White to join Stetson’s football reintroduction
Warren senior Shayne White has earned a tip of the hat, so to speak.
White has signed an institutional letter of intent with the Stetson University Hatters in Deland, Fla., where he will play football.
The 6-foot-2, 225-pounder started on the offensive line last fall and earned honorable mention All-North Suburban Conference honors in helping the Blue Devils earn a state playoff berth.
White then helped Warren’s basketball team win 17 games.
Stetson has not had football in 57 years. The Hatters will play in the prestigious Pioneer Football League, which competes in the NCAA’s Division I Football Championship Subdivision as a football-only conference. Stetson hired former Princeton head coach Roger Hughes and is scheduled to play its first game in the fall.
Long ago, considered a pigskin powerhouse in Florida, Stetson last played football in 1956.
Softball
Georgetown junior Allie Anttila (Antioch) tied two NCAA single-game records Saturday, as she hit 4 home runs and collected 16 total bases in the Hoyas’ 12-11 win over Rutgers. Anttilla’s 10 RBI fell one short of the NCAA single-game record. Her season statistics include a .311 batting average with 9 home runs and .700 slugging percentage.
On April 2, Loyola sophomore Lauren Moore (Antioch) homered in the sixth inning to give the Ramblers a 1-0 win over Northwestern. For the year, Moore leads the team in slugging percentage and home runs (9) and is third on the team with a .351 batting average.
Northwestern sophomore Olivia Duehr (Antioch) has the fourth-highest number of home runs and slugging percentage on the Wildcats and ranks second on the team in on-base percentage.
Junior Sammie Seamon, a three year starter at UW Whitewater, is currently hitting .385 while leading the team in doubles and being tied for the team lead in triples and home runs for the 13th ranked Warhawks.
Senior Jen Precht is a three-year starter for Carthage, which qualified for the NCAA regionals last year and is sitting in first place of the CCIW this spring.
Wheaton’s Christina Sandstedt (Lake Zurich) batted .600 (9-for-15) in four games for the Thunder last week.
She was 4-for-4 with 4 RBI and 2 runs in a 7-6 win over Lake Forest, including a grand slam, which was the first home run of her collegiate career.
Boys lacrosse
Stevenson junior midfielder Conor Okmin, Libertyville junior goalie Cole Blazer and Libertyville junior defender Ethan Miller have been named a 2013 Brine National High School All-American and haves been selected to represent the Illinois region at the sixth annual Brine National Lacrosse Classic to be held in Boyds, Md., June 30-July 3.
Baseball
Augustana’s Kurt Schmidt (Grayslake Central) was 3-for-4 with a run and two RBI as the Vikings defeated North Central 11-2 in Game 1 of a doubleheader.
Ÿ Carthage’s Mike Gentile (Grayslake Central) was 3-for-3 with a run scored. as the Redmen defeated North Park 6-5.
Elmhurst’s Eric Stevenson (Carmel) was 2-for-3 with a walk and run for the Bluejays in a 4-3 win over Wheaton.
Senior Andy Dana (Antioch) is a four-year starter at Dubuque and is tied for third on the team in triples. He ranks eighth in batting average in the Iowa Interscholastic Athletic Conference.
Men’s lacrosse
Augustana sophomore defender Ty Benson (Libertyville) has a team-high 10 caused turnovers for the Vikings, who is 2-0 in the Midwest Lacrosse and 5-3 overall after a 12-9 win at Mount St. Joseph.
Scholar athlete
Tennis player Lauren Aguilar (Carmel) is among 39 Wisconsin-Whitewater student athletes who received the Chancellor’s Scholar Athlete Award.
Aguilar has a cumulative GPA of 3.27 and is majoring in social work. She has been on the Dean’s list three semesters, the WIAC Scholastic Honor Roll in 2009-10 and 2011-12, and was an ITA Scholar-Athlete in 2012. She was WIAC champion in 2012 at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles. In 2011, she was the conference champion at No. 6 singles, and was the 2010 conference champion at No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles.
She was a member of the WIAC All-Sportsmanship Team in 2010. Lauren is the UW-Whitewater record holder for most doubles wins in a season with 27 wins, was team Rookie of the Year in 2009-10, and received the Stanley Brink Sportsmanship Award in 2010-11. She has participated in Make a Difference Day, Reading with the Warhawks, Kids Night Out, volunteered for free tennis programs as well as a nursing home visitation program. She is a member of SAAC and is a certified PTR instructor.
Berggren moves on
Ashley Berggren, who has directed the Schaumburg girls basketball team to back-to-back winning seasons, will not be returning to her post of head coach.
The former all-state basketball player said that with the numbers for special education students declining significantly at the high school, her teaching position is no longer available.
“That is the nature of education, it is constantly changing,” said Berggren, who starred at Barrington High School and the University of Illinois, where she was the Big Ten Player of the Year in 1997. “Things happen for a reason, and I’m thankful for my time at Schaumburg.”
It was time of five years in which Berggren’s Saxons were always competitive in the Mid-Suburban West. Each season, the Saxons improved their record and they won their first regional since 2008 this season.
“I’m thankful to have been given the opportunity to teach and coach at Schaumburg,” she said. “I am very proud of both the individual player accomplishments as well as the team success. But more importantly, I enjoyed coming to practice every day, the girls and coaching staff always gave me a reason to smile.”
Berggren is in her 15th year conducting her own youth camps called the ‘Berggren Hoop Camp.’
“I am interested in igniting a love for basketball for girls at a younger age, starting at age seven,” she said.
Berggren now plans to conduct three separate weeks of youth camps (two girls sessions and one coed) in the area, focused on delivering instruction in a fun-filled atmosphere.
More information is available at www.berggrenhoopcamp.org.
Berggren also enjoys another sport. She has played wide receiver and defensive end for the Chicago Force women’s professional football team the past three years.
Fittingly, she has been selected to play for the USA women’s national football team in the 2013 world championship in Finland.
“When I was eleven years old I wrote a fictional story about a girl who fought the critics to have the opportunity to play for the Chicago Bears,” she said. “She made the team and went on to win a Super Bowl championship. Every athlete at some point aspires to represent his or her country, but never in my wildest dreams, did I think it would be in football. I’m just living out my dream.”
Berggren is also excited about the future of a nonprofit organization she has begun.
“Six years ago, I wrote a business plan and now, through a series of unexpected events, I’m being given the opportunity to focus my efforts on starting Youth Onbelay (www.youth-onbelay.org),” she said.
The program centers on providing experiential learning and mentorship opportunities for at-risk Chicago youth.
Berggren is an alumnus of Teach For America (TFA), an American nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting high-achieving recent college graduates and professionals to teach for at least two years in low-income communities throughout the United States.
“As a ‘Teach for America’ alumni, I have experienced first-hand the inequalities in education, having taught on the west side of Chicago and Schaumburg,” Berggren said. “My passion lies in providing at-risk youth a myriad of experiential learning opportunities that may help expand the lens from which they see the world.”
The motto of Youth Onbelay is “Reaching new heights, one experience at a time.”
And Berggren now finds herself ready for new experiences.
“It’s interesting how life presents us with opportunities when we least expect it,” she said.
Ÿ Joe Aguilar and John Leusch contributed to this report.
Ÿ Please email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com or FAX to (847) 427-1173.