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Barrington honors a hall of fame trio

Barrington High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2024 is connected by a common thread that feels like family.

“The people that I worked closely with in our athletic office were some of the best people that you could ever hope to work with,” said one inductee, former Broncos athletic director and boys basketball coach Mike Obsuszt.

Relationships were and remain essential to Obsuszt, retired girls track and field coach Jody Gitelis and retired assistant softball coach Dennis Sander.

Boosting the hall’s numbers to 67 since the program began in 1992, they’ll be inducted at 6 p.m. Oct. 18 at a ceremony in the school’s front atrium and recognized during halftime of Barrington’s 7:30 p.m. varsity football game against Hoffman Estates.

“It’s the many assistant coaches and the talented athletes that made this outstanding honor possible,” said Gitelis, now living in a Las Vegas suburb.

Jodi Gitelis

The day after the hall of fame induction she plans to attend the Mid-Suburban League cross country championships at Busse Woods. Retiring after the 2023 track season, Gitelis is still close to Broncos running programs.

She’ll also celebrate the birthday of one of her best friends, Debbie Revolta, the Broncos girls cross country coach. Gitelis coached Revolta in 1978 at Glenbrook South, before Gitelis’ 36-year tenure at Barrington began in 1988.

If there’s a raconteurs hall of fame, Sander should be in that, too. The 76-year-old Army veteran, now living in Colorado Springs, first started coaching youth baseball in 1965 in his hometown, Palatine. But with a family history in the area dating to 1866, he has hours of entertaining stories.

The originator of Barrington High concessions’ outstanding pork chop sandwich as a 30-year grill master, Sander got recruited to manage Barrington American Legion Post 158 baseball and, in 1995, by Barrington head softball coach Perry Peterson to assist him. Sander’s wife of 53 years, Sarah, kept the softball score book.

“It means a lot,” Dennis Sander said of the hall of fame. “It’s nice to be recognized for what you do. But it’s still the players that always meant the most to me.”

Contributing to 17 regional softball titles, 12 downstate appearances, and 2007 and 2008 state runners-up, Sander aided two of the best: Peterson, third all-time in victories in Illinois, and baseball coach Kirby Smith — “The greatest baseball coach I ever knew,” Sander said.

Dennis Sander

He recalled participating in 14 state tournaments with Post 158, which fielded players such as former Seattle Mariners player and current manager Dan Wilson, current Broncos baseball coach Pat Wire, and his own son, Matt Sander, who pitched at the University of Illinois.

Gitelis earned a ton of hardware at Barrington, including 15 sectional titles, 2008 and 2015 second-place trophies and the 2007 Class AA title that included relay winners Molly Glantz and Rebecca Tracy, among Gitelis’ nine event champions.

Gitelis’ memories are too many to count, she said.

“Obviously, with our record, we had so many talented athletes, so many great people, so many great parents,” said Gitelis, a 2004 inductee into the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Obsuszt, 62, was athletic director for those track trophies and much softball success. In his run from 2003-22 Barrington won six state titles and earned 52 total trophies, according to administrative assistant Linda Ray.

Also Barrington’s boys basketball coach from 1995-2002 and now serving as interim athletic director at St. Viator, Obsuszt repeatedly said his favorite thing as athletic director — what “I was most proud of” — were relationships with people like Ray, and all the coaches, administrators and athletes, many he keeps in touch with.

Moving on from basketball allowed Obsuszt to watch his four children compete in their sports at Lake Zurich High School, as best he could.

“This is not possible without the support of my wife, Michelle,” Obsuszt said. “She went from being the supportive basketball wife and not seeing her husband all winter to being the supportive athletic director wife and not seeing her husband all year.”

Dynamic duo

They may be Gen Z, but in a manner of speaking a pair of Rolling Meadows senior volleyball players are now also millennials.

In a volleyball match against South Elgin on Oct. 4 at the Glenbrook North Discovery Tournament, co-captains Lucy Pufundt and Carmen Powers both surpassed 1,000 in their respective strengths.

Pufundt, an outside hitter, reached 1,000 kills. Powers, a setter, surpassed 1,000 assists.

They’ve played together since their days at South Middle School in Arlington Heights. Pufundt and Powers share captain’s duties with senior outside hitter Gaby Zielinski.

After Tuesday’s win over Hersey, which moved Rolling Meadows’ record to 24-6, Pufundt had 1,040 kills and Powers 1,049 assists.

Mustangs coach Jack Nickle said program statistics don’t exist before 2012, but he believes Pufundt’s mark is “more than anyone by quite a bit.” Powers ranks third in assists since at least 2012.

Nickle doesn’t think any Rolling Meadows girl has more kills than Pufundt since rally scoring began in 2003. She’s a four-year starter.

“One thing that she has that’s really special is unbelievable arm talent. She has an unbelievably fast arm,” Nickle said.

“She’s also an extremely hard worker. She really is focused on getting better every single day, and that’s how she got here.”

  Rolling Meadows’ Lucy Pufundt stretches for a back row shot from Saint Viator in a girls volleyball match in Arlington Heights on Sept. 5. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com

He’s got the goods

Woodridge resident Chris Considine, president of Wilson Sporting Goods from 2005-13 and with the company 30 years, will go into the Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame next year.

Considine will be inducted along with the late Johnny Cardinal of Texas and Ned Hamilton of Florida in a ceremony in Florida in May.

Among Considine’s innovations were the A2000 baseball glove and the Solution and Evolution basketballs. He built Wilson endorsement relationships with Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Greg Maddux and Mike Krzyzewski, and he helped sign Roger Federer and Serena and Venus Williams to the Wilson advisory panel.

After some time as a consultant, since 2020 Considine has been president and chief executive officer of TRUE Sports, which features equipment for golf, hockey, lacrosse and baseball.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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