The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 256

Page 5 NEIGHBOR SPORTS DaflyHeiald Wednesday, August 27,1997 O134 Youth league makes winners of thousands of boys and girls Bill George organizers focus on learning, fun BY BEN OCHOA Daily Herald Correspondent The NFL isn't the only league that kicks off its regular season this weekend. The Bill George Youth Football League, which has 12 teams in DuPage, Kane and Cook counties, will open its season with several-games. "We have 104 teams in the 12 franchises," said Sal Delia Fave of Wheaton, president of the league. "The league has existed for about 34 years and the number of teams has grown each year." Delia Fave has been involved in the league for 21 years, 7 as an executive. "The way I look at it, these boys, over 3,200 of them, we take them and get them involved in something," he said.

"I don't care if a kid fumbles a football, he's off the street. Sure you want to win. But by year's end, you can look at that kid and say he's a better ballplayer. But I look at it and say he's a better person." Practices started a couple of weeks ago for the teams, which are split into the 75-, 85-, 95-, 110-, 125- and 150-pound-and-under weight classes. The age groups range from 9 to 14 years old.

The 12 franchises are in Bartlett, Bloomingdale, Buffalo Grove, Carol Stream, Downers Grove, Glendale Heights, Glen Ellyn, Hanover Park, Lombard, Streamwood, Tri-City (Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles) and Wheaton. In the league, the bowl games are played before the season. In the last two weekends, events such as the Bloomingdale Bowl, Lilac Bowl, Spartan Bowl and the Lake George Bowl in Carol Stream have allowed many teams to prepare for the regular season. Bill George teams start in other The Bloomingdale Bears' Thomas Zelek, right, helps tackle Carol Stream's Nathan Moneczynski.

Daily Herald Leo communities basically by word of mouth. "All the communities know we exist," Delia Fave said. "They'll come to us and say, 'I'm interested in joining the Bill George and then we do some research on the teams and coaches. If there are any troubles, any problems, we won't accept them. If they can meet the rules and the bylaws, they'll be invited." Registration used to be held in May, but the league found some communities had trouble registering their boys that time of year.

So they decided to hold registration the Saturday before the Super Bowl, when football was at a fever pitch. Some communities run their teams in cooperation with the park districts. The first couple of weeks of the season, practices are held four to five days a week, shortening to three to four during the school year. They teach the kids all the fundamentals of football in a positive, fun way that builds on the kids' strengths. The teams play eight regular season games four home and four awa plus pre-season and championship games.

Each team gets to have its own homecoming. The weight classes also are split into gold and silver divisions, based on ability and size. The league doesn't stand for coaches who are out of control and threaten referees, Delia Fave said. "We won't let winning become the primary focus of a coach," said Delia Fave, who also coaches at the 150-pound level in Downers Grove and has two boys playing the 75- pound level in file same town. The team concept of football helps kids develop on and off the field, said first vice president Earl Moynihan of Aurora.

"Football is the ultimate team sport," said Moynihan, now in his 12th year in the league. "Kids leam how to work together. A kid may cry if he can't see his mother when he comes to his first practice. Three months later, he's around his friends and he's gained an immense amount of maturity. "Every year I'm amazed at the amount of development, the gained maturity these kids gain from participating in our program.

As individuals, we gain a lot out of this. It's gratifying when you realize you're affecting people's lives every day." Like any successful organization, there are a lot of people who put in a lot of time to make it work. The executive board consists of six people: Delia Fave; Moynihan; Bruce Kanen Lathrope of the Bloomingdale Bears 85-pound Silver team gets stopped by Carol Stream Panthers 85-pound Gold players Ryan Morris, left, and Doug Seider during the Panthers' 6-0 victory in the Lake George Bowl in Carol Stream. Daily Herald Lee Probst of Elk Grove, treasurer; Kim Rapp of Streamwood and Dick Mabberley of Hanover Park, secretaries; and Dick Silvestri of Downers Grove, second vice president. The league also gets young girls involved in cheerleading.

Mabber- lefs wife, Lisa, is involved in that aspect she is the cheerleading director of the Hanover Park franchise, which includes 120 cheerleaders. The league had 1,290 girls involved in cheerleading competition last year. Lisa Mabberley and the other cheerleading directors, like their football coaching counterparts, find their involvement with the young kids gratifying. "Some go onto other levels. For others it's the only time they 1 ever be cheerleaders," she said.

"They're so proud of their accomplishments." White squad soars to victory in two preseason games The Lombard Falcons 75-pound White squad earned victories in its two preseason games. The Falcons toppled the Tri-City Chargers 13-0 in their preseason opener at the Lilac Bowl. After a scoreless first half, the Falcons' Michael Clarke scored on an 8- yard run as quarterback Jason Shipbaugh added an extra point. Brad Blackwell ran in a 25-yard touchdown with no time left on the clock LOMBARD FALCONS The key players on offense and defense were Nick Albers, John Borsellino (2 carries, 7 yards), Sean Donnelly, Robert Hill, Alex Kane, Jon Moylan, Michael Olsen, David Rowland, Alphonse Sarno (5 carries, 3 yards) and Michael Trombetta. Clarke had 4 carries for 20 yards and Blackwell carried 3 times for 30 yards.

Blackwell led the defense with 5 tackles and 2 assists, while Rowland and Shipbaugh each tallied 2 tackles. Shipbaugh also had an assist and a quarterback sack. Albers, Sarno, Trombetta and Hill all had 1 tackle, while Borsellino added an assist. On Sunday, Lombard posted a 21-0 victory over Downers Grove at the Spartan Bowl in Glendale Heights. Blackwell carried the ball 7 times for 156 yards and ran for two touchdowns (32 yards, 65 yards).

On defense, he had 4 tackles and an assist. Sarno had 8 carries for 60 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown run. he also had 3 tackles and recovered a fumble. Shipbaugh had 5 carries for 11 yards, ran in an extra-point conversion and passed to Blackwell for another. He had a tackle and recov- ered 2 fumbles.

Rowland tallied 3 tackles and created 3 fumbles, one of which he recovered. Clarke ran for 14 yards and Borsellino had 16. Borsellino also had 4 tackles as the Falcons held the Panthers to 20 total yards. Trombetta and Moylan teamed up to cause a Chargers fumble. Other contributors were Albers, Donnelly, Ivan Dylhoff, Hill, Kane, Olsen and Jevan Snider.

4 Redskins traveling teams sweep Harvey to open season The four Naperville Redskins traveling football teams earned victories over Harvey on Sunday to open their 1997 Pop Warner season. It was the first time in recent memory that Naperville's four teams had swept Harvey. The Naperville Junior Bantam team toppled Harvey 25-6, Naperville Junior Midget won 8-6, Naperville Pee Wee earned a 20-0 victory and Naperville Junior Pee Wee crushed Harvey 35-0. The strong Harvey teams have been a nemesis to the Redskins during the last several years, according to Redskins director Jim Haavig. In 1991, Haavig was an assistant coach on a Naperville team that topped Harvey in the regular season, but lost 19-14 in the conference championship.

The Redskins didn't play Harvey when they won the Midwest Super Bowl in 1992. But in 1993, Harvey again bounced back from a regular season loss to upend Haavig's Naperville team 19-14 in the playoffs. Also, in 1994 and 1994, Harvey knocked Haavig's Naperville team out of the playoffs. This weekend, the Junior Pee Wee and Pee Wee teams play at Niles at NAPERVILLE REDSKINS 4:30 and 6 p.m. Saturday, respectively.

The Junior Midget and Junior Bantam squads travel to Elgin for games at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sunday, respectively. The Redskins' first home games will be during their homecoming on Sept. 20.

The first game starts at 4:30 p.m. at Knoch Park. Junior Bantam The Redskins' strong running game and a resilient defense allowed them to control the game. The Colts threatened through the game to explode with big runs and long passes, but a stingy Redskins defense and timely penalties resulted in Harvey scoring only 6 points. The defensive struggle began after John Cresto made a on the opening kickoff.

The Redskins capitalized on Scott Matczak's fumble recovery by marching 50 yards to their first score. Kevin Tyrrell picked up half of the drive on 4 carries; the final run was good for a 2-yard touchdown. Harvey tried to answer, but was held to negative yards on two of their rushes. On fourth down, John Isaacson knocked down a pass. He knocked down another pass and earned an interception in the half.

Mike Dugal's 44-yard run led to Cresto's 11-yard touchdown to make it 12-0 just before the half. The Redskins opened the second half with a 16-play, 73-yard scoring drive capped by Rob Wheeler's 10- yard run. Harvey answered with a quick touchdown. Dugal capped the scoring with a 50-yard scoring run. Justin Lea's second interception ended the game.

Creating the holes for the running backs were Mike Lojkutz, Tom VanOrt, Dave Inman, Jim Bigham and Mike Lucas. The defense was led by Dugal, Steve Sarm and Tom Scarpati. Pee Wee The Redskins shut out the Colts with a strong defense and a balanced offensive attack. The Redskins held the Colts to negative yardage on Harvey's first possession. Captains John Bubeck and John Case led the defense with spirited leadership and 12 tackles.

Case and Pat Brusveen each had an interception. Other defensive contributors were Dave Tucci (4 tackles), Chris Martin (7 tackles), Eric Small, Eric Choi (6 tackles) and Steve Toye (blocked punt). Keven Meyer defended several passes and helped on offense, too. The offense started out slow, as it fumbled the ball away on the first possession, but scored three times. Captain Matt Burel led the team by calling the signals running the attack.

He passed for 33 yards and touchdown. Kerry Kruml and Bryan Schlake each ran for touchdowns behind a strong offensive fine. Paul Lojkutz, Tyler Hill and Jim Stetson anchored the middle of the line. Kruml caught a touchdown pass and Ryan Yonkers kicked the point after. Other offensive contributors were Alvin Smith, Marcus Lewis, Patrick Warren, Steve Mackowiak and Jeremy Gehl.

Chris Virbickis switched from defense to quarterback in the fourth quarter to close out the game. Junior Pee Wee The Redskins blasted the Colts with well-distributed scoring efforts. Quarterback Mason Ewald led the Redskins offense. Mike Genslinger and Kyle Krueger scored 3 and 2 touchdowns, respectively. Point- afters were scored by Tony Rubino, Alan Tucci and Matt Van Cleave.

Genslinger (80 yards), Krueger (61) and Rubino (37) ran up a total of 178 vards. The running and passing attack was made possible by the exceptional blocking of Brett Fox, Jeremy Litwicki, Mike Fabian, Mark Lill, Ryan Lindenmeyer and Nick Napolitano. Gregory Wunderlich moved from wide receiver to quarterback in the fourth quarter. The defense was captained by Van Cleave, who tallied 7 tackles. The Redskins' linebackers and defensive backs defended passes, blitzed and pursued to hold the Colts scoreless.

Nick Passarelli had 7 tackles, while Jordon Niquette, Spencer Lerch, Chris Proctor, Rubino and Kruml also contributed. The defensive line was comprised of Scott Fox, Marty Creroer (6 tackles) Mike Saviano (5 tackles), Josh Laz and Alex Dewey. They dosed all holes and didn't allow Harvey to get a first down the entire game. 85-pounders shut down Bensenville in 26-6 win The Bloomingdale Bears 85- pound Silver team posted a 26-6 victory over the Bensenville Bandits during last weekend's preseason Bloomingdale Bowl. BLOOMINGDALE BEARS The Bears improved their preseason record to 2-1 with the victory.

The Bears scored on their opening drive when running back Joey Gearhart (9 rushes, 36 yards) scored on a 25-yard run. Running back Ryan Sneed (6 rushes, 58 yards) scored early in the third quarter on a 39-yard touchdown run. Defensive end Joe Beverly recovered a Bandit fumble on the 32-yard line and ran it in for a touchdown. Beverly (3 rushes, 54 yards) also scored the Bears' fourth touchdown with a 50-yard run in the fourth quarter. The offensive line, which included Ryan Lenahan, Johnie Maness, Marco Gazzano, Matt Manisco, Jerry Bell, Jon Stenzel and Beverly, rose to the challenge in the second half by providing outstanding blocking for the running backs.

The Bears defense was outstanding, as it held the Bandit offense to minus 18 total yards for the game. The defensive attack was led by Bell, who had 10 tackles and 2 sacks. Middle linebacker Gearhart forced a fumble on the Bandits' first offensive play. Beverly forced a fumble and recovered 2 fumbles. Stenzel and Tim Thomas each forced a fumble.

Maness (2 tackles, 1 assist), Stenzel (l tackle, 3 assists) and Thomas (1 tackle, 2 assists) were in the Bandit backfield all day. Michael Chrastka made a key tackle late in the game to stop a Bandit drive. Other defensive contributors were Lenahan, Kanen Lathrope, John Gallagher, Joe Sauro, John Busano and Sean Keane. T.J. Zelek was out with an injury, but he provided moral support from the sideline.

75-pound Silver Bloomingdale toppled the Bensenville Bandits 31-13 in the Bloomingdale Bowl. The Bears improved to 3-0 in the preseason. The Bears struck on their first possession when quarterback Eric Fletcher scrambled for a 13-yard touchdown on a broken pass play. Halfback Alex Willert (5 carries, 178 yards) led all rushers and ran for 2 touchdowns in the first half. Tight end Mike Fabinski ran in the extra point on Willert's first touchdown.

Fullback Mike Bak-, erdjis scored a touchdown midway through the second quarter on a 1- yard dive to make it 25-0. In the third quarter, Willert scored his third touchdown on a 45- yard pass from Fletcher. Halfback Mike Schroeder was the offensive player of the day. He provided great downfield blocking for Willert and exceUent pass blocking to protect Fletcher in the pocket. The offensive line, anchored by center Jason McCown, did a great job.

Linemen Jimmy Price, Kirk Lathrope, Keith Chavez, Mike Laughlin, Brandon Brendan Tresch, Wayne Ludtke and Fabinski all played well. The Bears defensive players played well. Defensive tackle Mario Buonincontro (5 tackles, 2 assists, 1 fumble recovery) was defensive player of the day and led the Bears with his intensity. The defense held off an impressive 41- play assault by the Bandits. Cornerback Justin Hughes (3 tackles, 2 assists) and defensive end Parker Jendrycki (3 tackles, 3 assists, 1 sack) also played with great intensity.

Other defensive contributors were Tim Lenahan, Gage Szablewski and Sam Hughes, who made a touchdown-saving tackle in the fourth quarter. Top golfers named in recent 18-hole championship games JoAnn Thurston finished first in the championship flight at the Naperville Country Club Ladies 18- Hole League Club Championship last week. Carole Schieszler was the top low "net player, and Shiela Fritz finished second in low gross. In the A flight, Cindy Barenbrugge and LaVerne Boddy were first and second, respectively, in low gross, while LaVonne Pearson had the top low net score. In the flight, Pauline Feliciano was first and Michelle LaBelle was NAPERVILLE COUNTRY CLUB second in low gross.

Evelyn Early was first in low net. In another 18-hole league event last week, which included players who did not compete in the club championship, Judy Marten finished first in the championship flight. Barb Hayes was the top low net player. Carol Harris won the A flight, with Ruth Wannemaker taking the low net title, Bev Frier was first in the flight, with Beth Maguire tops in low net. In the flight, Mary Alice Leitz took first and Nancy Kratville was the low net winner.

Nancy Patterson cameo 1 a JoAnn Thurston birdie on the third hole. During regular season play on Aug. 5, Joan Lane won the champi- onship flight and Joan Neiman was the low net winner. In the A flight, LaVerne Boddy and Nancy Field tied for first. Carol Dorsey was tops in low net In the flight, there was a four-way tie between Jo Doyle, Margie Flynn, Bev Frier and Jenni Irwin.

Martha Wiltsie was the low net winner. The flight winner was Donna Tierney, In low net, Mary Kent and Evelyn Early tied for first. Birdies were recorded by Donna Tierney on No. 6 and Jo Doyle on No. 3.

Soccer The Naperville Women's Soccer League will conduct a meeting tonight in advance of its new son. NThe meeting for new players will be at 7 p.m. at Dolly's Restaurant, which- is at 75th Street and Naper Boulevard in Naperville. Players in the league are 21 and older. In addition to Naperville, teams alsif have been based in areas such as Wheaton, West Chicago and Elmhurst.

The fall season starts Sept. 6. Games will place each Saturday at Nike Park starting at 4:15 p.m. for about six weeks. Call Wendy at (630) 820-2547.

Hockey The Naperville North High School Hockey Club will conduct tryouts for the 1997-98 season starting on Tuesday at All Seasons Ice Arena in Naperville. Registration will start at 8 p.m. and the following information will be required: health insurance company name and policy number; player's Social Security number, and a non- refundable check made out to NNHS Hockey. Full equipment is required and tryouts will run from 9:30 to 11 p.m. Call Cathy Pasko at (630) 961-2310..