GIVE CREDIT TO . . . .
These are dark days on the Bradley hilltop on and off the athletic fields. Once known as a nationally competitive school in basketball, Bradley is now losing to, well, everyone, regardless of D-1, D-2, and yes, D-3 ranking, as in Augustana. The not so brave Braves got shellacked by Texas Arlington after Augustana handled them. This is going to be a long and depressing season. Bradley is not only going to drop game after game, but will also see a big drop in actual attendance. The future doesn’t look promising. Some are predicting Bradley will wind up playing games at the Renaissance Coliseum that has a seating capacity of 4,200. That’s the number that attended the first two games at the Civic Center. The baseball program has suffered as well. In the last four years Bradley has won 19 games in the Missouri Valley Conference while losing 65.
Coaches Geno Ford in basketball and Elvis Dominquez in baseball were handpicked, say sources, by Bradley president Joanne Glasser as was athletic director Michael Cross. Glasser fired athletic director Ken Kavanagh and basketball coach Jim Les. Baseball coach Dewey Kalmer retired. So if credit is to be given for the lack of success in Bradley sports, put the spotlight on Glasser. She did the hiring. To be blunt, the deterioration of competitive sports is on the downhill slide at the hilltop. Unless changes are made, Bradley will be playing the likes of Augustana, Eureka, Knox, and Monmouth. Truth is, if Bradley doesn’t hire some top notch coaches who know how to recruit, the odds are the school will never again be on the national basketball scene. Just a side note. More fans attended a weekend of Peoria Rivermen games.
WINNERS AND LOSERS
On the state ballot I think most people were shocked to see Governor Pat Quinn lose to “billionaire” Bruce Rauner, as the liberal media loved to describe him. It was a big victory for a Republican in a huge Democrat state, but he’ll have a challenge accomplishing anything with large Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. Rauner did it, by the way, without Washington Republican Mayor Gary Manier who happily supported Quinn. Ouch.
The local results were interesting only because of ballot referendums. Voters eliminated the county recorder of deeds office and merged election offices. I’m not sure why, although voters were attracted to questionable claims that the measures will save money. Nancy Horton, a Republican, can thank fellow Republicans Steve Morris and Mary Ardapple for their efforts to have her dumped. Morris had some odd answers when he was asked why the ballot measure did not include elimination of the county auditor’s office held by a Democrat. He said, “The measure was defeated by the county board when it included both the recorder of deeds and the auditor, so ‘we’ (whoever we meant) decided to move forward with just the recorder of deeds office.”
In other words Morris and Ardapple were happy eliminating a Republican, but not the office held by a Democrat. Great logic.
The vote to remove the recorder’s office was even more surprising since the popular Steve Sonnemaker, county clerk, strongly opposed moving the recorder’s duties to his office. But then, I don’t think his opposition was widely reported by the media. The Democrat majority on the county board remains the same after Brad Harding defeated his Democrat opponent and Allen Mayer edged Republican Zach Oyler.
HO HUM
More bad news for District 150. Did you read the low test scores and the high, very high truancy rate for Peoria schools? Let’s face it, under the leadership of Grenita Lathan, superintendent, and her board, and it is her board, too many students aren’t cutting it. Let’s hope some qualified people will run for seats up for election.
Filing for the two District 3 seats begins 8:30 the morning of Dec. 15 with a 5 p.m.Dec. 22 deadline. Recently appointed Jon Bateman will be trying to justify his appointment with nothing to show for it at this point, and Chris Crawford, seeking re-election, will be trying to explain why he’s given Lathan 100 percent support despite all of the district’s failures.
MY LETTER TO SANTA
I’ve never done this before. For the first time ever, I’m going to share my letter to Santa this year. Please don’t laugh. Santa wouldn’t like that.
Dear Santa,
Here’s my list for Christmas. I hope you will leave at least some of what I want instead of the lump of coal you left last Christmas:
A winning Bradley basketball team.
Ditto for Illinois, the Bears and Cubs.
Some new school board members.
Regular treats for our morning show.
Somebody else to buy coffee now and then.
Just kidding Santa. Seriously, let’s hope 2015 will be a happier, healthier, and safer world. That will be the best gift for all.
Roger
MERRY CHRISTMAS!