West Chicago's shootout a tribute to Doyle, charity

Saturday's Railway Classic boys basketball shootout at West Chicago was initially geared around a simple idea.

"We need to host more events," said athletic director Doug Mullaney said. "West Chicago is a very, very special town."

The goals have become more lofty.

Four years in the making, the inaugural Railway Classic a six-team gathering from 3-7 p.m. pitting Willowbrook against Fenton, West Chicago against Glenbard South, and Larkin against undefeated Plainfield East will be a fundraiser for Coaches vs. Cancer. This offshoot of the American Cancer Society has been adopted by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.

If not this year then the next, said West Chicago coach Kevin Baldus, some proceeds from the Railway Classic will go to a scholarship foundation in the name of the late Dennis "Denny" Doyle, the former Willowbrook boys basketball coach and guidance counselor. Between two terms on Gene Pingatore's staff at St. Joseph, Doyle was as an assistant at Cornell University from 1980-83 before coaching Willowbrook from 1994-2006.

"He was tough," said Baldus, who first encountered Doyle as a player at Glenbard West and later coached two years under him at Willowbrook. "I don't think they come any tougher than him."

After a long battle with leukemia, a battle which led to his retirement in 2006, Doyle passed away on Sept. 10.

What the coach impressed upon Baldus was, "the intensity, the passion of the game, to push the kids to be successful not just in basketball, but in life."

"He obviously was somebody that affected a lot of people in a positive way," said Scott Forcash, a Willowbrook guidance counselor who did his internship under Doyle nine years ago. "He affected me personally."

Forcash said Doyle prepared Willowbrook's scholarships, and Forcash's goal is to create one in the name of his mentor. He's working to get the ball rolling with Doyle's wife, Irene. He mentioned a possible golf outing to raise money for a scholarship fund this summer.

And next winter, perhaps at the second annual Railway Classic.

"It is my main goal," Forcash said, "and if it can help the kids then all the better."

Front-runner

Congratulations to Naperville Central senior Amanda Fox, who on Jan. 12 was named the Gatorade Illinois Girls Cross Country runner of the year. She's now a candidate for the national award, announced later this month.

Fox, who has a 3.98 grade-point average, capped her long fall with an All-America ninth-place finish at the Nike Cross Nationals on Dec. 3 in Portland, Ore. Prior to that she won the "NXN" Midwest regional and the IHSA 3A individual title, plus conference, regional and sectional championships.

The 5-foot-1 Fox joins Lake Park graduate Lindsay Flanagan as DuPage County runners to have claimed the Gatorade award in its five-year history.

The Warriors of 2012

Last Saturday, three former star athletes and a couple of star athletic boosters were inducted into Waubonsie Valley's Athletic Hall of Fame.

By year of graduation ...

Tiffany Clendening-Smith (Class of 1991) was a track and cross country star who helped her own father, Craig, enter the Waubonsie Hall of Fame. Tiffany earned all-state honors in high jump in 1989 and 1991. A versatile athlete, she held five school records in outdoor track and was a conference champion in the 300 hurdles and a sprint relay along with high jump. Three times an all-Upstate Eight Conference basketball player, she also earned three varsity letters in diving!

Shannon Burke-Self (Class of '97) still holds Waubonsie girls freshman records in two track events and set two varsity marks that have since been broken. Four times an all-conference cross country runner, in track she was an eight-time state qualifier spanning indoor and outdoor seasons. She graduated fifth in her class with a 4.31 grade-point average and spent four years on the dean's list at the University of Illinois.

Dominic Valvano (Class of '98) recorded 102 wins as a four-year varsity wrestler and ranks third on Waubonsie's career takedowns list. Not only a two-time Upstate Eight Conference champion, Valvano also won the UEC's Ed Washington Sportsmanship/Academic Award. As a senior he was named to the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials All-State Academic Team and won the IWCOA's Ken Gerdes III Memorial Scholarship. Valvano captained the Warriors' fourth-place 1997 Class AA squad. Also a three-year varsity football player, he went on to earn four varsity wrestling letters at Illinois and was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society.

Acknowledged Friends of Waubonsie Valley were the husband-and-wife team of Dave and Barb Yonkers, Booster Club Board members from 2001-11.

Mismatch on wheels

An entertaining basketball tripleheader awaits fans Friday at Wheaton Warrenville South. Wheaton North visits the Tigers for the usual boys sophomore and varsity games, but the first game may be the most fun of all.

At 4:30 p.m. the Western DuPage Special Recreation Association's (WDSRA) Windy City Warriors wheelchair basketball team will challenge a group of WW South teachers, staff and faculty, also in wheelchairs, in an exhibition to raise funds to offset the Warriors' travel and tournament costs. An entry fee will be charged.

WDSRA provides recreation for people with physical disabilities from grass-roots to elite levels, such as WW South's own Erik Todd, a senior who has committed to play for the University of Missouri. Warriors coach Kevin Hosea said his roster will also include Jon Ruiz of Glenbard North, Chris Murphy of Naperville Central, Doug Davison of Glenbard South, Kyle Picchetti and Matt Molenkamp of Lake Park and Hanover Park resident Kyle Gribble of Bartlett.

One of Erik Todd's pals and classmates, track and cross country runner Carl Anderson, helped organize last year's game as part of a school project on top of the friendship. Anderson did it this year because it's the right thing to do.

"It's a way to raise money for their team because they have a lot of travel expenses (and) it's kind of a way for the school to recognize them as athletes. I wanted to carry it on because it was a lot of fun, and to give Erik some more recognition," he said.

Athletic WW South coaches such as Ken Helberg, Ron Muhitch, Rob Kroehnke, Rob Harvey and Matt Stellwagen and athletic director Mike Healy are slated to play for the Tigers but figure to be heavily outmanned by the coed Warriors. They won the IHSA's inaugural wheelchair basketball state championship in 2004 and have won five times since, including each of the last three seasons. In 2011 Windy City placed eighth in the country.

Anderson said last year's true score was "40-something to 10," Warriors. But for every dollar a fan donated, a point was awarded to the team of choice, the plan again this year. WW South drew much sympathy, so the score on the board looked a lot closer.

"It was ugly last year," Healy said. "But the worse we are the more money we raise."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com