Nifty run for Nicoline clan

High school is finally coming to an end for the Nicoline family - 12 years after it started.

Yep, you read that right. Twelve straight years of high school.

"It's amazing," laughed Jeff Nicoline, who's nearly done with his own four-year tour. "That's a really long time."

Indeed it is. Twelve years takes us back to the fall of 1997 when Amanda Nicoline walked onto the Round Lake High School campus as a freshman and promptly tried out for poms.

Four more active kids and hundreds of sporting events later, the legacy of the Nicoline family at Round Lake High School is unmistakable.

In three weeks, Jeff, the "baby" of the family, will receive his diploma from Round Lake and essentially end a run of athletic participation and excellence that is rare to see out of a single family.

After Amanda, who graduated in 2001, came Jim, or Jimbo as he's better known by family and friends.

Jimbo was a hot-shot basketball and baseball player who set 3-point shooting records and was one of the best hitters to ever come out of the Round Lake baseball program.

An all-conference, all-area player who was also named Round Lake's senior athlete of the year in 2003, he set a high standard. But Jimbo was also a real-life, tangible inspiration to younger brothers John and Jeff, each of whom played four years of basketball and baseball and were standouts in their own right.

"The best athlete in our family? That's Jimbo, for sure," said Jeff, a second baseman who is also Round Lake's top hitter. "I wanted to be just like him. He taught me how to shoot, how to hit. I'd go to his games and watch him, just really watch him. And then, I just kept hearing his name (over the loudspeaker). It was like, 'Wow, he's frickin' good.'"

Last but certainly not least in the Nicoline clan is Kimmy, who wasn't too shabby an athlete herself. Age-wise, she fits in between Jimbo and John (Class of 2007) and was a star volleyball and basketball player. Like Jimbo, she earned one of the school's highest awards when she was named its female athlete of the year as a senior in 2005.

"I think we've left a really nice legacy at Round Lake of nice kids who played sports pretty well," Jeff said.

Of course, the Nicolines were playing sports long before they got to Round Lake High School, thanks in part to their sports-minded parents.

Dad Jim and Mom Joanie have known each other since they were in high school. Jim was a standout baseball player at Round Lake and Joanie played softball at Grant. They met at church and instantly connected over everything but their baseball affiliations.

Jim is a diehard White Sox fan, Joanie loves the Cubs.

"They both came from really competitive families where everyone played sports," Jeff Nicoline said. "At our house, sports were always on TV, Cubs games, Sox games, Bears games. And when we got old enough my parents were pretty much like, 'You guys are going to be playing some sports.'

"I remember going to a lot of my brothers' baseball games and basketball games. I even went to all my sister's volleyball games. In the summers, we'd play Wiffleball in the yard, tackle football, basketball. We played sports and watched sports all the time and we loved it."

And yet, perhaps no one loved it more than Mom Joanie.

As the kids have come and gone and the sports have changed from one season to another. she and her husband Jim have remained diehards.

They may have had to leave one kid's game early in order to catch the end of another's, but they almost never missed any game in full.

Add it all up and they've probably seen at least 1,000 games over the last 12 years. And those are just the ones during the school year.

You can tack on a few hundred more for all the summer league games they've also witnessed.

"My kids are excited, they're moving on, they're going to college, some of them already have jobs," said Joanie Nicoline, who has covered the walls of her living room with sports-oriented pictures of her kids. "But I'm like, 'Bummer!' To tell you the truth, I'm pretty sad. I'm going to miss Round Lake High School. I really am. I probably had more fun during my kids' high school years than I did during my own. I'm going to miss sitting in the bleachers, going to all the games. It was fun."

Jeff is glad the fun hasn't quite ended for him.

He's got a few more weeks of baseball ahead and he's hoping for a few more double plays, his favorite part of baseball.

He also likes having his own sizeable cheering section.

Jeff says that his brothers and sisters haven't forgotten to give him the support that he gave them when they were in high school.

"That's only fair, right?" Jeff laughed. "I got taken to all their games. Now, they've got to give it back.

"They've actually been real good about it. I'm getting as much support as I gave them and I love it. When I see them in the stands, I step it up a notch."

No wonder Jeff has been such a standout. Most of his brothers and sisters still live in the area and make his games a priority.

Amanda, 26, works at a local restaurant and is about to get married. Jimbo, 24, is a salesman for 7UP and is married with a baby on the way. And John, 20, is working with Jimbo and also attending the College of Lake County.

Only Kimmy, 22, is out of state. She's at college in Minnesota studying to become a teacher.

"The house used to be loud and hectic and I miss that because now, it's pretty quiet," Jeff said. "But at least almost everyone still lives around here. It's just going to be really quiet here next year. I don't know what my parents are going to do. They're going to have a ton of time of their hands."

That might be only temporary, though.

With Jimbo set to provide Jim and Joanie Nicoline with their first grandchild, odds are that T-ball and youth soccer games are right around the corner.

"We're just going to start all over again," Joanie said with a laugh. "It'll be back to the bleachers yelling as loud as everyone else."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com