Let's play (with) two!

Shortly before Christmas, Lisle Senior High announced that after 18 years as the Lions' varsity baseball coach, Jim Steben had resigned.

The timing was appropriate. With their dad around more often, each day will seem a little more like Christmas for Steben's young twins, nearly 21 months old.

"It's just to kind of help out and spend more time with the family. I mean, they're only going to be small once, and I want to enjoy it," Steben explained.

"Being a head coach, you put a lot of time into it. It's a year-round type of situation, and that's the only way I know. For me to do it well I need to do it year-round. And I just didn't feel right at this time I could do it."

Succeeding Steben in the baseball job -- he will still teach physical education at Lisle as well as help coach girls volleyball -- is his eight-year varsity assistant, Pete Meyer.

"He's done a great job," Steben said of Meyer. "He works well with the athletes. He loves baseball the way I do. We both have a passion for baseball, and I know he'll do a great job being a head coach."

Steben, who with Meyer has developed recent stars like Tom Buchholz, Brent Walters and Aaron Giza, said his standout moments were winning Lisle's first regional baseball title in 2006, then repeating the feat last spring.

He didn't rule out a return to baseball someday but for now his wife and kids will have him around a little more in the spring and summer.

"I had great people to work with me, and I had great athletes in the program, and I just see a lot of good things for the program," Steben said. "I'm excited about that. It wasn't an easy decision for me, but I knew what I had to do."

'Opportunity' knocks

The 11th annual Opportunity Through Baseball benefit, presented by Neuqua Valley baseball coach Robin Renner, is scheduled for 4 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at Walter Payton's Roundhouse in Aurora.

The dinner-auction event benefits several good causes, like the Aurora Neighborhood Baseball League and Dave Dravecky's Outreach of Hope.

In arranging a speaker, Renner topped himself once again. He'll have the "Human Vacuum Cleaner," Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson.

More details later…

A Falcon is landing

Wheaton North athletic director Matt Fisher said applications will be accepted until Jan. 23 for the job of Falcons varsity head football coach, the position vacated by the resignation of Matt Foster.

Interviews will take place the first two weeks of February. Fisher hopes to have a new coach by spring break.

Good Fortune

Wheaton Academy all-area soccer player Leah Fortune, born in Brazil to American parents, has been invited to train with the 2008 Women's World Cup Under-20 Brazilian National Team.

The Wheaton Academy junior -- at 17 the youngest of the 28 players invited -- left for Teresopolis, Brazil, on Monday.

Fortune was named to the 2007 Regional Team and was among 88 girls invited to last summer's adidas ESP camp. There she became one of 36 to make the all-star camp.

"She's obviously a special player, and we're incredibly proud of her," said Wheaton Academy coach Dave Underwood.

On Jan. 29 the final Brazilian team will be announced. The squad then plays in South American qualification matches. Brazil's U-20 girls won the 2004 and 2006 South American Championships.

A running start

Last Saturday at the Arkansas High School Invitational, the Aurora Flyers track club's 1,600-meter relay team of McKinzie Schulz (Benet), Rebecca Neville (Merrillville, Ind.), Kelsey Ontko (Benet) and Shakeia Pinnick (Waubonsie Valley) placed third in a time of 3:55.92.

That would have placed fifth at last year's Class AA girls state meet and would have won at the 2007 Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic by five seconds.

In the open 400 Pinnick ran a photo-finish second, her time of 56.35 just three-hundredths of a second behind the winner. (According to Scott Bush of Illinois Runners.com, that's less than half a second off the nation's top girls 400 time.)

Closer to home, at Proviso West last Friday Wheaton Warrenville South's Randall Babb, who anchored the Tigers' Class AA second-place 3,200 relay last spring, won the 800 meters by more than three seconds.

What's up…

…Christina Tardy

The Naperville Central senior has battled injuries to her quadriceps, back, knee and both wrists since taking up gymnastics at 4 years old. She's working to overcome a sprained ankle so she can perform her favorite event, floor exercise, in her last year in the sport.

This is your last season? "I'm thinking this is probably it. I've had a lot of injuries the last few years and a lot of injuries that keep coming back. I think I just need a break, let my body heal."

Best advice from parents Toni and Teman? "They just keep telling me that everything is going to get better and I'll get through it."

Why gymnastics? "I think it's really good exercise. I don't have to go to a gym, I just go to practice and work out. It's pretty fun. I like flipping around, stuff like that."

What's on your iPod? "I have a lot of John Mayer. I like a lot of those soft rock-type artists. A lot of country. A band called Lifehouse."

Favorite type of doughnut? "I like strawberry frosted."

Most treasured possession: "I really like my house. If we ever sold my house I would be very upset. My dad (a carpentry contractor) built my house when I was 3."

Greatest gymnastics accomplishment? "I won state on floor my last year in (club) gymnastics. Two years before that I won state for beam and bars, but that wasn't really as big a deal for me. I love floor, and that was really cool for me."

The future? "After high school I want to go to school for something called an aesthetician, basically skin care. I'm actually going to a beauty school (Naperville Skin Institute), so I'm not going to college. I really like makeup a lot and hope to be a makeup artist, something along those lines."