One Mt. Carmel High School basketball team, the Lady Aces, has started practice. The other, the Golden Aces, will begin next week, as will the school's wrestling team, according to Doug Spear, the school's athletic director.

Spear made the comments at Wednesday's Mt. Carmel Boosters luncheon.

Spear also praised Karin Kelsey for her work in moving last Saturday's Illinois High School Association's Class 4A Football Playoff game against Mahomet-Seymour to Evansville's Central Stadium. The game had to be moved due to extremely wet conditions at the MCHS facility. Spear said Kelsey handled the arrangements, and "did a fantastic job."

He also reported the Lady Aces volleyball team had a good season, which ended last Saturday night with a loss to Fairfield in the Lawrenceville Regional Championship Match.

"Darren Peach, head coach for the golden Aces football team, expressed his appreciation to all involved in moving last Saturday's game to Evansville. He said everyone called on said they were glad to help in any way.

"Our field was just too wet," he said, "and we felt we would perform well on a dry field. It was great to see the large crowd of Mt. Carmel fans that turned out for the game."

The coach then evaluated the game, noting the coaching staff developed a plan to take the Mahomet-Seymour middle linebacker, Brannon Kwiatkowski, out of the game.

"We took him out of the game with our aggressive play," said Peach. "Our offensive line played, perhaps, their best game of the year. I felt our offensive line just dominated."

"And they could not run on us," he added. "The (Golden Aces) defensive backs also had a great game as they allowed very few passes to be completed."

Mt. Carmel now travels to Rochester, just outside of Springfield, for another Playoff game, this time against the Rochester Rockets. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. Saturday.

"They like to run the spread offense, and they will run the ball on us," Peach said. "The passing game is a big part of their offense, and they have some big receivers that can go up and catch the ball."

Those receivers are 6-foot-4.

"I feel the key for us is to stop their running game, then get on their receivers," Peach said.

He noted the Rockets run a no-huddle offense and out of the Shotgun formation.

"This will be a key also as we will have to make substitutions when we can," he added. "I feel the Aces are up for the challenge and we look forward to the game. We have had some good practices the last couple of weeks."