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Herald photo by Sam Natrop MC's Fortins look to be a pair of 'wild cats' By Sam Natrop Herald sports editor WOODSTOCK -- Dan and Darren Fortin have a lot more in common than their last name, their address ; and their home phone number. They also share several other like qualities: •The two played on Marian Cen­ tral's Class 2A state championship football team in 1983 and were two- way starters. •They were picked to the all- - Northwest Suburban Conference J team in their junior and senior years. •They both exude ,a friendly na- ture in conversation, but possess a natural intimidating look. •They both have a burning desire • to play college football. . So it should be no surprise that the former Hurricane gridiron >: standouts will attend school this fall to continue their respective football careers. Thus enters another similarity Dan and Darren Fortin have: they'll be attending the same school fiest year. The Fortin brothers left early Thursday for Villanova, Penn., the home of Villanova University, a Di­ vision I-AA school better known for its basketball exploits than for foot­ ball success. (Villanova won the na­ tional collegiate basketball title Youth league sets playoffs Thursday, August 15,1985 By Herald News Service McHENRY - The City of McHen- ry Department of Parks & Recrea­ tion has announced plans for its Youth 12" Softball League playoffs. The entire post-season tourna­ ment will be conducted Friday night at Knox Park, as the league's top four teams battle it out in a winner- take-all event. Regular-season league champion George P. Freund (10-2) will open play against the Johnsburg Busi­ nessmen (8-4) at 6:30 p.m. Also at 6:30, Connors Masonry (9- 3) will duel Raycraft Septic (7-5). The two winners will advance to the championship game, to be played at 8:45 p.m. The two losers will square off in the championship battle at 7:30. League and playoff trophies will be presented to the winning teams fallowing the championship game. Trophies will also be issued to the first, second and third place teams for both league play and tourna­ ment play. High school football a welcome break from inane sports world In times like these, amid all-too-frequent Cub losing streaks and stubborn Bear free agents, it's refreshing to knowjgiat high school football has traveled an unaffected path to normalcy. Very simple indeed, this sport we call high school football. So simple that everything started on schedule this past Monday, and without interrup­ tions. No strikes. No arbitrations. No.holdouts. There's no place for a Donald Fehr or a Marvin Miller. Even Peter Ueberroth doesn't stand a chance when it comes to affecting high school football. The game is too simple. Line up. Hike the ball. Go for a pass or hand off. Sack the quarterback. Cover the receivers. Execute a blitz. Call for a screen pass. Night games. Afternoon contests. Hot dogs and soft drinks. Don't tell anyone, but high school football may be too good to be true. Just thinking about the opening kick-off of 1985 is enough to get anyone excited, even the most oblivious of fans. Why is that? Why is high school football the way it is? Who knows. Maybe it's because the game signals the beginning of the new school year, the start of something new and different, the blast-off point to another year of pacing the halls in search of everything you always wanted to know (but were afraid to ask). In a sense, the school year begins with football. Sometimes it can make or break school spirit. A winning year could ignite the rest of the athletic department while a losing campaign could put a damper on the winter and spring sports. Mark Meyer Herald sports writer Remember your first year in college? Everyone asked where you went to school. "Oh yeah," the person next to you would mutter, "you guys had a great football team. We never could beat you, especially not on Homecoming." And with that response came a rush of inner self-pride and satisfaction knowing you attended a school rich in football tradition and chock full of gridiron success. For those who had the misfortune of walking the halls of a perennial also-ran, discussion of football squads was generally overlooked, disdained or never mentioned at all. In a way, high school football is like a tag -- you wear it all the time, wherever you go. You can't escape it. No matter how hard you try, that River Shannon wins 16" crown By Herald News Service McHENRY -- It was fairly inev­ itable, after all. The River Shannon woh the Mc- Henry Women's 16-inch Softball League championship Tuesday night by whlppbigEd's Rental 7-1. River Shannon won the league's regular season championship, and began defense of that title with a 6-2 win over After the Fox in the play­ off's first round Tuesday night. Both teams were scoreless into the third inning when River Shan­ non strung together back-to-back singles by Kolleen Afeld and Sharon Smith to take a 1-0 lead. After the Fox then took a lead in the bottom of the frame when the sister combination of Chris and Ei­ leen Connell singled in two runs. But Shannon took the lead for good in the fifth with five runs on six hits, as Afeld picked up the win. In the championship, Ed's Rental, the league's second place team dur­ ing the regular season, was no match for River Shannon. The league champs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first on back-to- back base hits by Janice Schmitt and Annette Coughlin, followed by a two-run triple off the bat of Lee Ann Christy. River Shannon then added single runs in the third and fourth, and a pair in the fifth to take a command­ ing lead of 7-0. Ed's scored its only run in the fourth inning on a base hit by Mary Varda and two River Shannon errors. Shannon's lead was due to the strong pitching of Afeld, who was in turn backed by solid defense. The regular season finish, in or­ der, was: River Shannon, Ed's Rental, Oak Park, After the Fox, Fox Hole, Greg's Never Inn, Classic Trophies and Old Bridge. label will always make its presence felt. It doesn't haunt you, but you know it's there. Kind of like a constant reminder. High school football is like that. It grows on you. And once it has planted roots, well, it'll never go away. Those roots grew a little deeper Monday afternoon as area schools opened practice in preparation for the upcoming season. Passes were dropped, assignments were missed and coverages were fouled up. No big deal. Only the first day. Lots of time to make up for those mistakes. Lots of time to develop crisp pass patterns, earth-shattering blocks and timely running plays. Plenty of time to insert new defenses and complicat­ ed offenses. Coaches may grunt and groan, but it can be accomplished. Football is here, sports fans. For those of you who crave it, sit back and enjoy the season. For those of you who care not to deal with it -- well, try it some time in the next couple of months. You're probably going to like what "you see. Mc Henry All-Stars win WL tourney HcraM photos by Eddy Mootville River Shannon pitcher Kolleen Afeld eyes one of her tosses to the plate during her team's 7-1 win in the championship game of the McHenry Women's 16-inch Softball League Tuesday night. Ed's Rental's Diane Knox finds Afeld's offering a tittle bard to handle in the first inning. River Shannon won both the regular season and post-season titles. By Herald News Service WONDER LAKE - They knew they were the best players in their age group that McHenry had to of­ fer. But a trip to Wonder Lake an­ swered the question, 'Just how good are they?' The answer? Very good. The McHenry Youth League 14-15 year old all-stars claimed the cham­ pionship of the Wonder Lake Tour­ nament recenUy with three stellar performances, including a trio of o u t s t a n d i n g p i t c h i n g accomplishments. In game one, McHenry ripped the host Wonder Lake squad, 12-2. It would be the only two runs allowed by MeHenry pitchers in the tournament. The winners jumped ahead 1-0 in the first, but Wonder Lake scrapped back to tie the game at 2-2 after four. McHenry then scored six runs in the fifth, keyed by a three-run homer off the bat of Tom Sweetwood, and rode that, plus a four-run sixth, to the win. Sweetwood had three hits and three runs scored in the game, while Bob Diedrich, Scott Sorting and Trent CasUe chipped in two hits apiece. Tim Glosson was the recipient of Sweetwood's hot bat, picking up the win by shutting out Wonder Lake over the fifth and sixth innings. Glosson releived Diedrich, who pitched the third and fourth, and starter Sorting, who left after the second. In game two, Matt Murphy, Sweetwood and Glosson combined to hurl a no-hitter to lead the locals to an easy 14-0 win over Genoa City, Wis. Murphy opened the game and pitched the first two frames before giving way to Sweetwood, who fanned four of the six batters he faced, and was credited with the win. Glosson hurled the fifth inning. Only one Genoa City runner got as far as second base, and that was after a walk and a passed ball. Jim Simon, Sweetwood and Corey Berg had two hits and three RBI apiece to lead the McHenry offense, which scored seven runs in the fourth. Berg's two hits were dou­ bles, while Simon had a triple to his totals. Dave Flathau tripled in a run. i The win advanced McHenry to the tttle game against Crystal Lake. The two teams battled to a score­ less Ue through two innings, before McHenry broke loose for two runs in the third on a long, two-run homer over the field fence by Eric Swanson. McHenry added two more in the fifth and that was all that was needed en route to a 4-0 win. Murphy, Sweetwood and Glosson again teamed up to stifle the tysers on just four hits, with Sweetwood collecting the win, striking out two in two innings of work. Flathau had two hits for McHen­ ry, while Sorting had a single over Georgetown in April.) But Villanova's football program hasn't made much noise in the past four years. In fact, the loudest thing you would hear from the 'Nova foot­ ball field would be the whirring of the lawn mower and the echo of voices from the maintenance people. Villanova hasn't had a football program since 1981. "It's a catholic school, and they had a lot of discipline problems that year so they just dropped football," said Dan, who will enter VU as It freshman. Problems aside, Wildcat alumni were sick and tired of the lack of a football program. So they donated thousands of dollars to reinstate the program. Included in the donations was enough money for 75 football scholarships. One of those went to Daniel Fortin. "It all happened in one night," he recalled of the cold December eve­ ning. "Northern (Illinois Universi­ ty) had five guys come over to the house one night to talk to me about going there. After they left, a coach from Villanova called and talked to me and a half-hour after I talked to him the guy from Northwestern called. "The Villanova guy said there were giving out five scholarships and the first three guys to accept ban, lei., I VM • «>«•«« n«H wv ygnj "'p AwmviM* wqvvhv* --y ••• at Villanova University this fall. were getting them," he continued. "I jumped at it." Because they are in a total re­ building process, all the incoming players will be freshmen. Only a handful of fifth-year seniors remain from the 1981 team. That should prove to be advanta­ geous to the younger Fortin. "It'll mean I won't go in there having three or four or five guys ahead of me and knowing I won't necessarily have to wait a couple of years to get a chance to play," said Dan, who rushed for 2,843 yards in his junior and senior seasons at Marian. "Everybody coming in will be at the same level of experience." Darren's trek through the football world hasn't been so glamorous -- as would be expected from an offen­ sive lineman-linebacker. He went to Drake University (in Des Moines, Iowa) as a walk-on -- a non-scholar- ship player who shows up and tries to make the team. After making the team, Darren was a redshirt, a player who prac­ tices with the team and dresses for home games, but who does not trav­ el to away games, nor loses any of his four years of athletic eligibility. He eventually made it up to third- string linebacker. "1 was small compared to the linebackers there (Darren is 5-10), but I pretty much expected it," he said. "The physical requirements were real tough compared to high school, but it was just something to adjust to." * But he admitted the 4-7 season the Bulldogs suffered through in the Missouri Valley Conference was the toughest obstacle to overcome after his high school team went 134) the previous year. "After we lost the first couple games, it became a big routine -- go to practice and play games. It wasn't much fun," he said. "It was totally different from here (Marian) where I was a big mouth and was playing with guys who showed a lot of emotion. It wasn't Darren Fortin football." His decision to go to Villanova was plain and simple: "It's a chance to get into a young program where I think I can play." He will again try to make the team as a walk-on at linebacker and' long- snapper (center snaps for punts and field goals). And he will go in with one year of college f<v>tball experience under his belt. The brothers will begin three-a- day practices Sunday with another common characteristic -- an injury. Darren pulled a hamstring in a softball game recently, but said "I played hurt all of last spring at 'Drake. I'm going into practice at Villanova and I'm going to play. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and watch." Dan broke his wrist during the Hurricanes' homecoming contest against Grant last October 19. He had the wrist X-rayed after the game and was told it was sprained. When the arm still hurt during weightlifiting in January, he had it looked at again and was told it was broken. Practice starts Sunday. The cast comes off Saturday. The two have played football to­ gether for five years, not counting games in the backyard. Ah, sibling competition always brings out the best in brothers. "I was always the big slow one. He was faster," Darren admitted. "But I was stronger." "J was small and quick. And I was smarter," interjected Dan. "I could punch and run, and he could never catch me." "Yeah," Darren countered, "but eventually you went to sleep." Brothers.