The case of the trophy wives
It took a village, as a former First Lady once said, to restore Wheaton Warrenville South's bank of trophy cases to their former glory.
Following the $72 million (split with Wheaton North) referendum-borne addition to the school, the displays are being installed. The original custom-made cases were rendered unsalvageable in the makeover.
For the return of the display cases, WW South athletic director Bob Quinn credited the school booster club PAWS (Parent Association Working for Students) and, specifically, organizers Renee Panno and Connie Carey.
"Absolutely, they have worked tirelessly to get that stuff back up in trophy cases and get the history of the school back up where it belongs," Quinn said of PAWS.
It is a two-fold history, the current, relatively brief one of WW South and the longer span of Wheaton Community-slash-Central.
The contents of the new display cases, located in four different areas of the school, have been organized into cases highlighting athletic achievements, school history, and fine and performing arts.
One of the best parts of the latter has to be the Joe Gerace Hall of Fame, spotlighting the retired state-class Tigers softball and speech coach.
The substantial athletic collection includes the actual Red Grange Award, granted to the top football player in Wheaton public high schools.
Speaking of Grange, the Wheaton graduate is represented with, among other things, a picture of him with Babe Ruth and a pair of tongs actually used by the "Wheaton Ice Man."
Quinn emphasized that due to parental involvement, the displays are finally rounding into form after too long in a backroom somewhere.
"We'll be in great shape in the next month," he said.
His own backyard
He coaches football at Whitney Young on Chicago's near west side, but Tim Franken could have gone by skateboard to the tape exchange with Young's first-round opponent, Glenbard North.
Franken -- father of former Driscoll athletes Ryan Shane and Kara and the Highlanders' current ace tailback, also named Tim -- lives right in Carol Stream, Glenbard North's home turf.
Coach Franken sees similarities between the Driscoll program and his group at Young, 9-0 for the first time.
"This is a team that cares and wants to win," he said. "I'd compare it to Driscoll, where you think they're undersized and it doesn't look good. But they get the job done."
Hot dog!
Speaking of Driscoll, veterans of the scene recalled only one other football game that drew as many people to Robert A. Barth Field as Montini-Driscoll did last Saturday. That was the 2002 Week 9 test between Driscoll and Immaculate Conception, both undefeated and destined to win state championships.
An indication of the size of Saturday's crowd, according to Driscoll concessions queen Carol Albreski -- mother of former record-setting Driscoll kicker Rick Albreski and sophomore kicker Phil -- the split-the-pot take was $3,300.
By the time she closed shop she had one bottle of Gatorade and 12 bottles of water left from 80 cases. She sold out of hot dogs, Polish sausages, Italian sausages. The stand sold more than 100 soft pretzels and 200 nachos with cheese.
"The concession," Carol said, "made almost as much as one year of tuition at Driscoll."
College achievers
Elmhurst College cross country captain Marisa Mele, out of Neuqua Valley, has had a hard-charging senior season. At the Illinois Intercollegiate Invitational she finished eighth, then took 13th out of 356 runners at Augustana. Mele ran seventh at the Pre-National Meet in Minnesota, and placed 12th at the UW-Oshkosh Invitational. Next up are the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin on Saturday.
Another long-distance runner, Montini graduate Jon O'Brien, was the Oct. 16 Midwest Conference cross country performer of the week. A sophomore at St. Norbert College (Wis.), at the UW-Oshkosh invite O'Brien shaved nearly a minute off his best time this season, which left him No. 2 on the MWC's top 8-kilometer times this fall.
Beloit College sophomore Erika Zevin, out of Hinsdale South, won the MWC No. 2 singles women's tennis tournament Oct. 14 in Madison. Zevin won the No. 3 singles title as a freshman.
Thomas Greene, the 2005 Class AA state golf champion at Lake Park, recently tied a Loyola University record for a 54-hole score at the IPFW Fall Classic at Deer Track Golf Course in Fort Wayne, Ind. The sophomore Rambler had a three-round total of 205 for a second-place finish. His opening-round score of 63 set a Loyola and a Deer Track Golf Course competitive-round record, though it was equaled two days later.
Illinois State senior football player Dan Simnick, from Naperville North, was one of four nominees for the university's Doug Collins Male Student-Athlete of the Year award. The defensive lineman has a 3.41 cumulative grade-point average in business administration and has received an award for citizenship and service by ISU's management and quantitative methods department.