St. Xavier Cougars Celebrate National Fooball Championship

After its best year yet, the St. Xavier football team and coach Mike Feminis celebrated the school’s first national football title Tuesday.

It’s not everyday that you see a football coach get sentimental when talking about the game. But sentiment was part of a range of emotions St. Xavier University football coach Mike Feminis and his assistants felt watching the Cougars take home their first NAIA national title on Dec. 17. Feminis, his coaches and the team were honored by administration, local politicians and supporters in an assembly Tuesday at St. Xavier’s Shannon Center. The head coach, who was named NAIA Coach of the Year, wasn’t shy, nor was he selling himself short when he said his team would bring back a national championship. “Before we left for Rome, Georgia, a lot of people told me I was crazy, because I guaranteed a win,” he told the crowd. “I’m going to make one …

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The Sports Report

Wide Gap in Girls Basketball Talent Results in Charges of Running Up the Score

Don't point the finger at L-W East or coach Jim Martin. Inflated scores in high school girls basketball often are the result of a huge talent drop-off that puts the "haves" on a level way above the "have-nots."

Running up the score is a dirty subject no one in sports wants to talk much about, particularly not when it involves high school sports and accusations of poor sportsmanship on the part of coaches and/or players. The subject reared its ugly head on Patch message boards following Lincoln-Way East’s 45-9 girls basketball victory over district rival Lincoln-Way Central on Tuesday. “Shame on you,” is how one commenter chose to berate East’s coach. I say cheap shot. I’m sure there are occasions when coaches and/or players attempt to run up the score on opponents. It’s human nature to hold a grudge, cite payback as the motive for poor behavior. So, does it happen? You bet. Do I think Lincoln-Way East was guilty of running it up on Lincoln-Way …

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Ron Kremer

8:17 am on Sunday, January 15, 2012

Barry: Thanks for the comments. You make some good points, particularly the one about taking a group and playing with honor in the face of tall odds.   more ›

Jewelry Store Founder, Oldest SXU Grad, Dies at 87

Bess Friedheim of Homewood will be remembered at a memorial service on Sunday.

Bess Friedheim, of Homewood, the oldest graduate of St. Xavier University and founder of an Orland Park jewelry store, has died. She died Nov. 12. Mrs. Friedheim was 87. She earned her SXU degree in 2006, 65 years after graduating from high school. “She had an inspiring effect on people,” her son, Jay Friedheim, 62, told Sun-Times Media. “She encouraged me all my life to try and do things, even if it didn’t seem as if it was all that possible. Just try. You can never fail unless you don’t try.” She and her husband Phillip had three children — Steve, Jay and Wendy. Mrs. Friedheim opened Bess Friedheim Jewelry at the Flossmoor Train Station in 1972. Today, the store is on 151st Street in Orland Park. A memorial service will take place at the…

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