McHenry County athletes to play key roles for Winona
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| Bruce Carpenter |
Bruce Carpenter spent the past few weeks working football camps around the country.
Getting back to Winona, Minn., where the Johnsburg graduate is Winona State's co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, allowed Carpenter to look ahead to the fall this week.
In his eighth season at Winona, Carpenter expects several McHenry County players to be important contributors.
Though NCAA Division II Winona is looking for a new quarterback, the Warriors won't have to look far for help protecting the new face behind center.
Crystal Lake South graduate Jason Enos, who will be a senior this fall, is one of the Warriors' top returning starters.
"He's gotten better every year," Carpenter said of the 6-foot-3, 280-pound Enos, who has been a fixture at guard for the past three years. "He's a big kid who moves really well. He's got a tough mentality."
Earlier this year, Enos was named a 2009 honorable mention D-II All-American by Don Hansen's Football Gazette.
Enos is expected to be a cornerstone up front for the Warriors, who were 7-4 last season.
Among the competition at quarterback is freshman Bryan Bradshaw, a Prairie Ridge grad who went 11-for-13 for 133 yards and a touchdown in the team's annual spring game.
"He's got as much of a chance as anybody right now," Carpenter said. "Our job at quarterback is open."
Carpenter said Winona's coaching staff purposely did not name a starter after spring ball from among its three candidates.
"We still wanted it to be a competition," he said. "(After spring ball) there were still four months for guys to get better."
The Warriors open the season Aug. 28 at Carson-Newman and have a solid option at punter in Prairie Ridge grad Cullen Fahey.
Fahey averaged 32 yards a kick last season and booted eight of his 23 punts inside the opponents' 20-yard line.
As a freshman, Fahey also served as the team's placekicker. Last season, he shared those duties.
"He's an outstanding punter," Carpenter said. "As a placekicker, he was huge for us. But we want to get those placekicking duties off of his hands."
Carpenter said the coaching staff expects Johnsburg grad Thomas Kinney, an incoming freshman, to compete for the placekicking job.
Gee thrives at Kish: Woodstock grad Garrett Gee earned All-Region IV honors this spring as a freshman outfielder at Kishwaukee College in Malta.
Gee, who also was named to the All-Arrowhead Conference baseball team and the all-district squad, batted .429 with seven homers and 52 RBIs for the NJCAA Division I Kougars (33-24). Kishwaukee won the region title for the first time since 2003.
Gee finished second on the team with a .693 slugging percentage and 16 stolen bases.
Freshman pitcher Connor Buxton (2-4), a Crystal Lake Central grad, had a team-high four complete games for the Kougars.
UIC's Horizon stars: CL South grads Kellie Schuh and Matt Zaluckyj won individual events last month at the Horizon League's outdoor track and field championships for Illinois-Chicago.
Schuh, a sophomore, won the pole vault with a leap of 12 feet, 1 1/2 inches. She also placed fourth in the triple jump (38-5 1/2) and was part of UIC's sixth-place 4x100-meter and 4x400 relay teams.
Zaluckyj, a sophomore, won the 800 run in 1 minute, 51.44 seconds as the event's top seed. He also helped UIC's 4x400 team take third.
In the 3,000 meters, senior Nic Aubert, also a South grad, placed sixth in 9:37.65.
In April, UIC honored its top student-athletes at the annual Night of Champions banquet. Zaluckyj (men's cross country) and sophomore Aimee Schuh (women's track) were honored for having their teams' highest grade-point average. Aubert and Kellie Schuh were named to the athletic department's Academic Honor Roll.
Barry Bottino writes a weekly column and a blog about local college athletes for the Northwest Herald. Write to him at BarryOnCampus@hotmail.com and check out his On Campus column every Saturday in the Northwest Herald sports section.
