(608) 365-1663 Beloit - Community Shoppers, Inc.

12 Stateline News Sunday, July 27, 2008
■ SPORTSL PORTS INE
PrepFocus
Prep
Randy Weibel
Hononegah
After one
season as an
assistant boys
basketball
coach at
Hononegah,
Weibel is
returning to his
former role as
WEIBEL EIBEL
head girls’ basketball coach for the
Indians. Weibel, who announced
his retirement after nine years in
April 2007, will replace his successor,
Tim Bukoski. Bukoski came to
Hononegah after five years as
head girls’ coach at Stillman
Valley, and will return to the school
to become Stillman Valley’s head
boys’ coach.
Notable: Weibel led Hononegah
to 216 wins, seven regional and
three sectional titles from 1998 to
2007.
Quotable: “I found out I just
missed being a head coach. It’s
hard to be an assistant after being
a head coach for 20-some years.”
— Randy Weibel
SportsShorts Sports —
■ City links: Krueger-Haskell
Golf Course is accepting registrations
through Monday for the
Junior City Golf Tournament. The
tournament, scheduled for
Wednesday, is a nine-hole event
for the 11-12 age division and 18hole
event for the 13-15 and 16-18
age groups. The entry fee is $5.
Krueger-Haskell and the Country
Club of Beloit are accepting registrations
through today (Sunday) for
the Men’s City Tournament Aug. 1-
3. The first round will be played at
the country club and rounds two
and three at Krueger-Haskell.
Registration fees are $60 for
adults and $40 for juniors 17 and
under. For more information, contact
Spencer Waite, Beloit’s recreation
supervisor, at (608) 364-
2890.
■ Bucs No. 6: The Beloit
College women’s basketball team
finished sixth in the Women’s
Basketball Coaches Association
NCAA Division III Academic Top
25 for the 2007-’08 season. The
rankings are based on the gradepoint-average
of the entire team;
the minimum is 3.0. Beloit, which
posted a 14-10 record this past
season under head coach Don
Adams, finished with a 3.472
cumulative GPA. Concordia
University of Wisconsin had the
top mark at 3.637. Beloit College
was the only Midwest Conference
team to be ranked.
■ Academic honors for
RVC: Five student athletes at
Rock Valley College in Rockford
were recognized for academic success
this past school year.
Basketball players Jeff Weberg
and Jessica Moore, volleyball player
Kaitlin Slocum and baseball
player Ryan Sanden all were
named junior college Distinguished
Academic All-Americans for having
a grade-point-average of between
3.8 and 4.0. Baseball player Chris
Gram was named an Academic
All-American for having a GPA of
between 3.6 and 3.79.
STATELINE SPORTS
Busy weekend on the ...
Sports complex
hosts 8 tournaments,
dozens of teams
BY RICK WEST
STATELINE NEWS SPORTS
BELOIT — When the Stateline
Youth Sports Complex opened on
Beloit’s northeast side more than
three years ago, organizers
hoped the facility would boost participation
in summer athletics, while making the city
a tournament magnet.
Those hopes are being realized.
The facility, owned and operated by the
Stateline Family YMCA, hosted 55 teams
last weekend in eight baseball and softball
tournaments.
“It has been very pleasing to see how
many different people we’ve served, and all
the groups coming in from other communities,”
said Mike Ace, the YMCA’s executive
director. “And the compliments they give,
not only on our complex, but on our community
and city are wonderful.”
The $1.5 million sports complex features
two lighted softball diamonds, two lighted
baseball diamonds and eight other unlighted
softball fields. Last weekend, the complex
accommodated 12 teams in the Beloit
Women’s Fastpitch Association Summer
Slam Tournament, 14 teams in three
regional tournaments for 17-and-under
Junior Legion baseball and 29 teams from
the Janesville Boy Scout and Cub Scout
softball program.
“Without this facility
there’s no way we’d be
able to host it all,” said
Scott Huffman of Beloit,
associate director for
Wisconsin Legion baseball.
“This facility has
been wonderful, and has
brought a lot of exposure
to our park and community.”
While the Beloit Legion has hosted
regional tournaments at the complex the
past four summers, the Janesville Scout
program held its tournament there for the
first time last weekend.
The move was prompted in part by the
loss of fields during construction at
Janesville Parker High School, and now
Andrew Olsen, district director for the
Glacier’s Edge Council of the Boy Scouts,
believes the tournament has found a new
home.
“I can’t see us going
back,” Olsen said. “Here
we’ve got concessions,
bathrooms, parking and
better fields.”
Olsen added there is
another advantage to
playing at the Stateline
complex.
HUFFMAN UFFMAN
OLSEN LSEN
“We’ve also got the YMCA to work with,”
he said. “If you use a school facility in the
summer, you’re on your own.”
While 55 teams in three days is impressive
enough, YMCA officials envision even
more growth at the complex.
There are plans to add lights to more diamonds,
expand parking and construct a second
concession area and restroom facility.
“We built it and they’re coming,” said
Brian Berner, YMCA youth and baseball
director. “As we keep developing the back
fields, we’ll be bringing
in even more tournaments.”
The YMCA has a crew
of five full-time employees
who work from 7 a.m.
to 4 p.m. daily to keep
the complex in gameready
condition. Ace said
it’s estimated the complex will serve over
3,500 youth this summer.
“In about four years we’ve more then
doubled the number of participants,” Ace
said.
Beloit Turner High School has applied to
host a sectional tournament at the complex,
and the Beloit Legion program is confident
it will be awarded a state tournament in
the near future.
“I see a Junior Legion (state) tournament
happening out here within the next five
years,” Huffman said. “I
would think the goal
would be to get a (junior
and senior) state tournament
within the next 10
years.”
And Garbe believes his
fast-pitch tournament
will expand.
BERNER ERNER
GARBE ARBE
“(Summer Slam) is going to continue to
grow,” Garbe said. “We want to run a 60- to
70-team tournament out there.
“Because of the volunteers that organize
this tournament, it has been a success, and
the communities are really starting to come
together to make it happen.”
Clearly, the location has become Beloit’s
“Field of Dreams.”
“We’ve only scratched the surface,”
Berner said. “There’s unlimited potential
out here, and we’re going to squeeze it for
all its worth.”
‘IT HAS BEEN VERY PLEASING TO SEE HOW MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE WE’VE SERVED, AND ALL THE
GROUPS COMING IN FROM OTHER COMMUNITIES.’
— MIKE ACE
YMCA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
DIAMONDS
RICK WEST/STAFF
At left, Sylvia Elliott, 12, of Machesney Park delivers a pitch for the Stateline Starz during the Beloit Women’s Fast Pitch Summer Slam Tournament,
while Beloit Junior Legion third baseman Tyler Little, center, tries to make a play on a hard-hit ground ball during a regional tournament game against
Geneva/Genoa, and Saul Brodkey, 7, right, loses his footing as he crosses first base after hitting an infield single for the Monroe Mustangs during
the Janesville Cub Scout softball tournament. All three tournaments took place last weekend at Beloit’s Stateline Youth Sports Complex.