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MY SUN DAY NEWS

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News & Features Columnists Editorials Hang Your Hat Obituaries My Huntley News

August 9, 2012

Sports & Leisure

Crazy like a CyclePath

Alan Boyle didn’t bike at all until he joined CyclePaths. When he first started, it took a while to pick up on biking. “He was in the back and couldn’t keep up with anybody,” said Bob Kling, current president of CyclePaths. “Now he’s way ahead of everybody.”

Mah-Jongg mania

Lucy Giallanza has loved mah-jongg since she first picked up one of the colorful, hand-engraved tiles used to play the centuries-old game. “[I learned how to play] when I lived in New York about 20 years ago,” she said. “My Jewish neighbors taught me, and I loved the game at first.”

Coach’s legacy marked on the gridiron

Grant Blaney was seriously considering a military career when he walked into a U.S. Army office at Ft. Riley, Kansas, in 1957. To his surprise, the first question the officer asked him was, “Do you play baseball?” Turns out the army was looking for a coach for the base sports teams. In a few minutes, Blaney’s career path made a U-turn from artillery observer to athletics.

Splashing our way through synchronized water

Splish, splash – there was a whole lot of synchronized water movement going on at Prairie Lodge’s Indoor Pool! When Cynthia O’Connor, Sun City’s Lifestyles Director, asked Chris Hinde to put together a water show for the Feeling Great Is Ageless Expo, Chris responded with an emphatic “Yes!”

Bocce, it’s contagious

Most everyone would agree that throwing a ball is fun. And they also would probably agree that throwing it in the company of friends and neighbors is really cool. Enter Bocce (the Italian word for ball).

A One-Armed Hole in One

You may know someone who has nailed a hole-in-one on the golf course, but I’ll bet you don’t know anyone who has done it with only one arm.

A league of its own

If there was a “Who’s Having the Most Fun?” championship in Sun City, the softballers just might win it. The day featured two games: in the first, the Big Hitters defeated the Coyotes 10 to 5, and in the second, the Fuelers beat the Lumbarjacks 7 to 4.

Stingrays participate in master swimming competition

U.S. Masters Swimming recently wrapped up their 2011-2012 Winter Indoor Competition season with the Illinois State Swim Meet. The University of Illinois in Chicago hosted about 400 swimmers in 502 races and relays over the three-day event.

Softball with flair

When it comes to starting a season, the Sun City Softball League does it with flair.

Thinking across the board

This is a yarn about chess. You know, that game that’s played by retirees on card tables and tree stumps in city parks, the game where American Bobby Fischer beat Russian Boris Spassky on an international stage in 1972, with a host of world media watching, mesmerized.

You want to toss some bags? Bring some popcorn!

Remember bean bags from your childhood? You tossed them around, played catch with them, threw them at targets on trees, walls, and floors, and tossed them into rings on the ground. The idea was to throw a bag to a pre-determined spot to score points. Many sports such as golf, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, basketball, water polo, and even football (to some degree) derive their rules from this basic bean bag activity.

Stingrays Vacation like princesses

From February 18-25, four Sun City Stingray Swim Club members and one Sun City husband enjoyed a seven-day Southern Caribbean cruise aboard the Grand Princess. Their itinerary included Aruba, Curacao, and Princess Cruise’s own private island, Princess Cays.

Hebron’s heroes

Ask anyone in Illinois about Hebron, and they will likely say, “Isn’t that the town with a basketball on its water tower?” Or, “Didn’t their high school team win a state championship of some sort?” Or, “Is that the town where the Judson brothers came from?”

Fields of dreams

Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting the Twins’ Joe Mauer, the team’s most outstanding player and previous league MVP. Joe wears #7, stands 6’5”, and weighs about 230 pounds. Standing anywhere near this guy is so embarrassing for me, since I’m barely 5’6”. But Joe is so laid back and anything but standoffish. He was born in St. Paul, MN on April 19, 1983. He fits his team perfectly, being a hometown boy. Even though his Twins regularly beat my favorite team, the White Sox, I can’t help but be in awe and admire him because he is a future Baseball Hall of Famer with a down-to-earth demeanor and attitude.

Can senior volleyballers jump?

White men can’t jump – remember the Hollywood movie that tried to prove that point? Can Sun City seniors jump? Yes, they can. A member of the community’s Senior Volleyball League proved it the other day. During a match at the Cosman Center gym, he slammed the ball into the opponent’s court for a winner and exclaimed, “Hey, my left foot was all the way off the floor!”

Competitive swimmers prove successful at all ages

A Zen master is defined as an “instructor of enlightenment.” According to this definition, the Sun City Stingrays Swim Club is fortunate to have two zen masters: head coach, Chris Hinde, and assistant coach, Len Lencioni.

Sports clubs hibernate in winter? Not in Sun City

A neighbor of mine asked me recently if all Sun City sports groups “hibernated,” or canceled activities, during the winter. He assumed that clubs such as softball, tennis, bocce ball, biking, and anglers took the winter off, hunkered down to survive the winter storms and cold, and waited, perhaps impatiently, for spring.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickleballs

Pickleball. What is it? Why is it called that? Does it have anything to do with pickles we eat?

Shooting for success

The local Free Throw Championship Competition sponsored by the St. Mary of Huntley Knights of Columbus Council #11666 will be held at 9-11:45 a.m. with awards at noon, Saturday, January 14, at the Centegra Health Bridge Fitness Center, 10450 Algonquin Road, Huntley, Il.

It’s pure elementary

To provide a safer environment for Sun City’s swimming pools, Stingrays’ Head Swim Coach, Chris Hinde, recently invited swim club members to participate with him and Assistant Coach, Len Lencioni, to become certified in Elementary Forms of Survival, Water Rescue, and Pool Entries.

Whole lot of swimming going on

If you have caught a view of Prairie’s indoor pool on recent Saturday mornings, you have heard and seen a lot of excitement and swimming going on! It seems that our new coach, Chris Hinde, is intent on strengthening Stingrays’ membership as a club, as well as helping us all to swim much more efficiently.

Cardboard Connection Radio

When Huntley Area Public Library Communications Assistant and Webmaster Doug Cataldo isn’t laying out Library Links, updating and designing huntleylibrary.org, or doing any number of other media-related library tasks that give the library its “good looks,” he’s talking about cardboard.

Put me on the train!

On Saturday, October 22, almost 5,500 first-nighters and I were present for the Inaugural Season Home Opener of the Chicago Express Hockey Club at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates.

Quick & Casual

Chicago’s resurgence of interest in professional hockey was created mainly by the recent success of the Black Hawks. This being your team’s first year in competition for sports and specifically hockey fans in the Chicagoland area, what do you see as your niche when developing a fan base here with the Black Hawks and Chicago Wolves already established?

Comfortable golf in January, Sun City style

Some golfers pack themselves full of the sport up to six or seven days a week in the summer to tide them over through the winter “homesick” days. Others take the year-round concept literally and play in the dead of winter, so long as there’s no snow and it’s above zero. Fanatics and fun-lovers take it to the extreme and play with orange or blue balls on snow-covered fairways and greens in winter, mostly just for laughs or on a dare. When they finish doing that, they usually head to a Lake Michigan beach to jump into 40-degree water to get on TV.

Teacher, mentor, coach

In the entire high school culture in the State of Illinois, there is only one man who can arguably be called “The Coach.” He has come to dwell among us in Sun City. At age 82, he is still doing it.