Support aplenty for Wheeling's May

When talking about Steve May, Wheeling girls athletic director Don Rowley quickly points out how well respected the school's assistant/principal of students activities is by his peers.

That will be quite evident on Dec. 16, when May is honored in National Harbor, Md., during the banquet at the 45th annual National Athletic Directors Conference.

May is one of 10 individuals who have made outstanding contributions to interscholastic athletics and have been named recipients of the 2014 Distinguished Service Awards given by the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

Rowley will make the trip to Maryland in honor of May and expects to be joined by many other local athletic directors.

"Steve deserves this," Rowley said. "He is so well-respected among his peers. He is a great problem-solver and a great communicator as well."

For almost 30 years, May has been contributing to the success and achievements of students in the Chicago suburbs.

"With all the stuff he has to do every day, it just amazes me how he gets it done," said Wheeling girls water coach Bob Savitt. "And he always has our backs. He is a very wise administrator. He is a very smart man."

May, a graduate of Palatine High School, taught English and coached for a year at Crystal Lake Central High School.

He then spent the next eight years at Winston Park Junior High School in Palatine where he was the girls and boys basketball and wrestling coach. In 1996, he became the dean of students and coached basketball at Prospect.

Since 2001, May has been an assistant principal of student activities at Wheeling, where he has received the principal's award twice and works with Township High School District 214.

May has created and maintained the Wheeling Athletic Hall of Fame and a student spirit group called "The Cat Pack."

He has also been instrumental in the development of the Hispanic Athletic Council at his school.

The council tries to find ways to help Wheeling's growing 50 percent population of Hispanic students boost their participation in athletics and activities.

The council has held a summit for 11 area schools to celebrate and encourage Hispanic students to become leaders.

May was also on the committee that met to discuss synthetic turf and decided to partner with the Wheeling Park District to share a stadium in order to serve the entire community.

Within the Illinois High School Association, he has served on the IHSA Athletic Advisory Board and the ad hoc transfer student policy committee. May served one year as a nonvoting member of the IHSA board of directors.

Among his duties with the Illinois Athletic Directors Association, May has been president, state conference program and registration chair, and division representative.

He has been a presenter at both the IADA conference and NFHS/NIAAA National Athletic Directors Conference and has had articles published in each organization's journal. He is currently a member of the NIAAA/NFHS National Athletic Directors Conference Advisory Committee.

Football

Washington University (St. Louis) sophomore receiver Kevin Hammarlund (St. Viator) was named first-team all conference.

He led the conference in receiving yards (580), receptions (50), yards per game with (58) and was second in touchdowns with 5 (1 behind the leader).

Women's basketball

DePaul senior Megan Rogowski (Hersey) scored 11 points and had 4 of the Blue Demon's season-high 25 steals in an 87-34 win over Chicago State at the Jones Convocation Center. DePaul improves to 6-2.

• St. Louis University freshman Jackie Kemph (Rolling Meadows) sank a career-high three 3-pointers and scored 13 points with a game-high 6 assists as the Billikins (4-3) posted a 68-49 victory over visiting Missouri-St. Louis.

Freshman teammate Jenny Vliet (Rolling Meadows) had 7 points with 5 rebounds and tied her career-high of 4 assists.

• Wisconsin-Parkside sophomore Bailey North (Buffalo Grove) grabbed 5 rebounds in nine minutes during the Rangers' 76-61 loss to visiting third-ranked Lewis University (6-0) in the Great Lakes Valley Conference opener. The Rangers are 5-2.

• Cornell College junior Maggie Hogen (Hersey) collected 6 points, 3 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 2 steals and an assist in a 73-37 victory over visiting Ripon.

Freshman teammate Renee Poulos (Hersey) added 3 rebounds and 3 assists for the Rams (4-3 overall, 2-2 in the Midwest Conference).

Men's basketball

Wisconsin-Parkside junior guard Jimmy Gavin scored 12 points in the Lakers' 89-51 nonconference victory over Silver Lake College in the DeSimone Gymnasium.

Women's cross country

Augustana senior co-captain Becca Sund (Palatine) was one of three Vikings selected co-MVPs for the 2014 cross country season.

Sund had a stat packed season taking first for Augustana in the team's first six races.

Her best finish was at the Wartburg Invitational where she took first out of 126 runners with a time of 23:15. Sund had three additional top-10 finishes at the Fighting Bee Opener, Bradley Intercollegiate Invitational, and Western Ontario Open. Her best time this season at a 6,000 meter race was 22:47 at the CCIW Championship.

Queen of the Knights' nets

Congratulations to Brown University recruit Taylor Will who became Prospect's all-time leading scorer on Friday night at Hersey. Her game-high 26 points in a 52-48 win gave her 1,374 points for her career, surpassing the former Prospect record of 1,352 set by Colleen Grant in 1981.

Will and the unbeaten Knights (6-0) return home to the Jean Walker Field House on Thursday and will host the only other unbeaten Mid-Suburban League team, Buffalo Grove (7-0), in an East showdown at 7:30 p.m.

Wrestling

Purdue junior Danny Sabatello, a 133 pounder, was named Big Ten 'Co-Wrestler of the Week'.

Sabatello posted a 7-4 decision over No. 12 Matt Manley of Missouri at the Journeymen/ASICS Northeast Duals. He defeated David White of Binghampton (9-3) and Michael Hayes of Old Dominion (6-4) to go 3-0 at the meet.

He has won 11 straight matches.

In high school, Sabatello was a three-time state placewinner for St. Viator and Stevenson, where he graduated with a career record of 152-19.

He took fourth place at the IHSA Class 3A state tournament as a sophomore for Viator and is one of only four students to place at the state final for the Lions.

At Stevenson, Sabatello won back-to-back Illinois 3A Championships at 119 and 125 pounds. He became the first state champion in Patriots school history, going 41-0 as a senior. He finished as the No. 12-ranked 125-pounder in the nation on InterMat.

• Please email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com.