As I was trolling through...

...this week's Illinois high school football schedule, I noticed there were a few games on Thursday, mostly in the city. Also, the weather forecast for the rest of the week was beautiful, so ... I decided to have a look at exactly who's playing whom. (I know what you're thinking: this guy is nuts.)

First of all, Prosser is scheduled to play Mather at Winnemac, on the North Side at 4:15. That's not too far; let's have a closer look, shall we?

The Rangers of Mather are 2-2 with victories over Chicago Academy and South Shore, and losses to Steinmetz and Taft. But MaxPreps has them ranked 472 in the state. Wow!

(By the way, Mather was named after Stephen Tyng Mather, "an industrialist and conservationist who became the first director of the National Park Service (1917-20)," according to Wikipedia. And I always thought it was named after that New England minister who was involved in the Salem witch trials. Who knew?)

How about Prosser? Yikes! The Falcons are 0-4 and have been outscored, 216-0. (Their closest loss was to Amundsen last week, 43-0.) And MaxPreps has them ranked at an eye-popping 566!

Which begs the question: How many schools does MaxPreps rank in the state of Illinois? Answer: 580. (And who holds that dubious distinction? Hirsch, on the South Side. But the Huskies have only been outscored, 184-6; they managed to score a touchdown, or two field goals, against Pritzker.)

Well, what about Lane Stadium, above? (I've always wanted to see a game there.) What's going on over there this Thursday? Roosevelt squares off against Clemente at 4:15, and Westinghouse plays Payton at 7:15.

Roosevelt is 2-2 and ranked 523, while Clemente is 3-1 and ranked 508. Hmmm ... not tempted. (But Roosevelt is the alma mater of Nelson Algren; that's cool. And Clemente was named after the famous baseball player, not some random guy you've never heard of.)

How about that last game? Well, Westinghouse is 2-3 and ranked 428. Payton, however, is undefeated at 4-0 and has outscored its opponents, 161-20! (Never mind that 362 ranking in MaxPreps.)

So that's my game (if I choose to go). But, as I said, the weather is supposed to be beautiful...