Post 57's championship highlights Fox Valley summer
Summertime, summertime. Where have you gone, dear summertime?
While the calendar says there's still a little of summer left, those of us in the high school sports world realize summertime is gone and fall sports are upon us.
But before we start the 2015-16 school year, a look back on some happenings from this summer while many of you (and us) enjoyed some vacation time.
Most notably, the Elgin American Legion Post 57 baseball team made some history by winning the club's first state championship since 1993 and then advancing further in the Great Lakes Valley Regional than any team in Elgin history.
Congratulations to all of the players on that Post 57 team as well as field manager Phil Lenz and general manager Bob Todd for a great run, a season that ended with a sparkling 36-3-1 record.
Some other happenings:
•Jacobs graduate Evan Jager made news again in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase when he broke his own American record running at the Meeting Areva in Paris on July 4. Despite stumbling just before the last barrier, Jager finished in a time of 8:00.45, a full 4 seconds better than his previous record. The week prior to running in Paris, Jager won the event at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
•Harvest Christian junior Mikayla Robinson has verbally committed to play volleyball on scholarship at South Carolina. Robinson's father Marcus, a former Chicago Bears wide receiver, also went to South Carolina.
Also at Harvest, Kim Floyd has stepped down as the Lions' head volleyball coach after leading the program to four straight supersectional appearances. Floyd was 108-45-1 in her four years. The Lions' new coach is Carissa (Oehlke) Mok, a former standout at Oregon High School and Judson University.
•In other coaching news, Brad Reynard has replaced Stephanie Katzenberger as the head softball coach at South Elgin. Reynard comes to the Storm from Elmwood Park, where he was the head coach as well.
And, Kyle Molik has stepped down as Burlington Central's softball coach and is now teaching at Oswego. The softball job at BC remains open.
And more softball coaching news: Kelly Wasliewski is now the head coach at Hampshire, having moved on from the same job at Streamwood. She replaces Stacey Stepek, who resigned to move and pursue opportunities in Arizona.
•Larkin junior basketball standout Christian Negron made quite a name for himself over the summer. According to reports, Negron led Puerto Rico to the FIBA Americas Centrobasket U17 championship in San Juan in July. He averaged 14.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocked shots and was named tournament MVP. Negron has multiple Division I offers on the table, including from Illinois and DePaul.
It wasn't all good news this summer. We were saddened in mid-June to hear of the tragic death of T.J. Sportsman, a Burlington Central graduate who was the honorary captain of our 1998-99 all-area boys basketball team. Sportsman, who was a physical education teacher at Munhall Elementary School and a basketball coach at Haines Middle School, both in St. Charles, for the past 10 years, was killed in an accident on Interstate 39 while returning home from a fishing tournament in Wisconsin.
And, just this week, sadness enveloped the St. Edward community with the passing of the Rev. Edward Seisser, the school's superintendent who was a staunch supporter of all the Green Wave athletic teams.
It was always fun to see Father Ed at a game and chat for a minute. He clearly loved the Green Wave athletes and loved watching them compete. He will be missed.
jradtke@dailyherald.com