ONE OF A TREMENDOUS 20
BROOKS’ HARVEY MADE MOST OF BIZARRE SEASON THAT ENDS WITH SPECIAL ALL-CITY RANKINGS
Chaz Harvey played at Brooks all four years of high school. That meant three seasons in the White Division and just eight precious games in the spotlight of the Red-South/Central this season.
Along the way, he took advantage of every opportunity, including draining a gamewinning shot as a sophomore in the only Brooks game covered by the Sun-Times.
“His heart is huge,” Brooks coach George Montgomery said. “Whoever gets him on the next level is going to love him. He’s going to be a steal.”
As a senior, Harvey was one of the best players in the city. His numbers do the talking: averages of 20 points, six rebounds and two steals. He scored 25 points against Simeon, 22 against Bogan, 29 against Corliss, 27 against Curie and 24 against Hyde Park.
“We want to make some noise and show the city that we have a pretty good team,” he said after the Bogan win. “That will happen if we just keep winning.”
Harvey and the Eagles did that, finishing in fourth place at 5-3 in the mighty Red-South/Central. Brooks played 12 games overall, above the average of 9.6 games for the 20 teams in the Public League Red. Young played 16 games and North Lawndale only managed three. Simeon played 10 and Longwood didn’t have a season at all.
The situation was similar with private schools in the city. St. Ignatius played 18 games this season, and DePaul Prep got in 16. But De La Salle played just five games and St. Francis de Sales didn’t have any.
Traditionally, the Sun-Times divides AllCity into four teams of five players: First Team, Second Team, Third Team and Fourth Team. But that didn’t seem appropriate for this season, when there weren’t enough games or opportunities to see the players and make judgments. Therefore, 20 players were selected for the All-City team, with no tiered teams.
There’s one other major change this season: Only seniors were eligible to be picked for the special mention team.
I went back and forth over this for several days and even considered making the AllCity team a seniors-only group. The Class of 2021 has dealt with so much turmoil over the last year — they didn’t get a city tournament or a state tournament this season, and they didn’t have any state finals last season. The NCAA’s recruiting dead period just seems to be extended forever.
This feels like one small way to help out some kids who have lost so much. The sophomores and juniors who missed out on the special mention team will have full seasons next year to garner headlines and earn honors. ✶