Athletics in good hands at Metea
The youngest sister school of Indian Prairie School District 204 high schools Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley, Metea Valley will welcome freshman and sophomore students beginning in the 2009-2010 academic year at Eola Road and North Aurora Street.
For athletics the leadership couldn't be better.
Last spring former Waubonsie Valley principal, dean, guidance counselor - and former Warriors baseball coach - Jim Schmid was hired as Metea Valley's principal.
As athletic director, Tom Schweer will lead the black-and-gold Mustangs from the ground up.
Concurrently serving as Waubonsie Valley girls swim coach and as a physical education instructor through the rest of 2008-09, Schweer is directing the effort to hire Metea athletic staff, schedule its contests, solidify its booster support and cover all the other bases.
Schweer last served as athletic director at Hinsdale Central. This will be Schweer's second time as the director of a fledgling athletic department. He was on board for the opening of St. Charles North in 2000.
"It's a big jigsaw puzzle where you're trying to fit people with teaching positions and coaching expertise," said Schweer, a 30-year swim coach whose son Steve was an all-area basketball player at Hinsdale Central.
"From my perspective the coaching is where the rubber meets the road. The interaction between coaching and the kids (requires) great technical skills and an ability to teach in those situations.
"A good coach, when you distill it, is a great teacher," he said, "and that's really what we're looking for."
He's seeking more than two dozen "lead" coaches for team sports that won't play on a varsity level until the fall of 2010. Individual athletes will be allowed to compete at the state level from the start.
Schweer he has some coaches in mind for various spots, but is in the middle of the hiring process. He hopes to conclude the process before Christmas break.
Among the first-year events he mentioned are a home volleyball tournament and a nearly full slate of sophomore football games, including a home night game against Neuqua Valley and underclass games against Brother Rice, Lemont, Bradley-Bourbonnais, Larkin, Joliet Central and Joliet West.
It's a tribute to Schweer - who from an outsider's perspective didn't seem to warrant his "resignation" from the Hinsdale Central post after controversies involving two coaches - that he gets to enjoy the lead role in building another athletic department.
"One of the things that was the neatest about the St. Charles North experience is that when you open a school and only have freshmen and sophomores, you have so many fewer kids, and it's so much easier to get to know the kids and establish relationships with them," he said.
"The experience is so rich, it really is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
Schweer is qualified to do it twice.
The 12th man was a woman
In a phone call to schedule the day and time for last weekend's Class 7A playoff football game between Wheaton Warrenville South and Downers Grove North, WW South coach Ron Muhitch and Trojans coach John Wander agreed to play on Oct. 31.
Muhitch suggested a 7 p.m. start, which was met by resistance from Wander's wife, Cheryl. We can just picture her hovering within earshot, waving frantically.
The Wanders have two young boys. Somebody had to take them trick-or-treating. That somebody was supposed to be John.
The time was then changed to an agreed-upon 7:30 p.m. The rest was history, as the seventh-seeded Trojans defeated The Associated Press' No. 2 team in 7A, 8-7.
Wander later said he never did have enough time to take his kids out for treats. He certainly provided the tricks.
Commit to the Redhawk
The Naperville Central and Naperville North ice hockey teams face off Nov. 9 at Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodridge. Both playing in the Metro West, through Wednesday Naperville Central carried a record of 3-4-1 while Naperville North was 4-1-2, trailing Neuqua Valley, Hinsdale Central and Geneva in the division.
This typically highly attended rivalry game between the Redhawks and Huskies starts at 5:40 p.m. with the junior varsity at 7:20. Cost is $2 for students, $3 for adults.
To find out more on prep hockey, start at redhawkhockey.com. It's got links to teams, stats, schedules, a lot of neat stuff. For example, one of Marist's junior varsity goalies is Joseph Curtis. He's undoubtedly been described as a young Curtis Joseph.
The IC pipeline
On DePauw University's 6-2 football squad, three Immaculate Conception graduates are seeing quality time.
A pair of 2006 IC graduates, Bryan Mulligan and Brad Paus, are receivers for the Tigers. Paus entered Greencastle, Ind., as a quarterback but in six games this season he's caught 10 passes for 68 yards and a touchdown. Mulligan, an all-state pick his senior season at IC, has 37 catches for 353 yards and 3 touchdowns.
This season they were joined by 2008 graduate Jonathan Ellis. An all-area running back as a junior at IC, the college freshman leads DePaul with 367 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns.
The Tigers also offer Steve Wojanis of St. Francis, Pat Kelly of WW South, Anthony Arena of Driscoll and Alex Chivas of Naperville Central.
See how they run
The state cross country championships are Saturday in Peoria. Entering sectionals, these were the final rankings of the Illinois Cross Country Coaches Poll for both boys and girls:
Girls: 1) Geneva, 2) Palatine, 3) Hinsdale Central, 4) Naperville North, 5) York and Sandburg, 7) Lyons Twp., 8) Buffalo Grove, 9) Hoffman Estates, 10) St. Charles East. Benet and WW South were ranked Nos. 12 and 13, respectively.
Boys: 1) York, 2) Naperville North, 3) Geneva, 4) Neuqua Valley, 5) Lyons Twp., 6) St. Charles North, 7) Palatine, 8) Sandburg, 9) Cary-Grove, 10) Edwardsville.