Naperville North heading downstate to have some fun

The competition will be strong. "Wicked," the coach said.

Still, although Naperville North coach Heather Schild has the top-seeded singles player at the state badminton finals this weekend at Eastern Illinois University, her chief goal is not to smash the opposition.

"To be honest with you, my biggest concern is that the girls have a good time," said the Huskies' fourth-year coach and Naperville North's department chair for academic support.

"If they go down there and they allow themselves to enjoy the event and to play their best game of badminton, I think that's my highest expectation for them," she said.

The Huskies' Charleston road trip will require a bus. Qualifying a full six-player contingent gives Naperville North a better shot at competing with Stevenson, Fremd, Buffalo Grove and defending state champion Neuqua Valley, which brings the top-seeded doubles team of Joyce Chen and Shrinithi Venkatesan.

Neuqua is so strong that in 2016 Chen and Venkatesan lost the doubles title to two teammates.

Third last year behind Neuqua and Hinsdale South and the state champion in 2012, Naperville North features freshman Emma Lin, 29-0 this season with wins over some of Illinois' best, including top-12 seeds Vaishali Manoharan of Waubonsie Valley, Lauren Ho of Neuqua Valley and Julianna Rylko of Wheaton Warrenville South.

Lin is USA Badminton's 10th-rated junior player in the country for girls 17 and under. Esther Shi of Stevenson, seeded No. 2 in singles, is rated No. 4. They haven't met this season but are completely familiar with each other.

"They have a relationship that goes really far back," said Schild, who compared relationships between top players to sibling rivalries.

"If you know a player and know her weaknesses because you've got a history of playing with her all year long outside of the high school season, and exploit those on the court, that's when it becomes a pretty wicked game to watch versus being a bystander watching a game for fun," Schild said.

Wicked fun.

"I think it's a group of really hardworking girls, and I think sometimes they don't get the recognition they deserve for playing a sport that requires a lot of thought and a lot of prowess," Schild said.

Movin' on up

In March the Illinois Athletic Directors Association named IC Catholic Prep's Tom Schergen the Class 1A/2A state athletic director of the year. Schergen and Glenbrook South's Steve Rockrohr, representing 3A/4A, received their awards at a ceremony May 6 in East Peoria. Schergen also won the award in 2011 when he was at Marist.

On April 25, however, Schergen was named president of IC Catholic Prep, effective this summer. He'll focus more on the school's finances, alumni relations, communications, marketing, admissions and development.

On Wednesday, Schergen started the interview process to choose his successor as Knights athletic director.

USA!

Don't look now, but Naperville has two representatives on the U.S. Soccer Women's national team. Naperville Central graduate Casey Short and Megan Oyster, out of Neuqua Valley, both played defense in a pair of lopsided wins over Russia on April 6 and April 9 in Texas. Oyster made her national team debut in the April 6 game.

Benet graduate Kathleen Doyle, a Big Ten All-Freshman pick this year at Iowa, is among 33 basketball players invited to USA Basketball Women's Under-19 World Cup Team Trials May 18-21 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The two-time Daily Herald DuPage County All-Area Girls Basketball Team captain averaged 9.2 points and 2.6 rebounds at Iowa and led the Hawkeyes with 4.4 assists and 2.1 steals a game.

Hinsdale Central freshman Alex Lee is among eight boys who qualified for the United States Tennis Association's 2017 Team USA National Junior Team, which will train together over the summer and play some of the world's top junior talent. Lee, who trains at the Oak Brook High Performance Academy, is ranked No. 8 nationally in the Class of 2020, according to Head and the Tennis Recruiting Network.

400 more

Two weeks ago we wrote about Naperville Central boys water polo coach Bill Salentine reaching 400 career victories.

On Saturday Redhawks girls water polo coach Jeff Plackett earned his 400th win as well, 11-10 over Stevenson in overtime. The No. 2 Redhawks beat No. 1 Stevenson on Emily Rodgers' sudden-death goal. Fellow senior Amy Westlove scored her 100th goal of the season in the game.

Plackett added the following information, which is hard to fathom. One of his former star players, Haley Nelson, returned to coach Naperville Central's junior varsity in 2014. The team recently completed its fourth straight undefeated season, not having lost a game since May 3, 2013. Under Nelson, Naperville Central's junior varsity has a record of 104-0-1 in its last 105 matches.

Into the sunset

From a distance longtime West Chicago track and football coach Jeff Ainsworth looks the gruff, drill sergeant type. Move closer, engage, and his face lights up like he's Santa.

Closing a coaching career spanning five decades, Ainsworth is in his stretch run as a Wildcats boys track assistant before he retires to spend more time with his grandchildren among other pursuits.

A Geneva graduate and 2014 inductee into that school's Athletic Hall of Fame, the former Northern Illinois football player was West Chicago's football coach from 1984-88 and shared track duties with Bob Thomson in 1990-91 before his long career as an assistant.

"Although he has knowledge of many aspects of track, his overall experience in athletics and life are what I like best," said West Chicago boys track coach Paul McLeland.

On May 6 Naperville Central girls soccer celebrated Jim Braun Day in honor of the retiring assistant coach and math teacher.

Braun coached boys and girls soccer and Redhawks boys basketball starting in 1981. In 2011 the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association named him boys assistant coach of the year.

Sending three children through the school himself, as a teacher Braun's AP calculus students averaged a 4.75 on a 5-point scale over 20 years, Redhawks varsity girls assistant Barry Baldwin noted. As well, as of Saturday Braun's soccer teams went 321-88-77 at a variety of levels.

"Someone will take his place next spring," Baldwin told the crowd on May 6, "but filling his shoes will not be an easy task."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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