Grams, Grens recognized for state achievement
You would probably be hard-pressed to find anyone in the state who has duplicated what Ken Grams has done for the past 45 years.
Since the summer of 1966 when Elk Grove High School opened its doors, Grams has been the announcer for every home football game.
Grams is also a Hall of Fame softball coach, who took over the Grenadiers program in 1982 when his team took second place in the Class AA states finals.
This spring, Gram's Grens were in the state finals for the first time since that first season.
Because of inclement weather in East Peoria, his team never went through the trophy and medallion ceremony as an acknowledgement of their performance in the state series (they were awarded the third-place trophy).
The Elk Grove administration determined that the girls should be acknowledged in some manner when school started in the fall. On Sept. 24, the school honored the softball accomplishment at halftime of the Grenadiers' football game against Buffalo Grove.
Shortly after the pompon squad and marching band were introduced, Grams went down to the field (on the track at the 50-yard line) and joined his players from the 2009 softball team and their parents along with the principal Nancy Holman and associate principals Rick Mirro and Kate Glarner.
Mirro talked to the people in the stands about the team's accomplishments throughout the season and the trip downstate.
In the same fashion as IHSA awards ceremonies, Mirro introduced each of the Grenadiers softball coaches as they walked across a stage set up on the track.
Holman and Glarner hung medallions around each of their necks as they reached the stage.
Mirro then handed the microphone to Grams, who introduced each softball player to step forward and receive a medallion.
Fourteen of the 15 players from last year's 34-4 team attended the presentation. Four girls (Amanda Gattone, Caitlin Kronforst, Stephanie Maday, Olivia Roback) of the fifteen are now in college and three were able to make it that night.
Only all-area pitcher Stephanie Maday was unable to be there because her Eastern Illinois University softball team had games in Charleston that weekend.
After the player medallions were awarded, Mirro took the microphone and asked the girls to present the third-place trophy to the school and hand it to Dr. Holman.
It was quite fitting that Grams' team would be honored for the Grens' brilliant 2009 campaign on the football field, where he has announced more than 200 football games.
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