St. Charles East's Derain hopes to go out on top

They're raising the bar at St. Charles North.

Junior Jack Glavin set it high at the school's second Lift-A-Thon to support, naturally, weight room improvements.

The 6-foot-5, 232-pound lineman became the first member of the North Stars' 1,200-pound club totaling maximum lifts in bench press, squat and power clean.

St. Charles North strength and conditioning coordinator and head football coach Rob Pomazak said that with Glavin's bench press of 365 pounds and a clean of 290, he bettered the school weight room records of newly signed Minnesota State-Mankato football recruit Jordan Bergren.

Overall 85 athletes participated in the Lift-A-Thon on Jan. 31, raising more than 50,000 pounds — and $13,000 dollars worth of pledges and other donations that will be targeted toward a new set of custom dumbbells, Pomazak said previously. Heavy metal madmen included junior linebacker and running back Billy Duhownik, who Pomazak said set the program squat record at 560-pounds and totaled more than 1,100 pounds combining the three lifts; and 5-9, 180-pound linebacker and running back Lucas Segobiano, who became the first freshman to reach St. Charles North's “900-pound club.”

Pomazak proudly noted that 45 athletes, more than half of the participants, lifted at least 600 pounds.

In addition to those imminent new dumbbells, Pomazak is pleased with how Lift-A-Thon has helped create a bond as well as muscle.

“Our strength and conditioning program has become a real movement and is changing the culture of how our athletes work together,” he said. “The Lift-A-Thon is such a great event because it gives kids an opportunity to see growth and reap the fruits of their hard work.”

Stroke!

Former St. Charles East student Joe Sterner, a junior at Culver Academy in Indiana, is on the fast track to collegiate rowing, or sculling.

A member of Miller Rowing out of St. Charles, Sterner finished first by 9 seconds in his age division — Men's Junior Varsity — at the Indianapolis Indoor Rowing Championships on Jan. 31.

Aboard a Concept 2 ergometer, Sterner completed the 2,000 meters in 6 minutes, 19.2 seconds. This puts him among the top 20 college rowing recruits in the world, according to David Tyler Miller, Miller Rowing's executive director. College rowing coaches determine who they will recruit based on their 2,000-meter times on the rowing machine, or “erg,” Miller said.

“The 2K race is the SAT for college rowing recruits,” Miller said.

Sterner also placed second at US Rowing's Junior Sculling Selection Camp in January in Sarasota, Florida. That puts him in good shape for a Junior National Team berth, which in turn means a trip to the Junior World Championships in Rio de Janeiro Aug. 5-9.

Along with his workouts with Miller Rowing when in town, Sterner gets coaching from Culver coach Guy Weaser and by Switzerland's Xeno Muller, who won gold in single scull in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and silver in 2000 in Sydney. Sterner has studied with Muller both in person and over the wonders of the Internet, watching video.

Miller, who first got Sterner rowing, said the young man has already been in contact with coaches from the country's top three collegiate rowing programs based on his performance in Indianapolis. With parents David and Mary Sterner, they'll visit those campuses later this month, he said.

Those colleges?

Harvard, Yale and Brown.

Catching up with ... Keone Derain

St. Charles East senior Keone Derain followed in the footsteps of his father, Romualdo, who wrestled at Glenbard North for Mark Hahn, who still coaches the Panthers. Keone picked up the sport in second grade, continued on the club circuit, and enters Saturday's Class 3A West Chicago regional with a record of 26-3, the fourth-ranked 152-pounder by Illinois Matmen. This is it, though. After four varsity seasons the two-time state qualifier and Upstate Eight champion will not continue wrestling despite some college interest. The 5-foot-7 Derain, oldest of three children, is more interested in studying nutrition, physical therapy or pharmaceutical sciences at places such as Iowa, Missouri or University of Illinois-Chicago. Born to a Filipino father and a Lithuanian (“and a little Mexican,” he said) mother, Deserie, Keone can relax with a sport he played for three years at St. Charles East until he stopped to focus on wrestling this season — golf. For now he's intent on a state wrestling run in the final weeks he shares on the mat with his freshman brother, 126-pounder Niko.

Q: Is it fun to have your brother on the squad?

A: Yeah, for sure. It's cool because I grew up wrestling with him on the same club team (Martinez Fox Valley Elite) and I push him really hard to be better, and I want him to be better than I am. But it's hard sometimes because he's so young and it hasn't clicked for him yet. I try to push him but he hasn't matured yet, in my eyes.

Q: Does he ever beat you?

A: Yeah, he does. If you compare my freshman year to his freshman year, he's won a lot more and gotten a lot better, which is good. But he's still got a lot of things to work on, small things. But I think in the future he'll be really tough ... I like to drill with him and I wrestle with him just so I can show him what it's like to wrestle with someone with high intensity. But most of the time I wrestle with my coaches (head coach and former two-time state champion Jason Potter and his brother, Chris).

Q: Are you two competitive outside of wrestling?

A: Off the mat I'd say we're not. We don't really compete in anything. He just does his own thing and I kind of do mine. We're just really different types of people.

Q: You picked up wrestling from your father?

A: I remember him bringing home the flyer for the St. Charles East wrestling club and I knew my dad wrestled in high school, and I wanted to be like him.

Q: Why do you like the sport?

A: I get asked this a lot. It's just fun. It pays off. The hard work gets me in shape. It's what my dad did, so I like to follow what my dad did. It's just fun. It's not like football, it's an individual sport. It's just me and I don't have to worry about everybody else. I get to do my thing.

Q: Do you consider yourself a physical wrestler or a tactician?

A: I consider myself kind of both. I'm really aggressive but at the same time I grew up focusing a lot on my technique. I like using my technique and executing at a high pace, I guess.

Q: Do you have a trademark move?

A: I don't know. I usually don't tell everyone what I like to do. I'm comfortable on my feet, and I'd say my favorite takedowns are probably double-legs and high crotches.

Q: Ever get ringworm?

A: Oh, I've gotten it all. I've gotten a lot of things and, yes, ringworm is one of them.

Q: Outside of wrestling what do you like to do?

A: Off the mat I really like to work out. I got into crossfit over the summer and just started getting into that a lot. I competed in an event before the season, and also I like to play golf. I've been playing golf my whole life, longer than I've been wrestling. I started at 3 and played my freshman, sophomore and junior years.

Q: What did you shoot?

A: I went out with my grandpa (Cesar) to golf, and my score went from the low 100s to 73 as a sophomore at Coyote Creek in Bartonville.

Q: Golf will be there for you. As you wind down your wrestling career, what's the goal?

A: Honestly the goal is to be on the podium when it comes down to it.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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