Myers, Walker team up in baseball; MSU honors Kiluk
Ryan Myers and Sean Walker are in a giving mood.
The Carmel High School products want to give back to an area where they grew up and starred in baseball.
Myers and Walker will be conducting an instructional program in Lake County for pitchers and catchers until May 6 with 8-10 lessons that will provide feedback, video and drills to continue a player's development.
Myers, the pitcher, and Walker, the catcher, received numerous honors at Carmel from all-conference to all-state.
Myers went to Northwestern and was in the starting rotation for three years. In one game he struck out 15 batters in 6¿ innings.
Walker was a four-year starter at Michigan State as both a catcher and first baseman. He was a freshman All-American as a catcher.
Myers and Walker now play professional baseball for the Oakland County (Mich.) Cruisers of the Frontier League.
For information on this special instruction, call Myers at (847) 219-6771.
• Carthage College first baseman Jason Acevado (Vernon Hills) leads the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin in hitting (.488), home runs (9) and RBI 41). He was named CCIW Hitter of the Week for both April 8 and April 15.
Swimming
Junior Heather Kiluk (Libertyville) was named women's swimmer of the year at Michigan State University's team banquet. Also an academic All-American, Kiluk set three MSU records at the Big Ten Championships and now holds four top-10 fastest times in school history.
Track and field
Keli Coleman (Carmel) of Augustana College won the 100-meter dash in 12:53 in the Augustana Invite.
• Abe Jones (Rolling Meadows), who is training at the University of Illinois, broke a 12-year-old record Saturday in the 400-meter hurdles at the Kansas Relays. Competing at the college level, he turned in a 50.04 clocking and now will run this week-end in the Drake Relays as he continues to prepare for the Olympic Trials in June.
Football
There is an old saying in sports that statistics are for losers.
Your team continually loses, so you point to statistics to show how they are actually better than their record, but just keep losing
Statistics enable different people using the same figures to draw different conclusions.
However, statistics will always be a big part of sports, and Mike Brown, statistician for the Fremd football program for the past 15 years, feels there's a need for uniformity in the process.
Brown has designed a football statistics book -- Sideline Statistics -- that can be used at high school and youth football games.
"It's a combination of the best tools I've used over the 15 years at Fremd," Brown said. "It can be easily used by an assistant coach, student manager or volunteer.
"The book has pages for 14 games, just the amount needed to get to Champaign, and can keep track of the most important offensive and defensive stats, possession summaries, game summaries and a season summary."
The book sells for $10, and you can e-mail Brown at sidelinestats@gmail.com if interested in ordering.
Hawthorn Woods
The Hawthorn Woods Youth Football Camp for ages 8-14 will be held the week of June 16 at Heritage Oaks Park.
The camp schedule is for 9-11 a.m. and is designed to provide children with the necessary instruction to prepare them for the upcoming tackle football program.
The trained coaching staff will work on blocking, tackling, passing, pass defending, pass receiving and ball carrying techniques in a non-contact environment, along with conditioning and agility drills.
Bring football cleats or tennis shoes, shorts, T-shirt and plenty of water.
Fee is $60 for resident and $75 for non-resident.
Registration is available through The Village of Hawthorn Woods, www.vhw.org or call Kim Lynch at (847) 847-3501.
Basketball
Sarah Boothe (Warren) will have her jersey on display in the "Ring of Honor" at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn. The jerseys honor high school and college All-Americans and WNBA all-stars. Boothe's jersey will be hanging by the middle of June and will be on display for a year before it goes into the historical archives.
Softball
Sophomore pitcher Anna Snyder (Grayslake) of Aurora University was named Northern Athletics Conference Softball Student-Athlete of the Week. She had 2 wins and a save in 4 Aurora victories and struck out 17 in a 2-hitter against Concordia University Chicago.
Tennis
Seven players with Warren High School connections are competing in college.
Dennis Polyakov is at No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles for No. 24 Rice University.
Rob Ogden plays No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles for Marian College on Fond du Lac, Wis.
Andrew Wright (No. 1 singles), Dan Blaul (No. 2) and Jose Martin (No. 4) are playing for the College of Lake County. Wright and Blaul combine at No. 1 doubles.
Karol Kocemba plays for New York University, and Brian Silverstein plays No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles for Quincy College.
Round Lake
The Round Lake High School Athletic Hall of Fame will hold its 2008 event on Saturday, May 3 at 6 p.m. at the Round Lake Beach Cultural and Civic Center.
Nine athletes, three coaches, three athletic directors, seven teams and three special individuals will be honored.
Tickets may be purchased at the Round Lake High School library for $30.
The main number is (847) 270-9300. Contact Jan Prochnow at extension 5350 or Howard Conkling at 5363.
Cheerleading
Nicole Vechiola (Stevenson) has been named to the co-ed cheerleading team at Southern Illinois University. The six women and six men perform at all home men's football and basketball games and some road and tournament games. Nicole was a four-year varsity cheerleader at Stevenson as a flyer who was selected to the all-state cheerleading team.
Water polo
Carthage College went 5-0 and won the Midwest Regional Championship and Midwest Tournament Championship in women's water polo, receiving an automatic bid to the Division III tourney. They also cracked the top 10 in the DIII rankings.
Local players on the roster are Patti Blatter (Wheeling), Liza Dickinson (Mundelein), Kaitlin Duke (Hoffman Estates), Emily and Rose Schiavone (Prospect), Anna Kordek and Jessica Shopiro (Stevenson).
Fencing
Tim Glass of the Illinois Fencers Club of Mount Prospect won Men's Epee at the Midwest Sectionals Championship. For more information, go to illinoisfencersclub.org.