Good News Sunday: Meet the players in the Mount Prospect-based women's golf league that's been around since 1941

This is Good News Sunday, a compilation of some of the more upbeat and inspiring stories published recently by the Daily Herald:

A women's golf league based in Mount Prospect is marking a milestone - playing for 80 straight years.

The Mount Prospect Golf Club's Tri-City Women's Golf League, which features a handful of golfers past the age of 80, has been around since 1941, even before the club was owned by the park district.

In that first year, 56 women played in the league, and it's never lost its luster as the list today stands at 60.

The league began with residents only from Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights and Des Plaines, thus the name “Tri-City.” Today, it includes women from downtown Chicago, northwest Chicago, Skokie, Elmhurst, Niles, Wheeling, Barrington, Arlington Heights and Des Plaines.

“As long as I can, I will keep playing,” said Lillian Draz, 83, of Mount Prospect. “It's a friendly, competitive league. Not cutthroat.”

For the full story, click here.

Flying high: Brothers from Geneva finding success in Nashville with alternative country band

Tommy Leland Cantwell and Brandon Cantwell, brothers who grew up in Geneva and now live in Nashville, are enjoying success with Flying Buffaloes, the alternative country band they helped form.

Tommy, 29, graduated from Geneva High School in 2010, and the 26-year-old Brandon did so in 2013. As such, it is easy for them to chart how Geneva and the Tri-Cities area shaped their love of music to the point they could make a full-time job of it in one of America's musical hot spots.

Both made their way through the Geneva schools' music programs, citing high school instructor Pat Frederick and others as key mentors. But the musical roots got a boost because their father Tom Cantwell had a local rock band called Gallery.

Tommy moved to Nashville in 2014 after graduating from Berklee College of Music, and Brandon was not far behind in moving there in 2018 after graduating from the University of Illinois.

“A week for the Flying Buffaloes is busy,” Brandon said. “We usually get together every day and work on a handful of things, rehearsing our live set or writing and getting together to do the day-to-day business.”

For the full story, click here.

CLC students show off robotics skills in national competition

Not every skill can be learned in the classroom. College of Lake County student Eduardo Zarinana considered himself a novice in robotics, but competing in SkillsUSA, a national career and technical student organization that hosts competitions, helped him gain hands-on experience and learn valuable skills for his future career. Not only did he compete, but he was half of a CLC team that placed second nationally in the SkillsUSA Robotics: Urban Search and Rescue Challenge - Explosive Ordnance Disposal competition in June.

“I had the desire to learn, and my peers guided me how to do things,” he said. “SkillsUSA is a great way to get hands on learning. It's a great way to experiment and practice what you're learning in your classes.”

This year, two teams participated for CLC in the urban search and rescue competition. The team of Zarinana and Ben Otterbacher placed first in the state and second nationally, and the team of Nathan Ortiz and Jayson McGuire finished second in the state. All four students are studying in the engineering transfer program.

“SkillsUSA focuses on students developing and showcasing skills in their fields,” Otterbacher said. “We work on lots of technical skills we pick up in the classroom.”

For the full story, click here.

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