Congenie aching to be on the mat

To a wrestler there is nothing worse than not being able to wrestle. That’s the torment facing Willowbrook senior Steve Congenie.

As a sophomore, Congenie won the Class 3A 152-pound title. Competing in a state freestyle meet on May 1, 2010, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He rehabbed and returned to win at 172 pounds as a junior.

This July, though, while at a camp at Cornell — where Congenie has committed to wrestle after being recruited by colleges including Nebraska, North Carolina State and Northwestern — he tore the ACL in his right knee.

He was in a bind, felt pressure, tried to escape and the knee went.

“In trying to prevent my knee from getting hurt,” the friendly, fast-talking senior said, “I hurt my knee.”

He tried to gut it out to no avail.

“It consisted of a little bit of denial like, ‘Oh, I can do it.’ But I couldn’t do it. So I had surgery.”

That was Aug. 30. The preferred timetable for his return is not until March 1, two weeks after the individual state meet.

He’s not thrilled.

“It’s my senior year, I want to go out there and get in the strap and I can’t. And it’s horrible,” he said.

It’s the first season the 17-year-old will have missed since he picked up the sport at age 6, a tyke of a pro wrestling fan who wandered into wrestling practice at Willowbrook for the Little Warriors feeder team.

Congenie, whose older brother Leo graduated with Willowbrook’s Class of 2006 and who has an eighth-grade sister, Maria, was selected by InterMat as Illinois’ top senior recruit, No. 38 nationally.

That website praised not only Congenie’s technique but also his humility and ability to accept coaching. He’s effusive in his praise of coaches, his parents, his brother and even alumni who’ve provided for the program — anyone who helped him reach the top.

Congenie, who placed fourth at 140 pounds as a freshman, also holds a 3.94 grade-point average.

He said his left knee has never felt better. That gives him encouragement for the rehabilitation of the right one. The Cornell folks remain on board with his arrival.

Congenie’s tooling around a little bit more in his snazzy 1988 Camaro, but being a lifer he remains bound to the Willowbrook wrestling room. He teaches moves, offers guidance and moral support, soaks in Warriors coach Bryan Murphy’s lessons and in general provides an example of a young man whose hard work paid off.

It’s killing Congenie not to compete. He’s avoiding the impulse to come back too soon.

“I’m rolling with the punches, but obviously I don’t want anything to happen,” he said. “I don’t want to be limping. I want to go into college and I need to be as ready as humanly possible.”

Soccer scholars

Local boys were well represented on the Chicago Fire’s 10th annual All-State Academic Team.

Ryan Solomon (Metea Valley), Nick Zanghi (Lake Park), Keith Pierzchala (York), Michael Kania (Wheaton Warrenville South), Ben Kucera (Benet) and Cory Mosiman (Downers Grove South) all were first-team honorees.

Mosiman’s teammate Joe Sombeck and Benet’s Hunter Miller were second-team selections, while Nick Smith (Neuqua Valley) was a special mention pick. On honorable mention were Neuqua’s Hunter Hollingshead and Andrew Donnelly of Downers South.

Freedom

Waubonsie Valley sophomore Alyssa Gialamas has an attitude about her. She likes to prove people wrong.

One of her best proving grounds is the swimming pool.

Gialamas was born with arthrogryposis, a congenital disorder which in her case has affected the muscles and joints in her hands and legs. Her knees and ankles are locked, immobile. So too are her hands; she can’t raise one hand more than 180 degrees, and she can’t lower the other hand more than 180 degrees.

She uses long leg braces to walk, which she does nearly all the time. When the distance is too far she opts for a scooter.

She can write, she can pick things up, and overall she said, “it doesn’t really affect me that much.”

In a pool, though, it’s a whole other world.

“I feel free in the water and I really like that I get to use all the muscles in my body to swim. And that helps me keep healthy and active, and I like feeling that freedom,” she said.

It’s natural, then, that she’s always taken to the water. Gialamas, 16, now swims for coach Dave Graffy of the White Water Aquatic Club in Aurora. But just a few years ago she quit her summer swim team.

“I never thought I was good at it, because it was an able-bodied swim team,” she said.

She has since found a level playing field in the pool, introduced to paralympic swimming by the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association. Once that happened Gialamas blossomed, to where she now holds four American records.

Competitive swimmers challenged by physical, visual and intellectual impairments are assigned different classifications within each event based upon the degree of their impairment. The classifications range from 1-10, with 1 being the highest level of impairment. Gialamas’ classification is 5.

Within her classification, using her upper-body strength and technique to overcome lack of kicking ability, she holds records in the 50-, 100-, 200- and 400-meter freestyle, all set within the past nine months.

At the Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, from Nov. 16-19 she hit the Scotiabank Aquatics Center with a resounding splash. Modeled after and following the Pan Am Games, the Parapan Games provides 15 events for physically challenged athletes, from judo to bocce to, well, swimming.

Gialamas entered five events and earned silver medals in four — the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle and the 50 backstroke. Within her classification she set a new Parapan record in the backstroke, and reset her own American record in the 200 freestyle.

“I felt really strong,” she said. “It was an awesome accomplishment.”

Obviously on a roll, Gialamas will continue training in preparation for the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials in June in Bismarck, N.D. The goal is to secure a position for the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London.

It would be foolish to bet against her.

“My attitude for anything I do is I always want to be able to prove people wrong, and I love that determination,” Gialamas said. “I want to prove to other people who thought I couldn’t swim, I want to prove them wrong. That’s kind of my whole life outlook.”

Welcome to the Club

The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association has announced its Hall of Fame Class of 2012. Several familiar names will be inducted on April 28, 2012, in Bloomington.

Naperville Central girls coach Andy Nussbaum is in the class. Now in his fourth decade at the helm, Nussbaum directed the Candace Parker-led Redhawks to the 2003 and 2004 Class AA state titles. He recently earned his 500th coaching victory.

Another master, Neuqua Valley’s Todd Sutton, will also be inducted. This tactician came out of Pecatonica to found the Wildcats boys basketball program. In his 23rd season, Sutton has 444 career victories and is now only 18 away from 300 in only his 14th season at Neuqua.

Paul Runyon, who retired in 2009 as teacher and boys basketball coach at Downers Grove South, compiled a record of 221-128 in 12 seasons with the Mustangs. He led two downstate appearances in three seasons, winning the third-place Class AA trophy in 2005.

One of the main reasons for that trophy, point guard Bryan Mullins, will join his coach as a Hall of Famer. Before starring at Southern Illinois, the captain of the 2005 DuPage county All-Area boys basketball team finished fourth all-time in steals and eighth in assists in Illinois.

The IBCA Hall also welcomes teams. This year the College of DuPage’s 2002 men’s squad makes it. The Chaparrals, headed by Hall of Famer Don Klaas, won the National Junior College Athletic Association championship that year.

Nicer still, into the media wing goes the Daily Herald’s own Marty Maciaszek, who works out of the mother ship in Arlington Heights. Maciaszek joins Daily Herald writers Bob Frisk and John Radtke in the IBCA Hall.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com