Summer vacation sure isn't want it used to be
Summertime. When the livin' is free and easy.
Except it's not. Not anymore.
Back in the day - meaning the entire expanse of high school history to around the year 2000 - an athlete could probably skate by on talent alone, honed in his or her own fashion.
Perhaps it's the product of a lazy hazy memory but prior eras did not abound in acceleration training, showcases, travel teams, seven-on-seven competitions.
It was summer vacation. Even something moderately organized such as summer league baseball felt like a day trip with Bingo Long's Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings.
Now, of course, it doesn't. When the grail is a college scholarship rather than six-figure debt, the athlete (and the parents, otherwise known as chauffeur-investors) is put on the clock, laser focused to perfect skills required to excel in, probably, one sport.
"It's unfortunate, but it's come to this in this day and age," said Rosary High School soccer coach Brian Frank. "If you want to be successful, go to college (and play), you need to pick one sport and focus on it. The days of the three-sport athlete are few and far between."
Before this piece further devolves into grim fuddy-duddyism, let's consider the case of one of Frank's players, Julianne Hutchison. As a freshman this season she initially started at forward then moved to midfield alongside St. Cloud State-bound senior Maria Witte. They helped Dayton recruit Quincy Kellett set Rosary's records for goals and assists.
"Whoever we paired her with it turned out wonderful," Frank said of Hutchison. "We could put her anywhere on the field and she would be fantastic."
That's because she's among the laser-focused, merging natural athleticism and speed with a great shot, one-on-one skills and ball distribution developed through hours, days, months and years of training.
Like lots of little girls, Hutchison used to take dance and ballet. She played many sports, she said, the product of athletic parents Jeff and Jean. Older brother Sam is a Marmion golfer.
Julianne started playing rec-league soccer at around 4 years old and since then no other sport has filled her with the same degree of passion. Not even volleyball which, like soccer where she's a member of the Sockers FC organization, she once played at a club level.
This summer Julianne will head to Seattle at the end of June to play with her Sockers club in the Elite Club National League national championships, her squad among the best in the country. In mid-July she'll attend the University of North Carolina's recruiting camp; "it's been a dream of mine," she said, to play for the Tar Heels.
She's already attended college showcases in Phoenix and Dallas, and plans on three others during the 2015-16 school year - Florida, California, New Jersey. The college stuff really gets heavy sophomore year.
Kicking it all off, this Saturday through June 20 Hutchison heads to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico on a missionary trip organized by Ginger Creek Community Church in Aurora. Her mother is a leader of the trip.
"The good thing is those kids really enjoy soccer so I can practice out there, too," said Julianne, who earned a 4.3 grade-point average this academic year and won election as a 2015-16 Rosary class secretary after serving as treasurer her freshman year.
Upon returning from Mexico, "I'll have to come back and start practicing for the national events."
Between indoor and outdoor club soccer and Rosary's season, Hutchison said she has about two weeks of down time during the year. That is when the Hutchisons - who also include Marmion graduate Jake, an incoming sophomore at Iowa - take their family vacation, in Florida this summer.
Julianne is not alone among this generation's super-achievers who lack the luxury of a relaxing summer. What's refreshing is instead of seeing it as a drag, she joyfully anticipates the opportunity to maximize her abilities on and off the soccer field. Year-round.
"I love it," she said.
"I enjoy every minute of every day. Sometimes I get a little tired balancing school and soccer and church and social life. But I wouldn't trade a minute of it. It's been great."
Eagle sighting
On June 3 at the Illinois Junior Golf Association regional tournament for boys 16 to 18 years old, Aurora Christian incoming junior Devin Johnson stared down the par-3 sixth hole at Fox Bend Golf Course in Oswego. He launched the ball a perfect 171 yards to sink a hole-in-one, the sole eagle on the hole out of 39 golfers in his age group.
That propelled Johnson to a second-place finish behind Kaneland High's Jake Hed, who carded a 1-under score of 71. Geneva's Tyler Isenhart won the boys 14-15 regional with future St. Francis Spartan Nick Armbrust in third.
Pool play
Poets and biologists call spring the season of renewal. Summer will be that for Ruth Vostal.
The only head girls soccer coach St. Charles North has known has one final official duty, running the program's weeklong camp. Beside that she will be like any other mother out there - screaming at her three children not to run at the pool.
Since she kick-started the North Stars' program at age 24 the former Ruth Poulin has gotten engaged to and then married Reed Vostal, a driver's education teacher and former assistant girls cross country coach at West Aurora.
Nine years ago Ruth delivered the couple's first child, Hayden. Two years later arrived the twins, Lilly and Brennan.
"I've shared a lot with North, and sharing all those personal milestones along with teaching and coaching take a lot of time," said Ruth, who like sister Anne Poulin was a championship-winning star at St. Charles High School in her prep soccer days.
"I always said when I miss out on my own children's activities then it's time to walk away as a coach," she said.
This will take adjusting, she noted, even for her own mother, Mary Jane. Ruth added that in pre-decision discussions with her brother Tom - St. Charles North's head boys basketball, head softball and assistant football coach - he couldn't fathom not being a coach. In the end he understood she's also a mother.
"It's completely bittersweet," Ruth said. "To make a decision to walk away from something you love is really, really challenging. It was a really tough decision. And to be the only coach to touch that program as a head coach, it's a unique opportunity, and to hand that over to someone else is really, really hard. We talked a lot about the friendships and relationships with families past and present."
Her physician once told her to avoid stress. So, during a playoff soccer game decided by a penalty kick she had to "sit on the bench and hope for the best."
In one sense, the best is yet to come.
"I'm definitely looking forward to less stress and having time, because my husband and I have never been just teachers," she said. "He's a coach and I'm a coach. Going into this fall he will teach and I will teach and we will be parents. I'm looking forward to that."
No one really looks forward to moving, one stress-inducing activity the Vostals are undertaking this summer. But they'll get a chance to unwind during their annual vacation in Maine, where Ruth was born.
The lobster there, she said, is delicious - "the best you can find."
Undoubtedly it is. Enjoy, and have a great summer.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com
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