revised: January 02, 2005 .