Expansion leads to more excitement

Updated: April 9, 2011 7:38PM

Supersizing your value meal from the local fast food chain?

Definitely not a good decision for the health conscience consumer.

Supersizing the Southside Conference Challenge to 14 teams and spreading it out over two days?

A stroke of high school baseball genius.

The third annual Challenge, boasting seven teams each from the Catholic League and East Suburban Catholic Conference, takes place Saturday and Sunday at Standard Bank Stadium in Crestwood.

In many instances, expansion waters down the competition, leaving fans unfulfilled. For an example, just look at the IHSA playoff format.

In the case of the Challenge, however, bigger means better.

Adding St. Laurence, De La Salle, St. Ignatius, St. Patrick, Benet and Notre Dame to an already loaded field makes the Challenge a can't-miss event for fans.

"I think it's going to be very competitive," St. Laurence coach Pete Lotus said. "When we were asked we jumped at the chance to get involved. Our kids are really looking forward to it."

Based on the match-ups, there's a lot to look forward to, capped by the Sunday finale between Mount Carmel vs. Marist under the lights.

While Southland baseball fans should rejoice at getting the opportunity to attend a weekend baseball tournament in their own back yard, the real winners are the players.

The chance to play in a professional ballpark, with the added honor of representing their conference, will be cherished forever by the players.

For players from Brother Rice, St. Rita and Providence, there's the added caveat of showing their foes from the wrong side of Interstate 55 (north suburbs) where the best baseball resides.

For St. Laurence, playing in the Challenge allows it to re-form a rivalry with Joliet Catholic. The two programs have not competed since the mid-1990s.

"I think the Challenge is great," said Providence coach Mark Smith, whose No. 1 Celtics will take on Benet. "It's a great opportunity to showcase two great baseball conferences. There will be a lot of very good players getting some spotlight."

Credit for producing the Challenge goes to the Marist athletic department which, beyond securing Standard Bank Stadium and producing all the bells and whistles that go along with hosting such an event, provides all players with a postgame food spread and a Challenge T-shirt.

Obviously, the tournament is a hit or else it wouldn't have grown from six to 14 teams in a matter of three short years. Admission is just $5 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens and $1 for grade-school children each day.

"We had a couple of thousand fans attend throughout last year," said Marist athletic director Bob Lim, who took over as AD from Tom Schergen in February. "We wanted to get the best teams from the conferences, which meant it had to grow. The plan is we'd like to get two more teams for next season."

The most logical additions would be Nazareth, a powerhouse in the ESCC, and Fenwick, a perennial stud that boasts the best uniforms in the state.

"Getting Nazareth involved is something we'd like to do," Lim said. "And Fenwick makes sense."

What also would make sense is for some of our local public schools establishing a similar tournament - something strictly with local teams or something along the lines of a border battle with teams from the north and northwest suburbs such school as New Trier, Neuqua Valley, Oak Park and Downers Grove South.

We have the facility - Standard Bank Stadium - to pull off such an event.

I say use it.

Standard Bank Stadium, home to the Windy City ThunderBolts professional baseball team, is a wonderful facility.

There's no reason, other than potential scheduling conflicts with the ThunderBolts, to not maximize the facility's potential.

"Any chance you get to play in a minor league baseball stadium is special," Mount Carmel coach Brian Hurry said. "We want to play well. We have a lot of respect for that conference (ESCC). Our conference has a certain reputation with a lot of good teams. It's a great event and we hope to be a part of it for a long time."

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