Rosary to say goodbye to athletic director of 46 years

Fresh out of Aurora University and ready to face the world in 1973, Mary Lou Kunold couldn't have known that her "world" would essentially center on Rosary High School for the next several decades.

"I was blessed to have the opportunity when I got the call from Rosary that year to come and interview for the athletic director's job," Kunold said. "I fell in love with the Dominicans (nuns) and being at this school."

So much so, that she has spent the past 46 years at the all-girls high school in Aurora and has finally hit the time in her life in which she says, "Things have changed, I just need to be home now and can't be away on my normal 10- to 12-hour days."

But the high school isn't letting her get away without some recognition, as well as knowing Kunold will continue to work part-time with the sports boosters and other organizations.

"I wear about 101 hats here, so I will work on some other things," she said.

The Rosary High School officials planning her celebration party actually couldn't have picked a better location in terms of meaning for Kunold.

The Rosary gymnasium parking lot in Aurora will serve as the gathering place for the "Roast & Toast Kuhn" retirement party from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 22. It's a spot Kunold knows well, considering she has been involved in an estimated 5,882 games or meets at Rosary during her career.

"I came to Rosary at the point where sports for women were just starting," Kunold said, referring to Title IX efforts that brought more equality to high school sports.

"From first starting out, when I coached softball, tennis, volleyball and basketball, I also started getting a coaching staff in place - and it now has 36 people for nine sports."

Kunold, who still carries her "Kuhn" nickname from her high school days, has seen sports for prep girls evolve from the simple thrill of being able to participate to the more demanding specialization and participation in club sports that, in many cases, compete with prep offerings.

"There is the start of burnout and keeping numbers of kids involved in the high school sports," she said. "The pride of playing for your high school and the camaraderie that comes with that, for me, is what it is all about."

Quite simply, Kunold has been thrilled with her career and likely hasn't looked at it as "work" because of the passion behind it. And it's not all because of the 33 regional titles, 29 sectional titles or the 32 state qualifiers or finishes, including seven swimming state titles.

"I love what I do," she said. "When seeing a kid do something she hadn't been able to do before, and watching them play and celebrate, they are such a class act."

Kunold is also wise enough to know her athletic department is only part of the formula that makes Rosary stick out.

"Overall, we have 79 percent who are scholar athletes who make the honor roll," she said. "They work so hard, and their GPA is 3.36.

"But, again, that is Rosary High School for the academics, and that is what we are known for."

Stabilizing that bounce:

An observant reader sent a note asking about the purpose of some signs attached to the masts above the stoplights at the intersection of Peck and Keslinger roads.

It struck this person as odd that those signs point toward the sky rather than toward oncoming vehicles.

My guess was that they were signs to be flipped down and used if the entire stop light unit was not working, so as to indicate it had become a four-way stop. That was an OK guess, but way off.

Turns out, they are not signs at all. They are simply blank aluminum plates attached to the masts to help reduce the lights from bouncing during strong winds, according to Steven Culkowski of the Kane County Transportation Department.

"When wind travels across the top of the mast, especially at one on a high bridge like Peck and Keslinger, it helps reduce the bouncing on the lights," Culkowski said.

A bouncing street signal does scare drivers as they enter intersections. This was certainly the case at the Randall Road and Longmeadow intersection near Algonquin.

"We had a new project out there and didn't plan to put these on the mast arm at first," Culkowski said. "But because the very end of the mast arm can move around a lot in the wind, people were calling 911 to say the signals were coming down and we had to do something about it."

At that intersection, the county took the "sign to the sky" engineering solution and put it on a riser a few feet above the arm.

"In that way, it can do an even better job of reducing bounce," Culkowski said.

Culkowski admits the non-signs "look a little goofy" on the masts, but they serve the intended purpose of stabilizing the structures.

It's a rooftop bash:

The St. Charles History Museum is at it again on the adjacent parking garage's top floor. It will host a "Rockin' on the Rooftop" fundraiser party there from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 22.

It's just a slightly different twist on past Foodie Fest events, with Ron Onesti, owner of the Arcada Theatre and Club Arcada speak-easy, providing the dinner. This guy's Italian food meals are off the charts.

Rosie and the Rivets, a fun vintage rock and swing band that has played locally at various events, will provide the music.

All types of beverages and desserts fill the bill as well.

Tickets at $50 per person are available on the museum website, at the museum prior to the event, or at the door the night of the event.

Go to the parade:

It's hard to believe, but it's true that many area residents may never have attended the Swedish Days parade in Geneva. Well, you have that chance at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 23, as the parade puts the finishing touches on the weeklong festival.

So many of your friends and neighbors from throughout the area put in time and effort to be part of the parade, making it hard to turn down a nice afternoon to take it all in.

And "nice afternoon" always works better. While knocking on wood firmly, I would say in the nearly 40 years in which we have never missed this parade, we can't think of one that was sidetracked by bad weather.

But the weather has been a significant challenge for 2019 up to this point, and it didn't look all that promising for much of this week.

dheun@sbcglobal.net