GL_012518

32 | January 25, 2018 | The glenview lantern sports
glenviewlantern.com
Wrestling
Titans tune up for postseason
against rivals at CSL tourney
Todd Marver, Freelance Reporter
Glenbrook South, New Trier, Glenbrook
North, Highland Park wrestling
tuned up for the postseason, at the
Central Suburban League conference
tournament.
With regionals quickly looming and
a start date of Feb. 3, area wrestling
teams honed their skill Saturday, Jan.
20, at Maine West in the conference
tournament.
Unlike New Trier, Highland Park
and Glenbrook North, no Glenbrook
South wrestlers placed first or second
in the conference tournament. The
young Titans placed 10th at the 12-
team tournament with a score of 45.
Glenbrook South’s top finishers were
three sophomores: Matt Rubel (21-
13) with a fourth-place finish in the
106-pound weight class, Nate Sullivan
(3-5) with a sixth-place finish in
the 113-pound weight class and Cam
Mercer (26-11) with a fifth-place finish
in the 195-pound weight class.
“Obviously, we’re happy with successes
we had, but losses and adversity
we had, we’ll get back to work right
off the bat,” Rubel said. “We’ll be in
there on Monday working on anything
we didn’t perform well on.”
New Trier placed the highest of the
four CSL schools in the 22nd Century
Media coverage area with a thirdplace
score of 222.5. New Trier senior
Patrick Ryan, took home the title in
the 145-point weight class and remained
undefeated with a 38-0 record.
He was also presented with the Elias
George Outstanding Wrestler award at
the end of the event.
Glenbrook
South’s Jesse
Quijada takes
down Glenbrook
North’s Trent
Williams, who
won in the
220-pound
weight class,
on Saturday,
Jan. 20, in Des
Plaines. Tracy
Allen/22nd
Century Media
“It’s an honor that the coaches voted
me recognizing the hard work our
team has put in this year,” Ryan said.
“I’m super glad to have partners in the
wrestling room who coach me to get
better like Jack Tangen, Bayne Kiser
and Russell Sanchez because without
good practice partners it’s really hard
to improve individually, so I’m just
really glad that I’ve got those guys to
push me every day.”
Ryan defeated Highland Park senior
Alex Rosenbloom (25-2) in the championship
match on a 7-3 decision.
“I was expecting a competitive
match in the finals,” Ryan said. “I
think the difference was my conditioning
during the match. As far as
something that I can work on, I really
think that my takedown finishes could
be cleaner. Just working on my technique.
I need to improve riding guys
in the top position and just trying to
get all those things right for regionals
in a couple weeks.”
Ryan looks to keep his personal and
team success going deep in the postseason.
Ryan competed at state the
past two years.
“The goal is to stay undefeated
and win a state title,” he said. “In the
long term as a team, we want to win
the team regional. I would say we’re
an underdog right now, but in our
wrestling room we have the mentality
that we should be hanging in there
with those teams. We’re just going to
wrestle hard and see how it goes out.
Hopefully we go out with a regional
title and I hope to be able to end my
career with a state title.”
Alumni Spotlight
Loyola grad earns Big Ten scholarship
Michael Wojtychiw
Contributing Sports Editor
To play a college sport is an
amazing feat in itself. But to
have the opportunity to play a
sport at a Power 5 conference
school, that’s the dream for
many high school athletes.
Three years ago, Loyola
football player Bobby Walker
got that opportunity when he
was offered a walk-on spot
at the University of Illinois at
Champaign-Urbana.
A lot of it had to do with
[Loyola] coach [John] Holocek,”
Walker said. “He’s a U
of I grad and kind of pointed
me in that direction because I
didn’t have a whole lot of options.
He said ‘I could probably
help you out with a walkon
spot, I’ll see if I can but no
promises.’ He ended up getting
me there and I was lucky
enough to work hard and do
what I do.”
That hard work paid off for
Walker, as he was awarded a
football scholarship by Illinois
coach Lovie Smith on Christmas
Day.
“I didn’t really know why
he was calling,” Walker said.
“I was kind of nervous and
then when I started to realize
what he was starting to say, I
freaked out, ran downstairs,
was kind of jumping around
and told my parents and they
were like ‘oh my god.’ It was
kind of really awesome.”
With Walker knowing the
Illini had a couple open scholarships,
he was prepared to
talk to the coaching staff about
the possibility on being put on
scholarship when he got back
from winter break, but he ended
up not having to do that.
The 2017 season was a
memorable one for the redshirt
sophomore. Not only did he
land a scholarship, he earned
his first start and had his first
catch, against Nebraska.
“We had just had a film
meeting and I was kind of
Loyola graduate and current University of Illinois football
player Bobby Walker in action against Wisconsin on Oct. 28
in Champaign. Photo Submitted
upset because I thought we
didn’t play well,” Walker said.
“One of my coaches realized
I wasn’t very happy and he
said ‘I know you’re not really
pleased with how you’re playing
and I think we can give
you a shot.’ I was like ‘alright,
let’s go.’ I had to make the
most of it because this could
be a chance to prove that I
should be on scholarship.
“I came in relief in the Nebraska
game and was in two
tight end sets against Iowa. I
had been getting a bunch of
time on special teams. When
we played at Indiana, a couple
weeks later, when we played
Indiana at home that’s when i
got the start at the Y position.”
For Walker, the transition to
playing in college wasn’t as
difficult as it may be for some
other players, and that’s due to
his time playing for Holocek.
“Part of it was different because
of the level of play. It’s
always a different level because
they’re bigger, stronger,
faster,” Walker added. “But it
terms of scheduling or how
practice was run, that was the
same way Loyola does stuff.
Coach Holecek makes sure we
work out in the summer, work
out during the week and then
also film meeting and stuff. It
was a little bit more but it was
very similar.”
Walker sees himself as more
of a blocking tight end and has
seen himself improve in his
three years at Illinois.
“In the weight room, I’ve
gotten stronger, I’ve gotten
faster,” Walker said. “But I
feel like I’ve worked on becoming
a better football player
in general, mainly blocking
for me because that’s the stuff
I do. Just really working on
little details, getting down and
getting good leverage, playing
against guys that are bigger
than me.”
Despite two tight ends graduating
from this year’s team,
Walker shows that there will
be plenty of competition at his
position as the Illini return a
redshirt freshman, a true freshman
who saw a lot of playing
time and also an incoming
freshmen.
But Walker isn’t worried
about that because he knows
what he needs to do to earn his
shot.
“I want to solidify that I’m
a player in the Big Ten. I want
to do some big things, solidify
that I deserve to catch more
passes, play more snaps,” he
said. “To do that, I think I need
to get a little bigger, which is
definitely doable, and just help
our team win. We’ve had some
struggles but it’s time to push
that rock and break through it.”