Northwest female athlete of the year: Julia Wacker

How's this for a diversified athlete?

• Three months ago, Julia Wacker purchased a traditional recurve bow and a set of arrows. She can already hit a 2-by-2 target from 40 yards with excellent consistency.

• Wacker had not played golf since a brief time as a sixth grader. Over the past two weeks, with just a few refresher tips, she is hitting a straight drive 200 yards.

• Wacker is adept in western and bareback riding as well as caring for horses. She served as a camp counselor for two years (at Cedar Valley Stables horse camp in Tipton, Iowa).

• Wacker has decided that "roping" would be fun to learn. She has a real lasso and has spent many hours roping a tree stump in the backyard of her home.

But those only hint at the reasons she is the Daily Herald's Northwest female athlete of the year.

Wacker was a standout basketball and softball player at Fremd, twice helping the Vikings to second-place finishes in the Class AA state basketball finals.

She also helped lead the softball team to back-to-back stellar seasons (27-7 and 25-5 and a regional title), all the while serving as a top notch student.

She scored a 33 on her ACT and earned a 4.59 GPA on a 4.0 scale. An Illinois State Scholar, she has been on the high honor roll every semester.

Wacker was a member of the Illinois High School Association all-academic team.

"What an honor to be given this award with so many great athletes in the area," Wacker said. "I am so grateful.

"My teammates in both sports were exceptionally talented. But on both teams, nobody played for themselves, they always played for each other."

And that's what Wacker is all about - doing for others.

"She dominates in the classroom, on the field and on the court," said Fremd veteran softball coach Jim Weaver who has won 395 games in 15 seasons. "And she also donates countless hours volunteering her time for community service."

Wacker has traveled on mission trips with her church each summer for hurricane and flood relief, and she is always recognized as the hardest-working person on the trip.

She's taught vacation bible school since sixth grade because of her love for little children.

She's even had to pass up graduation parties for good friends this month to attend an outreach event for her youth group at the Prince of Peace church in Palatine.

An active member, she feels it is critical to welcome freshmen and get them interested in participating for the upcoming year.

She takes advantage of her sports knowledge, having served as a volunteer coach the past years for a fifth- and sixth-grade house league team, and now a seventh and eight grade team. Wacker works with the youngsters on pitching and throwing mechanics.

She volunteered this past year as a Spanish tutor. Her mentoring and devotion to the Spanish Soap Opera Laguna Negra are two practical ways of honing her Spanish skills.

Her skills, obviously, extend well past sports - even into calligraphy, a skill she just wanted to develop. Wacker rewrites school notes for practice studying purposes.

She writes heart-felt thank you notes in cursive calligraphy as well.

With her love of the Founding Fathers, calligraphy gives her a link to Thomas Jefferson.

However, Alexander Hamilton is by far her favorite Founding Father which she established long before the recent Broadway musical.

Wacker loves United States history and has read the constitution 3 times. Abraham Lincoln is probably her favorite president.

She loves United States history and has read the constitution three times.

"As I reflect back on the journey I have been on and how I arrived at this moment, I realized how truly blessed I've been to have the support I've had," Wacker said in her speech when she accepted Fremd's female athlete of the year honor. "So, athletes, please take a moment, as I have, to think of those who have always been there for you. Thank them sincerely, because as Abraham Lincoln once said, 'I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down.' "

Wacker has let down no one.

"The softball program is very proud to have Julia Wacker receive this honor while wearing the Viking softball uniform," Weaver said. " Along with being a tremendous player, she truly exemplifies what a student-athlete is supposed to represent."

Fremd girls basketball coach Dave Yates says Wacker's work ethic and determination made her the athlete she became.

"Julia was the first one on the court every day and had a drive that is very rare in your typical high school athlete," said Yates, a winner of 222 games in 10 seasons. "She also wanted to be coached. She accepted coaching and improved her weakness each year.

"I will remember her as bright, articulate, and a joy to coach. I will also remember her as a great athlete regardless of what sport she was playing."

Wacker was the third-leading rebounder for the Vikings (more than 125 this winter) and she hit many clutch shots, including 3-pointers.

"She made two sports work," Yates added. "I think that is a lesson to many who succumb to the pressure of travel sports and specialization.

"In the end, she will go to a great college for free playing a sport that wasn't even her No. 1 sport when she entered high school."

No, that No. 1 sport was softball in which Wacker made it into the record books.

She broke her own single-season record for RBI (47 as a junior) this year with 52 while also tying the single-season school record for home runs with nine.

At the end of her sophomore basketball season, Wacker suffered a torn ACL that wiped out her sophomore softball season.

"Julia was undeterred, and prepared herself to have an excellent first year as a junior," Weaver said. "She did not disappoint."

Wacker produced her first of back-to-back all-area seasons with a .404 batting average and hit 5 home runs while playing an excellent first base.

"To see her work her way back and not miss a beat her junior year in basketball is a testament to how hard this kid works at whatever obstacle is in front of her," Yates said.

In front of her appears to be a very bright future at Hillsdale College.

She is leaning toward biochemistry or economics and/or political science with a possible minor in Spanish. She hopes to go on to graduate school in either the STEM field or constitutional law.

"It depends which path I take," Wacker said. "With time, everything will sort itself out."

As it has, for her entire career at Fremd.

Assistant softball coach and English teacher Josh Teschner was at the banquet when Wacker accepted her award as Fremd's female athlete of the year.

"Julia gave one of the most humble and honest acceptance speeches ever given at the spring sports awards," Teschner said. "Her legacy of humility and the value she puts on teamwork are the guiding principles of our program.

"Julia is truly a unique individual in that she has the ability to make an entire class smile. She has a cheery outlook on life and overall warmth. She lights up the room with her personality."

That humble personality certainly did not hurt when Wacker took on the role as 'sixth man' for Fremd's girls basketball team. She would have been a starter on many other teams.

Returning to the basketball floor from the knee injury put everything into perspective for Wacker.

"At first, it was about surgery, a big scar, and living with shooting pain and a whole lot of therapy," she wrote in an essay for the IHSA all-state academic team. "For the next two years, every shot, every rebound, every dive in the field, and every at-bat had the sweet taste of victory. You can't let a moment pass by."