Fezzuoglio's difficult decision

Dan Fezzuoglio was shown a greater purpose.

The Waubonsie Valley government and world geography teacher resigned his position as the Warriors' varsity baseball coach on Sept. 19, meeting with his players Sept. 26.

He called the past year a "trying" one, filled with challenges good and bad.

Fezzuoglio and his wife, Kristin, celebrated the birth of a baby boy, Logan, now 10 months old. After a long period of failing healthy the coach's father, Dominic, passed away. His father-in-law is undergoing chemotherapy to treat bladder cancer.

Simultaneously helping Kristin care for their baby while also helping his mother, Vivian, deal with her loss rendered Fezzuoglio's coaching position secondary.

"I just stepped back to look at some of those priorities and I said, I'm a man of faith. As I told the boys, being a man of faith, a man of integrity, I felt like the Lord was telling me to turn and maybe focus on my family. That's what I'm doing. I'm listening to His call," said Fezzuoglio, 46.

Typically found on the ballfield smiling behind dark, wraparound sunglasses, Fezzuoglio compiled a record of 291-202 in 14 seasons since succeeding now-retired Jim Schmid after the 2000 season.

Fezzuoglio's Warriors won regional titles last season, in 2004 and in 2005, when pitcher Michael Bowden led Waubonsie Valley to the Elite Eight. Waubonsie reached the final four of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association summer league tournament in 2007 and 2008.

"Jim Schmid always said you've got to have good players, which is true, you've got to have good players. I was blessed with that," Fezzuoglio said.

Three of the players he coached - C.J. Schmid, Ryne Gill and Ryan DeMar - are back coaching in the Waubonsie program. Fezzuoglio takes pride in that, and he said the phone calls and emails he's received since announcing his resignation have been touching.

Still a young man, Fezzuoglio didn't rule out a return to coaching - one day. With all he's got on his plate he's not contemplating that possibility.

"I don't have those answers," he said.

"I'll know it's right," he said, "but right now I know what's right for me and my family."

He is the champion

To follow up last week's item on Wheaton Warrenville South senior Josh Ruggles returning to defend his 2013 title at the Spanish basketball league's 3-point shooting competition, the guard was successful.

On Sept. 27 the Wheaton resident indeed repeated as champion of the "Concurso de Triples" in Vitorio.

Seeded first after each of the qualifying rounds, in the finals the WW South senior again defeated Real Madrid's Jaycee Carroll, 25-21.

The Bell tolls for she

Brooke Bell was the young next-door neighbor of this writer's wife, and for most of her formative years nearly inseparable from the wife's younger sister, Katie. Brooke's older sister, Dawn, served as our baby-sitter until the children were able to forage for themselves.

Brooke and Katie grew up together living the soccer life, twin pixies who helped the now-established Wheaton Wings youth soccer club get off to a good start. At Wheaton Central High School, the forebear to WW South, by the time the two midfielders graduated in 1997 Bell was No. 1 in program history in goals and Knorring No. 1 in assists.

Eventually they veered course, Katie accepting a soccer scholarship to Michigan State, Brooke doing the same at Northwestern, where she is tied for fourth in goals, tied for seventh in assists and tied for fifth in points.

At 4:30 p.m. Friday in the WW South auditorium, Bell - who cemented her soccer bona fides when she married T.J. Bean, son of the famous former Wheaton College soccer coach Joe Bean - will be inducted along with four others into the WW South Athletic Hall of Fame.

Joining her are:

Phil Adler (Class of 1993), a bowling ball of a football running back who was named all-state once and all-DuPage Valley Conference three times;

Matt McCarthy (2004), a two-time selection to the USA Junior National Volleyball team and a three-time all-Mid-American Conference pick;

Scott Sonnenberg (1996), a three-time Daily Herald All-Area Boys Basketball Team pick and an all-stater who started two seasons at San Jose State;

Matt Tribble (2000), a sweet-swinging, left-handed center fielder, a Daily Herald All-Area selection in baseball, who went on to play at Kansas and got drafted by the Cubs.

Fish or foul

If you haven't seen the 1980 disaster-movie spoof, "Airplane!" drop whatever you're doing and watch it.

In it things quickly go south when it's discovered that the pilots and passengers who ate the fish served as the in-flight meal quickly suffer debilitating illness.

The Montini girls volleyball team can relate.

Coach Steve Dowjotas and the Broncos needed to cancel last Saturday's road trip to Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin due to a bout with food poisoning he said affected up to 20 of the program's 42 players. Catered food the team ate prior to Wednesday's match at St. Francis was cited as the culprit.

"It was a very interesting situation but terrible at the same time," said Dowjotas, still feeling a little peaked Monday after the effects started taking hold Thursday. "Myself, I lost like six pounds this weekend."

If there was a good time for Montini to contract team-wide food poisoning this was it. The Broncos, 11-8 on the season, don't play again until hosting Rosary Oct. 6, Montini's annual Volley for the Cure match.

'Twasn't the fish that did it this time, it was the sandwiches. Montini assistant coaches Chrissy Comella and Gianna Spadoni both ate the delivered salad and were fine.

"They were joking around, 'That's why we eat salads,'" Dowjotas said.

Great Assumption

St. Francis volleyball, 21-1 entering Wednesday's home match against Rosary and ranked No. 3 in the country by MaxPreps, has a few supreme tests on its hands.

At 6:45 p.m. Thursday coach Peg Kopec's Spartans will host the Assumption Rockets out of Louisville, Ky., which according to MaxPreps has a 22-2 record.

"They are the real deal," Kopec said. "I think a lot of people who follow volleyball will be there tomorrow night. It's pretty exciting that they're here."

On Friday and Saturday both will move locations, to the top-flight ASICS Challenge hosted by Mother McAuley with pool play and playoffs at Mother McAuley, Brother Rice and Palos Courts in Palos Heights.

St. Francis starts pool play at 7 p.m. Friday against Cary-Grove at Palos Courts. The Spartans then play Lone Peak, out of Utah, at 8 p.m. The tournament's 24 teams represent Illinois - including Downers Grove North - California, Iowa, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Indiana, Florida and Kentucky. Assumption is the defending champion.

"There's some of the top teams in the nation, and I'm not exaggerating," Kopec said.

St. Francis has played Assumption once in the ASICS championship, and lost. The Spartans have two third-place finishes including last season.

Having played at the Challenge dating back to the 1990s, Kopec said this is the first time St. Francis has drawn the top seed.

"The good news is we're seeded No. 1," said Kopec, whose Spartans are 3-0 this season in tournaments. "The same sentence is the bad news. All you can do is disappoint. But I would think that the top four teams are interchangeable and maybe the top six."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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