HP_081618

28 | August 16, 2018 | The highland park landmark sports
hplandmark.com
Sports Briefs
Scouts girls ice hockey invites area players for tryouts
Going Places
Local soccer player fights past
illness to reach D-I program
With the hockey season quickly approaching, the
Scouts girls ice hockey team is inviting area skaters to
join their roster this season.
The Scouts girls hockey team is a combined program
of female player from around the North Shore. Hockey
players from Lake Forest High School, Stevenson, Libertyville,
Highland Park, Woodlands Academy and Deerfield
are invited to try out for the team.
Tryouts will be held at Lake Forest College Sept. 9 at 7:30
p.m. and Sept. 10 at 6:30 p.m., for a team practice and tryout.
HP Giants boys ice hockey holds tryouts
The Giants boys ice hockey program is excited for another
season.
Anthony Booth, the Giants new hockey director and
head coach for the varsity squad, invites area players to
try out for the team Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 18-19 from
5:10 p.m. until 7:40 p.m. at Centennial Ice Arena in
Highland Park.
flavin
From Page 30
with the second round
scheduling seemed to have
a negative impact on Flavin’s
play.
“We had a lot of delays,”
he said. “It was tough to
get the momentum going.
“After shooting 2-under
the first nine (in the second
round) and birdying
my first hole on the second
nine I was feeling pretty
good but then I three-putted
from eight feet early in
the round. I made a bogey
again before we got called
in for a delay. We went
back out and played super
late, three or four holes before
bed.
“I was right on the cut
line when I came out (to
finish round 2 on the final
day). It’s hard to play free
when you’re the defending
champion in that situation
and know you have to do
it. I made a clutch birdie
and made the cut by two
strokes.”
Flavin believes the adversity
he has sometimes
encountered will be beneficial
and enable him to
persevere as a professional.
“Goring through the
highs and lows in my amateur
career is going to be
huge going forward,” he
predicted. “As a pro you
need to be really patient.”
Brittany Kapa, Sports Editor
Highland Park’s Guiliana Cunningham (middle) poses for a photo with her
Baylor University teammates; the defender hopes to see some playing time
with the Bears this fall. Photos Submitted
From the time she was 4 years old,
Guiliana Cunningham has played
soccer.
Her passion for the sport grew as
she got older, and after watching her
brother play club, she knew that was
where she wanted to be too. Cunningham
played for a few different
area soccer clubs, first starting out
with the American Youth Soccer
Organization and then moving onto
Northbrook’s Spartans FC. Neither
of those clubs proved challenging
enough for the defender who then
played for the Schaumburg-based
Sockers FC Chicago. Cunningham
thrived on the competition there and
worked hard to achieve a long-held
goal: to play college soccer.
“From the moment I started playing,
I wanted to play college and I
wanted to continue playing,” Cunningham
said. “When I entered high
school, it got more serious.”
The 2018 Highland Park High
School alumna achieved her goal
and will play for Baylor University’s
women’s soccer team this
fall, but her success was not easily
achieved.
During Cunningham’s sophomore
year, she played in a number
of showcases. With college scouts
watching her every move, she had
multiple schools interested during
that time, come junior year Cunningham
felt a little off. She was later diagnosed
with anemia which derailed
her well thought out plan.
“I lost a whole year of recruiting
because I was sick and I couldn’t
perform well,” she said.
With her energy level suffering
because of the anemia, scouts quickly
lost interest in Cunningham as a
recruit. The overall journey wasn’t
an easy one for Cunningham, who
at one point thought her long-held
dream of playing college soccer
wasn’t in the cards.
“Things happen for a reason, everyone
told me that,” she said. “Honestly,
at one point, I was like, ‘OK, if
I’m not going to play college, I just
want to work really hard for my club
team.’”
Luckily, with the help of her doctors,
Cunningham was treated for her
anemia and quickly got back into the
game and on track.
“I was honestly blessed that I was
able to gain my health back and got
the interest from Baylor,” she said.
Cunningham now knows that everything
happens for a reason. Cunningham
also knew Baylor was the
right place for her after her initial
visit to the school, and after meeting
the coaches and seeing the campus
she was hooked.
“Honestly, it’s probably the best
thing that has ever happened to me,”
she said. “I love the team; they’re
like a family.”
She’s now ready to take on that
next step of adjusting to Big 12,
NCAA Division-I play. Cunningham
knows she’s going to be defending
talented D-I forwards and it’s a challenge
she’s ready to take on.
“The speed of the game is faster,”
she said. “It’s increased so much.
You can totally tell once you step on
a college pitch, it’s the next level.”
Cunningham is already getting in
the groove of things on the Bears
campus trying to balance summerschool
work, training and practice.
Every minute of every day Cunningham
has something to do, and it’s not
a bad place to be in.
“You can prepare yourself, but
it’s a lot and you just have to keep
working hard,” she said. “You have
to adapt. Honestly, if you train hard
enough you can adapt.”
Realistically, Cunningham knows
that as a freshman she may not see
minutes on the pitch but she’s going
to do everything she can to make
sure that doesn’t happen.
“I want to start and I want to be
on the travel roster and I’m going to
work really hard toward that,” she
said. “But if that doesn’t happen than
I’m just going to support the team
the best that I can, even if it’s on the
sidelines.”