Ice heats up

Talk about "Northern Ice."

The Wauconda-based Northern Ice U16 college exposure softball team did well enough during the fall to earn an invitation to an international tournament in Canada.

The Canada Cup 16 & Under Fastpitch Showcase Tournament will take place July 6-12, 2009 in Surrey British Columbia, Canada.

The Ice includes Paige Goldberg (Lake Zurich), Kendra Wedl (Wauconda), Kayla Stos (Wauconda), Jordan Wekony (Barrington), Toni Kintzel (Libertyville), Shelby Luna (Warren), Abby Hanson (Zion-Benton), Danielle Kaczmar (Libertyville), Brenda Botzenhart (McHenry), Victoria Pyan (Crystal Lake South), Kristen Kuhn (Barrington), Kelsey Kuhn (Barrington), Heather Kozlowski (Jacobs), Veronica Kraly (Zion-Benton) and Hannah Mahoney (Crystal Lake South).

Fall highlights for the Ice included finishing third behind two 18U teams in its own Fall Freeze Out Tournament. The Ice remained undefeated against U16 teams.

October tournaments included both the Homer Hawks College Exposure Tournament (1-4, all losses against U18 teams) and the Sparks Pumpkin Tournament (3-1-1) in Elgin. In November the Ice traveled to St. Louis for the St. Louis Classic College Exposure Tournament and went 5-0. It took first place (4-0) in the Turkey Shoot in McCook.

Rick Eklund, Steve Kaczmar and Dan Botzenhart coach the Ice. For more information on the Northern Ice Softball program visit the team's Web site at northernicefastpitch.com.