Gialo to lead Lakes baseball program
Lakes' successful baseball program has a new head coach.
Former assistant Ray Gialo has been named to replace Bill Rosencrans, whose teaching position was eliminated after the 2009-10 school year.
Gialo is in his sixth year at Lakes as a teacher and coach. His wife, Christine, is also a teacher at Lakes, and the couple has two young boys.
Before coming to Lakes, Gialo was the head baseball coach at Chicago St. Patrick for three years. In his time at St. Pats, Gialo took the baseball program from 8 wins in his first year to 16 in the second to 21 in the third.
St. Patrick took second in the state the year after he left.
Lakes has won the North Suburban Lake Division the last two springs.
“We were looking for someone that would be a good fit for the job here,” Lakes athletic director Troy Parola said. “We were looking for someone that is a good family man, someone that has a vision, someone that is good for kids, a person that will be here for a long time, and, last, is a baseball man. Ray Gialo has shown that he is that person.”
Boys soccer
Longtime Mundelein boys soccer coach Dave Ekstrom has retired from coaching the sport. He will be replaced by one of his former players, Ernie Billittier.
Ekstrom has spent the majority of his teaching and coaching career at MHS, starting in August of 1981. Before that, he worked at Indian Creek High School in Shabbona for three years.
Ekstrom has taught driver education and physical education classes and has coached several sports during his career. In August of this year, Ekstrom recorded his 400th career win coaching boys and girls soccer. He plans to retire from his teaching position at the end of the 2011-2012 school year.
Billittier, a 2002 MHS graduate, played high school soccer for four years, one of which was for Ekstrom. Billittier is in his third year as an English instructor at MHS and has been assisting Ekstrom with boys and girls soccer teams.
“Most of Ekstrom's career has been spent in one of the toughest soccer conferences in the state,” Mundelein athletic director Perry Wilhelm said. “We wish him well and thank him for all his years of coaching on behalf of all of those athletes he inspired.”
Women's tennis
The USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Tennis Championships are being held this week at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, N.Y., the home of the US Open.
Stevenson graduate Denise Muresan, a senior at the University of Michigan, won her opening match Thursday to advance to the Round of 16 in the 32-player field.
College cross country
The College of Lake County's Spenser Simon, Francisco Alvir, Xavier Suarez and Lisa Fitzgibbons have qualified for the national meet to be held Nov. 13 in Spartanburg, S.C.
CLC's men finished fifth in the NJCAA Region 4 meet last Saturday at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg. Waubonsee Community College took first.
Individually for the Lancers, Simon placed fifth and Alvir took eighth to earn all-region honors. Suarez placed 25th. CLC's other runners were Noe Santamaria (35th) and Daniel Fallon (56th).
“I was proud of how we competed on this slow course in these windy conditions,” Lake County coach Steve Blomgren said. “Francisco outran five runners who beat him just a week ago, and Spenser stayed with the lead pack through the entire race. Xavier fought off a cramp through most of the race. We are disappointed with our team score, but we will do better next year.”
In the women's race, Fitzgibbons placed 16th. She also surpassed several runners who had placed ahead of her the previous week.
“Lisa needed a personal-best performance to make nationals, and that is exactly what she did,” Blomgren said. “All of the times were slow here but we could see the improvement.”