Award catches Neuqua’s Oyster by surprise

Neuqua Valley senior Megan Oyster was in a physical education class — body sculpting — when Wildcats coach Joe Moreau texted her.

She’d been selected as the Gatorade Illinois girls soccer player of the year.

“Right when I heard it I was in shock,” said the UCLA-bound defender. “I knew I was nominated for it, but I didn’t know I was going to have it in my hands. Right when I got that text, I became teary-eyed.”

Winning the honor in her fourth time nominated, Oyster became the third local player in four years to have captured it. She joins a pair of winners from Waubonsie Valley, Vanessa DiBernardo and Bri Rodriguez, who sandwiched Lake Forest’s Rachel Quon. Oyster has played with and against them for years in high school, at national camps and even pickup games, she said.

One neat thing is that a defender won this honor. Oyster has put up pretty good offensive numbers — 9 goals and 5 assists this season and 33 career goals with 27 assists in her Neuqua career — but her game is to knock others off theirs.

“It’s not just about scoring goals,” she said. “It’s not about being in the limelight, it’s about stopping the goals and doing the dirty work.”

Oyster, whose 3.25 grade-point average also helped her win the Gatorade honor, is eligible for the national award, which will be announced later this month.

Meanwhile, her goal is to keep the 22-0 Wildcats flawless starting with their regional final Friday.

“It’s a perfect season right now, but we take it one game at a time and everything right now is in the past,” Oyster said. “So the next game is the same thing, we’ve got to keep our season going.”

Touchdown in Tanzania

With goals of student leadership and service — plus a little healthy competition — on Saturday an American football game will be played in Africa for the first time in history.

The Bulldogs of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, will do the honors, playing Mexico’s CONADEIP All-Stars in the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl. The game will be held in the 20,000-capacity Sheik Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium in the town of Arusha, Tanzania, near the highest point on the continent.

“It’s really interesting, to be the first (game) ever in the country of Africa,” said Drake tight end and Wheaton Warrenville South graduate Dan Hohenstein, who returned to playing duty last fall with the Bulldogs after blowing out a knee in WW South’s 2009 second-round playoff game against Geneva. As a junior he also was a state-qualifying high jumper, but that knee didn’t come around fast enough for a repeat trip downstate.

Former Tigers teammate Mike Piatkowski will be playing quarterback for Drake. Another WW South graduate, Jim Nelson, is writing a blog about the experience.

Kevin Marshall of Glenbard South, Naperville North’s Idris Hanidu and Arnas Gintautas and Hinsdale Central’s Nick Chenier and Jason Rafferty, among others, should be among the 69 Bulldogs making the trip.

“It’s kind of cool that we get to play the Mexican all-star team, because we get to play kids not from our country, see how their skills are different,” Hohenstein said.

Teams comprised of American Division III all-stars have won nearly all of the contests against Mexican teams, whether in the former Aztec Bowl or the current annual Tazon de Estrellas game held in Mexico. That’s to be expected.

Just two years ago, however, the Mexican team won 24-12 despite a rallying attempt by former Naperville North quarterback Aaron Fanthorpe. The Americans got their revenge this past December with a 48-7 victory.

“They play real physical football,” said Hohenstein, who finished his finals at Drake on May 10. “They’re all going to be older kids. I’ve seen pictures of the team and they look pretty big. The Division III team beat them pretty soundly, but it’ll still be physical football. We’re pretty nervous.”

Football is like second nature to these guys, so the real challenge will probably be the final six days of the trip, which started getting organized last September. The players will remain in Tanzania until May 31.

Some 65 Drake players and 45 Mexican players will climb 19,336-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro, with locals serving as guides and mucking equipment up the mountain. Upon reaching the top the two teams will hoist their respective flags. This was the ultimate team-bonding experience as imagined by Drake coach Chris Creighton.

“Everyone’s really excited about the whole experience, about climbing the mountain,” Hohenstein said. “Everyone’s really nervous, about who can make it all the way up.”

The trip will include clinics on American football, scheduled for Thursday, and community service projects in the town of Moshi, including helping build a new wing of an orphanage.

“I think it’ll be a ton of fun, the whole experience,” Hohenstein said. “A couple weeks down there, we get to spend with a bunch of different cultures, get to know everyone. Especially at the top of the mountain, once you get to the summit.”

doberhelman@dailyherald.com