St. Charles North has been brutal to its early-season opponents. The North Stars (4-0) have won by the slaughter rule in each game and allowed a total of six runs.
The team returns 13 players from last year and added Tribune second-team All-Stater Ken Smalley, who transferred from Batavia. St. Charles is strong in the heart of the order with Kevin Schuetz batting third, Smalley at cleanup and returning conference batting champ Brad Dejong hitting fifth. . . . Saturday’s St. Patrick at Glenbrook South doubleheader will be broadcast at 1 p.m. on WGBK-FM 88.5.
Dave Surico.
Stay in (high) school
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Frank Horvat, who recently resigned as Northern Illinois’ women’s soccer coach, had been a successful high school coach at Rockford Boylan before he joined the Huskies. But jumping from the high school ranks isn’t for everybody, Wheaton Warrenville South girls coach Guy Callipari said.
“You have to have flexibility,” said Callipari, who was a graduate assistant at Eastern Illinois before deciding to take the boys soccer job with the Tigers. “You wind up spending far less time with your family.”
Soccer shorts
Downers Grove South girls coach Barry Jacobson expects Maureen Crinion, who led the Mustangs in scoring with 16 goals last season, to return from her broken foot at the end of the month. . . . Carmel’s Kendall Brown, who has 90 career goals, has decided to attend Valparaiso. . . . Larkin junior Jode Zwingelberg has given an oral commitment to Miami of Ohio.
Alan Sutton.
Rice boiling in water
The Brother Rice boys water polo team (12-0) continued its unbeaten streak after it won its own tournament last Saturday. In a highly anticipated title match against 2004 state champion Fenwick, Kevin McShane, Mark DiCola and Nick Velasquez all scored two goals to defeat the Friars 9-7. It marked Brother Rice’s third victory over last year’s champs.
“Every year at Brother Rice we want to make that state championship game and win it all,” coach Bill Mulcrone said. “These kids know both sides of the fence, winning [the state championship] their sophomore year, and they want it back.”
Paul Tokarz.
Ouch
Naperville North likely has lost sophomore hurdler Missy Savino for the rest of the season due to shoulder surgery. The injury occurred during the gymnastics season, where Savino helped the Huskies to a sixth-place state finish.
Savino already had beaten the state qualifying time in the 100-meter high hurdles this spring.
“There’s a slight chance we could have her back by the end,” Naperville North assistant coach Dan Iverson said. “But we’re making plans without her.”
Nathan Baird.
Playing smart
Brother Rice senior John Fletcher is not only one smart volleyball player, he’s also among the nation’s elite in academics.
The senior co-captain is among 15,000 National Merit finalists announced earlier this year. He’s the first in the program so honored and ranks second in a class of 246.
“He works incredibly hard at his schoolwork and has also improved tremendously as a player,” said his coach, Rev. Paul Ickes. “He’s looking at Notre Dame, Northwestern and Illinois. He has his pick of the litter.”
Jack McCarthy.
This ‘n’ that
Chris Bennett has been named head girls basketball coach at Lake Zurich. . . . Glenbard South softball coach Bill Voves recorded his 500th career victory–all with Glenbard South–with a 3-2 victory over Glenbard East on Thursday. . . . Minooka, Morris, Oswego, Oswego East, Plainfield Central and Plainfield South, which have been members of the Suburban Prairie South Conference, have joined former SICA North member Romeoville and new school Plainfield North to form a new league called the Southwest Prairie Conference. The new conference plans to begin operations for the 2006-07 school year.