Thorpe finds new inspiration for Marmion track

Coaches seek inspiration and life lessons at every turn.

Instead of the usual team workout, on March 19 Marmion track coach Dan Thorpe took the Cadets to the Kevin Costner film, "McFarland, USA."

"I told our kids they will be a better team," Thorpe said.

The feel-good movie, based on a true story and starring the contemporary king of sports movies, tells of a high-school football coach forced to start over after getting fired, which apparently has become a habit. In a last-ditch grasp at employment the Costner character drags his family to southern California, where they are fish out of water in a Hispanic community.

An assistant coach position with the woeful football team quickly goes south. Seeing how fast some of the male students run to and from school to vast fields to pick crops in rural McFarland's sole industry, Costner decides to start a cross country team. The rest is Disneyfied history.

The Metacritic website, which assigns an aggregate score from 0-100 based on multiple reviews (in the case of "McFarland USA" 32 of them), gave it a 60 though viewers - including this one - see it more favorably.

Thorpe did, too. He found it to be a valuable experience for his team, what with the familiar themes of camaraderie, perseverance, the fine line between good and great dependent upon mental as well as physical aspects of training.

"We reaped as many benefits as in a hard-running workout," Thorpe said.

Giving it a shot

To follow up last week's item about Marmion freshman Jimmy Morton competing in the Drive, Chip & Putt finals last Sunday at Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia, home of the Masters Tournament, the Sugar Grove resident placed eighth out of 10 in the 14-15 age group.

"The driving was probably my best," he said Wednesday from Hilton Head, South Carolina, where the Morton family went after watching the Masters practice round on Monday. He'd just gotten off the course at Hilton Head's Sea Pines Golf Resort to make the call.

"I hit good drives, they were straight," Jimmy said. "There were a couple other kids who hit them pretty far."

The golfers each got two shots at each discipline. Morton cranked his second drive down the middle 245.5 yards, which placed fifth. He was seventh after the chipping competition and looked to regain momentum for a top-end finish with his first putt on the 18th green at Augusta, just 2 feet, 10 inches from the cup. The speed of the green got the best of him on the next attempt.

Regardless of the standings, "It was really cool," he said, and he did get a handshake from former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as he left the green.

The Golf Channel announcers also thought it was cool that Morton would request calzones and doughnuts as his perfect championship meal.

"It was cool going to Augusta and it was nice playing on the course and practicing. It'd be fun to go back," Morton said.

Still eligible for the 2016 competition, Morton's already signed up for it. The qualifying rounds, which around here funnel into a regional qualifier at Medinah, begin in May.

Jimmy made the trip with parents Jim and Kathy Morton and older sister Marissa, a Rosary student. Jimmy said Marissa isn't necessarily a golfer, but when in Rome ...

"When we went to Augusta National she wanted to play," he said.

She had the floor

The peril of compiling "college achievers" columns - local grads made good - is the ones you miss.

So thanks to alert reader Carrie Lundeen. Her daughter, Maggie, is a senior at William & Mary. She just wrapped up her gymnastics career at the NCAA Auburn Regional on April 4. She finished tied for 10th in floor exercise with a score of 9.800.

Floor was the only event Maggie Lundeen (St. Charles North) competed in this season. Coming off shoulder surgery to correct a torn labrum her junior year, she was not able to get back on uneven bars. She made the most of her limitation, earning the Eastern College Athletic Conference specialist of the year award for gymnasts who competed in one or two events.

At the ECAC championship she was the last gymnast to compete on floor, William & Mary trailing Brown in the team standings. Lundeen needed a 9.75 for the Tribe to win and she scored a 9.875 to get it done. Having concluded her career - which included setting three of the program's five highest marks on floor, twice matching the school record of 9.925 - the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women scholastic all-American will attend law school in the fall.

He's No. 1

With a doubleheader sweep at Edgewood College on March 31, Mike McKenzie became Aurora University's winningest softball coach. He broke a tie with the late Sam Bedrosian at 383 wins, and entering Saturday's doubleheader at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, McKenzie is 391-105-2 in 11 seasons with the Spartans.

Aurora University is 17-3 and 10-0 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, and has won its last 12 ballgames.

It's numbers like those that have made McKenzie a six-time coach of the year spanning Aurora U's affiliations in the NACC and the Northern Illinois-Wisconsin Conference.

Mentor and friend

Wednesday was a sad day for those who like high school basketball to be equal parts intensity, competitiveness, sportsmanship, integrity and class.

St. Francis head boys coach Bob Ward, who will be inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on May 2, announced his resignation to athletic director Dan Hardwick and the team after four seasons coaching the Spartans.

"I still love being with the kids, I still love the practices and the games, but from a physical standpoint, it ground me down," said Ward, 60.

Batavia coach Jim Nazos has a unique perspective on the man, who in 21 seasons at Spring Valley Hall, Round Lake, Wheaton North and St. Francis had a record of 322-262 with a 2013 Class 3A supersectional appearance.

"I don't know if I've ever been around anyone as passionate about the job and the kids and the profession," Nazos said.

From 1996-2000 Nazos served first as Wheaton North's sophomore coach then as Ward's varsity assistant. When Ward resigned the Falcons' job after what at the time he called a health "blip," Nazos became head coach. Following a year of rest, Ward returned as his assistant.

"There was no 'coach-assistant,' it was just two people trying to get the job done the best way possible," Nazos said Thursday. "At the same time, he mentored me not only when I was his assistant but also when I was the head coach and he was the assistant, still mentoring."

There's a small army of loyal Ward acolytes who hold him in highest regard as a mentor and friend, from Lakes head coach Chris Snyder to Benedictine University assistant Steve Kollar and many points in between.

It came easy for Nazos.

"He was influential for me getting my first teaching job in Wheaton," Nazos said. "I was 23 years old."

Ward said he'd still enjoy being part of a school atmosphere whether as a teacher or as a coach, just not a head coach.

"I kind of have that in my collective DNA," he said Wednesday night in his den, decorated with family photos of former players.

Nazos doesn't doubt that. If it doesn't come to pass it's still a good bet he'll seek out Ward for just the right drill, or motivation.

"There's a lot of people who still go to him and talk to him about advice," Nazos said. "He's been there and done that in a lot of different ways. And I think anybody who's played for him will have the same feelings - how he's passionate about what he did and making players that played for him not only be better players but better people."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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