St. Francis wrestling gets home of its own

There is a downside to St. Francis' planned Lacy Family Gateway Building. Spartans wrestlers no longer will be able to cut weight by pulling and rolling and lugging and hauling the wrestling mats across town.

They'll have to be satisfied manhandling each other like most every high school program - on campus, in a room they can call their own.

"It's awesome that we can finally get some recognition from the school that we are a legitimate program and we are here to stay," said junior 160-pounder Ethan Bougadis.

It's got to be built first. Thanks to a $1.37 million gift by the Nicole and Todd Lacy family to aid the second phase of St. Francis' "Bring It All Back Home" campaign, that looks good to go. Phase I was the Kuhn Memorial Stadium and Scott Nelson Track that debuted in 2013-14.

Announced in early February, the Gateway Building will provide space for St. Francis' wrestling and dance teams, physical education classes as well as improved concession and restroom facilities. The building also will host "chalktalk"-style meetings by fall and spring sports teams.

Wrestling coach Eric Kriegermeier, who estimated the prospective wrestling room at about 2,400 square feet, said groundbreaking should begin in early May and the facility ready by the time students return to school in August.

"Ideally they'd like it ready for football due to the concessions," said the Spartans' first-year wrestling coach.

"Our seniors are a little down in the dumps because they're going to graduate before we get our room, but the rest of the team is very excited and the coaching staff's very excited," Kriegermeier said. "I think it shows that St. Francis is committed to the development of all our extracurricular activities."

Not to be shortchanged by a simple "very excited," Bougadis was "absolutely stoked" even by the rumor of the Lacy Family Gateway Building coming to fruition.

A big part of that is the routine the wrestling program experienced in its four varsity seasons, which featured this year's third-place Class 2A Fenton regional finish and heavyweight Cole Cunningham advancing downstate each of the last two seasons.

Neither Kriegermeier, Bougadis nor junior 126-pounder Zeke Myers found fault in the Central Athletic Center where they trained, formerly part of Hubble Middle School and Wheaton Central High School and now Wheaton Park District property.

But convenient? No.

"I'm really interested to see how this next season goes," Myers said. "It should prove to be an interesting season for us, now that we're able to focus a lot more on the wrestling other than administrative stuff like who's going to bring the family's truck to move mats back and forth."

For home meets wrestlers and coaches would transport mats by car or truck from Central Athletic Center back to St. Francis' Slant Dome. Kriegermeier said.

"Home meets were tough because we'd miss half a day or two of practice," he said.

The coach noted that in wrestling "not making it too easy is not a terrible thing," but to be able to point to an on-campus facility would be a draw.

"What we hear from a lot of parents is they didn't even know St. Francis had wrestling," he said.

It does, and perhaps its portion of the Lacy Family Gateway Building will one day have AC/DC blasting out of a banging sound system, murals created by the art program, a pullup rack, a stationary bike or two, what have you. For now, four walls are key.

"We have a room that we can call ours," Bougadis said.

Doubling up

At the Feb. 23 meeting of Lisle Community School District 202, Kristen Mullin was named the Lions' new girls volleyball coach. She'll succeed Matt Hrubesky, who resigned after last season.

A 2006 Lisle graduate and current math teacher, Mullin has "a lot of energy," said athletic director Dan Dillard. She formerly was coach of the eighth-grade volleyball team at Lisle Junior High.

She'll need that energy. Mullin already is the coach of the girls track team. As a Lion herself, Mullin earned all-state with a seventh-place finish in Class A high jump.

"She's intense," Dillard said. "She loves Lisle and is going to work really hard at it. She was a player herself, so she knows winning and what it takes to get it done."

Points to make

Glenbard West graduate and former all-Big Ten basketball player Kristi Faulkner is going to be part of the Illinois High School Association broadcast team Saturday. She'll provide commentary on the Class 3A third-place and championship games for Comcast SportsNet Chicago, live from Redbird Arena in Normal.

Faulkner is fully capable of describing offensive production.

While leading coach Jim Pecilunas' 29-7 Hilltoppers to third place in Class AA in 1999 during one of two all-state seasons. Faulkner scored a school-record 2,417 points. She took her talents to Illinois and Iowa, where she twice earned all-Big Ten notice and three times was Academic All-Big Ten.

College notes

• It came across on Wednesday that Benet graduate Frank Kaminsky, a senior at Wisconsin, is one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Trophy as men's college basketball player of the year.

As of Wednesday the 7-foot forward was averaging 18.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and led the 26-3 Badgers in assists, blocked shots and steals.

• Kevin Doherty, the football coach at Lakeland College the last eight seasons, has been hired as offensive coordinator at Benedictine University.

Doherty won 40 games at Lakeland and went 6-4 last season, earning a share of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference title with Benedictine. He won three conference titles and was also named an NACC coach of the year three times.

A St. Charles native and Aurora University graduate, Doherty and Benedictine coach Jon Cooper have a history. They both worked on the football staff at Aurora University before Cooper went to Benedictine in 2005 to become the Eagles' winningest football coach.

• North Central College athletic director Jim Miller will be inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Hall of Fame on March 12 in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The Cardinals' wrestling coach from 1987-2005, Miller's squads went 139-84 and placed sixth in Division III in 1999-2000. He coached 37 wrestlers who won titles in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin, two All-Americans in Dan Franch and Mark Pereda and coached 22 individual NWCA Scholar All-Americans and five Scholar All-America teams.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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