Kaneland coach's ode to the 'Pack in Black'
Prep sports writers salivate over the coach who needs only to see a tape recorder or notepad to trigger a filibuster containing concise answers to any and all potential questions.
Only a couple hours after last Saturday's state cross country meet in Peoria, the Daily Herald's sports department received the equivalent - a fax (handwritten!) from Kaneland boys cross country coach Chad Clarey.
An interview could not have improved upon Clarey's essay.
Kaneland's fifth-place finish in Class 2A, the boys' best state finish since 1999, featured the program's 10th all-state runner. Junior Trevor Holm finished 23rd overall and 18th among schools competing as a team. He improved by 77 places from last year's meet.
The Knights also set a program record with their 36-second pack "split" between Holm and the Knights' fifth scorer, junior Grant Alef.
In between, Clarey said senior Dominic Furco ran the best race of his career in his finale.
"Equally important," Clarey wrote, "were the races of his teammates, who counted on (Furco's) surging up into the pack" - senior Edgar Valle, who also ran a personal-best, senior Matt Reusche and Alef.
Clarey pointed out that only Class 2A champ Belvidere North had a No. 6 runner faster than senior Logan Markuson, the defending Class 2A 300-meter hurdle champion.
The coach added that senior Joe Levita, Kaneland's No. 7, came off an illness that took him out of the sectional to beat 17 other scoring runners from teams trailing the Knights in the standings.
"We accomplished everything we set out to do - and five seniors will savor this day the rest of their lives," Clarey summarized. "We are so grateful for all they've given."
Iowa gets a Bronzino
Among the high school athletes who signed a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday was Batavia gymnast Angelo Bronzino, who said the University of Iowa will pay more than a third of his way between athletic and academic scholarships.
Here's another athlete who has parlayed the club experience to scholarship money, though Batavia doesn't offer a boys gymnastics squad.
"...(C)lub gymnastics really was one of the reasons I was able to get a scholarship," said the 17-year-old Bronzino, whose sister Allessandra is a freshman at Waubonsee Community College.
A self-described "gym hopper" who began gymnastics at 7, Angelo trains at Bartlett Gymnastics Center and helped the squad win a Junior Olympic National Championship this past May.
Accepted into Iowa's pre-medicine program - "I'll probably become an integrated physiology major," he said. - Bronzino's 3.52 grade-point average qualified him to be a USA Gymnastics Academic All-American.
His specialty is the rings, but his work on the high bar, vault and pommel horse didn't hurt his recruiting cause as a possible all-around type.
"I showed them I had the potential to do more than one thing," Bronzino said. "Hopefully I'll compete in four things for them."
Local dominance
Of the 12 first-team selections to the 2009 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin All-Conference Women's Soccer Team, 10 hail from high schools in Kane or DuPage counties.
Three Wheaton Academy graduates are on the squad: three-time CCIW player of the year Taryne Lee, Maria Della Torre and Lauren Anderson, all at Wheaton College. Thunder teammate Jaime Orewiler is among three Wheaton North gals; Augustana's Lauren Polock and Katie Oakes are the others. Augustana (18-1 and ranked fifth in Division III as of Wednesday) also offered Kayla Radloff (West Chicago) and Caitlin Winkelman (St. Charles North).
Geneva's Emily Hinchman (Illinois Wesleyan) and Downers Grove South's Allison Horne (Millikin) also were first-team selections.
Local women also crowded the second team: Wheaton Warrenville South's Anna Carey and Carlie Hoekstra, St. Charles East's Alyssa Fuelner, Naperville Central's Elise Manzie and Neuqua Valley's Erin Coulson.
It was a tough crowd among CCIW men, but former St. Francis workhorse Brian McMahon, a sophomore at Elmhurst College, was named player of the year, the sole first-team rep from the two-county region. Kyle Gorgol (Hinsdale South), Matt Sterner (Naperville Central) and Nico Galto (WW South) made second team.
Proposal: The end of football conferences
As an alert reader pointed out to us, making its way to 28 "Town Hall" meetings at Illinois High School Association member schools through Nov. 18 is a list of 15 2009-10 Bylaw amendment proposals.
Proposal No. 11, submitted by Eureka principal Rich Wherley, would add a new point regarding scheduling of games to Bylaw 5.060 regarding boys football:
"The IHSA will have the sole responsibility to schedule all football games for member schools in ten team regional formats. The regional will be based on school/coop size and geography. The regional will be in place for two years in a home and away format. The IHSA has the right at any time to restructure the size of the regional if a member school is not geographically located close to any schools its size, if a member school disbands, if a member school fails to field a team, or if a member school creates a football squad."
School administrators such as athletic directors and principals attend these Town Hall Meetings, the closest being at Addison Trail on Nov. 12 (Downers Grove South held one Nov. 9). The public is not allowed to attend, according to IHSA communications guru Matt Troha.
Later this month the IHSA's Legislative Commission - which includes Wherley as well as Marmion principal John Milroy, Lisle principal Ron Logeman and Benet athletic director Gary Goforth - will discuss the amendment proposals further.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com