A baseball celebration in honor of Gandolfi
Chuck Gandolfi, who ranks among the top 25 IHSA baseball coaches of all time in career wins, will be the guest of honor for a Jan. 23 open house party.
The celebration of the career of the former Carmel coach will be at Jesse Oaks, located at 18490 W. Old Gages Lake Rd. in Gages Lake.
The phone number is (847) 223-2575.
The event will begin at 7 p.m. There will be a live band, cash bar and a $15 per person donation at the door.
Gandolfi won 551 baseball games (211 losses) for an average of 27 wins a year.
He also won 11 regionals and took the Corsairs downstate four times, placing third in 2004.
He was the 2008 East Suburban Catholic Coach of the Year.
All told, 109 players played college baseball during his 21 years between junior college, D-3, D-2 and D-1 (38).
Youth basketball
The Palombi Middle School eighth grade boys basketball team in Lake Villa went undefeated (26-0) in the Northwest Suburban Middle School Conference that includes Beach Park, Magee, Gavin, Woodland, Viking (Gurnee), Round Lake, and Antioch.
Coached by Mike Miller, the team (seventh grade last year) went 51-1 in the two seasons with multiple tournament championships.
Miller's roster included Nick Battaglia, Aaron Hill, TJ Edwards (leading 3-point shooter), Nate Hawksworth, Ryan Gross, Riley Dixon, Mikey Brey, Steven Dunning (leading rebounder), Nebojsa Markovich, Michael Tomasiewicz (leading scorer), Billy Sullivan, Brian Werchek and Christian DeBirdino.
Youth hockey
The Northwest Chargers Bantam AA Major Central States team from Rolling Meadows won the Paul Coffey Tournament in Toronto.
It was the only American team in the division. The Chargers went 6-0, outscoring their opponents 20-4.
Goalie DJ Miller of Rolling Meadows was the MVP of the tournament.
Women's basketball
No. 1-ranked Illinois Wesleyan won its 49th straight regular-season game and improved to 11-0 with an 87-58 victory over No. 13-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Junior Nikki Preston (Wheeling) scored a career-high 25 points with 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals
She has played in 8 games and averages 11.7 points, second best on the team.
• University of Purdue freshman Ashley Wilson (Wheeling) had 8 points coming off the bench in the Boilers' recent win.
Wilson has played in 15 games, starting two, and is averaging 5.1 points per game, sixth on the team.
She averages 17.6 minutes per game, which also is sixth. Wilson is 31-64 from the floor and 15-22 at the line. She is third on the team in rebounding, averaging 4.2 per game.
Men's basketball Loyola's Geoff McCammon (Conant) is averaging 10.3 points, 1.9 rebounds, 0.6 assist and 0.9 steals while starting 13 games this season.The 6-foot-4 guard has a string of nine consecutive games where he had made at least one 3-pointer.He is shooting .472 (50-of-106) from the field, .412 (21-for-51) from 3-point range and .719 (23-for-32) from the free throw line.McCammon has scored in double figures eight times.Hall of FameThe 2010 class of the Southern Illinois University Saluki Hall of Fame was introduced last week in the Student Center.Among the inductees is baseball standout Al Levine (Hoffman Estates), who was one of the most successful pitchers in school history.After spending 1990 and 1991 at SIU, Levine went on to have a lasting professional career that spanned 10 seasons in the major leagues, including stops with Kansas City, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Chicago White Sox, Texas, Anaheim, Detroit and San Francisco. The White Sox drafted Levine in the 11th round of the 1991 draft.At Southern, Levine led the MVC in saves with 11 in 1990, and led the league in ERA with a 1.71 mark in 1991. He is the Salukis' career saves leader with 19 and was named first-team All-MVC in 1991.Levine was a key member of the 1990 NCAA Tournament team, SIU's last team to make an NCAA Tournament appearance. As a pro, the right-hander pitched in 416 games, primarily as a reliever, and recorded 24 wins and a 3.96 career ERA.Yet it was the infamous crowds on "The Hill" that Levine remembers the most from his days at Abe Martin Field."They were very helpful supporting the team," Levine said. "Every game, The Hill would be packed. There were guys out there with cones just screaming at guys. It was great. It really helped the team."Throughout his long major league career, Levine faced several SIU alums while on the mound, including Steve Finley and Jerry Hairston, Jr.Since retiring in 2005, Levine resides in Scottsdale, Ariz., and still treasures his time at SIU."It was a great time," said Levine. "I'm very happy that I chose SIU over some other schools."Please e-mail items to jleusch@dailyherald.com