Futsal making an impact on Main Street

If you enjoy indoor sports, Main Street Sports Center certainly has a lot to offer.

The indoor sports venue recently opened in Lake Zurich at the corner of Route 22 and Main Street.

The facility has been completely outfitted with new accessories, new fields and courts throughout. It features four large fields with state-of-the-art rubber infill turf and a large hard-surface court.

The indoor turf fields are great for almost any sport, especially soccer and lacrosse. But they’re also available for flag football, cross-training and baseball.

The hard-surface court is specially finished for Futsal, an increasingly popular sport. But it can also be used for basketball or other training purposes.

Futsal is similar to soccer, but with a slightly smaller ball played on a hard court. It’s fast and fun, and already popular across Europe and South America.

Main Street also has new batting tunnels for baseball batting practice.

The facility is open to the community for party rental and team play, and can be rented by the hour, day or on a contract basis or for league play.

Because the facility is so large, multiple games can be played at the same time.

Athletic classes and training programs are also being offered at Main Street Sports Center.

Classes are forming for youth basketball (the “Little Dribblers” program), an “Intro to Flag Football” class, a floor hockey class and several “soccer and skill classes”.

Main Street Sports Center describes itself as a clean, safe, friendly environment for parents, kids and athletes of all ages.

Classes are offered for ages of 5 to 19, as well as many adult classes.

All classes are taught by experienced athletes, most of which have played for professional teams or high-ranking college programs.

Main Street Sports Center is managed by Tony DiJohn, well-known in the Lake Zurich area for his experience as a trainer and leader in community sports.

DiJohn has more 15 years of soccer program and facility management experience.

Also on the staff is ex-professional soccer star Oscar Albuquerque, who played for the Chicago Sting, the Canadian Olympic Team and several other pro soccer teams. More information is avialbe by calling (847) 927-0190.

Men’s basketball

Augustana sophomore Brandon Motzel (Carmel) of Buffalo Grove led a strong effort by Vikings bench in a 72-57 win over Millikin at Carver Center. Motzel had team highs of 13 points and 7 rebounds as the Vikes improved to 15-2 overall and 5-1 in the Illinois and Wisconsin College Conference.

Griffin Pils (Libertyville) hit her second 3-pointer of the first half to give the Vikings a 26-point advantage.

Women’s basketball

Back-to-back baskets by Augustana junior Valerie VanRoeyen (Libertyville) gave the Vikings their first lead at 14-13 in a 88-78 loss at Elmhurst.

The Vikings lost the lead but four straight free throws by freshman Olivia Mayer (Libertyville) put them back in front.

Men’s track

Augustana senior Will Lardner (Mundelein) cleared 14-1¼ to win the pole vault at the Monmouth Indoor Invitational. The Vikings won the title with a score of 269.5.

Women’s hockey

Concordia (Wis.) freshman Veronica Metanova (Palatine)is the second-leading scorer on her team with 7 goals and 6 assists in 16 games.

She had 2 goals in the third period when Concordia just fell short to Adrian College 4-3.

CUW entered the third period trailing 4-0 but scored 3 goals in a 3:40 span to cut the Bulldogs lead to 4-3 with just under 13 minutes remaining in the contest.

Metanova scored her 2 goals 1:38 apart, beginning with a power play tally at the 5:26 mark of the third.

Ÿ Marian junior Nina Laurie (Palatine) is also the second-leading scorer on her team with 7 goals and 7 assists in 15 games.

Laurie’s seventh assist of the year helped the Sabres tie Lake Forest at 1-1 before falling 5-1.

Laurie played 2 years at Adrian before transferring to Marian. For her career, she has 27 goals and 25 assists.

Want to umpire badminton?

Olympic umpire Lynn Maund will be doing an umpire clinic on Friday, Feb. 7 at the Shannon Pohl Badminton Academy in Vernon Hills.

The clinic is for badminton players, enthusiasts, and parents interested in learning to become a certified USA Badminton Umpire.

This course is being held prior to the Midwest Regional Jr. Championships (Feb 15-17), which will serve as an excellent opportunity for trainees to have full on-court training. After the clinic, you will develop your technical official skills at the tournament while helping an important event to run smoothly.

For those feeling sufficiently prepared, evaluations can be conducted as a part of this event and the written exam can be administered so that by the end of the Midwest Regional Jr. Championships, you can become a fully accredited regional umpire.

Anyone is eligible to learn from the clinic but full certification is only available to current members of USA Badminton age 18 years and older.

Starring on the ice

Buffalo Grove’s Hannah Lapeire and Kalyssa Van Zanten, members of the Grove United Soccer Association, will be among 25 players from 14 states participating in the US Youth Soccer ODP National Training Camp in Phoenix, Ariz.

The pair made their way through a multi-stage process, having been selected to the state team, the region II team and now the national camp that prepares players for Olympic Development.

While the girls have reached this lofty goal, they still dream of greater achievements. For Lapeire, it would be making the U17 national team and for Van Zanten, to reach the Olympics.

“Aggressive goals, perhaps” said coach Henry Goldenstein, “But they are part of a team that has been setting aggressive goals for quite some time and reaching those goals. Their club team at Grove United set a goal to win the state title last year when no one would have expected it. And that team now is the State Cup champion.”

Ÿ Please email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com.