DVC teams showing they care
The memory of Brian Schnurstein is never far from the mind of Tim Brylka and the baseball program he heads at Wheaton Warrenville South.
Football and baseball teammates with the Tigers and then at Millikin University, they were pals from childhood until Schnurstein's untimely death at age 34 on May 19, 2015, after a five-year fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
"This is definitely something we keep alive in the baseball program. We talk about it at all levels, from freshmen to seniors," Brylka said.
One focus is through the DuPage Valley Conference ALS Step Up to the Plate event he started seven years ago.
On Saturday in Lisle, Benedictine University hosts four DVC baseball games starting at 11 a.m. with Wheaton North against Glenbard North. Neuqua Valley-Naperville North follow at 1:30 p.m., Metea Valley-Lake Park at 4 and WW South-Waubonsie Valley is the 6:30 p.m. nightcap. All of the $5 admission charge benefits ALS research, Brylka said.
"We try to get some enthusiasm and attention brought to (fighting) the disease," said the coach, whose players volunteer annually at the Walk to Defeat ALS at Wheaton's Cantigny Park, held this year June 3.
Between-innings stunts devised by students from Brylka's marketing class will provide spark. Each participating school will donate a basket of goodies available for a silent auction, as well as a wood bat each has decorated for the occasion.
The coach said students from WW South's Show Choir will sing the national anthem, and he was trying to land Hall of Fame Chicago Cub Billy Williams to throw out the first pitch.
Brylka said Ray Schnurstein, one of Brian's older brothers, will announce the establishment of an annual, one-time scholarship to an athlete with at least a 3.5 grade-point average who participates in either baseball, football or wrestling - Brian's sports at WW South.
Brylka said the scholarship will come out of the Brian Schnurstein Memorial Foundation, which initially helped support Schnurstein's wife, Lindsay, and now 8-year-old daughter, Kylie, by defraying some of the family's medical bills. They'll also be there Saturday.
If only Brian were.
"He'd be jumping in full-go, trying to be involved and helping in some way," Brylka said. "He's always been an unselfish person, who whenever it's helping someone else, he'd be all in."
This just in
As we were wrapping this up a note arrived from Naperville North softball coach Jerry Kedziora, that DuPage Valley Conference softball teams will assemble for the eighth annual DVC Cares games also at Benedictine, Thursday and Friday.
Thursday's slate: Metea Valley against Oswego East, 6:30 p.m.; and Lake Park-Naperville Central, 8:30 p.m.
Friday: Wheaton North-Waubonsie Valley, 4:30 p.m.; Glenbard North-Neuqua Valley, 6:30; Wheaton Warrenville South-Naperville North, 8:30.
All proceeds and donations will go to Mutual Ground in Aurora. Incorporated in 1975, Mutual Ground aids domestic violence and sexual assault victims by providing a safe place to stay at no charge, along with ongoing professional support, plus a 24-hour hotline.
Each team involved in this year's DVC Cares has collected more than $500 in funds or supplies that will be donated to Mutual Ground, Kedziora added.
Mister 400
Daily Herald correspondent D.J. Wanberg was there to document the 400th victory of St. Francis softball coach Ralph Remus after the 19-year head coach watched his Spartans sweep a doubleheader with DePaul Prep.
"There's no end in sight," Remus told the reporter last Saturday.
That's true for another veteran who earned his 400th official win the same day, Naperville Central boys water polo coach Bill Salentine.
Falling 6-5 to Stevenson in the first match of a round-robin at Mundelein, the 19-2 Redhawks rebounded to beat the host team 13-3 and then topped Conant 12-2 for the landmark victory.
"We were walking out and I grabbed the ball we played with. I told the (Mundelein) coach I'm stealing the ball, and he said, 'Why?'" Salentine said.
He explained to Mundelein coach Russ Gates and even needed to tell his own players.
"I said, 'That was our 400th win as a program, boys.' Then they were excited, we took a picture," Salentine said.
Ranked sixth all-time in boys water polo victories entering the season, according to the Illinois High School Association, Salentine and Naperville Central would be credited with many more had he counted those between the program's 1993 debut and when the IHSA sanctioned the sport in 2002.
"I wasn't even paid for the first four years," said Salentine, who nonetheless stuck around to deliver the program's first state water polo title just last year.
"It's very nice, it just means I have a lot of great kids to work with. I've had some success and we've been very lucky," said Salentine, who, like Remus, is far from done.
"I still have work to do, so to speak," he said.
Pin kings unite
Circling back to Wheaton ...
A reunion of former Wheaton Community, Wheaton Central, Wheaton Warrenville and Wheaton Warrenville South wrestlers will be held starting at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Holiday Inn in Carol Stream, at the corner of Gary and North avenues.
A reunion four years ago was a smash hit, drawing 135 old grapplers, coaches, superfans and cheerleaders to a Naperville hotel from as far away as California and Virginia.
Event organizer Steve Ewoldt, the retired Glendale Heights deputy police chief, said wrestlers dating back to Dick Duncan, fourth in state in 1957, are slated to show. Entertainment will be provided by Al "Pin King" Sears, the garrulous heavyweight who as far as we can tell still holds the NCAA falls record of 112 during an All-America career at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.
"It's just a get together," said Tigers wrestling legend Ed Ewoldt, Steve's father. "We sit around and (bust chops)."
Being wrestlers they eat, too, and that's part of what the $45 door charge is for. Another part is Steve Ewoldt's desire to contribute to local wrestling programs, a focus now and in the future.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com
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