Preuss heads strong Glenbard South Hall of Fame class
Julie Fonda knows halls of fame.
A star athlete at Glenbard South High School, Class of 1996, the Raiders’ 20-year softball coach — now also coach of girls flag football — is in three of them.
She’s really impressed by the third class of Raider Athletic Hall of Fame inductees, seven individuals and two teams reaching into the 1970s.
“You read their bios,” she said, “and you’re like, ‘Wow, wow, wow.’ You just keep saying, ‘Wow.’”
People will get that chance Sept. 12 at Carlisle Banquets in Lombard, then at around 6:45 p.m. Sept. 13 at Glenbard South when the inductees will be recognized on the field between sophomore and varsity football games against West Chicago.
An inaugural member of the Raider hall in 2022 as an athlete, Fonda coached the 2013 softball team being inducted this year. That 31-5 club repeated as Class 3A champion despite having graduated seven of nine starters from the 2012 champs.
“Nobody would have thought we would have been there,” Fonda said of that 2013 team, the second (behind 1A Cobden) and first in Class 3A to repeat as state champions after softball moved to four classes in 2008.
A track relay team — Dan Kuhlman, Kevin O’Brien, Tim Honig and Ben Matthies — will be inducted for their 2007 Nike Outdoor Nationals 3200-meter relay title, run in 7 minutes, 40.57 seconds.
Earlier in 2007 Brandon Matthies, the alternate on that relay, subbed in for his twin brother to help set the Raiders’ indoor school record.
Inductees also with track and field ties include the late Greg Thompson, a three-sport athlete who held the school shot put record more than 30 years; and multiple all-state runners Tiffany Jones and Eric MacTaggart. MacTaggart’s 3,200 meters time of 8:55.4 in 2004 ranks 11th on Illinois’ all-time list.
Maggie Buckley, who went on to play volleyball at the University of Georgia; and Mark Goodson, in Northern Illinois University’s Hall of Fame for gymnastics, join the group.
Two inductees really strike a chord with Fonda: cross country and track coach Andy Preuss and the late Terry Artman, whose wife, Mary, will accept the honor.
Terry Artman, who coached several sports over 39 years, started as a driver’s education and physical education teacher at Glenbard South when it opened in 1972. After his retirement he announced Raiders contests. “Artie” also was an athletic trainer and an avid weightlifter, helping students there as well, Fonda recalled.
“He bled red, white and blue,” she said of the school colors.
Preuss, who as a teacher taught Fonda how to drive, in 2001 brought Glenbard South its first state title (Fonda earned the other two), in boys cross country led by Class AA champion Micah VanDenend.
At the school from 1980-2012, in his final season Preuss led the Raiders to second place in Class 2A boys track and field and was third in 2011. He coached 96 all-state track athletes, including relay runners.
He’s a member of the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and the one at his alma mater, Willowbrook High School.
“He was such a huge part of this school,” Fonda said. “In my opinion there’s no one more deserving of the award than Andy Preuss.”
Jim Rumsa, 94
An inductee into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and Dundee-Crown Athletic halls of fame, Jim Rumsa, of Algonquin, died Aug. 29 at 94.
Born in Waukegan, the Army veteran served various roles in District 300 over 32 years from 1961-93.
Rumsa coached baseball and basketball and served as a sports announcer and publicist, as well as social studies teacher and guidance counselor.
For WVFV-FM radio in Dundee, from 1967-78 he did football and basketball play-by-play for both Crown and Dundee high schools, according to the Dundee-Crown Athletic Hall of Fame, where Rumsa was a charter member of its board of directors.
Starting in 1983, Rumsa announced Dundee-Crown home football games for 37 years before retiring for good in 2020.
Services will be held Friday and Saturday. Information is available at lairdfamilyfuneralservices.com.
Links news
On Aug. 28 Benet Academy senior golfer Charlie Davenport set a school record over nine holes. At the Village Links of Glen Ellyn, the senior carded a score of 30. Playing at Glenbard West’s home course, Davenport led the Redwings to a 142-162 win over the Hilltoppers.
On Aug. 19, Naperville’s Jason Keller sank his first hole-in-one, and the first in the 35-year history of the Kennedy Golf Invitational. The tournament supports St. Coletta’s of Illinois in Tinley Park, which provides services to adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Keller aced the par-3 No. 10 at Crystal Tree Golf and Country Club in Orland Park. Interestingly, as Keller’s foursome approached the tee, St. Coletta participant Donnisha, monitoring No. 10, had predicted a golfer would hit a hole-in-one at the invite. Keller obliged.
In the cage
Schaumburg graduate Aiden Ploski will make his amateur mixed martial arts debut Saturday.
Last March he finished with a 13-7 record at 126 pounds wrestling for the Saxons, missing the state meet by one match in a 3-2 decision at the Conant sectional.
Elm West Banquets in Elmhurst will turn into a brawl hall, where Ploski will make his debut against Zecharias John Hall, out of Chicago, courtesy of Maximus Promotions.
Ploski represents the Midwest Training Center in Schaumburg, where he’s trained by owner Alex Trujillo, a graduate of Round Lake High School. Trujillo and Midwest Training’s Mike Bernabe will be in Ploski’s corner.
Trujillo has trained quite a few professionals, including MMA champions like Montini’s Chase Beebe and Warren’s Will Brooks.
“In that gym you’ve just got to be a dog, and that’s pretty much what it’s turned me into,” Ploski said. “I’ve just been working a lot on my ground game as well as my jujitsu. I’ve been grinding.”
Ploski, 18, inspired years ago by MMA superstar Conor McGregor, started training for this eight years ago. His father, Michael Ploski, got Aiden into it after moving to Schaumburg from Chicago. It stuck.
“I started building a love for it as soon as I started wrestling, pretty much,” Aiden Ploski said. “And the hard work and everything that goes into it, and the reward, that would be a great feeling. I want to be a UFC champion one day.”
When he watches mixed martial arts, Ploski indeed sees art. Leading up to his first match he’s assembling his sequences of attack in his head, so once he steps into the cage on Saturday he’s “in a zone,” he said.
“All that I’ve been doing has been leading up to this very moment,” Ploski said.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com