This was no morning to sleep in.
Plainfield’s dreams of “Battle of the Burbs” glory snoozed to a numbing defeat when Mokena knocked it out of the championship round with a 75 percent drubbing in the 7:30 a.m. Wednesday radio showdown.
Despite being proclaimed the odds-on favorite on Monday by morning radio duo Eric and Kathy in the 101.9-FM/The Mix's annual Suburban Madness Battle of the Burbs, Plainfield dropped the ball Wednesday morning.
Mokena and Tinley Park will tip off in the championship round. But who cares now?
We were wide awake on Monday, sweeping past Palatine by an awesome 62 to 38 percent margin to blast into the Final Four. But this morning? Twenty-five percent?
The only thing we can do now is to wonder what went wrong and say, “there’s always next year.”
It’s tempting to blame radio minion Melissa’s downer “Fun Fact” introduction of Plainfield as “tornado alley” and “the oldest community in Will County.”
Eric was looking for "facts" that were more "fun"—like, say, the high school colors and where to get good ice cream or pizza. Melissa’s Plainfield facts were more like “mildly depressing facts about your home town,” Eric said. Later in the hour, the station composed a dirge-like ditty about the dismal Plainfield description.
But Plainfield still has a horse in the race of media March madness community spirit contests.
Plainfield East and Plainfield North high schools are seeded fourth and fifth in Round 2 of Comcast's first-ever Battle of the Fans Madness tournament. Four schools, chosen for school spirit at basketball games broadcast on the high school cable sports channel, will go to the next round after voting Sunday.
In a replay of last week, Plainfield East sits in a precarious spot, just outside the winning roster at fifth place. Last week, Plainfield came through with a weekend voting rally that boosted the Bengals from tenth place into the top eight.
Voting for round two started Monday and the top 4 schools advance to the semifinal round. Visit this website for voting and ongoing results, and click on the Facebook icon for the latest standings.
