Geneva’s Trimble headed south to West Georgia

The website of the University of West Georgia beckons, “Go West.”

Geneva’s Dan Trimble is going.

On Tuesday the All-Area basketball player signed his letter of intent to play at the Division II institution in Carrollton, about 40 miles outside of Atlanta. Trimble is sweet Georgia-bound.

Long and lean, the 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward visited West Georgia on Easter weekend with his father, Mark. He liked what he saw.

“I just liked the atmosphere and how I felt when I got there,” Dan Trimble said. “The weather’s nice, too.”

Trimble displayed the ability to make it rain from 3-point land, hitting a team-high 48 three-point shots. Inside the arc he made 51 percent of his shots and he ended his senior season averaging 15.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. Trimble made 76 percent of his team-high 87 free throws.

His high game was 29 points in the third game of the season last year against DeKalb, but Trimble said his best memory of this past season was scoring 25 points to help beat St. Charles North on Geneva’s senior night.

The West George Wolves, coached by Michael Cooney, went 15-12 overall in 2010-11, and 4-5 in the Gulf South Conference.

“He (Cooney) wants me to get stronger, because he thinks I could play pretty well there,” said Trimble, who also considered University of Missouri-St. Louis, Missouri Western and St. Cloud State in Minnesota.

The two-time all-conference player said his main goal is “probably just to get some decent minutes my freshman year,” though redshirting may be an option to gain that strength Cooney seeks.

Whichever route Trimble goes he’ll be doing it in the warm Southern breeze that won him over and will get him out of our grueling Illinois winters.

“I’m just excited to start playing basketball again,” he said. “It’s been too long.”

College achievers

Augustana sophomore Jeff Paustian, also out of Geneva High, was named Augie’s most improved male golfer. He finished second on the squad with an 80.9-stroke average, had a low round of 75 and placed 29th at the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin championships. Playing in a team-high 9 matches, Paustian led Augustana with four top-20 finishes and its only top-5 finish, at the Red Poling Collegiate Classic.

Also at Augustana, freshman Kim Sawyer (Batavia) was named the women’s tennis team’s “newcomer of the year.” She won 51 matches this year including a school-record 29 split between first and second singles. She was CCIW runner-up at No. 2 singles.

Waubonsee Community College’s Lady Chiefs softball team, which finished its season 42-17, a school-record for wins, had a slew of Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference honorees. Sophomore shortstop Alexa Schofield (Batavia) and freshman right fielder Brittany Davis (Kaneland) were named to the All-ISCC First Team, while freshman utility player Kristen Stralka (Kaneland) was a second-teamer. Sophomore left fielder Sara Rose (Kaneland) was an all-district tournament pick. Rose somehow escaped earning conference honors after clubbing 9 home runs — giving her Waubonsee’s career record of 19 — to go along with 11 doubles, 35 runs batted in and 41 runs scored.

At the University of Wisconsin-Platteville athletic banquet on May 10, volleyball player Ali Sikic (Rosary) received the Pat Doyle Scholar-Athlete Award. On the court the setter averaged 11.48 assists per set. According to the DIII women’s volleyball website, her 50 assists in a three-set match last fall against Loras tied Sikic for 20th all-time, but hers was the best total in the current scoring system.

Since he began running at Augustana, sophomore Alex Rindone (Marmion) has been tearing up the track. Although North Central College beat Augie earlier this month at the CCIW men’s meet, Rindone was named “man of the meet” on the track. He won the 100- and 200-meter dashes, setting a school record of 21.21 seconds in the 200 preliminaries. He anchored a winning 400 relay and ran a leg of a victorious 1,600 relay, while running with such teammates as freshman Jay Graffagna (Geneva) and senior James Wood (St. Charles North). Rindone now has already won or been part of 10 CCIW titles.

Other Augie winners included a pair of Kaneland grads, junior two-time All-American Phil Christensen in discus and freshman high jumper Nick Sinon.

Augustana obviously does a terrific job promoting its athletes.

Another release out of the office of media guru Dave Wrath stated that senior outfielder Melissa Nelson (West Aurora) shared most valuable player honors on Augustana’s softball team. She was a first-team all-CCIW pick who hit .336 with 3 home runs and 20 runs batted in, plus a team-high 9 doubles and 4 triples. Nelson ended her Augie career ranked among the softball program’s top 10 in seven offensive categories.

Aurora University recently held its 10th annual luncheon honoring top Spartans student athletes who earned at least a 3.50 grade-point average on its 4.0 scale. A couple locals were honored: graduate student Anna Kalnes (Batavia), a cross country and track athlete; and sophomore Amanda Liss (St. Charles East), a soccer player. Aurora University grad Chris Mitchell, St. Charles North dean of students and assistant football coach, served as keynote speaker.

Ryan O’Dell led St. Charles East in hitting as a sophomore on varsity, so it’s no surprise the Edgewood College third baseman made a big splash early. O’Dell was named to the Northern Athletics Conference’s All-Freshman team, and lead the Edgewood Eagles with 7 doubles and tied for team honors with 2 home runs. Early in the season he tied a program record by swatting 5 hits in a game.

Bosch update

Kyle Bosch, the St. Charles resident who is a highly regarded offensive lineman at St. Francis, is becoming more highly regarded with each passing month.

His mother, Tracey, is getting a crash course on national recruiting practices but seems on top of it at the same time.

She reports that coaches from Penn State, Florida, Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama, USC, Stanford, Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Notre Dame and Boston College all visited her son from late April into early May.

Kyle Bosch has got visits planned to Penn State and Alabama, and will be attending one-day camps in June at Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Notre Dame.

Believe it or not, all these recruiters have already started to check in on his younger brother, Brennan, an eighth-grader who will be a freshman at St. Charles East in the fall.

Their grandfather, Bernie, started it all. He played linebacker at Illinois.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com