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The orland park prairie | October 11, 2018 | 47
fastbreak
THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Bringing more sports to the area is a complex situation
JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY
MEDIA
1ST AND 3
THE IHSA STATE
TOURNAMENTS IN BOYS
AND GIRLS TAKE PLACE
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY,
OCT. 12-13. HERE IS
SOME HISTORY WITH
SANDBURG
1. Bring em’ all
The Eagles girls
qualified as a team
in Class 2A three
years in a row in
2014, 2015 and
2016. The boys
qualified eight
times, the last coming
in 2008.
2. Hannah leaps up
the charts
Sandburg’s Hannah
Kilbane (above)
finished tied for
36th in the state in
2015, tied for 45th
in 2016 and jumped
up and tied for 12th
in last season.
3. Taking it to the Max
Max Farley finished
tied for 32nd as a
freshman in 2016
and 26th as a
sophomore in 2017.
Jeff Vorva
j.vorva@22ndcm.com
A
couple of years ago,
Tinley Park Village
officials were
exploring the possibility of
building a sports complex on
the 280-acre Mental Health
Center property.
But that idea has cooled
off.
Last month, Orland Park
decision-makers were listening
to proposals of giving
current athletic fields a facelift
and building a new complex
to make Orland what
D.J. Wabick of the consulting
Kreshmore Group called
“a thriving sports hub.”
So that brings me to a
recent trip my wife, Maggie,
and I made to Burlington,
Iowa, to watch our daughter,
Lauren, play volleyball at a
tournament there.
On a two-lane highway a
few miles away from town,
two small busses from Evanston
High School whizzed
by us. I thought that was
odd. We are in the middle of
nowhere and we see Wildkit
vehicles.
When the weekend was
over, I learned a lot about
The Rec Plex in Burlington, Iowa, has helped bring a lot of visitors to its community. If officials from Orland Park and
Tinley Park are interested in building sports complexes in their communities, they might want to take a peek at this town.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BURLINGTONIOWA.ORG
Burlington, Iowa, and if anyone
from Tinley Park is still
interested or anyone from
Orland Park wants to take a
peek at what a town with an
impressive sports complex
looks like, this is the place
to study.
In 1999, the town opened
the Rec Plex, a monster of a
facility that has five baseball/
softball diamonds, eight
soccer fields and four lighted
sand volleyball courts.
To hear some of the locals
tell it, there are huge tournaments
there just about every
weekend in softball and
soccer. Evanston’s soccer
team participated in the Go 4
the Goal Fall Classic there. A
bunch of teams from all over
the country participate.
National softball tournaments
also are huge and
help some hotels turn on the
proverbial “No Vacancy”
signs on weekend.
In the middle of an area
full of hotels is a PZAAZ!
Property with a casino for
the parents and a water park
for the kids.
Genius!
The fact we were able to
walk out of the casino with
some money in our pockets
made us like Burlington
even more.
This winter, the community
is expected to open The
Turf, which will be 79,000
square feet under a bubble for
softball and soccer games that
can take place in the winter.
But the bad news, according
to the Hawk Eye
newspaper, is that the indoor
project idea was hatched
eight years ago to “revitalize
the greater Burlington area.”
Hmmm. From what I saw,
the area was pretty vitalized.
But even with all the athletes
and their parents coming
there and spending money
over the decades, huge sports
complexes might not be
recession-proof.
Anyway, it’s worth a look.
If Orland or Tinley bosses
want to see what they would
be getting themselves into,
perhaps a trip to Burlington
would help.
And here’s a little tip if
you make a side trip to the
casino: play the Seinfeld
machine.
Svengoolie and Zaghloulie
One of our sports freelancers,
Jon Zaghloul, and the
the Son of Svengoolie share
something in common.
Both were featured in a
blog by respected Chicago
media reporter Rob Feder.
Svengoolie got a mention
for being featured in Mad
magazine.
Zaghloul, who has covered
Sandburg and Andrew
football games for our mad
newspapers, made it because
his “Sport Talk Chicago”
podcast, previously heard on
the internet, will run live on
Mondays on WHPK, 88.5
FM at 9 a.m. on Mondays.
Unfortunately, the station,
which broadcasts from the
University of Chicago, can’t
be heard in this area. But it
can still be heard on TuneIn
Radio and WHPK.org.
LISTEN UP
“I am still very optimistic and I will be going into
this new phase from a position of physical and
mental strength, thanks to my marathon training.”
Jeanette O’Loughlin — former Sandburg runner who is trying to
beat cancer and ran the Chicago Marathon
What 2 Watch
Girls Tennis - TBA, Saturday, Oct. 13
• The sectional finals take place and the top four
singles and doubles teams advance to the state
finals.
INDEX
42 - Athlete of the Week
42 - This week in...
Compiled by Sports Editor Jeff Vorva,
J.Vorva@22NDCM.com