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30 | December 27, 2018 | The orland park prairie sports opprairie.com <strong>OP</strong>’s Minervini counted on as Brother Rice’s stat man RANDY WHALEN Freelance Reporter When Orland Park’s Mike Minervini missed the Brother Rice basketball victory over Harlan Academy on Nov. 24 in the title game of the Joliet West Thanksgiving Tournament, it was a rare occasion. It was only the fourth time that Minervini, an Orland Park resident, has missed a Crusaders basketball game since 1993. He did so with good reason, though. That’s because Minervini, who has been the statistician for Brother Rice baseball, basketball and football for the better part of the past two decades, was doing stats for the football team in the Illinois High School Association Class 8A state championship game that evening at Memorial Stadium in Champaign. “I still got to cover the first three games at Joliet West, Minervini said. “Although they moved the time of the basketball title game up to 3:30, I still only went to the football game. “I wasn’t going to miss that. I went with basketball [quarterfinals] in 2005, baseball [fourth place] in 2007 and now football [second place in 2018]. It completed the trifecta of state events for me.” The other basketball games he has missed were in 2002, when his daughter Nicole got married. The next year, Minervini, who also does stats for St. Xavier University basketball, was committed to be at the SXU contest when a Crusaders game in Indiana got rescheduled for a Saturday. Then, in December of 2011 his oldest son, Michael was returning from the inaugural seven-month deployment of the aircraft carrier, the USS Bush. He and his wife, Division I Brother Rice recruit Marquise Kennedy is one of several stars Orland Park’s Mike Minervini has kept stats on. TIM O’BRIEN/22ND CENTURY MEDIA Former Brother Rice pitcher Ryan Palmblad, an Orland Park native, is one of many Crusader baseball players statistician Mike Minervini has covered. TIM O’BRIEN/22ND CENTURY MEDIA Sandra, got to join the other families of the crew when the ship returned to Norfolk, Virginia. He rarely misses Brother Rice games. He has covered games inside and outside. He has kept the numbers in the wind, rain, snow, sleet and heat. His travels have taken him to numerous cities in and outside the Chicago area. Minervini has been doing the basketball statistics since 1993, the football numbers since 1999, and the baseball stats since 2000. He’s only missed one football game, and that was the second game of the 1999 season when his niece Allyson Polickey got married. He has not missed a baseball game since 2003. So, how did Minervini, a 1966 Richards graduate, who attended Eisenhower for his first three years until Richards opened, get involved in Brother Rice athletics? “My daughter [Nicole, 1993 grad] went to McAuley and was a cheerleader there, and my sons [Michael, 1995 grad and Ross, 1998 grad] went to Brother Rice and were involved in a variety of sports,” Minervini said. “I had followed Rice athletics for awhile. I had relatives that went there, and I attended the 1981 and 1985 football state title games. So, they asked me to help out, first with Pat Richardson in basketball in Mike Minervini, of Orland Park, (with clipboard) has been a fixture for Brother Rice sports for 25 years. JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA Orland Park’s Jack McMahon (No. 44) and his Brother Rice teammates made it to the Class 8A championship game in November, which was a highlight for statistician Michael Minervini. JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA 1993.” He does not do stats for McAuley events, because he simply does not have much time to do so. He also has done the basketball stats for the St. Xavier men’s and women’s teams for the past 19 years. There are very few conflicts with Crusader events, but when there are, he goes with Brother Rice. There are many favorite moments he can recall, starting with basketball in 2005. “We beat Simeon (77- 76) in double overtime at St. Xavier in the [Class 4A] sectional final that year,” Minervini said. “Derrick Rose was a sophomore, and that was his last postseason loss, as Simeon won it the next two years. Then we beat Proviso East (59-58) at the UIC Supersectional to go downstate for the first time. “In baseball, we went undefeated in the Catholic League in 2017, and this season was a huge highlight to have a 13-game win streak and advance to the state title game in football.” Living five minutes from Brother Rice for many years, Minervini moved his family to Orland Park in 1997, and they have been there since. He retired from the CTA in 1999, and that also helped free him to do more statistical work. He has been married to Sandra for 47 years and obviously loves what he does with Brother Rice, but turned 71 on Nov. 2. So, some of his impressive streaks may soon be ending to tend to family. “I’ve got nine grandkids that are involved in sports,” Minervini said. “So, it’s getting close. But it’s not because I’m tired of it.”
opprairie.com sports the orland park prairie | December 27, 2018 | 31 fastbreak THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK Some great stories that just missed next week’s list 1ST AND 3 THE ILLINOIS HIGH SCHOOL ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCED THE AVERAGE ENROLLMENT FIGURES IT WILL USE FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS 1. Around here Sandburg is listed at 2,934 students, which is 23rd in the state. Also in District 230, Andrew is listed at 2,139 and Stagg is at 2,271.5. 2. Now that’s a lot The IHSA lists Morton as No. 1 with an enrollment of 8,196. So, take all the Sandburg students, multiply by two and you still cant match Morton. 3. That’s not much Pike County Christian Academy in Pittsfield’s enrollment is listed as four. Four! Heck, that poor school can’t even field a full bowling team. Jeff Vorva j.vorva@22ndcm.com End of the year lists. I have known newspaper people who hate compiling them. Hate it. I think if they were given a choice of starting a yearend list or losing an eyeball, they might have to ponder it for a few seconds. I wonder if Popeye the Sailor refused to do a list? You will be happy to know that I am not one of those. I am happy to do them. Yes, it is extra work that can be a pain in the neck, but once I start doing them, it’s like a nice trip down memory lane. I usually find stuff that I completely forgot about, even though it just happened mere months ago. On Thursday, Jan. 3, we will present our Top 10 sports stories for 2018. In the past, we’ve looked back at the sports year in a different format, but I like the Top 10 format. There is no shortage of Top 10 stories in this sportrich area. The problem is, what in the heck do I do about the quality stories that don’t make next week’s list? Then, I heard bells jingling in the background as if this were one of those sappy Hallmark holiday movies and — voila — it came to me. Let’s talk about them this week! So, without further ado, let’s talk about five stories from The Orland Park Prairie that fell a little short of next week’s power-packed list. In no particular order: Fitz blitz In November, Orland Park native Pat Fitzgerald was unanimously named Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year by the media and the coaches as the Northwestern coach helped guide his team to a Big Ten West title. Although his team lost to Ohio State in the league’s championship game, he continued to make some news. He is being rumored as a candidate for the Green Bay Packers head coaching job. He has been rumored for other college jobs in the past, but he steadfastly said he wasn’t interested and wanted to stay on in Evanston. But the Packers job? That might be a little hard to turn down an interview. Top-ping a record On May 18, Orland Park’s Teresa Topolski and three other runners (Sarah Kerfin, Charlotte Venezio and Samantha Spencer) from Providence Catholic did not win the Illinois High School Association state championship in the 800-meter relay at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, but her team ran a time of 1 minute and 45.15 seconds in the preliminary race to break a 40-year-old school record. Topolski was just a freshman. “I still replay it in my mind how Teresa took over the race,” Celtics sprint/relay coach Mark Coglianese Jr. said. “She ran out of her mind the last couple of weeks of the season.” Mather sets up title Katie Mather, a senior Marist High School setter, an Orland Park native who attended Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and Century Jr. High School before her family moved to Oak Lawn, helped her team become the first Class 4A volleyball team win backto-back titles since 2012 and 2013. The RedHawks beat Downers Grove North Nov. 10 at Redbird Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal. Mather had 21 assists and four aces in that match. Marist downed Benet 25-18, 25-15 in the semifinals and Mather collected 20 assists. Sandburg’s fourth-place finish the state in cheerleading was one of five outstanding stories that did not make the Top 10 sports stories of 2018, which will appear on Thursday, Jan. 3. 22ND CENTURY MEDIA FILE PHOTO She finished with 980 assists to go with a team-high 44 aces this season for the 38-3 RedHawks in 2018. 4-for-4 In October, Anna Loureiro became the first female tennis player from Sandburg since 2008 to qualify for state all four years. The first three years, she qualified as a singles player. This year, she teamed up with Jayme Gross and the pair finished the season 28-1 and the two players earned all-state honors after the state declared they finished 5th-12th. They were in a bracket in which they would have played for fifth place, but weather wiped out consolation rounds. Another top finish for Eagles cheerleaders In early February, Sandburg’s cheerleaders finished fourth in the state the Large Team division behind Joliet West, Marist and Stevenson. Sandburg had beaten Marist by nearly three points the week before in sectional competition. Maddie Bateman, Anna Benz-Weeden, Holly Chudzik, Kelly Hyde, Grace Mackle, Karly Petro, Makiah Terry and Amy Weslow were seniors on the squad. LISTEN UP “I went with basketball [quarterfinals] in 2005, baseball [fourth place] in 2007 and now football [second place in 2018]. It completed the trifecta of state events for me.” Mike Minervini — Orland Park resident and longtime Brother Rice stat keeper What 2 Watch Boys basketball, TBA, Thursday, Dec. 27 through Monday, Dec. 31 • Sandburg continues play in the Jack Tosh Holiday Tournament at York High School in Elmhurst. INDEX 27 - Area sports roundup 26 - Athlete of the Week Compiled by Sports Editor Jeff Vorva, J.VORVA@22NDCM.com
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