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Football lessons continue at St. Charles North's Trickey-Wright camp

Regardless of where one is in the football food chain, the learning never ends.

For a second straight summer St. Charles North will host a two-day clinic presented by the Jeff Trickey-Randy Wright QB-Receiver Camps.

Former St. Charles High School quarterback Wright - who advanced to an all-Big Ten career at Wisconsin and a starting role with the Green Bay Packers - is a person St. Charles North football coach Rob Pomazak said, "makes the right decision all the time."

That means on and off the field, aspects Pomazak said will be addressed at the camp at St. Charles North on July 18-19.

"From our standpoint it's important for us to try to bring the best instruction that we can for our community for football - youth football and high school football," said Pomazak, entering his third season as North Stars head coach.

"And Randy being a local athlete who went on to have NFL success is just an invaluable resource because of his knowledge and his message. He not only teaches the fundamentals of the game but he also teaches fundamental life skills like leadership that are really important."

Among Pomazak's favorite parts of the 2014 Trickey-Wright Camp, which drew about 35 players from incoming seventh-graders to high school seniors - he said some 20 schools were represented including attendees from Texas, the Quad Cities and southern Illinois - was sitting in on Wright's evaluations of videotape of all players.

"Each kid gets film and a review from him for positive feedback and positive reinforcement," said Pomazak, whose expertise lies mainly on the defensive side of the ball. "I use that at the two-day clinic to learn about a position I want to know more about. I sit in on every session I can."

The daily four-hour sessions include mechanics, drills, classroom instruction and discussion broken down for quarterbacks and receivers. The techniques are delivered in small groups and one-on-one with Wright and a staff of instructors bringing high school, college or professional experience.

A 3.5-hour camp for players entering fourth- through sixth-grades has been added this year, on July 18. Information and registration details on the Trickey-Wright Camp at St. Charles North are available at northstarfootball.org; the Trickey-Wright site is trickeywrightqbbr.com.

Pomazak was impressed by the cast of coaches at last year's camp. However, the former St. Charles Saint definitely directs the effort.

"He's hands-on," Pomazak said of Wright. "He's not pushing buttons from behind a curtain. He's working with each kid."

Battle of the Big Butts

Last summer Sports Illustrated got a kick out of West Aurora's Battle of the Big Butts. The magazine highlighted the annual lineman's competition in its Scorecard section on July 28, 2014.

Quotations by Batavia coach Dennis Piron, whose Bulldogs won the event in 2013 and placed second last year, went nationwide.

"Some coaches think the linemen stuff is a joke, but I think it's pretty important," Piron said.

As in the past this year's 17th annual Big Butts, July 16 at West Aurora, will offer a slice of hilarity plus horrid table manners in the nonscoring watermelon-eating contest.

The bulk of the competition - which was originated by West Aurora offensive line coach Mike Powers and retired head coach Roger "Buck" Drach when both were at St. Charles High School - tests linemen's strength, speed and agility.

Starting at 3 p.m. July 16 at West Aurora, groups of varsity and sophomore linemen from more than a dozen prep football programs will compete in tests of strength and endurance such as bench press, truck tire-flipping relay, medicine ball throw, 5-man sled and tug of war. In 2014, since-graduated West Aurora center Stephen Castellanos pressed 185 pounds 32 times.

A 40-yard dash will be measured by the fully-automated timing system usually employed during track meets; an agility course is run against a stopwatch.

Battle of the Big Butts offers a forum typically unavailable to linemen during summers heavy on 7-on-7 competitions dominated by quarterbacks, receivers, and running backs squeezed into slot formations.

Like Piron, Powers was quoted by Sports Illustrated last year. He noted a truth championship coaches take with a grain of salt.

"It all starts up front," said Powers, who may be reached for details or information at mtpowers1955@att.net.

Triple threat

Marmion 2011 graduate Ben Kanute is scheduled to compete in an International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Olympic Qualifier Event Aug. 2 in Rio de Janeiro.

If successful, he'll return to Rio Aug. 18 and 20, 2016 - as a member of the United States Olympic Team.

"The Olympics have always been a goal for me but up until this past year or so it hadn't really seemed that tangible. But I've raced well the past couple of years and I've been able to get into the right races," said Kanute, the product of Ironman Triathlon veterans Mike and Eileen Kanute of Geneva.

"Each year has been more realistic, but I've been trying to take it - that cliché - one step at a time, one race at a time."

An all-state finisher both in cross country and swimming at Marmion, Ben Kanute began his ascent in triathlon as an 8-year-old. On the most recent ITU Olympic Qualification List rankings the 22-year-old sits at No. 37 in the world and fifth among American men.

To qualify for the 2016 Olympics, on Aug. 2 Kanute must finish in the top eight overall, and be one of the top-two Americans. Other opportunities to land one of the country's three total available positions are Sept. 18-19 at the ITU World Triathlon Grande Finale Chicago; and at a yet-to-be-determined qualifying event next spring.

"I think for any of the United States guys it's going to take just a really incredible race," said Kanute, whose younger brothers, Josh and Nick, also graduated from Marmion.

"The Rio course I think suits me, it suits my abilities," Ben said. "It's an ocean swim and a pretty significantly hilly bike, and then it's a fairly flat run. The hard swim and bike really kind of suit my style of racing.

"It's going to be one of the fastest races of the whole year, so it's going to take just a really good effort, it's going to take you performing your best on that day, which is one of the hardest things to do - showing up on the line healthy and ready to go."

Most recently on the ITU's top-level World Triathlon circuit, in May Kanute finished 32nd in Yokohama, 31st in Australia and ninth in March in Auckland, New Zealand.

A 2014 graduate of the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in physiology, Kanute said he "lives a little bit out of my suitcase." He's now based out of Sante Fe, New Mexico, but summers mainly in Australia and New Zealand.

Before the Rio de Janeiro qualifier he'll leave July 14 for a race in Hamburg, Germany, on July 18. He'll spend a week in Spain to recover and "sharpen up," then leave July 28 for Brazil, his first time competing in South America.

Kanute enters approximately 10 to 20 events a year and trains a minimum of 25 hours weekly, not counting recovery, therapy, travel and the business aspects of the sport, namely developing relationships with sponsors. Support by Geneva Running Outfitters, Trek, Power Bar, Tyr, the New York Athletic Club and Training Bible Coaching allows Kanute to essentially be a full-time athlete.

He's got a coach, Adam Zucco, and an adviser in Sante Fe, 2000 Olympian Ryan Bolton.

"I'd kind of like to stress that it wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for my parents and my support team," Kanute said.

"Without people like that, people who believed in me and who currently believe in me, I wouldn't be able to do what I love. I consider myself lucky to just train and race."

As far as luck goes, it too is a part of the sport in the form of a flat tire, a bad crash, the pounding surf.

"My dad always likes to tell me before the races that something will go wrong during the race, and how you deal with it is what will make you a good racer, or a bad one," he said.

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