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Page 15 - PLAINDKALER-HERALD. FRIDAY. APRIL 5.1985 Sports / \%A«; Plalndealer-Herald photo by Chris Juzwlk Johnsburg's Mike Majercik barely eludes the tag of the Harvard first baseman during Wednesday's season-opening defeat, 7-4. Ma- McHenry thinclads 'on the run' By Chris Juzwik Plalndealer-Herald sports editor Senior Mike Lobinsky placed in the FVC last season, and will help Boland Dan Boland will be in the field ey coaching^ro ^<ttscus teams this spring at McHenry High School. If one finishes in the top three of the Fox Valley Con­ ference, he'll be elated. If the other one doesn't finish in the last three, he'll be just as excited. Boland's Warrior thin­ clads - the boys' and girls' editions - begin their seasons Monday, the boys at Johnsburg in a triangular with the Skyhawks and Harvard, and the girls in an FVC battle with CL Central and CL South. The boys were 10-2 in dual meets fast season, and finished third in the FVC. Gone from that team are field man Todd Hughes, and runners Marty Koleno and Brian .Wright. "Marty and Brian got-a lot of points for us last year," Boland said. "We'll miss them. "Quite honestly, if someone came to me right now and said you can finish third i in the conference, 10-2 in dual meets, I'd send them a bottle of wine," Boland joked. Runningshould again be a strong suit for the boys. Leading the way will be senior distance runner Chris Creutz, who was one of the top two cross-country performers in the con­ ference last fall. *" Sprinter Curt Justen, a junior, will also return. Justen placed in the con­ ference meet a year ago, as did Creutz. "We have some pretty good runners," Boland said. "We've g got some quality people coming back this year. Last year, we had a fairly young team." Jeff Szamlewski, a Ion; jumper who finished secon in the league last year as a sophomore. "We're counting on these guys to come through for us this year," Boland said. "The conference gets stronger every year. (Crystal Lake) Central is a perennial powerhouse, they've won the conference five times in a row. (Crystal Lake) South is good, and D u n d e e - C r o w n a n d Woodstock should be relatively strong as well. Preview l® "Overall, I think our running events will be our strength, along with the shot, discus and long jump. We need to work more on our field events," he added. Boland and assistant coach Earl Kyle have a total of 40 boys out for the two levels. "Our boys have the potential to be a real fine brack team," Boland added. "We have a good chance to duplicate last year's record, but we have a lot of juniors on the team, and we need them to make the step up in competition." Whereas *the boys are perhaps on the verge of stepping into the FVC's upper echelon, the girls are a different story. McHenry was 3-9 in the league a year ago, finishing last, but that was a team comprised mainly of fresh- wen, and Bolandi.believes the girls are on their way up. "We were almost entirely a freshman team last year, Boland explained. "This year, we have 38 girls out, 17 are sophomores, only three seniors. So the bulk of our strength is in the sophomore class," Boland said. "So I don't know if we're quite ready to make a run at the 'Big Four' yet." Boland's 'Big Four' in­ cludes Woodstock, Dundee- Crown, South and Cary- Grove. "Those are the dominant girls' teams/' he said. "We'd like to move up to fourth or fifth, that would be very nice. A .500 record is a realistic goal. We're taking small steps." The 'veterans' on the girls' squad are three seniors, all of whom are runners. Donna Devenecia, who runs the half-mile, mile and mile relay; Pam Bradley, ay; i whom Boland says "does a verythi eluding the mile, two-mile, little of evei m- hurdles and mile relay; and hurdler Aleen Tiffany. "They're all - Iet- terwinners, they're our leaders," said Boland. Juniors Diane Anzinger, a high jumper, and Michelle Landis, a long jumper, also return. "The girls have a real tough opener too," Boland said. "Right away with South and Central, that's tough." The girls will be at home for a Wednesday meeting. Grant, while the boys wMl host Round Lake Thursday afternoon. WARRIORS • (Continued from page 16) first-ever high school baseball outing, made the start for the Warriors. The young left-hander was stung for four first-inning runs by the 'Cats. An error coupled with six base on balls did the damage. Fellow classmate Merrick Steiffer replaced Roy and pit­ ched admirably for two and two- thirds innings, allowing two hits and a run. Junior Steve Kat- zenberger tossed the fourth frame and gave up an unearned run. McHeniy came roaring back in the fifth inning, garnering three of its four hits. "We did a nice job coming back," Wilson conceded. "We at least made it respectably." Tony Sorting started the rally with a walk and a subsequent steal of second. Second baseman and co-captain Steve Cun­ ningham doubled to score Sorting, and get McHenry on the board. Jeff Schuster walked, and then senior co-captain Craig Hill singled t to score Cunningham, to make it 6-2, Libertyville. Junior Bob Nolan then singled to score Schuster and Hill, ac­ counting for the final 6-4 margin, before darkness set in. The Warriors traveled to Elgin Larkin for a Thursday battle, and will play a doubleheader at A'ntioch Saturday. "Libertyville has a good baseball tradition," Wilson said. "They're a holdover from the old Northwest Suburban which McHenry used to play in. They have a good program. "We cudn't do too bad, for the first time out. You add'10 walks and a couple wild pitches together with a couple of hits, that'll do it." McHenry will play its first home - and Fox Valley Con­ ference - ballgame of the season against Cary-Grove Tuesday at 4 p.m. * JHS opener not a big hit jercik's grounder was picked up and thrown wildly, but the Harvard bench thought the tag had been applied. The umpire ruled otherwise. JOHNSBURG - Jim Meyers knew his Johnsburg High baseball team was young and inexperienced. He knew they'd make some mistakes. But what he didn't know was that the number of errors - both mental and physical - would be this great. Meyers was unpleasantly surprised, however, as the Skynawks lost their season opener at home Wednesday to Harvard, 7-4, in five innings. "We didn't play well, especially in the early stages," Meyers said. "We only had three hits, and made four errors. It's wasn't very pleasurable." It wasn't bad enough that JHS could muster just three hits, but of the 15 outs Johnsburg mader nine came via the strikeout route. "If both teams would have played a good game, we'd have won, 1-0,'r said Meyers. The Skyhawks took a 2-0 lead in the first stanza when John rokus-- Rokus or Marian Central principal Thomas Landers about the job. When asked if Beck was a candidate for the job, Rokus replied: "No.. Ben is a driver's education teacher and we have no driver's ed program." Landers said Wedesday that Rokus' decision didn't come completely unexpected. "Hans and I had discussed his stepping aside for a period of time and I was aware of his thinking, so I really couldn't say I was sur­ prised," Landers said. "We certainly appreciate the work he's done for us over the years, and we're sure he'll continue to work hard in his teaching and athletic director roles.' That schedule is filled with a five- or six-class schedule where Rokus teaches either physical education or history. He said those duties, combined with the pounds of paperwork that go along with being AD, will keep Gallagher walked with one out, and went to third on a single to right b by Rick Easterling. Gallagher scored on a wild pitch, Easterling going to thiitf. Mark Maiercik then lofted a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Easterling to give the hosts an early advantage. But Harvard roared back to take the lead. Johnsburg starting pitcher Jason Perry walked seven batters in the first three innings, before giving way to Bob Boak, who pitched ad­ mirably in the last two frames, allowing just one earned run. Johnsburg came back somewhat in the fourth when Majercik beat out an infield heat. John Koegel came on to pinch-run, and promptly stole second. Bob McCauley reached on a dropped third strike, sending Koegel to third, from where he scored on a wild pitch. Boak then helped his own cause with a double to right-center to score McCauley, but the rally died. "The physical errors don't bother me that much, as long as they're not because somebody was hotdogging it," Meyers said. "But there's really no excuse for the other things we did wrong, mentally. If we could've wiped out those, it would have been a different story. "We had nine strikeouts, four called, five swinging. We just played poorly in every phase, we just weren't there, I guess," Meyers said. Johnsburg will have to wait until Monday to try to redeem itself, as the Skyhawks will host Northwest Suburban Conference rival Lake Zurich. "That'll be a good test to see if we've improved," said Meyers. "Lake Zurich's one of the top teams in the conference. "We can be a lot better. There's a vlot of room for im­ provement," Meyers said. "We nave a lot of.things to work on." him plenty busy. He began in the Hurricane system in 1967 as frosh-soph coach. He held that post until 1975 when he was appointed sophomore coach and then became varsity coach in 1977. He began in the Hurricane system in 1967 as frosh-soph coach. He held that post until 1975 when he was appointed sophomore coach and then became varsity coach in 1977. "We were in the West Suburban at the time. I remember some of those bus rides down to Benet (in Lisle) IC (Immaculate Conception in Elmhurst) and Aurora (Mar- mion Military Academy) he recalled. "That was a tough league. We'd drive two hours in 20-below weather, get beat by 40 points and then drive two hours back. I'd be here at midnight waiting for cheerleaders and players to get their rides home. Oh, how I remember those (Continued from page 16/ • days." Those were back in the days where Rokus admits to "being way too high strung." "You know how I coach now - I sit and observe and let the assistant do a lot of the yelling and coaching," he said. "But back then I was a basket case on the day of . a game. I'd go the- whole day without eating. I'd get myself all worked up during the; day. You should have seen me."~ That contrasts markedly with Rokus' easy-going nature where assistant Tony Huemann (and before Huemann, Tom Blenner) had a lot of say in the Marian scheme. "I liked getting the assistant coaches involved. I'd hate to be an assistant coach and just have to stand there and do! nothing more than be a ball boy or a manager. I think it's im­ portant to get the assistants involved." 'RINCTlAVIIfiliaS TIME MITCHELL BUICK OLDS GMC TRUCK IN McHENRY You Can Save Hundreds $ $ with % APR GMAC FINANCING ON SELECTED MODELS SEE US FOR DETAILS 1985 BUCK Sk/hawfc Custom Coupe Olds Ftienza DON'T MISS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO OWN FULL SIZE, 6 PASSENGER LUXURY WITH OUR BUICK LESABRE AND OLDS DELTA 88 1985 Buick ^ Limited Collectors Edition SeoaTT Delta h8 LS STOCK #9918 STOCK *9959 -BOTH CARS ARE FU^LY EQUIPPED- LIST PRICE $15,318.00 LIST PPRICE $16,058.00 YOUR DISCOUNT- -$1,578.00 . 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