Spejcher sees easy transition ahead at ‘Lake Park North’
Last summer Lake Park boys track assistant coach Tom Kaberna joked that the University of Wisconsin men’s track team was starting to look like “Lake Park North.”
An exaggeration, but this fall former Lancers superstars Dan Block and Zach Ziemek (and Glenbard South’s Garret Payne) will be joined by Lake Park senior Kevin Spejcher, who has reached the second day of jumping in the IHSA Class 3A state finals each of his first three years in high school.
The friendly Spejcher found absolutely everything to his liking at Wisconsin, clinched by the “easy transition” from current Lake Park high jump and pole vault coach Doug Juraska to Wisconsin head coach Ed Nuttycombe, who doubles as jumps coach.
“We just clicked,” Spejcher said of his time with Nuttycombe. He also went bowling with Ziemek during his visit; the four-time state champion “loves just about everything there,” Spejcher said.
The 6-foot-3 senior hopes to click with Juraska and head coach Jay Ivory to win a state title. At the Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic in late March Spejcher outdueled Oak Park’s Carl Heinz, the defending outdoor 3A champ, to win at 6 feet, 10 inches.
“I was totally in shock,” said Spejcher, who got the edge on Heinz at 6-9. “And then I thought, oh yeah, I have to jump again.”
Spejcher went 6-10 last week at Wheaton North’s Best Four; his personal best is the 6-11 he cleared on a chilly day last April 16 at Downers Grove South’s Bud Mohns Invitational.
Spejcher has nearly completely overcome a testy heel from the 2011 outdoor season, and an ankle he twisted this winter slipping on ice.
“I’m at 98 percent,” he speculated. “It doesn’t hurt unless I kick a wall. I’m pretty much clean as long as I don’t do anything stupid.”
His goal is to be clean over 7 feet, with Juraska’s help figuring out different angles and approaches both figurative and literal.
“It’s actually going to take a lot because I’ve gotten into a rhythm of being in bad habits when I’m jumping,” said Spejcher, sixth place in 3A last year. “It’s all breaking bad habits and deciding what’s going to get me higher and get me stronger.”
A worthy honor:
At the Upstate Eight Conference boys indoor track meet, Neuqua Valley coach Mike Kennedy and his staff presented throws coach Dave Ricca with a special honor.
They gave the 2003 Neuqua graduate a certificate praising his “commitment of more than two years as a Throws Coach” for the track team.
A little kooky, but not insignificant. Kennedy rattled off seven individuals to have served as throws coaches since 1998 prior to Ricca’s tenure, including current assistant Jaime Janota. One coach was Neuqua assistant principal Dave Perry; another left to join the Secret Service, Kennedy said.
“A couple made it two years,” Kennedy said, “but nobody’s made it three.”
Ricca, a 2007 Taylor University grad, has thrived in the role while providing consistency. In 2011 he produced a state-qualifying thrower, returner Carlos Varela-Hernandez, for the first time since Babatunde “O.J.” Oshinowo in 2000.
It’s a perfect niche for Ricca, Kennedy believes.
“He’s got a lot of qualities the other guys had, but Dave was actually on our track team,” Kennedy said. “He’s a Neuqua guy, and I really think that he’s somebody who identifies quite a bit with the school and wants to do things with the school. I think his coming back here to teach is really a perfect match for him. He doesn’t really want to move on.”