St. Charles East grad Ditusa excels on, off the field

We get a big kick out of it, but compiling tri-annual articles on "college achievers" is inherently an exclusionary practice. You can never get 'em all.

As usual, in the wake of the May 29 piece on area grads done good there were those initially omitted for space purposes or just simply missed - until informed by helpful and understanding readers.

Here are several more we'd like to get in ...

Seton Hall senior Dan Ditusa (St. Charles East) was the Pirates baseball team's primary left-handed setup man. He got in a career-high 17 games this spring, all in relief. More importantly for the three-time Big East Academic All-Star and finance major, the 6-foot, 185-pounder was Seton Hall's nominee as the Big East male scholar-athlete of the year, up against young men from the conference's other nine schools. (In 2014 St. Charles East graduate Charlie Lyon, a soccer player, won the overall award for male athlete as Marquette's nominee.) Ditusa was not chosen for the overall Big East award, but as a nominee he was awarded an academic scholarship to continue studies toward a master's of business administration degree in finance.

Benedictine University junior Megan Malone (Geneva) came off an indoor track season having set Eagles and Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference records in the weight throw at 53 feet, 4¼ inches. She ended it with her first appearance at the Division III outdoor nationals with an 18th-place finish in the hammer throw. In between, Benedictine's co-captain set school records in hammer at 175 feet, 5 inches, and was named female field event athlete of the meet at the NACC outdoor meet. There, she won shot put and hammer, was second in discus and ninth in javelin, repeating as NACC champ in shot put and hammer. In the latter event her winning distance of 160-8 surpassed the runner-up by more than 20 feet; each of her three scoring efforts exceeded the best throw of any woman in the field. Additionally, Malone was selected as an NACC sportsman of the year. In her spare time she serves as vice president of Benedictine's student senate and will be on the committee to select a new university president. She's planning on graduating early this August with a bachelor's degree in business administration, but may stick around for her master's - and another shot at nationals.

At the Drake Relays in April Illinois State freshman Ashley England (St. Charles North) ran the 10,000 meters in 17 minutes, 22.41 seconds - the ninth-best time in program history.

Finally - though we can never truly say that - in a spring announcement for a winter sport, Waubonsee Community College freshman Jayquan Lee (West Aurora) earned selection to the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference men's basketball first team. The 6-foot point guard averaged 9.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists and in conference play made 81 percent of his free throws.

High school achievers

This is mainly a prep column. Let's hear it for some of them.

St. Charles East senior forward Darcy Cunningham earned all-state selection by the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association.

A gaggle of girls made all-sectional. From Kaneland there was sophomore midfielder Holly Collingbourne, and from Geneva senior forward Mary Landry. Batavia landed two - senior forward Karina Rosales and junior forward Megan McEachern.

Rosary senior forward Quincy Kellett made the cut, as did Aurora Central Catholic senior midfielder Jordyn Sundberg.

St. Charles North sectional picks were senior forward Hanna Durocher, senior midfielder Lizzie Parrilli and senior goalkeeper Shelby Stitz.

St. Charles East's selections were senior midfielder Kelli Santa Paolo and freshman forward Chantel Carranza.

Dandy picks

Thursday was a nice day for a few area girls volleyball players following the announcement of Prep Volleyball.com's annual list of "Defensive Dandies" - its opinion of the best defensive players in the nation.

The volleyball site has several lists, and among its "Gym Dandies," described as the nation's top full-time

defensive players, are Batavia senior Maddie Jaudon, Geneva senior Kelsey Wicinski and Rosary sophomore Martha Konovodoff. Congratulations.

This just in

Also on Thursday St. Francis announced York graduate Melissa Taylor as its new head girls varsity basketball coach, succeeding Mike Phillips.

The former Melissa Schwab was a three-year starter for York, a 2007 graduate. She played at Concordia-Chicago and was a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference scholar-athlete all four years.

Taylor has coached at the Bulls/Sox Training Academy and comes off two years as an assistant in Concordia's women's program.

As an indication of where at least one of her offensive coaching strategies may lie, Taylor still holds Concordia records for 3-point baskets made in a game, season and career.

The man with the plan

Over the past couple years, when the Illinois High School Association started cracking down on the time football programs spent in summer practice, regulated when and how much padding players could wear - in other words, restricting hitting with an eye toward concussions - Batavia football coach Dennis Piron was among the critics.

His main beef, shared by others, was that generally coaches in this modern era want their players healthy and don't benefit by hammering them during the summer, or even once the season officially starts in August. He felt the restrictions were a case of unnecessary policing.

He's now be able to note such in an official capacity. In May the IHSA launched the "Play Smart. Play Hard" campaign, a player safety educational initiative. Part of this was the formation of an Illinois Advisory Council on Player Safety to discuss and consider issues around injuries, namely concussions.

The eight-person council includes current and former high school athletes, a trainer and, among others, Piron, the sole football coach of the bunch.

What must intrigue the IHSA concerning Piron is the youth program he and his mentor, former Batavia coach Mike Gaspari, formed in 2003. Batavia Youth Football, a flag football league for kids in first- through sixth-grades, started with 60 players and counted somewhere around 500 last year.

Delaying hitting till middle school hasn't hurt Batavia High any, 42-5 over the last four seasons with the Class 6A state title in 2013.

In an article disseminated by District 101 concerning Piron's involvement in Play Smart. Play Hard, the coach stated Batavia hasn't done live tackling during practice "for more than a decade." He also said the Bulldogs' staff couldn't differentiate between those who played tackle football at a young age and those who did not.

Nowadays, he said, players put in so much time training during the off-season and off hours most of his practice time is spent working on technique, football plays and strategy.

"The way football is practiced today is nothing like it was when I played as a youth," Piron said in the article. "I believe the game is the safest it's ever been, and is only going to continue to get better."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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