Waubonsie's Pinnick ready for her closeup

Shakeia Pinnick wasn't all that excited about being pictured in Sports Illustrated.

"I knew about the magazine, but I never realized it was really big," said the Waubonsie Valley junior, a six-time all-stater in track and field.

Starting with calls from Thomas Boatright and Elijah Johnson, coaches on the Aurora Flyers club track squad she also competes for, she got set straight.

"When I was explained how big it was," she said, "it was pretty cool."

One of the hottest young track stars in the country, the 16-year-old Pinnick made a recent edition of SI's "Faces in the Crowd" following her heptathlon victory at the AAU Junior Olympics July 28-Aug. 4 in Knoxville, Tenn.

At that meet she also set an intermediate girls (15-16) national record in the 400-meter hurdles with her time of 59.48 seconds.

That was the 53rd record she's set at various levels in her nearly eight years running track.

At the USA Youth Championships July 1-4 in Lisle her time of 59.11 in the 400 hurdles earned her a No. 6 world ranking among girls 17 and under.

Pinnick competed in five high-profile meets this summer. Even starting up a third cross country season at Waubonsie Valley, she doesn't believe in burnout.

"I get tired," she said, "but I don't get tired of winning and breaking records. But I know I have to work hard for it."

Upward of 50 colleges have expressed interest in her abilities.

Exciting? You betcha. Scary. For sure.

"It's kind of both," she said, "but it's cool to know that I'm being noticed."

5-alarm pizza

Last Thursday St. Francis football coach Greg Purnell was hosting family in from California for a surprise birthday party for his wife, Patty.

Homemade pizza was to be the entrée. Then the storm blew in and many of us, their Winfield home lost power.

Greg loaded the pizzas in his car seeking a place to cook them. Local restaurants were full of hungry people who also had lost power.

The quick-thinking coach pulled into the Winfield fire station.

"I told them I had a real emergency," Purnell told Daily Herald correspondent Brian Pitts.

So did the fire department -- about 45 weather-related emergencies.

"Once I told him the predicament that I was in," Purnell told Pitts, "the fireman said, 'Now, that is an emergency.' They cooked the pizzas for me in the oven in the firehouse."

Havel takes the worm … again?

Kevin Havel of Hersey, the 2006 boys cross country runner-up, will try to be the first runner ever to win three straight titles at Fenton's 27th annual Early Bird Invite this Saturday.

There will be 24 schools running at the Bensenville high school, with the girls taking off at 9 a.m. and the boys shortly thereafter.

Fenton coach John Kurtz is watching out for Lake Park on the girls side. Harvey Braus' squad took fifth in Class AA last year and graduated only one of his top five runners.

Jay Ehrhardt, Fenton Class of '73, is the honorary meet referee. One of Kurtz's early athletes, he's now a valued Bison volunteer assistant.

Wing-T in the sky

At the 1990 induction of former Wheaton Central and Wheaton-Warrenville football coach Howard Barnes into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, his presenter was Jim Rexilius.

Barnes has joined the legendary Wheaton North coach in the great hereafter. Barnes died Aug. 6 at age 80 in a hospital in New Albany, Ind. Services were held in Tuscola, Ill., Barnes' hometown.

"He was a monster of the midway," recalled Ed Ewoldt, the former Wheaton Central athletic director and wrestling titan who just saw his 48th straight Tigers opener. Ewoldt arrived in 1959; Barnes appeared in 1955 after five years at Tolono-Unity.

Barnes won more than 100 games at Unity, Central Wheaton-Warrenville. He retired as a teacher at Wheaton North in the early 1980s.

Under him Wheaton Central was an Upstate Eight Conference power. It offered, for one, former Hinsdale Central coach Ken Schreiner, another hall of famer, Class of '61.

Lake Park coach Andy Livingston, a 1974 grad, didn't play for Barnes but had him for physical education class. Livingston described Barnes as "kind of wily."

On the field there was little trickery.

"Single-wing right, single-wing left and up the middle," Ewoldt said. "…It was run it down your throat."

Barnes resigned his Wheaton Central coaching job before the 1969 season. It took the Tigers awhile to reawaken.

"He had great football teams," Ewoldt said. "Matter of fact, we didn't have any good football teams after that until John Thorne put it back together again."