Volunteers receive help; Kennedy captures 4th in nationals

So you're thinking about becoming a volunteer coach in youth baseball.

Good for you.

Now it's time to pause and ask yourself if you're really ready to take on this enormous challenge of guiding our young people.

Don't you wish you could take a training course first that fits your schedule?

Caliendo Sports International, a Schaumburg-based company, and Coaches Video Library have joined forces in developing an online training course for volunteer baseball coaches.

"Helping volunteer coaches to help develop our grass roots in the game has been a passion of mine for over 20 years," said Peter Caliendo, a professional skill development coach.

"Volunteer coaches have great intentions but certainly have a difficult task in teaching a very difficult skilled-specific sport to our young kids. We need to supply the right resources to help them make practice more fun and develop basic skills."

The course has 250 video drills with voice overlay, skill overview templates for all aspects of baseball, pre-practice module to pre-practice your team online and many more features to help youth coaches.

Contact Caliendo Sports International at (847) 781-8039 or caliendosportsinternational@comcast.net

Wrestling

Jimmy Kennedy (Grant) of the University of Illinois finished fourth at 133 pounds in the NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis. The No. 2 seed won his first 3 matches before losing in the semifinals 4-2 to No. 3 seed Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State.

Kennedy, a two-time state champion at Grant with a 187-3 high school record, then defeated No. 8 Mack Reiter of Minnesota 4-0 before losing the third place bout 7-2 to No. 1 Franklin Gomez of Michigan State.

Basketball

The Warren High School Spring Skills Clinic for girls basketball will be held each Monday night beginning April 7 through May 19.

The clinic is scheduled for O'Plaine Gym (500 N. O'Plaine) on April 7 and May 5 and at the Almond Gym (34090 Almond Road) on April 14-21-28 and May 12-19.

The camp will cover individual offensive skills such as shooting, dribbling and passing through the use of drills and competitive games. Shooting and layups using proper techniques will be stressed.

Fundamental team concepts also will be taught.

Cost of the camp is $100.

Current members of the high school staff as well as members of the basketball program will serve as instructors.

John Stanczykiewicz is the varsity girls basketball coach. For questions, he can be reached at (847) 599-4381.

For more information on the Warren girls basketball program go to http://blue.wths.net/extra/girls_basketball/

• Senior point guard Jonny Reibel (Hoffman Estates) of Rollins College (Winter Park, Fla.) was named to the Daktronics NCAA Division II All-America First Team and also the NABC/State Farm Division II All-America First Team.

That completes a sweep for the 6-foot-2 Reibel that also included all-conference, all-region and all-district honors. He has been selected to play in the NABC/NCAA Division II All-Star Game.

Another player from Illinois also made both All-America first teams -- 6-8 John Smith (Winona State) of Johnsburg High School.

Baseball

Pitcher Rick Krajewski (Grayslake) of Beloit College was named Midwest Conference Performer of the Week. He picked up 2 victories over Rockford and Cornell to improve to 3-1. He has worked 24 innings this season with a 2.25 ERA.

• Two area products have 6 of Duke's wins in a 21-7 start. Freshman Grant Monroe (Schaumburg) is 4-1 for 26 innings and junior Andrew Wolcott (Warren) is 2-1 for 28.1. The 6-5, 240-pound Wolcott worked 6 strong innings as Duke upset No. 2 North Carolina 13-4.

Softball

Molly Meyer (Elk Grove) is hitting .431 at the University of Dayton to rank second in the Atlantic 10 for 27 games. She is first in hits (44), triples (3) and total bases (56) and fourth in runs (24).

Ashley Sloan, another Elk Grove product, is hitting .400 for 20 games at Yale. She leads the team in hits (30) and runs (18).

• Washington University St. Louis teammates Laura D'Andrea (Prospect) and Claire Voris (Barrington) were named to the University Athletic Association (UAA) all-conference team, and Voris was named rookie of the year. The Bears went 7-1 to win their fifth straight conference title.

• Kat Krause (Hersey) of Loyola hit .500 for four games with 3 runs, 2 homers, 4 RBI and a stolen base. She owns the school record for career home runs with 31 and is only 3 RBI short of another career mark.

• Nicole Pauly (Palatine) leads Northwestern with 17 RBI in 24 games. She has 3 home runs.

Football

Sophomore Anthony Castonzo (Lake Zurich) of Boston College has been moved from right tackle to the key left side of the offensive line. The 6-foot-7, 282-pounder replaces Gosder Cherilus, who could go in the first round in the NFL draft.

Swimming

Skylar Davis (Palatine) of Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minn.) earned All-America honors by taking seventh place (15:43.69) in the 1,650-yard freestyle at the NCAA Division III Championships.

Gymnastics

Freshman Allison Buckley (Conant) of the University of Illinois was named to the All- Big Ten First Team and also the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. In last weekend's Big Ten Championships, she finished second on beam, fourth on vault and in the all-around and seventh in floor exercise.

Track and field

Mike Richardson (Buffalo Grove) of Illinois State finished first in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:22.22) at the Southern Illinois Spring Classic in Carbondale.

BG Shootout

The BG Shootout 3-Person Mechanics Camp for basketball officials will be held June 19-21 at Buffalo Grove High School.

Directed by Ed Curtin with Fred Allman, John Katzler, Jim Bernardi and Randy Steen serving as clinicians, the camp opens with a 3-hour classroom on Thursday, June 19 from 6-9 p.m.

Current three-person mechanics and rules changes will be discussed.

There will be games on Friday and Saturday, June 20-21, and each official will work six over two days with afternoon and evening sessions. All games are at a boys varsity level.

The clinic will satisfy the IHSA certification requirement. Officials will receive a written observation report.

The fee is $70.

For information, contact Curtin at (847) 991-3144 or fax to (847) 934-5861.

Rugby

Britton Meihls (Hoffman Estates) of Purdue University played the wing and lock positions on the Boilermaker women's team that went 3-1 and finished runner-up in the Nash Bash Invitational in Nashville, Tenn., losing to Indiana in the title game.