Wheaton Academy bringing football back to campus
Wheaton Academy graduate Gene Frost remembers playing football right on campus, on the field next to Prince Crossing Road. Now Wheaton Academy's head of school, Frost presides over the effort to get games back to the West Chicago institution.
This fall, for the first time since Wheaton Academy suspended football after the 1989 season, the new Performance Trust Field will open. Hosting contests in football, soccer and lacrosse on an artificial surface, construction will begin after the Warriors girls soccer team concludes play in the spring. The stadium is planned to be ready for Wheaton Academy's football opener Aug. 29.
Since varsity football returned in 2007 the Warriors have played home games at either Wheaton College or West Chicago.
"It allows all our teams to practice and play on that field," Frost said. "Even our soccer teams had a hard time playing on that (grass) field, so we're real excited about that. And it's a little bit of what St. Francis experienced, 'Bring it back home.' That was a nice idea."
Frost said there wasn't room for a track encircling the "intimate" field, but it will offer lights and, for soccer, it'll be a little wider than most.
"It's pretty exciting for the soccer guys," Frost said. "That'll be a pretty distinct home field."
The name for Performance Trust Field, which Frost said will be a $1 million project, comes from the lead donation by Rich and Carrie Berg in the name of Performance Trust Capital Partners. Rich Berg is founder and chief executive officer of the firm, which has its headquarters in Chicago and several branch offices, including one in Wheaton. A son, Clayton, graduated from Wheaton Academy in 2010 after playing football for the Warriors.
The Bergs and seven other Performance Trust employees combined to offer what a Wheaton Academy news release termed a "challenge grant" to be matched by school donors "outside its usual support base." Frost said 40 boosters representing the football, boys and girls soccer and boys lacrosse programs met that challenge by Christmas.
"We're just excited the Friday night lights will be back on the Wheaton Academy campus," Frost said.
Catching up with ... Connor McKeehan
Batavia senior Connor McKeehan played left offensive guard on the Bulldogs' Class 6A state championship football team. He's now in Champaign competing in the individual wrestling state finals. Yet much of the conversation with this 220-pounder regarded anything but sports. With apologies to the Dos Equis guy, McKeehan may be the most interesting man in the world. Introspective, considerate, polite, forward-thinking, well-rounded. He sadly recounted giving up both acting and playing French horn in the school band to devote more time to sports. Toward that regard, he was a two-year starting lineman and this season's Upstate Eight Conference wrestling champion at 220 pounds - after which he won the UEC's wrestling sportsmanship award - with a record of 27-7 after going 27-5 as a junior. McKeehan remains in the high school Chamber Choir, however, inheriting his love for music from parents Chris and Wendy. A wrestler since seventh-grade at Rotolo Middle School, Connor has already received the required congressional appointment, from U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, to join the Air Force and Naval academies; he eventually hopes to be a Marine Corps officer.
Q: While speaking with you, you mentioned a grandfather stationed stateside during the war in Vietnam. Was that your inspiration to enter one of the service academies?
A: This has all been on my own, my interest in the academies.
Q: What was your motivation?
A: I think a lot of this stems from the Boy Scouts, in that I've been a huge fan of Boy Scouts. I really, really love it. The Boy Scouts focus on serving others and helping others, improving the community, stuff like that. To me the military was an extension of that.
Q: Are you still involved with Boy Scouts?
A: I still have been relatively involved, but sports has taken me out of it more than I'd like to admit. My Eagle Scout application will be going through very soon.
Q: What was your Eagle Scout project?
A: I did landscaping at Marklund. Marklund is a home for severely disabled (people). The residents all are in power wheelchairs so they have these swingsets that actually allow them to swing while they're still in their chairs. There's one and there's going to be another one soon - a patio next to their baseball diamond, so I landscaped around the patio that's out there.
Q: How do your scouting activities affect you on a daily basis?
A: I think really what it does is it changes the way I approach people, the way I talk to them, especially people that are older than me. Using phrases like 'Sir' and 'Ma'am,' I use them myself. They're very respectful ways to address people that are older than you, or people that you don't know. I think it's really affected a lot of the little things in my life, made them better.
Q: I'd imagine an offshoot of this was winning the Ed Washington Memorial Sportsmanship Award at the conference wrestling meet? Why do you think you got that?
A: I guess it's really my demeanor on the mat, the way I present myself in sports and certainly a lot of it had to do with my future goals in the community and all the community service I've done and things I've done to help others, setting a good example in the community.
Q: How does that translate to athletics?
A: I've always been more on the sportsmanship side of things. I try as hard as I can to be respectful to my opponent. It's important to remember that they worked just as hard as you have, and if you lose to them it means that they just worked harder than you did.
Q: Have you considered college athletics?
A: My goal for the future is to get into one of the academies and eventually get out as an officer and serve my country. If wrestling is what gets me there, that's what gets me there.
Q: Do you wish you'd started earlier in wrestling?
A: Yeah, I feel like I would have been able to get more out of it. It's a different sport and it's very challenging mentally.
Q: How so?
A: I think because of the fact that at the end of the day a lot of times in wrestling it's the kid who wants it more. I've always said wrestling is like 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. The physicality is very important, but it's not what wins matches at the end of the day.
Q: What kind of rush was it to win a state football championship?
A: That was an unbelievable experience. I'm not going to lie, that was one of the coolest things I've ever had the pleasure of being part of in my life. To look into the stands and seeing 15,000 people from Batavia ready to watch you play, that was something else, that was so cool. But for me the overall thing about this team, it was an adventure. Every game was something different, something new, something interesting.
Q: You're the oldest of three children, with two younger sisters. What are the pros and cons of being the oldest child?
A: I think the cons would have to be that you're kind of the first one to do everything. Being the oldest, you're the parents' first one, the first one to do anything - everything's new to them and new to you. I think I've grown to appreciate that.
Q: And the positives?
A: I guess I feel like I'm more of a leader in the family to my sisters. Being the oldest, it gives me a different perspective on our relationship and it's just real cool. They really look up to me and it's just really neat.
Q: What was your favorite role as an actor?
A: Probably the last one I had, which unfortunately was way back in sixth-grade. I was part of a school play and I was one of the leads. It was a really fun time. It was 'Pecos Bill and the Dirty Dan Gang.' I was Dirty Dan.
Q: How did you come to join the school choir?
A: I actually come from a family of singers. Both my parents are singers and as such I became one, too. My whole family sings. It's something we all do and we really enjoy it. We all sing at the church (United Methodist Church of Geneva).
Q: I wish I had the guts to sing. How it make you feel?
A: Singing, for me, I think is a really good way to just let everything go.
Stick the landing
According to the Illinois High School Association, here are the state-record scores which Geneva's Dominique Brognia, St. Charles North's Sidney Copeland and other local girls gymnastics state qualifiers can shoot for this weekend at Palatine High School.
All-around: 39.22, Lindsay Borkan, Stevenson, 2004.
Vault: 9.95, Allison Buckley, Conant, 2006.
Parallel bars: 9.90, Stacey Magiera, Barrington, 2000.
Balance beam: 9.90, Mary Burke, Fremd, 2008.
Floor exercise: 9.90, Michele Hernandez, Fremd, 1986.
Bear down
The Brown University hockey team is in its final road trip of the regular season this weekend, visiting Dartmouth on Friday and Harvard on Saturday, as the Bears strive to bolster their position in the Eastern College Athletic Conference playoffs.
We bring this up because the Bears feature sophomore forward Nick Lappin, a 6-foot-1, 175-pounder out of Geneva.
In 24 games Lappin is second on Brown in goals (11) and in scoring (29 points) and tied for the team lead in assists with 18. He's a plus-3.
According to his biography, Lappin came to Brown from Nebraska's Tri-City Storm, out of the United States Hockey League (USHL). His father, Peter, was also a winger who got into a few games with the North Stars and the Sharks.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com
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