Like everyone who has played baseball, Tyler Bernstein isn’t immune from slumps.
Sure enough, the Deerfield senior went through a rough patch early this season. Bernstein’s track record suggested he would eventually shake free from his struggles, and he did. But perhaps most telling is his clear-eyed, self-assured approach to it.
“I knew in my mind that ultimately I would have to hit my way out and that good things would happen soon,” he said.
Bernstein’s breakout was a three-run homer he launched in the Warriors’ signature win against highly regarded Downers Grove North during a spring break trip to Nashville.
“I got a nice ball to hit, and hitting it out was the result of positive thoughts,” he said.
The 6-3, 195-pound Bernstein bounced back and entered the final weekend of the regular season batting .239 and leading Deerfield (9-22) with 12 extra-base hits.
There also was a lesson to be learned by any of the talented sophomores and juniors among Bernstein’s teammates. That group will be the Warriors’ core next season and could be better equipped to deal with the inevitable ups and downs of a long season after watching Bernstein.
“He does a great job motivating us to try our hardest, going all the way back to the offseason in our weight room workouts,” Deerfield sophomore outfielder Will Swender said. “He always has a good mindset and makes sure our minds are right before games.”
It wasn’t long ago that Bernstein was on the receiving end of guidance from his older brother Ben, who graduated from Deerfield in 2022 and attends Tulane.
“During my freshman and sophomore years, I used to go to the gym with him, and he would teach me all of the basics,” Bernstein said. “The strength aspect helps hit the ball harder. The only way to get better is by getting stronger.”
Indeed, strength and power are cornerstones of Bernstein’s profile. He’s arguably the Warriors’ most dangerous hitter.
“He hits the ball really hard, which makes pitchers have to attack him differently,” Deerfield coach Mark Januszewski said.
Deerfield’s Tyler Bernstein (24) warms up before an at-bat during a Central Suburban South game at Evanston on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Rob Dicker / New-Sun)
Bernstein, the Warriors’ primary first baseman, has a pretty simple approach at the plate, one that’s centered on turning off the outside noise.
“When I’m up there, I try to keep my mind blank or pick out one little mechanical thing to do,” he said. “I make sure that I get my hips going in my swing. I try to go up there and hit the ball hard, and the ball will find a nice place to get down.”
Hitting the ball hard and producing runs aren’t the only ways Bernstein distinguishes himself. He has also become effective in short relief, recording a 1.73 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings of work entering this week.
“When he’s been in there, he’s thrown really well,” Januszewski said. “He chucks it up there pretty good.”
Bernstein’s pitching outings are brief, but he takes his craft seriously, to the point that he has adjusted his repertoire to account for what was working and what wasn’t.
“My curve is pretty good, but my change-up wasn’t all that dependable,” he said. “So I’ve developed a sinker the last few outings.”
Aurora World War II veteran Dick Miller will be the grand marshal of the Aurora Memorial Day Parade set for Monday, May 27, in the city’s downtown.
With the theme “Remembrance and Respect,” the parade will step off at 10 a.m. at the intersection of Benton and River streets. It will head east on Benton, north on Broadway, west on Downer Place and end at River Street. The reviewing stand will be in front of the G.A.R. Memorial Museum, 23 E. Downer Place.
Leading the parade as the grand marshal will be Miller, who was born in Aurora on June 26, 1926, and attended St. Paul School and East Aurora High School.
Upon graduation from high school, he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1944. He was stationed in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii before being deployed on the destroyer U.S.S. Drexler, which headed for the staging area for the Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest battle of the war in the Pacific, city officials said in a press release about the upcoming parade.
The U.S.S. Drexler was destroyed after kamikaze planes crashed into it during the battle.
“I was a spotter for Japanese kamikaze planes,” Miller said in the release. “We were hit twice, and the second one blew our ship to pieces and propelled us into the ocean.”
Nearly 160 people on board were killed, and another 52 were wounded, including Miller, officials said.
Keeping himself afloat by holding onto an empty canister, he spent a couple of hours in the water with black oil splashing into his eyes, nose and mouth, according to the release. Swallowing it could have been fatal.
A pilot searching for survivors eventually rescued him, and he was transported to a hospital in Pearl Harbor, officials said.
The war in the Pacific ended while he was recovering in the hospital. Miller was discharged in April 1946 and returned home to Illinois and joined the Navy Reserve for an additional five years, according to the release.
At nearly 98, Miller is still active in veterans’ causes in the community and frequently speaks at local schools and civic groups about his experiences.
Guests can greet Miller before the parade during the Grand Marshal’s Reception at 9 a.m. at the G.A.R. Military Museum.
The Memorial Day Parade will also feature local veterans groups and military organizations, including the Aurora Veterans Advisory Council, Roosevelt Aurora American Legion Post 84, Waidley V.F.W. 468, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the G.A.R. Memorial Commission.
Marching bands will take part including those from East Aurora High School, West Aurora High School, Metea Valley High School, Granger Middle School, Hill Middle School and Still Middle School, along with the Aurora Roosevelt American Legion Band.
Other units participating will include the South Shore Drill Team, the Lamplighters Barbershop Chorus, Costumers with a Cause, the Phillips Park Zoo, the Aurora Public Library’s Bookmobile, the East Aurora NJROTC, the West Aurora High School Cheer Team and the Simply Destinee Dance Team.
Amira Hammad has kept a journal since she was a child, but recently her writing talent got a much wider audience when she won first place in the statewide 2024 Letters for Literature writing contest.
She competed against 483 high school entrants in the contest
, which is sponsored by the Secretary of State’s Office and Office of the State Librarian. Amira was presented a plaque and $200 by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias after she read her essay at a May 1 ceremony in Springfield. Tinley Park High School, where she is a sophomore, received $100 to purchase books for the school library.
Amira wrote a letter from her heart about the challenges of addiction to David Sheff, author of “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through his Son’s Addiction.” The book is a memoir by a dad who tries to help his son through a methamphetamine addiction.
The book inspired her to write to the author because she also witnessed people close to her struggle with addiction.
“She really poured her heart and soul into the letter and it talked about her experience, strength and hope,” said Kathleen O’Connor, who teaches Amira in her Honors British Literature class. “Through her experience she became stronger and more empathetic.”
Amira Hammad, a sophomore at Tinley Park High School, is flanked by Illinois State Library Director Greg McCormick and Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias during a recent ceremony in Springfield where Hammad was presented a first place award in the statewide Letters About Literature contest. (School District 228)
The assignment that led to the award was to write a letter to an author of a book about it or the impact it had on the student’s life. O’Connor said some authors even responded to the letters.
“It resonated with me because I had a lot of people like that in my life,” Amira said. “I tried to convey although addiction is a very public topic, it’s much deeper than just meets the eye. It’s not like a one size fits all disease. But there is hope out there, we aren’t doomed.”
Amira had plenty of writing practice even before the class. For years she has written in her journal about significant things events in her life along with observations as simple as an outdoor scene.
“I try to ascribe meaning to everything in my life,” she said.
Though this topic was a personal one, Amira said she had help from O’Connor.
“I think I had a very good support system,” Amira said. “I felt comfortable having my writing be out there.”
While Amira is considering studying medicine in college and becoming an anesthesiologist, writing will always be a part of her life. She said the award ceremony and reading her piece in front of a large audience was nerve-wracking but also gave her a boost.
“It was a very nice experience,” she said “I felt like I had made it.”
O’Connor said she noticed Amira’s talent for writing early on.
“Her letter was so well written, I was like, is this AI?” she said.
But after a few assignments, she realized it was the real deal.
“It’s really not every day that I feel so inspired by a student,” the teacher said.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Lake County’s population has steadily declined since 2020, according to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census, marking a change from the population growth experienced by the county in the first two decades of the 21st century.
Population for the suburban county north of Chicago reached its peak to date in April 2020, at 714,336 people. As of July 1, 2023, the number of people in the county decreased by 0.8%, or about 5,500 people, to 708,760, according to the U.S. Census.
While the 2020 census counted responses from household surveys, the annual estimates between the 10-year counts are based in part on counting births, deaths and moves in and out, using the number of tax returns and Medicare filings.
Senior policy analyst at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) Elizabeth Ginsberg said it’s hard to know where people are moving right now.
“I think we also kind of try to take these annual estimates with a grain of salt because it’s pretty easy to estimate births and deaths, and it’s very, very challenging to estimate migration,” she said.
National population trends are occurring in the Chicago metropolitan area in their own way, Ginsberg noted. People are increasingly moving out of older, legacy, industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast, and into faster-growing metropolitan areas along the coasts and in the Sunbelt.
The country’s population is also getting older and having fewer children, a trend seen locally as well, she said.
For the past few years, Lake County has experienced natural growth as there have been more births than deaths, Ginsberg noted. There’s also been a “modest positive increase” in international migrants, the analyst added.
However, the Census Bureau is showing a negative domestic migration, or people moving out of the county to elsewhere in the region, state or country, Ginsberg said.
At the start of the century, Lake County was experiencing a rise in population, according to archival data from the U.S. Census. In 2000, the population was 644,599; 10 years later it was 703,462.
“The growth we saw 20 years ago was kind of abnormal for the overall trend of the region, really, a period of rapid growth for the region,” Ginsberg said. “We’re just kind of expecting slow growth from here on out.”
Stacked up against the rest of the Chicago metro region, Lake County’s decline was not as large of a percentage change as that experienced by Cook or DuPage counties, which lost 3.6% and 1.3% of their populations, respectively.
Neighboring McHenry County and southern Will County were the only collar counties to see population growth, with 0.8% and 0.5% population increase respectively. Lake County remains the third-most populous county in the Chicago metropolitan area, following Cook and DuPage counties.
“If one county has seen out-migration, it’s quite likely that at least some of that is landing in another county,” Ginsberg said. “Even though there may be a decline in one county, it’s possible that that’s contributing to growth, or kind of bouncing out onto the region overall.”
Cities vs. villages
After 2020, Lake County’s population begins to decrease, with the majority of the decline coming from the county’s larger municipalities of more than 30,000 people, according to the census estimates.
Some smaller villages, with fewer than 10,000 residents, in the county defied the county trend and had population growth from 2020 to 2023.
Data from the U.S. Census reveals a population decline for all of Lake County from 2020 to 2023. Some smaller municipalities experienced population growth. (Credit: Chloe Hilles)
Ginsberg said the method in which the Census Bureau estimates municipality numbers is by counting the number of new and demolished housing units. The agency then reconciles those estimates with the overall county population estimate.
“It’s possible that some of these smaller communities that are kind of actively pursuing development, and greenfield development may be showing more growth than some of these larger communities that are focusing more on redevelopment or even infill development,” she said.
Municipalities in Lake County that saw population growth in the three-year period include Highwood, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Volo. The village of Volo experienced the largest growth at 13.9%, expanding from 6,160 people in 2020 to 7,016 in 2023.
Kildeer experienced a 7.2% growth in population from 2020 to 2023, while Highwood and Hawthorn Woods saw 4.7% and 3.4% growth, respectively.
Areas that had the largest population declines were Waukegan, Zion, Tower Lakes, Round Lake Beach and Round Lake Heights. At 87,642 people, Waukegan remains the largest city in the county.
Waukegan and Zion both experienced a 1.9% decline in population, or about 1,670 people lost in Waukegan and 472 people in Zion. The village of Tower Lakes had the largest change at a 2% decline, or only 24 people, bringing the 2023 population to 1,200 people.
“There’s been a lot of speculation about where people are relocating since the pandemic, and that could be a part of it, but we don’t have any data to really support that just yet,” Ginsberg said.
The local team behind the LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr is preparing to move into a new office later this summer with plans to grow the company’s presence in Chicago.
The company announced the move Thursday, citing the app’s “strong financial performance” in 2023, according to a news release. The new space is under construction, said Joel Keating, senior vice president of engineering. The plan is to move in by Aug. 1.
The new space is half of the top floor of an office building at 230 W. Monroe St., Keating said. With current configuration plans, the space could hold up to 60 employees. There is also room to grow, Keating said, which the team hopes to do.
Keating is the head of the app’s engineering team and based in Chicago. He said the team’s current office at 625 W. Adams St. is part of a WeWork space, which they’ve “effectively outgrown.”
The Chicago office is hiring about a dozen new positions with intentions to add more in the next few years. Roles include data engineering, cloud engineering and engineering management.
The company opened a Chicago office in September 2021. What started as a team of about four grew to some 30 employees working out of the Chicago office.
“We anticipate that Grindr’s expansion will not only bolster our city’s tech sector but also contribute to our ongoing efforts to foster a vibrant and inclusive business environment,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in the news release.
There are three other offices in California and one in New York, including where the app was started in 2009 in West Hollywood. The other offices are “quite a bit more mixed” in their work, Keating said, handling other branches of the company like product, sales, finance and more, as well as some engineering.
The entire company, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2022, employed about 130 people as of the end of March, according to a shareholder letter released in early May.
In the first quarter of 2024, total revenue increased by 35% year-over-year to $75 million, with a net loss of $9.4 million. The growth was driven by more paying users, the company said in its shareholder letter.
Average monthly active users of the app were up 7% year-over-year to 13.7 million in the first quarter, while average paying users increased by 17% year-over-year to 1 million, according to the shareholder letter.
Grindr’s engineering team increased by over 50% quarter-over-quarter in the first three months of the year, the letter said.
Keating said the Chicago office is primarily the engineering division for the social networking app. Ultimately, growing the local team is also an effort to make Chicago the “engineering hub.”
“Our plan is to really invest in Chicago because not only does it have a very diverse economy and is a really great place to live and work, but there’s also a really strong pool of engineering talent in Chicago,” Keating said. “Another reason is Chicago’s very thriving and large LGBTQ community, which is very much ingrained in the culture.”
Keating said a Grindr bus is going to make its way from California to New York with a stop in Chicago during Pride Fest weekend in June. In a news release Wednesday, the company announced the “Grindr Ride America” tour to celebrate the app’s 15th birthday.
The Grindr engineering team will also be at Pride Fest, he said, which is a “great opportunity to engage outside of office elements.”
“We want people to know that we’re here and there are jobs here,” Keating said. “It’s a really fun culture and a thriving business.”
Superintendent for North Shore School District 112 Mike Lubelfeld said he plans to retire in two years, at the end of the 2025-2026 school year.
Lubelfeld, who has been with the Highland Park and Highwood elementary school district for six years, announced his plans at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting with an effective retirement date of June 30, 2026.
“Serving our students, families and staff members for the past six years as your superintendent has been an honor and a privilege,” Lubelfeld said. “It has been a humbling experience to lead this exceptional district where I first began a career in school administration.”
Lubelfeld started his career in education as a teacher. He first worked in District 112 as principal for Elm Place Middle School, and then as an assistant superintendent for four years.
Before becoming superintendent of District 112, Lubelfeld spent five years as the superintendent for Deerfield Public Schools District 109, and three years as the superintendent for Pennoyer School District 79 in Norridge.
“I plan to work diligently for the next two years, helping the board navigate a strategic planning process this fall that will incorporate community input and set up my successor and the district for a clear and coherent path forward,” Lubelfeld said during Tuesday’s board meeting.
A press release from the North Shore school district said Lubelfeld’s tenure was marked by “significant achievements and transformative initiatives,” such as leading the district’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, modernizing facilities through a referendum and prioritizing diversity and equity initiatives in the district.
Lubelfeld also led the school district in the aftermath of the 2022 Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, while maintaining a focus on “student learning and support services,” the release stated.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Board of Education President Lisa Hirsh expressed her gratitude for Lubelfeld and his tenure.
“During his tenure, he has expertly guided our district through extraordinary challenges to a path of significant growth and positive change across our schools,” Hirsh said. “His tireless vision, passion and focus on educational excellence have created an environment where students thrive, staff feel supported, and families are assured that their children receive a high-quality education.”
Under Lubelfeld’s leadership, two District 112 schools won National Blue Ribbon Awards and all nine received High-Reliability School certifications.
In the coming weeks, the Board of Education will provide an update to the community on the district’s superintendent succession plan, the press release said.
An agency within the State’s Attorney’s Office — the Gun Violence Prevention Initiative (GVPI) — has released a strategic plan to reduce and prevent gun violence in Lake County.
The first of its kind for the county, the Violence Prevention Plan (VPP)
consists of goals with outcomes to measure achievement, includes feedback from community stakeholders and offers data on where gun violence is occurring in the county, along with some contributing factors.
“Prevention work fulfills our moral duty to help others – whether it is survivors in need of trauma-related services, domestic violence survivors in need of red flag laws, or youth in need of mentoring services,” State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said as part of the plan.
The violence prevention plan is also a form of accountability, according to GVPI Director Tierra Lemon.
“Being able to have that strategic plan, having something that people can look at … people don’t have to wonder, ‘Hmm, I wonder what the GVPI is up to?’” Lemon said. “We want the community to be aware of the goals that we’re trying to achieve so that they can hold us accountable to them, and so they can support us.”
Since November, the GVPI has hosted a number of town halls around the county that helped inform the violence prevention plan. Lemon said the community events were critical for distributing surveys and hosting listening sessions.
“This work is a community effort, and this plan belongs to the community,” Lemon said. “It’s the reason why (the GVPI) spent so much time trying to get in front of the community, and trying to see what they would like to see from us.”
Mapping gun violence
According to the prevention plan, the majority of gun violence in Lake County is concentrated in Waukegan, North Chicago and Zion. In 2023, 65% of firearm homicides in the county occurred in those three cities, according to the GVPI.
These communities have had the highest levels of gun violence in the county due to, “decades of chronic disinvestment and systemic racism,” the report stated.
Each red dot marks an instance of gun violence in Lake County from 2020 to 2023. These data points are likely an undercount of actual instances of gun violence, according to the Gun Violence Prevention Initiative, due to sourcing methodology and limited information on shootings in neighborhoods with relatively high instances of everyday gun violence. (Credit: GVPedia)
Nearly 40% of residents from Waukegan, Zion and North Chicago – considered a targeted community by the GVPI because of relatively high levels of daily gun violence – reported feeling unsafe in their community as it relates to gun violence, according to a survey distributed by GVPI.
Of all Lake County residents, only 18% reported feeling unsafe in their community due to gun violence. More than 350 Lake County residents responded to the survey, the majority coming from Waukegan, then Libertyville, Highland Park, Gurnee, Lake Bluff and North Chicago.
In the target communities, 83% of respondents said they are worried about the current level of gun violence in their community, compared to 51% of all county residents.
Lemon said she suspects most of the survey respondents also attended a town hall meeting. Surveys were also distributed on social media and by GVPI’s community partners, so Lemon said there were other ways to participate.
“Next time that we do something like this, our ultimate goal is to expand the reach, because we do realize that this is a small sample size of Lake County,” she said.
When asked to rank types of gun violence by primary concern, over half of all survey respondents selected everyday violence as their first choice, followed by mass shootings, domestic violence, firearm suicide and lastly, unintentional shootings.
The primary difference between responses from residents living outside of targeted communities and the rest of the county was that non-targeted community residents ranked mass shootings higher than everyday gun violence, the report noted.
“It’s based on what people’s experiences have been thus far as it relates to gun violence,” Lemon said. “Our respondents in Highland Park were more likely to say that they’re more concerned about mass shootings because this has been their reality.
“As opposed to somewhere in Waukegan or North Chicago, where community violence is more prevalent … it makes more sense for them to be more concerned about the things that they’re faced with on a daily basis,” she said.
Identifying risks
Gun homicides in Lake County, which include firearm murders, reckless firearm homicides and officer-involved shootings, declined by 41% between 2022 and 2023, according to the GVPI’s report.
When excluding the deaths from the Highland Park mass shooting, the decline is still greater than 35%, the report continued.
The reduction in homicides in 2023 aligns with the launch of Lake County Peacemakers, a community violence intervention team focused on reducing and preventing everyday gun violence in Waukegan, Zion, and North Chicago.
While Lemon said the decrease cannot be definitively tied to the work of the Peacemakers, the achievement is the “work of the whole community.”
Violence prevention, however, is not always going to look like a reduction in homicides, she said.
“Sometimes, it’s going to look like an implementation and programs. Sometimes it’s going to look like collaboration and community,” Lemon said.
The goals of the prevention plan are strategic and include measure outcomes to document successes by the GVPI. Some outcomes include developing a hotline for the public and law enforcement to request information on firearm restraining orders, and distributing secure-storage locking devices at no cost to residents.
Identifying and addressing root causes of gun violence is paramount to approaching gun violence prevention, according to the Violence Prevention Plan.
Easy access to firearms by high-risk people, or children and those looking to harm themselves or others, was the most commonly selected root cause in a survey distributed to over 300 Lake County residents, with over 75% of respondents mentioning access in the survey.
Other root causes of gun violence that are top of mind for community members are lack of mental health support services, poverty, systemic racism and cycles of retaliation.
Goals outlined in the VPP to address causes and risks include expanding youth engagement with GVPI programming, develop a resource ecosystem for residents, expand victim services and community violence intervention, increase opportunities for restorative justice and address extreme-risk individuals.
In the coming months, the GVPI will also grow in size and scope, according to the VPP, adding a gun violence prevention specialist focused on a safe firearm storage campaign and increasing awareness around firearm restraining orders and clear and present danger reports. The agency also plans to hire a part-time therapist and a victim support specialist to build out the victim services team, the plan said.
Senior defender Morgan Dick
is a hybrid athlete for Oswego East. And she never sits still.
Sure, she’s a standout soccer player who holds the line in back for the Wolves. But she’s also a talented middle-distance runner who has committed to do cross country and track at Kentucky.
One goes naturally with the other.
“Being a runner has definitely helped my conditioning and my ability to play the whole game,” she said of soccer. “I’m trying to be humble about it, but my strength is speed and endurance.
“It’s the fact that I can play the whole game without ever coming out.”
Dick’s aggressive play on defense proved to be the key Wednesday as the Wolves powered to a 2-0 victory over district rival Oswego in a Class 3A Lockport Regional semifinal game.
It was the seventh straight win for Oswego East (14-6-2), which will play at 5 p.m. Friday against top-seeded Lockport (23-0) for the regional title. The Porters defeated Yorkville 6-0.
Senior forward Anya Gulbrandsen
converted a penalty kick in the first half for the Wolves and also assisted on a goal in the 65th minute by sophomore midfielder Gabby McPhee
.
But according to junior goalkeeper Maddie McGregor, Dick’s effort at center back was crucial.
“We couldn’t have done this without Morgan in the middle,” McGregor said.
Oswego East’s Morgan Dick, right, and Oswego’s Jordyn Washington (18) race to the the ball in a Class 3A Lockport Regional semifinal game on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Jon Cunningham / The Beacon-News)
The Wolves also avenged a 2-0 loss on April 23 in Southwest Prairie Conference play against the Panthers (11-9-5).
Dick was instrumental in nullifying the offensive pursuits of Oswego’s top players — sophomore forward Jordyn Washington
, senior midfielder Natalie Braun
and senior forward Gillian Young
.
“Jordyn is fast,” McGregor said. “She is physical and very strong. Morgan is one of the best defenders I’ve ever played with — in club or high school. She’s fast and never has to come out.”
Dick also is an athlete caught between worlds. As her soccer career nears the end, she’s preparing for the next stage. She finished 19th in the Class 3A state cross country meet last fall.
As a junior last spring, she bypassed soccer in favor of running track. She was a member of the Wolves’ 3,200-meter relay team that qualified for state.
Oswego East’s Gabby McPhee (7) moves to the ball as Oswego’s Aubrey Eirich (left) defends in a Class 3A Lockport Regional semifinal game on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Jon Cunningham / The Beacon-News)
“When I did my college visit to Kentucky, I just knew that’s where I wanted to do,” Dick said. “I wanted to run, but I also wanted to come out here and finish my soccer season really strong.”
Dick, who has three goals and an assist, was also happy about the shutout. It was the fourth straight for the Wolves and ninth of the season. They are 7-0-1 since losing to Oswego.
The 5-foot-6 Dick continues to use her size, quickness, balance and a different gear.
“I think Morgan is one of the most disciplined people I’ve ever known in my life,” Gulbrandsen said. “Playing defense requires a lot of skill, instinct and hard work.
“A lot of playing defense is about reacting to our mistakes, and you don’t get to dictate the play, you just respond.”
Oswego East’s Morgan Dick (10) battles for position against Oswego’s Jordyn Washington (18) in a Class 3A Lockport Regional semifinal game on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Jon Cunningham / The Beacon-News)
Two years ago, Dick started in the middle on defense for the first team in program history to win a regional. She’s ready for this last dance.
”Soccer has been a part of my life since I was very little,” Dick said. “My friends are all part of this team, and we grew up together. I felt like we had unfinished business. I wanted to come back.
“I’m very competitive and I missed the competition.”
In soccer, Dick easily absorbs the contact and punishment and rarely slows down. She also loves the solitude of running, with its purity and grace.
Now, she’s in the best of both worlds.
“This game is notoriously very hard on the body,” Gulbrandsen said. “Morgan runs five miles a day, six days a week. She is just different than most athletes.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Proposals to more closely monitor student progress from first grade through high school in Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 to keep the youngsters on track to continually move toward graduation will soon be considered.
Promotion from one grade to the next will be “determined on academic growth and development and not on social reasons or other criteria,” according to information released by the district.
In the weeks ahead, the District 60 Board of Education will consider three options proposed by administrators to more specifically determine if a student is ready for the next grade.
“This will allow students to have some ownership in their learning, while holding them to academic standards,” said Jason Nault, the district’s associate superintendent for equity, innovation and accountability.
Along with the proposed retention and promotion policy, administrators suggested a revised grading system where a score of zero will no longer be given. The lowest possible failing grade will be 50%.
Though student academic progress — emphasizing reading and math — will be closely watched from the start of first grade, Nault said the closest attention will be paid to students in third, fifth and eighth grades, as well as each year of high school.
All students not making sufficient progress through their third, fifth and eighth-grade years will have the opportunity to go to the Summer Bridge summer school program to earn a promotion to the next level.
“If they are not successful in the summer, they will be retained,” Nault said. “By the end of the third quarter (of the school year), we’ll send out warning notices. Parents will get reports every five weeks starting early in the year.”
Were the program in place this year, 7.1% of third graders and 7.6% of fifth graders would be eligible for the Summer Bridge program. The number climbs to 38.6% for eighth graders, according to statistics released by the district, but the standards are different.
Elementary school students are considered far enough behind after third or fifth grade to be considered for retention if they are more than a grade level behind in both reading and math, according to the proposal.
“Math and literacy are a big part of what we’ll do in the Summer Bridge program,” Nault said. “Students in that class will get a lot of support in those areas.”
Middle school students are judged not by how far below grade level they are performing, but by their grade-point average, according to the proposal. If it is below 2.0 on a four-point scale, they need to be successful in the Summer Bridge program to advance.
Even though no one will be denied the opportunity to attend the Summer Bridge and advance, Nault said at the high-school level promotion is based strictly on credits earned in each class.
A high school student needs five credits to attain sophomore standing, nine to be a junior and 13 to enter their senior year. If they do not have nine credits at the end of their second year, Nault said they will remain at the Brookside campus for students in their first two years of high school. Credits can be earned in summer school.
When an elementary or middle school principal believes a student should repeat a year of school, Nault said they can petition the district for such an action. A parent can make the request as well.
Should the board want a less comprehensive plan, he said the administration is presenting three options. Though the standards will remain the same, the second possibility is applying them only to middle and high school students. A third choice would concentrate on high school only.
“We’re going to let the board make that decision,” Nault said.
While middle and high school students will still receive grades of A, B, C, D, or F, the grading scale will be 50 points rather than 100. Grades A through D will carry the same value, but a failing grade will be between 50 and 59, now zero and 59, according to a new proposal.
Robert Vossel, the district’s science coordinator, said a grade of zero on a test can make it nearly impossible for a student to score well enough on other exams to ever pass or earn a C.
After she stepped away from practice, Analise Campos yelled instructions and words of encouragement to her Morton teammates.
When she returned, she hit the ball for fielding drills.
It was typical for the senior outfielder.
“She’s always helping out,” Morton senior pitcher Julissa Abeyta said. “She’s just a good girl.”
Campos is a good player for the Great Lakes Athletic Conference champion Governors (9-8, 5-0) too. She was hitting .531 with 11 RBIs and 12 stolen bases entering their conference finale against West Side on Thursday.
“She’s a really strong, dedicated player to the sport,” said Abeyta, a South Suburban recruit. “I admire that about her. She has hustle. She has dedication.”
But Campos lamented what could have been after she hit .578 with six homers, 29 RBIs and 30 stolen bases last season. She was sidelined for three months over the winter with an injured right hand and returned shortly before the start of this season.
“I almost broke my hand from hitting so much,” Campos said. “It was pretty rough, so painful. It’s been hard this season. It was slow at first. Then I started getting more comfortable.
“I really didn’t pay attention to it. I didn’t notice it until it was puffed up and it was bruised all around. It was out of nowhere. I went to the doctor, and he said it was a torn muscle and I would’ve broken my hand if I kept hitting. He just said to lay off of it and don’t overdo it.”
That was difficult for Campos, who has played volleyball and basketball at various points in her high school career but has been a starter in softball all four years.
Campos lined up primarily at second base as a freshman, a position she said she had “never” played before. She requested a move to the outfield as a sophomore and landed in right. But she hit .267 with two homers, 17 RBIs and nine stolen bases.
“I had a slump sophomore year, really bad,” she said. “It was more of a mental thing. Once I got out of that spot mentally, things got better.”
Campos wound up breaking out last season while playing in center field, where she returned this season.
“Junior year, I feel like I dominated in center and batting,” she said.
“She has a lot of talent — a lot,” Herrera said. “She’s very positive with us. She’s a really good leader of the team. She has a lot of energy. She just gives us a good mindset.”
Campos helps cultivate that mindset with a business based on an activity she initially saw on TikTok. Morton coach Randy Chavez — who is a customer, including for Mother’s Day — described Campos’ handiwork as “amazing.”
“I make flowers, eternal flowers, out of ribbons,” Campos said. “It’s consuming, but I like it. I like it because it’s calming. It’s not like sports where I’m in a rush, always thinking about what to do next. I can just sit and relax and do that. It’s just time for myself.”
That hectic pace of sports will be ending for Campos, although there doesn’t figure to be dull moments in her next chapter. She plans to attend IUPUI and study criminal justice. She has a pretty clear idea about her career path.
“I have to start as a police officer, but I want to make my way to CSI or SWAT, one of those two,” Campos said.
Chavez believes Campos has the ability to achieve her goals. He’s a veteran police officer and teaches criminal justice at the Hammond Area Career Center. Campos is one of his students.
“She’s in my class for three hours a day, and she wants to be a police officer,” Chavez said. “She’d be good at it. She’s definitely a leader for the girls. She’s just so strong. The girls look up to her.”
