Geneva adding 3 more Hall of Famers

Former Geneva boys basketball coach John Barton, pole vault specialist Jerry Vitton and pioneering girls tennis coach Julie Koivula will be honored Jan. 22 during the 11th annual induction ceremony for the Vikings' Athletic Hall of Fame.

The three will receive their plaques during halftime of Geneva's 6 p.m. boys basketball game against Elgin. Friends and fans are invited to a postgame reception with the honorees in that nifty north balcony of Geneva's contest gym.

Koivula is a very interesting case. She arrived at Geneva as a physical education instructor in 1971, just before Title IX. She and a couple other women scrambled to assemble interscholastic athletics programs for girls where intermurals were the norm.

Once put in place, Koivula coached the girls tennis team and in 25 seasons led the Vikings to 12 conference titles, eight sectional titles, two fourth-place finishes and the 1993 third-place trophy. She also was Geneva's first girls golf coach and led them to a pair of conference titles. Koivula retired in 2004.

Vitton arrived at Geneva High in 1966, but his influence guides athletes even today. A science teacher, he served as an assistant in various levels in football, boys basketball and boys track — he was head coach in 1976 and 1977 — but developed his specialty in pole vault.

Over four decades Vitton taught more than 100 male and female vaulters the craft, including 2010 state champion Allie Pace, boys star Mark Schick and Sarah Landau, whose 2004 mark of 12 feet, 9 inches ties Illinois' girls record with the 2006 effort of Batavia's Brittany Bernardoni.

Barton, a physical education teacher who joined Geneva in 1967, began as a defensive assistant for football coach Jerry Auchstetter, helping the Vikings go 35-4-1 over five seasons. He settled in as head boys basketball coach in 1980, and over nine seasons compiled a record of 136-102.

Barton's 1980-81 Vikings went 22-7 and reached a sectional final after beating heavily favored East Aurora 74-70. Barton's teams won two conference titles and five regional championships. He retired as a teacher in 1996.

One for the future?

Geneva graduate Matt Bowman was recently named the most valuable runner for Augustana's men's cross country team.

By finishing 32nd at the Division III National Meet, Bowman became Augie's first All-American since 1996. Bowman, who qualified for nationals with a 14th-place regional finish, was Augustana's top finisher in six of the seven races he competed in with the team. The four-year letterman placed ninth in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin championships. Bowman shared the Vikings' Most Inspirational award with Cary-Grove product Brad Keating.

Catching up with... Kaylee Arnold

St. Charles Coop gymnast Kaylee Arnold, a junior at St. Charles East, has broken an arm, both ankles and a heel since she started competing in gymnastics as a 6-year-old. Her perseverance butts up against her self-described disposition to be “scared of things,” though she took up gymnastics after considering the flip-turn in swimming to be too dangerous. The eldest of three children born to mother Lori, a tax attorney, and father Tim, a computer software salesman, on the club circuit her freshman year Kaylee qualified for regionals; last year she qualified for the IHSA sectional, competing in vault, bars and floor exercise. Arnold's 5.0 GPA towers over St. Charles East's 4.0 scale. She currently takes advanced-placement courses in United State history and language arts. Kaylee is possessed by laughter, perhaps to an extreme: “I even have a Facebook group about my laugh,” she said, “and it wasn't made by me.”

Q: Why gymnastics?

A: I've always been kind of, like, energetic. I never liked to go the mainstream of soccer, volleyball, stuff like that. Gymnastics really pushes you physically and mentally, and there's never a dull day of doing flips and trying not to land on your head.

Q: It doesn't sound like your head's been endangered. Any other good injuries?

A: I've actually broken my thumb punching my coach (Energym Sports Campus coach Sam Morreale). I got angry with him and he told me to hit him. And I tucked my thumb in instead of punching with it out. It was kind of embarrassing. I didn't even hurt him, but it hurt me. Now I know how to punch.

Q: What's your favorite event?

A: I'm definitely most consistent with vault. I'm a power gymnast, per se, so vault and bars are definitely my strength. ... I'm pretty good at floor, I've gotten compliments from judges on my floor routine. I like to show off my floor routine, but I've definitely struggled on floor over the years with fear issues and mental blocks.

Q: Mental blocks?

A: I'm definitely the champion, especially on my team, of being scared of things. I have to go back to step one, really. As crazy as it sounds, gymnasts have to definitely talk to themselves, just calm themselves down and tell themselves, ‘I've done this a thousand times.' Mental blocks occur mainly when you crash and you tell yourself, ‘I don't want to do that again.'

Q: What's the toughest move you're trying on vault?

A: Recently I've been working on a handspring front, where you go onto the vault and you do a front handspring — a handstand, basically — and you block off and do a front flip off it. It's like a 10.0 starting value.

Q: Have you ever played another sport?

A: I did do soccer until the fourth grade. Then I kind of had to choose, and I chose gymnastics.

Q: What do you do for fun?

A: I love, during the summer, to go to Six Flags.

Q: What's your favorite ride?

A: Probably the Raging Bull (roller coaster). Unfortunately there's no flips on that ride, but you go really fast and you drop at very steep angles.

Q: Here's another silly question: Do you ever have any recurring dreams?

A: I have to say, I always have dreams where you go to school and you just forget everything. You don't know your combination, you don't know what class you're supposed to go to.

Q: I'm awake when that happens. What colleges are you thinking about?

A: I'm looking at Michigan State, Purdue. I would love to go somewhere warmer and on the East Coast, like South Carolina.

Q: How about a career path?

A: Maybe like something in the health field. Especially with all those injuries, it definitely would help.

Q: How does it feel when you've successfully completed a routine?

A: Especially at meets, it's so nerve-racking with everyone watching you, the judges just looking at everything you do and everything you do wrong. So when you do good and you're up on that podium you're just so relieved and you know all your hard work has finally paid off.

Q: Is there crying in gymnastics?

A: Never.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com