Batavia's new field house draws rave reviews

Reviews of Batavia's new field house were as bright as its interior during the Upstate Eight Boys Indoor Conference Meet last Wednesday.

“The facility's outstanding,” said Geneva coach Gale Gross. “It's awesome, they did everything right.”

Light, open and airy as 56,000 square feet can be, the field house at Batavia replaced St. Charles East as the site of the annual UEC boys meet on March 16 and also hosted the girls conference meet the following night.

Though St. Charles East served as the “host” of the meet, Batavia boys coach Dennis Piron jokingly said he would be a custodian for the event.

He wasn't entirely kidding. At one point Piron himself hauled out and operated a shop-vac to vacuum sand that had been tracked down the runway from the triple-jump pit.

As Batavia physical education teacher Mike Mandele was quoted in a Feb. 15 Daily Herald story by Susan Sarkauskas, “This cost way too much money to have somebody hack it up.” The field house was part of a $75 million referendum passed in 2007.

Easy on the eyes with pale gold walls and flooring in an expansive, high-ceiling setting, the 200-meter track's six lanes offered more gold alternated with Batavia's crimson. Spectators lined the wall along the homestretch straightaway, and large windows allowed those in the concession area to sit, eat and watch runners navigate the first turn.

As pretty as it looked it ran well, too, as did the meet overall. No one wants a six-hour meet on a school night.

“I like this facility in the aspect that it has wider lanes, for the spectators it's a little bit more friendly and you can do the long and triple jump concurrently, pole vault they have two pits,” said first year St. Charles East coach Chris Bosworth. Gross said the field events running simultaneously “just makes everything run so much smoother.” Like Bosworth, Gross commented on the “fast” track as well.

“It's a very fast surface (the athletes) said, a Mondo track, so it's a great surface,” Gross said.

Batavia senior Emund Kabba won the 55 dash with a time of 6.52 seconds, currently ninth in the state and 99th in the country according to DyeStat. St. Charles East's Jake Mazanke won the 800 in a school-record 1 minute, 58.57 seconds, sitting fifth in state.

“Unlike a lot of the other tracks it has longer straightaways than the curves, which is good during like the four-by-four (1,600 relay) and the four-by-two (800 relay),” Kabba said. “You have space to move on people, because it's harder to pass by somebody on a curve than it is on a straightaway. That's really nice. It's kind of an advantage for everybody, I guess.”

Proviso West for years has been the standard for indoor track sites in the western suburbs. As opposed to the 160- or even 120-meter indoor tracks, Proviso boasts the rare 200-meter layout, and its infield sprinting lanes allow for longer races to be run at the same time as either sprints or hurdles. Spectators at Proviso West sit in bleachers elevated from the track, which allows viewing of the entire surface below.

“You really feel like you're running outdoors on an indoor track because the spectators are upstairs,” said Bosworth, who has “a soft spot in his heart” for Proviso, having compiled some fast times there as a Lake Park distance runner. In fact, Bosworth plans to take the Saints to Proviso West in the future to take advantage of its 200 meter track.

However, Batavia's color scheme, high ceilings and, of course, the newness of it all, provide a brighter setting than at Proviso, which must its hold shot put competition at an end of the riser the bleachers sit on. At Batavia, the monstrous 67-foot shot put arc of Lake Park's Jeremy Kline was presented in the infield for all to see.

Along with the new and spectacular Al B. Carius Track at North Central College, Batavia drew raves.

“For a high school this is top notch, top notch,” Bosworth said. “This is probably better than 90 percent of college tracks. I would rank this top-two, with North Central.”

Kabba was most appreciative.

“It's beautiful,” he said. “We can't thank our parents, the taxpayers, enough for the field house.”

Bosch update

Still just a sophomore, St. Francis offensive lineman and St. Charles resident Kyle Bosch now has four Division I college scholarship offers to play football.

The 6-foot-5, 280-pound Spartan, who played left tackle last season, first received offers from Indiana, Arizona and West Virginia.

Earlier this week Bosch picked up his fourth verbal offer, from Michigan State, where the lad just returned from a visit.

For your calendar

The Geneva All Sports Boosters will hold its end-of-year auction and dinner from 5:30-10 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at the Moose Lodge 1368, 2250 Lincoln Hwy., St. Charles.

Games, raffles, a silent auction, a pool tournament and a chance to win a fling in Las Vegas are on the docket. Preregistration is taking place right now for $20 at ghsallsportsboosters.com, or payment is $25 at the door. Registration also can be achieved by e-mailing president@ghsallsportsboosters.com.

The notice states every paid admission receives more than $100 in free gifts, sort of like the swag bag movie stars receive when attending the Oscars. Minus the Cartier and iPads.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com