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player ready...Denise Muresan has a new home team this season, but it’s her true home team that has helped her remain one of the state’s top tennis players.
Muresan, 16, a junior who finished second in singles in last fall’s state tournament, transferred from Maine West to Stevenson when her family moved to Lincolnshire–and she’s undefeated.
“I’ve been improving gradually with the season, getting more aggressive and staying calm,” Muresan said. “I want to go far in state again this year.”
Her dad, Nick, and her brother, Alex, 25, a former player at Maine West and the University of Illinois, are her coaches.
“My dad has helped with my consistency,” she said. “My brother has helped my technique and aggressive style.”
— Ross Forman
Stepping down
Nancy Welker, one of the Chicago area’s most successful girls volleyball coaches, has stepped down as coach at Thornton Fractional South.
“She resigned for personal and health reasons,” T.F. South athletic director Matt Lyke said. Assistant coach Kim Sands was named acting head coach.
Welker was in her seventh season with the Rebels and compiled a 164-60 overall record.
— Jack McCarthy
On the prowl
Matt Devitt and his St. Ignatius soccer teammates want to make history. The Wolfpack (8-3-3) is on the hunt for the first Catholic League crown in school history.
“It would mean a lot to my coach (Jim Luzzi, in his 36th season) and a lot to the program,” said the senior, who has three goals and four assists and has committed to play at Cornell (N.Y.). “It would be really cool to play in the year that it happened.”
Hurting
Eighth-ranked Sandburg will be without defensive stalwart Paul Kopec for up to three weeks. The 2004 Tribune second-team soccer All-Stater suffered a severely sprained ankle in the Eagles’ 2-1 penalty-kick loss to Wheaton Warrenville South in the Pepsi Showdown title game Sept. 17.
— Dave Surico
Honored
Mendel High School, a former Catholic League powerhouse from the Roseland area, closed its doors several years ago, but the school’s alumni association maintains a Hall of Fame in the “Mendel wing” at St. Rita. Thirteen new members were inducted at halftime of the St. Rita-Providence football game Friday night, including Minnesota Twins coach Rick Stelmaszek, a former football/baseball standout. The class of 2005, and the year they graduated from Mendel:
Martin Bush, Tom Gavin and Rich Stelmaszek, 1967; Bruce Bugajski, 1968; Pat Sheahan, Mike Hinsberger, 1970; Steve Bonner, 1972; George “Geo” Stephenson, ’76; Robert James, ’77; Corman Franklin, ’78; and Rodney Chambers, ’86. Also inducted were coach Ed Adams and Rev. E. Dodge, a priest and former school administrator.
— Dan McGrath
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