Three-sport standout Winkelman captains All-Area team

Like many athletes, Caitlin Winkelman tried out a number of sports when she was young.

Every year as she grew up, Winkelman saw multi-sport athletes give up one or more sports in order to specialize. But not Winkelman. She continued to balance volleyball, basketball and soccer throughout her high school years.

Those years are over, the days of multi-sports play are over as recently-graduated senior Winkelman prepares for a college soccer career at Augustana.

More Coverage Links Tri-Cities All-Area team

But the North Stars central midfielder had another stellar season for her supersectional team. She leaves with one final honor: Captain of the Daily Herald Tri Cities All-Area Girls Soccer Team.

While she is best at soccer, Winkelman has been active 12 months a year, modeling different versions of St. Charles North varsity uniforms.

"Since I was little, I wanted to try all the different sports," Winkelman said. "A lot of girls would give one up. I just kept playing all of them. I wouldn't know which one to give up if I had to decide."

Augustana came calling with an opportunity to play soccer and that helped make the decision for which sports to give up easier. But she still harbors a love for all three of her chosen games.

In that, Winkelman is a throwback of the most wonderful kind. Most large schools have only a handful of two-sport athletes. Three-sport letter-winners are practically extinct.

"It's hard to know that I'm never really going to play them again," Winkelman said. "I can always play intramurals in college. I need to focus on academics in college and it pretty much came down to soccer. It's what I've done the longest and it's my favorite."

Winkelman has been integral to St. Charles North's success over the past four years. And her ability to play three sports has been an asset.

"She has that athleticism that a lot of kids who specialize don't have," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "She's got that strength and ability to run. She also has tremendous heart."

In a very real sense, Winkelman's heart has bled the school's Royal Blue and Black colors.

"You're representing the school and our entire community," Winkelman said. "When I think about playing for my school, I think about all my friends and my teachers and the parents who I'm representing. It's a pride of representing the whole community.

Well, at least half the community. There is still St. Charles East, the city's original school. Winkelman plays club soccer for Strikers F.V., which has St. Charles East's girls soccer coaches at its helm. The club draws from a large number of schools in the area. But they all return to their schools for the spring seasons.

So Winkelman has participated in a number of North-East encounters.

"Oh my God, it's huge," Winkelman said. "I'm friends with so many of the kids on the other team, especially soccer. It's totally different when we're on the field playing against each other, though we always hug and talk after. I like the people -- but I don't like the school."

That sense of competitiveness has helped Winkelman through her career. And it helped her prior to her junior season when Vostal approached her with a proposition: move from forward to central midfield.

"I was questionable because I wasn't used to it at all," Winkelman said. "I was willing to try something new, and it turned out I liked it a lot. It took some time, but I got used to it."

To watch Winkelman operate, you'd never know she played anywhere else as her sense of distribution moving forward or back is equally fluid.

"She moves forward well," Vostal said. "She knows when to play through balls or when to knock it over the top. She also gets back and defends as well."

A year ago, Winkelman and Lynda Judy combined to create one of the strongest central midfield partnerships in the area.

"We needed someone in the middle and we had a ton of forwards," Winkelman said. "I was really close to Lynda Judy because we played on the same club together. She made me comfortable really quick."

Judy graduated following the 2007 season and the nature of Winkelman's partner for this season was a bit up in the air. The decision was to go with sophomore Maggie Hamilton, with others rotating through the positions on the field.

But first Winkelman had to get herself on the field. A preseason injury left her sidelined for the first half-dozen matches of the season.

"It happened right after tryouts, at the beginning of preseason," Winkelman said. "We were just shooting. We were practicing and I pulled it -- gave myself a minor tear in my quad."

Fortunately the damage was minor and Winkelman was there to help the North Stars finish second in an incredibly tough Upstate Eight Conference, win their regional and sectional matches and then take defending state champion Waubonsie Valley into a 1-0 supersectional sudden death overtime loss.

That defeat marked the farthest St. Charles North had progressed in the state tournament since the 2004 team finished second.

"I think talent-wise and as a team, we worked well together," Winkelman said. "It really stunk how it ended. But I definitely think we were as good as that team in 2004, though we didn't go as far. We did want to play (Waubonsie Valley) again. As bad as it is to lose, we'd rather lose to one of the top teams in the nation."

Vostal coached the team late in the season. But from tryouts through the opening third of the season, Vostal's sister Anne Poulin coached the North Stars. Vostal gave birth to twins in the off-season and needed to attend to them.

"It was definitely different not having (Vostal) there," Winkelman said. "We were used to having (Poulin) there because she helped out last year. (Poulin's) a great coach herself. They've both been through it and we can really connect with them."

Winkelman was a player through which the North Stars linked all season. And as with all-star players, she will be missed.

But she is now off to Augustana, with hopes of a medical career or something in health care. In a sense, that's appropriate, because she's helped North Stars fans feel good while watching their teams for nine months a year for the last four years.

Past captains

1998: Becky Myers, St. Charles

1999: Becky Myers, St. Charles

2000: Anne Poulin, St. Charles

2001: Lexi Stormo, St. Charles East

2002: Katy Lindenmuth, Geneva

2003: Jen Lee, St. Charles North

2004: Lauren Switzer, St. Charles North

2005: Jackie Santacaterina, Geneva

2006: Janel Schmitt, Geneva

2007: Mo Smunt, St. Charles East

2008: Caitlin Winkelman, St. Charles North