Sears in good company in WW South Hall of Fame

As a Wheaton schoolboy, when you saw Al Sears coming you ran, not walked, in the opposite direction.

He was a rabble-rouser, a bully with the brawn to back it up.

Inside that huge chest, of course, beat a heart of gold. A caring network of folks helped sharpen his focus to realize its glow.

A 1981 Wheaton Central graduate, Sears recalls former Tigers football coach John Thorne telling him not to come out for the sport his sophomore year.

“The first guy that ever made me accountable,” Sears said.

There were others, like wrestling guru and former athletic director Ed Ewoldt, an old-school disciplinarian. Perhaps it’s no coincidence both Sears and Ewoldt, plus eight other stalwarts, will comprise the third annual Wheaton Warrenville South Athletic Hall of Fame class, to be honored at 2 p.m. Saturday at the school, free and open to all. A reception will follow from 5-8 p.m. at Courtyard Banquets in Warrenville. Inductees also will be introduced at Friday’s football game against Wheaton North.

“I’m probably an unlikely guy to go into any high school hall of fame, but I honestly was blessed with good athletic skills,” said Sears, who as a senior heavyweight finished third in Class AA, then became the NCAA all-time falls leader as a four-time Division II All-America at Southern Illinois.

“My message is I couldn’t have done it without a lot of good teachers and parents and coaching,” said Sears, who has rejuvenated the wrestling program at Belleville West, where he’s in his 11th year as head coach. “Really the only thing that kept me rolling in school was patience by those three groups of people.”

Sears will enjoy more good company in Saturday’s Hall of Fame inductions.

Fellow honorees include former volleyball stars Laura Davis-Johnson and Sean Rooney, an Olympian. A New York Yankee, Don Bollweg, will be recognized as well as Ali Klaas-Ittersagen, a prep and college star in both tennis and basketball.

Also, Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Famer Jim Longacre and former Tigers three-sport star Jeff Thorne, son of John Thorne, who was in the inaugural WW South Hall of Fame Class. Basketball sharpshooter Eric Channing goes in as does Don Hatch, who helped Iowa win the 1969 NCAA gymnastics title.

Ewoldt, who served as a biology teacher, coach and athletic director from 1959-88, remembers Hatch’s introduction to gymnastics. A wrestler, in junior high Hatch found himself in the wrong room as a gymnastics meeting began.

“He was too embarrassed to leave,” Ewoldt said.

A Wheaton resident for 52 years, Ewoldt’s not only in the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame and the National Junior College Hall of Fame, he’s a Lifetime Achievement honoree by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

He hails from Wall Lake, Iowa, and arrived in Wheaton when its population was 15,000. USA Wrestling Magazine’s 1991 man of the year acknowledges his induction Saturday with no-nonsense logic.

“What’s good about the hall of fame,” Ewoldt said, “is the people who put you in there put you in there because of you.”

Broncos buck the trend

Last Saturday, Montini’s girls cross country team won its second conference title and first since 1992. Ericka Laviste, Theresa Connelly and Brittany Fisher finished 1-3 to lead the Broncos over perpetual Suburban Christian Conference favorite St. Francis. Scott Nelson’s Spartans had won every year since 2000, and 13 of 16 times since 1995.

“They were very excited about it,” said Montini coach Pete Connelly, Theresa’s father. “(St. Francis) has been very good for a very long time. They’re a good program to measure yourself against. It’s a mark of achievement for our kids to win against them.”

Reason’s for Montini’s improvement are multifold. There’s a solid core of runners who include SCC 10th-place finisher Catherine Kitz, Kelly Boyd, Maggie Pacana and Alex Briggs. Plus, Maggie Hallerud and Gianna Gentile won the frosh-soph and open races, respectively.

There’s coaching. Pete Connelly came aboard three years ago to solidify not just the girls cross country program but also the girls and boys track teams.

Last fall Montini qualified for its first girls cross country state meet. All-state finishes by Fisher and Laviste paced the Broncos’ 10th-place Class 2A finish.

Finally, Pete Connelly credits the athletes themselves.

“They just did the work,” he said. “It’s not really a big secret. In cross country, and I guess most sports, it pays off to do hard, consistent training. But in cross country it’s absolutely necessary, and the girls chose to do it.”

Montini runs at the 2A Riverside-Brookfield regional, where Connelly said the host and Nazareth pose the greatest challenges.

“We have to stay healthy,” he said. “It’s a cliché, but it’s certainly true.”

Family men

Despite Driscoll’s 2009 closing, the Highlanders’ football mindset endures in teams like the Addison Cowboys, where 2004 graduates Tom Redlin, Dan Cwik and Joe Senese are assisting Addison Trail 2002 graduate Mike Skupien with the youth football team of sixth- through eighth-graders.

The Highlanders trio came aboard three years ago due to other Driscoll contacts then with the Cowboys, Frank Ropo and Vince Raimondi.

“In high school we always talked about coming back to coach,” said Redlin, a receiver and defensive back on Driscoll’s 14-0 team of 2003, which won the third of its state-record seven consecutive state championships.

“When we were at Driscoll the coaching staff was a lot of alumni,” Redlin said. “It was really rich in tradition. We wanted to be those alumni for a future group to come back and coach. Now, of course, Driscoll’s not there anymore, and we picked up the Addison (Cowboys).”

The kids, whose offensive formations run the gamut of Pro I to spread sets, started the season 6-0 before losing to Villa Park and Hyde Park teams. The Cowboys earned a No. 5 seed out of 16 teams in the playoffs, and host Westchester on Saturday at Melrose Park. If successful, Addison will host a second-round playoff game next week at Addison Trail High School.

Cwik and Redlin are finishing up college degrees, but one gets the feeling that like their former prep coaches, every spare moment is devoted to football.

“Tom and I spend hours on it,” said Cwik, who shares offensive coordinator duties with Redlin. He was the 2003 Driscoll team’s quarterback. Senese, a middle linebacker back in the day, coaches linebackers and running backs.

“The team’s a family and the coaches are a more intimate family. It’s a great time,” Cwik said.

Based “100 percent” on their prep experience, Redlin said, these young coaches try to impart more than X’s and O’s.

“Playing football the right way, caring for the guys next to you. Those are all things we try to preach,” said Redlin, reflecting on his Highlanders coach Tim Racki, now at Nazareth.

“Coach Racki taught us about football,” Cwik said, “but he taught us a ton on how to conduct ourselves as men ... He always said it’s a microcosm of life, and we’re just trying to teach the boys that stuff.”

doberhelman@dailyherald.com