Ed’s Word: Num ber 33: April 25, 2007
1. The Hall of Fame Banquet and the All State Banquets were very successful - Each banquet had about 250 people in attendance.
2. The Hall of Fame banquet was chaired by Joe Pedersen with help from Mike Wilkey. Together they inducted the 14 new membe rs into the Hall of Fame and the 6 life time members. These names were previously reported to you, so I will not repeat them. George Dyche presented the new Man of the Year in the person of Mike Polz of Carl Sandburg high school.
3. 250 at the Hall of Fame Banquet included 45 previous hall of famers, which is pretty good, considering that out of the 399 members - 88 are deceased and about l50 live out of state. Many who could not attend sent in a donation to help defray the costs.
4. We found out from the returns that a number of Hall of Famers have passed away in the past year - they include Joe Sowinski of Thornton Fractional; Richard Meeks of Champaign; and just recently Jack Marino of Proviso East.
5. The State banquet was chaired by Joe Pedersen and the following awards were given out. Special recognition was given to: Mikey Benefiel and Albert White for 4 State Titles; Pat O’Connor of Glassford for 500 wins; Mike Polz of Carl Sandburg for 3 straight State Titles; Mike Wilkey for 30 years downstate as an official in some capacity; Tim Cysewski for 4th in NCAA; Jeff Hill of Petersburg for reaching the 200 win plateau; Pete Alber of Dakota for Placing 3 times in a row in the State Duals.
Other Awards: Official of the Year: Jeff Sorenson of Bloomington; Administrator in Class A to Dan Schmitt of Prairie Central - Class AA to Larry Jenkins of Glenbard North; Indiana Dual Meet Teams and their outstanding performers: Dual AA team - Ryan Prater - Plainfield Central and Vince Alber of Dakota - Dual A team to James Nakashima of Dwight and Luke Force of Argenta; The top 4 teams in each class were honored - all attended but Gibson City; Recognized the unofficial Team Individual champion - This would have been Montini followed closely by Carl Sandburg - As you know the duals were Carl Sandburg followed by Montini;
Newsman of the Year - Scott Schmitt of the Lombard Spectator; Scholastic Wrestler in A went to Ross George of Manteno and Vince Vercelli of Wilmington - the Class AA award to Jake Vetter of Richmond-Burton; Next was recognition of all the all staters - 6 from class AA and 4 from Class A. This part of the banquet was poorly represented - Only 43 awardees attended - Some would have to travel 4 h ours or more, but I attribute this absence due to coaches who are not into it. A number of wrestlers were competing in the Tournament in Ohio and had not returned home.
Organizations like the IWCOA are only as strrong as their weakest member. I might add here also, that only 4 college coaches were in attendance - This included Eastern Illinois; Illinois U. and Lincoln community college - where is the support at this level?
Following lunch the following awards were presented: Outstanding Wrestler in Class A to Clayton Rush of Aledo; Class AA to Mikey Benefiel of Montini; Assistant Coach in A to Marty Cotter of Prairie Central and AA to Paige Schoolman of Minooka; Coach of the Year to Jeff Hill of Petersburg-Porta in class A and to Marty Kaiser of Rockton-Hononegah in AA; The Ken Gerdes Memorial scholarships were awarded to John Doyle of Carl Sandburg; Bryan Jahn of Bolingbrook; Andy Mendoza of Blue Island; Weldon Rogers of Oak Park and Will Seitz of Downers Grove North. The man of the year was re-presented to conclude the program all in all they were both fine affairs. Hope to see more of you in 2008.
6. The 2007 Prairieville Open will be held at Buffalo Grove hs on Saturday May 26th. Call Paul Manno at 847-870-7829 for information.
7. Josh Collins and the l999 Team will be inducted into Stanford Olympia’s Hall of fFame.
8. The Annual Northwestern Golf outing will be June llth
9. The Annual Ken Gerdes Memorial Golf outing will be June l8th.
10. Burlington Central has a two thirds position in PE open, plus some coaching - this could go to a full time position in 2008. Call Dan Cliffe at 847-464-6030 for information. You must be eligible for this and have a Illinois teaching certificate.
ll. Some results from the Fila tournament in Ohio: lst in GR at ll9 - Jimmy Chase of Glenbard North; 2nd at ll9 - LaShaun Coleman of Oak Park; lst in FS at ll9 - Tony Ramos of Glenbard Northi and 2nd at l52 - Albert White of St. Rita.
11. The Team USA won the Dapper Dan Dual against Pennsylvania 22-21 - Helping team USA cause were: John Starzyk of Providence winning at l25; Albert White of St. Rita winning at l52 and Mikey Benefiel of Montini winning at 171.
12. Placers at the National Brute Adidas tournament in Kansas City were: 12th grade - 115 - 3rd - Nick Grahkek; 122 - 3rd - William Carvelot and 133 - lst - Wade Lowe of Alton. Junior Level - 128 - 2nd - Kyle Williams of Mascoutah; Sophomore level: 192 - 2nd - Ryan Robinson and Freshman level: 128 - 2nd - Greg Jackson.
13. The National Tournament in the East had the following placewinners: Seniors: 119 - 3rd - Tyler Clark of Orion and now Iowa; 125 - 3rd - John Starcyk of Providence; 1`35 - 2nd - Ryan Prater of Plainfield Central; 140 - 7th - Jeremy Ellingswood of Plainfield Central; 189 - 3rd - Jerome Ward of St. Rita and Hwt - Jordan Johnson of Naperville North and now Iowa. Juniors: 135 - 4th - Trey Ayala; 152 - 6th - Steve Zimmerman of St. Rita; Sophomores: 125 - 4th - Jacob Wojcik; 135 - 2nd - Adam Heimer; Freshmen: 112 - 4th - A. J. Juarez of Joliet; 103 - 5th - Tom Ambrose; 171 - 4th - Brandon Ward.
14. Some type of award should be set up to honor Ron Magruder, Hall of Famer from Wheaton Central. Each year he makes a very large contribution to the IWCOA in support of their banquets - this year was no exception - he is now in Canada with a Pizza firm. There is relatively no advantage for him to advertise - he does this because he remembers where his roots are. We should all remember our roots. Ed
