Suburban athletes honored as academic all-staters

What's really important at our high schools?

The Daily Herald presents glowing stories and nice pictures on what our young people do in sports.

That's fine. It's nice to honor those achievements, but there's a lot more to the high school experience than just putting on a uniform.

The well-rounded student receives good grades, participates in many activities and demonstrates outstanding citizenship.

The Illinois High School Association selects an All-State Academic Team each year that recognizes those important qualities.

The first all-state team was presented in the 1993-94 school year.

Each member school of the IHSA has the opportunity to nominate two students, one male and one female.

Each nominee must meet several criteria to be considered: 1. Minimum GPA of 3.50 on a 4.0 scale after the seventh semester; 2. Participation in at least two IHSA-sponsored activities (athletics and/or non-athletics) during the last two school years; 3. Demonstration of outstanding citizenship during her/his high school career.

From those hundreds of nominations, 13 boys and 13 girls were named all-state.

The selection committee is made up of principals, athletic directors, and educators from across the state.

Cook County and Lake County in the Daily Herald circulation area contributed three all-staters and four on the honorable mention list.

Prospect High School has two of the 26 all-staters in Marietta Smith and Pat Ziegenfuss and Barrington offers Amanda Schnack.

Earning honorable mention were Ken Diedrich of Wheeling, Francesca Himelman of Rolling Meadows, Joshua Brickman of Vernon Hills and Amanda Leon of Grayslake North.

The 2007-08 all-staters will be honored at a banquet on April 21 in Bloomington, Ill. The academic team is presented by Caterpillar.

Basketball

Drake junior forward Jonathan Cox (Barrington) was named to the CollegeHoops.net All-NCAA Tournament First-Round team after his performance in the Bulldogs' opening round game against Western Kentucky.

Cox earned his 12th career double-double with a career-high 29 points and a career-high 126 rebounds, while also blocking 2 shots. He tied a career high by making four-of-six 3-pointers.

Others named to the five-man all-tourney team were Stephen Curry of Davidson, Tyrone Brazelton of Western Kentucky, Jack McClinton of Miami and Sonny Weems of Arkansas. Curry was the most valuable player.

Of course, the Barrington connection is still alive and well in the tourney thanks to point guard Jason Richards of Davidson. Richards had 20 points in the upset over Georgetown and will face Wisconsin Friday night.

• They're running out of awards to give to Jonny Reibel (Hoffman Estates) of Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. Reibel's latest honor was being named to the NABC Division II All-District first team. Rollins was 81-37 with Reibel at point guard over four seasons.

• Kayla Ming (Grayslake) of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, who averaged 17.9 points per game and scored 883 in her career, earned Daktronics all-Great Lakes Region second-team honors.

Gymnastics

Freshman Allison Buckley (Conant) of the University of Illinois was named Big Ten Women's Gymnast of the Week. She posted the second best all-around score in Illinois history with a 39.450 to take first against Illinois-Chicago. She also won titles in the vault (9.900), beam (9.925) and floor exercise (9.900). The 9.925 beam is tied for the second-best score in program history.

Buckley already has 16 individual titles in her freshman campaign, which ties her for the fourth-highest season total in Illini history.

• Angel Simonini (Antioch) will join her Wisconsin-Whitewater teammates March 28-29 in Cortland, N.Y., for the national championships, the first time the school has qualified. Simoni is in her third year at Whitewater and competes on the vault team, a group that has made entries in the school record book over 20 times this season and has broken three all-time records.

Baseball

Josh Weaver (Leyden) of Wheaton College was named player of the week in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. He had a victory and save in two pitching appearances, yielding no earned runs in 10 innings. He struck out 13 in eight innings against Becker College in Orlando, Fla.

• Steve Godawa (Buffalo Grove) of Valparaiso University earned his first Division I victory with two innings of scoreless relief against Dayton University.

• Freshman Grant Monroe (Schaumburg) leads the Duke pitching staff in wins with 3. He has worked 21 innings with a 3.00 ERA.

Softball

Ashley Sloan (Elk Grove) leads Yale University in hitting .424 through 14 games. She has 23 hits and has scored 13 runs.

• Karlee Quartisch (Palatine) of Augustana College is hitting .361 after 13 games. She leads the team in runs scored (11) and has 13 hits.

• Freshman pitcher Claire Voris (Barrington) of No. 9 Washington University St. Louis (14-5) has 10 of the team's wins and a 2.19 ERA. She has 109 strikeouts in 73¿ innings.

Also at Washington, senior shortstop Laura D'Andrea (Prospect) helped the Bears win their fifth consecutive University Athletic Association tourney championship in Altamonte Springs, Fla., batting .320 with 2 home runs and 2 doubles.

Hockey

A.J. Alfrey (Conant), captain at University of Central Oklahoma (Edmond, Okla.), has been named to the D1 American Collegiate Hockey Association All-Star Team. He played for the Cleveland Lumberjacks and Chicago Force before committing to the Central Oklahoma Bronchos.

• Johnny Griggs (Barrington) was in goal as the Dubuque ThunderBirds of the Central States Hockey League won the eight-team, five-day Hurster Cup Tournament with a 5-0 mark after going wire-to-wire in winning the league's regular-season title with a 43-3-1 record.

The ThunderBirds now will compete in the USA Hockey's Tier III Junior A National Tournament in Marlboro, Mass.

Soccer

Senior Petar Tomicic (Buffalo Grove) was named the most valuable player at Augustana College in an official team announcement last week. Senior Scott Marlega (Conant) was honored as the team's best offensive player, and sophomore Eric Love (Buffalo Grove) earned the "Augie Award."

• Malinda Holmer (Conant) of IPFW (Indiana/Purdue Fort Wayne) led the Summit League goalkeepers in average saves per game. She was No. 34 nationally in NCAA Division I with 6.44 per game and also was named to the Summit League All-Academic Team with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Coaching clinic

The American Sport Education Program (ASEP) will hold a coaching clinic at the Quality Suites in Rockford on March 30. Anyone interested in becoming certified to coach middle or high school athletics in invited. Successful completion of the ASEP is required by the IHSA for all non-faculty coaches.

To register, or for more information about this or future clinics, contact Jeff Kyle at (217) 586-4799 or thekyles@mchsi.com.