Warren coaches no longer on the firing line

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Rodney Clinkscales

Updated: March 4, 2012 8:10AM

News you can use ... Or maybe not.

■ All’s well that ends well on the athletic-coaching front at Warren High School in Gurnee.

In other words, a plan that was implemented in which all Blue Devil head and assistant coaches would be “fired” at the end of their respective season, and would have to reapply for their job for next year apparently has been abandoned.

Basically, what this means is that the status quo at the school regarding retention/dismissing of coaches continues.

It’s Warren athletic director Mark Pos’ job to evaluate the head coaches, and each head coach evaluates the performance of his/her assistants.

That’s how it’s worked in the past, and how it will continue to work.

And, truth be told, the system wasn’t broken at Warren and didn’t need any fixing.

In fact, the only thing that really needs fixing right now is somebody needs to talk boys basketball coach Chuck Ramsey out of his planned retirement the day after the Blue Devils bring home a huge trophy from the state tournament.

There is, of course, a rest of the story regarding the reversal of the school board’s position regarding Warren’s coaches and the teacher union’s efforts in support of its members.

But that involves a ton of legal-eese stuff that might lead you to conclude that one side of the discussion table was right and one side was not right.

In this corner of the sports world, we’re just happy that all’s well.

And now that Dave Mohapp once again is Blue Devils football coach, the players and coaches need to focus on how to beat mighty Maine South and mighty New Trier in the first two games of next season.

■ By the way, here’s an example of why you don’t necessarily want people not totally in tune with an athletic program making the call on a coach.

Some outside observers of the sport of high-school cheerleading were ready to pink-slip Warren’s cheer coach after the Blue Devils finished an embarrassing dead last — 12th out of 12 — at the North Suburban Conference tournament, and then weren’t at a tournament at Grayslake the following week.

Fourteen days later, the Devils’ cheer squad stuck its routine when it counted most — at the IHSA sectional — and qualified for this weekend’s state tournament.

File that pink slip in the trash ... same place as the school-board plan to fire all the coaches.

■ Waukegan, Mundelein and North Chicago all will be playing high-school basketball at the same place on the same date, but not against each other.

They’re part of a shootout on Sunday, Feb. 19, at Gordon Tech. North Chicago will be playing Morgan Park from Chicago.

■ One final lap around the coaching track at Warren.

The school is looking for someone qualified to coach track who knows how to teach kids how to pole vault.

Good luck.

■ Best example yet the North Chicago’s boys basketball team is all-in on winning the smaller-school state title next month.

The Warhawks’ final three regular-games figure to be against state-power Warren, Morgan Park from Chicago (lost 57-44 to mighty Simeon), and national prep-school power LaLumiere from Indiana, which probably would beat Simeon.

That is exactly the way a coach prepares a team for March Madness.

■ The North Suburban Conference Championship Game in girls basketball is at 7 next Wednesday night, with Vernon Hills hosting Libertyville.

The Cougars will attempt to become the first team from the league’s Prairie (small schools) Division to win this game.

But more important, the Cougars can use the game against a big-school power to gauge if they’re ready to win the smaller-school sectional championship, which will require a win over Grayslake Central.

Grayslake (21-4) beat Vernon Hills 46-40 in November, but both teams are much better now than they were then.

Vernon Hills (20-3 going into Thursday’s game against Zion-Benton) has lost only to Grayslake, Libertyville, and big-schools state power Trinity.

Grayslake’s lost only to big-school state-power Maine South, plus big-school powers Libertyville, Warren and Stevenson.

The Rams will host the Fox Valley Conference Championship Game next Thursday, facing either Cary-Grove or Dundee-Crown.