Block, Fortune learned how to overcome difficulties

One left home to encounter culture shock.

The other left home and a country embraced her.

Dan Block and Leah Fortune - the 2008-09 male and female senior athletes as voted by the Daily Herald DuPage County Sports staff - walked different paths upon high school graduation.

"I can't explain it," former Lake Park track and field phenom Block said of his decision to leave the University of Kentucky, where he'd accepted a full scholarship, in November.

"First of all, I had a tough decision between Illinois and Kentucky, because I knew I'd be homesick," said Block, who drew scholarship offers from seven colleges. "But I chose Kentucky because I thought that was what you were supposed to do - 'Oh, the good track athletes, they should go down South or go to the West Coast.'"

Block is and was a good - no, great - track athlete. Mounting huge pressure to his 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame by winning Class AA discus as a sophomore and shot put as a junior, and competing at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Poland, in 2009 Block responded with the best throws in Illinois history.

At the 3A Lake Park sectional he sent the discus 208 feet, 11 inches, and in Charleston a week later Block set the state record at 205-8. Before adding the shot title, in a regular-season meet at Lake Zurich he threw the farthest recorded prep distance ever in Illinois, 66-3.

In Kentucky's fall practices Block had no issues with those in the track program or with the heavier college implements, throwing the 2-kilogram discus 185 feet and the 16-pound shot 56 feet.

Block can't really pinpoint his unease in Lexington other than ascribing his difficulty assimilating to "major culture shock."

"It was a hard time," he said. "I felt like I was disappointing a lot of people, but I thought it all out. I felt terrible - I felt worse for (Kentucky throws coach Doug) Reynolds, because he was nothing but nice to me."

Block, 19, has a fresh start. Upon returning home to Hanover Park he continued his studies at College of DuPage. He'll continue taking summer classes there - also working with his father Randy's electrical firm - and will transfer to Wisconsin-Madison with his full scholarship and four-year eligibility intact.

Ironically, Wisconsin had contacted Block as a junior, but he cut things off because at the time the Badgers had no throws coach. More ironic, now Block will work with Wisconsin assistant Dave Astrauskas, who at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville coached Block's older brother, Scott.

Dan never stopped training or competing unattached, including meets at Wisconsin. He'll compete at the USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships, June 23-27 at Drake University.

"That's the good thing about track," he said, "you don't need a college."

Overall, though, it comes in handy. He'll arrive in Madison Aug. 31 with a fresh start.

"It's nice to get a second chance like that," Block said.

It's nice when an entire country gets behind you. Wheaton Academy graduate Leah Fortune, who owns a resume of sports and extracurriculars a page and a half long, finished her freshman year at the University of Texas, then flew to Brazil in late May, training with that country's women's soccer Under-20 National Team in preparation for her second U-19 World Cup.

"She's gotten a lot of attention, quite a name in South America," said her father, Hudson, a native Brazilian. Leah grew up in West Chicago but was born in Sao Paulo and has dual citizenship.

When she turns 21 she'll have to decide who to play for, the United States or Brazil. Right now she's all over the map.

"I lived in Chicago, my clothes are in Texas, but I think the largest amount of time is spent in Brazil, so I'm not really sure where 'home' is," she wrote Tuesday in an e-mail from South America.

Whatever air pockets she felt in planes could not possibly compare to the turbulence Fortune experienced since graduating with high honors from Wheaton Academy, the same day she scored a goal in the Warriors' 2009 Class 2A soccer championship victory.

"That was the beginning of summer, and to this day, one of the best days of my life," wrote Fortune, who in 2009 was named an All-America by Parade, ESPN and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

There were bad days, too. She shrugged off a rolled ankle late in the high school season to compete with the full Brazil Women's National Team in July - starting at left back and even scoring a goal - but in her third collegiate game with Texas, Fortune "blew out my left ankle really bad."

Needing a full month for the swelling and bruising to diminish, she had surgery Oct. 3 in Chicago. Three days later she was back in Austin, rolling around campus on an electric scooter.

"Humility is one of the greatest lessons we can learn," she wrote.

Cleared for activity on Dec. 13, a month later she left school to rejoin the U-20 team in Alegrete, Brazil. In an international tourney against Paraguay and Uruguay Fortune won a "Golden Boot" award, then the Brazilians in March beat host Colombia in the CONMEBOL World Cup - in front of 40,000 rabid fans - to qualify Brazil for the U-20 World Cup this summer in Germany.

Not too tired, she flew from Colombia straight to Austin to wrap up her freshman studies.

"The opportunity to compete in World Cups representing Brazil has been dreams literally taking place before my eyes," she wrote. "The discipline and hard work to make that possible carries over to all parts of life. The team at Texas and my education is important to me, and it was important I remained eligible and will be able to return this fall."

Asked what she did for fun this year, she wrote, "I think I read or sleep."

The highest of achievers, such as this 19-year-old woman, accomplish things even asleep.

"For me, honestly, my dream is that I will wake up every day and dream again," she wrote. "I want to honestly have an imagination like a child. There is a joke with my family and friends that I have wings. I'm always dreaming."