On a positive note …
Former North Chicago football coach and current Guerin coach Glen Kozlowski does not have to worry about being fired by the school’s athletic director after winding up in the eye of a storm as a result of events during and after last week’s game between Guerin and Aurora Central Catholic.
That’s because Kozlowski is the school’s football coach and the school’s athletic director.
To the surprise of probably no one who followed North Chicago during a wild five-year ride on Kozlowski’s watch, the former Chicago Bears wide receiver is now in the eye of the storm in Year 2 as coach at Guerin in southwest suburban River Grove.
His current troubles are with Aurora Central Catholic coach John Belskis.
But back in the day, it was Kozlowski’s North Chicago team that was suspended from playing for a week in 2009 after a crazy brawl brought a swift end to a Week 2 game between North Chicago and Simeon of the Chicago Public League.
That was the only time Kozlowski’s team was suspended from playing, but not the only time the coach was suspended from coaching as a result of him not seeing eye to eye with the officials working the Warhawk games.
To be fair, Kozlowski always maintained his problems with officials had to do with what he perceived as his Warhawks not getting the same fair shake on the field as the opponents.
This time, his dispute appears to be with Aurora Central Catholic’s coach.
And, for the record, many high school football games end each week with the opposing coaches not agreeing on anything that transpired during the 48 minutes of game action.
Kozlowski’s first three years at North Chicago ended with identical 1-8 records. In Year 4, he had the Warhawks in the playoffs with a 7-2 regular-season record.
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And then, after a 4-5 year in 2013, he and North Chicago parted ways when the coach and then-athletic director Brian Colbert could not resolve differences regarding the direction of the program.
Talk of the town: That’s what Lake Forest College grad Doug Plagens (Class of 2007) is, and the town he’s talking in is Sunrise, Fla., just a walk on the beach north of Miami.
Plagens has been hired as the radio play-by-play voice of the NHL’s Florida Panthers, who play their home games in Sunrise.
Plagens started his radio career with the LFC campus station WMXM-FM (88.9). His duties included being a campus DJ, but also doing play-by-play for LFC hockey games.
Said Plagens on LFC’s website: “You get better by doing it. I was able to get my feet wet and develop my style.”
En route to Florida, he called games for the Syracuse Crunch hockey team and the Idaho Steelheads hockey team. He also did TV work at various stations in Youngstown, Ohio.
Plagens graduated with a degree in communications from LFC and has a master’s in broadcast journalism from Syracuse.
CCIW volleyball honor: Mundelein grad and current Carthage College volleyball player Karen Chin was named College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Volleyball Defense/Setter Player of the Week.
The senior led the school in Kenosha to a 4-0 record at the Carthage Invitational, averaging 11.5 assists and 2.75 digs per game in the four matches.
She is majoring in graphic design.
Shipp shape: Having a good senior season of college soccer is Michael Shipp, a Lake Forest graduate and the brother of former Lake Forest and Notre Dame star Harry Shipp.
Michael Shipp is a starter in the defensive line for Notre Dame, and earlier this month he was named Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week.
Harry Shipp, meanwhile, continues his pro career as he’s in his second season with the hapless Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer.
Harry Shipp leads the team in assists, but the Fire is in last place in the 10-team Eastern Conference of MLS.
The Fire also has scuffled at the gate, ranking 18th in the league in home attendance out of 20 teams.
Twitter: @JeffBonato