St. Viator's Sipiora 'ultimate team guy'

Plenty of star athletes use their power to repel others.

Some will bask in the spotlight even if it turns off teammates and coaches. Others will try to use their status to gain any advantage.

St. Viator's Julian Sipiora gained plenty of acclaim as the quarterback and East Suburban Catholic Conference MVP and a two-time Daily Herald All-Area pick in baseball. He also returned to basketball after a year hiatus and helped the team to a record-setting season and a trip to the Class 3A supersectional.

And the way Sipiora went about his business appealed to just about anyone and everyone around him.

"He's an ultimate team guy and by far the best athlete I've ever coached," said Viator baseball coach and school graduate Mike Manno. "I've never seen a kid as talented a him in three sports and he played a major role in every sport."

Which made Sipiora the choice for the 2010 Daily Herald Cook County male athlete of the year. But honors and accolades such as this and the others Sipiora piled up at Viator didn't put him in search of special treatment.

"He just happened to be an ordinary kid with great athletic ability," said Viator football coach Chris Kirkpatrick. "Ordinary in the sense he got along with everyone but not ordinary in the way he led or got people to follow him.

"You could sense his good nature and how he dealt with people. He's one of my favorite kids I've ever coached."

But Kirkpatrick also made it clear he wasn't playing favorites with Sipiora when he was starting in the secondary as a sophomore.

"He called me into his office one day and said, 'Do you want to play quarterback?' " Sipiora said. "I said I did and he said, 'Julian, you don't work hard enough.' I took it to heart and started to work a lot harder.

"I had always worked but I never worked to get as good as I could have been. I was never self-motivated to reach my peak and potential and that pushed me."

That explains why Sipiora, who grew up in Streamwood, couldn't be happier about his four years at Viator. Initially he wasn't too excited since most of his friends from St. Hubert's Grade School in Hoffman Estates were going to high school at Hoffman, Schaumburg and Conant.

"I was begging my parents to move because I didn't know anyone at Viator," Sipiora said. "It was the best four years of my life. It was a great place for me and I met my best friends there."

Along with the best people to guide him in the right direction such as Kirkpatrick, Manno and basketball coach Joe Majkowski.

"I owe a lot of credit and appreciation to them," Sipiora said. "What they've done for me and how they pushed me, I'll never forget that."

The early push and development into football, soccer, baseball and basketball sports came from his dad Dan. Eventually football became the sport he focused on most and the main one in his future.

But Sipiora didn't find the right fit with the colleges interested in him for football. This spring he changed direction and started thinking more about baseball.

The late switch didn't help in terms of getting attention from colleges in what Sipiora believes has always been his best sport. He plans to try and walk on at Illinois State, where former Viator teammate Brett Kay was a starting freshman shortstop on an NCAA qualifier.

Sipiora, who is playing for Elk Grove's American Legion team this summer, said Manno and area scout and instructor Tom Barnard are doing what they can to help.

"If he puts a year into just baseball I think he has an endless ceiling," Manno said. "I've never coached a five-tool kid and he's definitely a five-tool kid. He's just a special athlete."

But Sipiora, whose academic average was just under 90 on a 100 scale and scored 24 on the ACT, isn't expecting any special treatment.

That just isn't his style.

"Every single achievement or award given to one athlete is a tribute to his teammates as well," said Sipiora, who plans to study marketing at ISU. "I feel if you ut the attention on one person that's not necessarily right.

"The whole team helped the person achieve it. That's what I've always believed."

It made everything Sipiora achieved something special.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com