Recently in Youth Sports Category

Bolingbrook Bandits 12U manager Thomas Page returns for the 10th week of his journal for The Brook Blog. Page is attempting to lost 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009 to improve his health and raise money for his youth baseball team.

Well we are feeling better and now back from the Great White North, the UP of Michigan. Unsuccessful hunt but wonderful trip to say the least.

I have been very successful in my weigh loss goal so far, 25 pounds, and it is definitely getting easier to work out. It was easier to keep up this year with my friends while walking in deep snow and forest.

I am now going to increase my work outs with Angel about 3 times per week. I have 2 months left on my trek and its going to go by very quickly.

Bolingbrook Raiders varsity girls volleyball coach Andrea Bercot will be the Master Coach and coach the 14U Spring Team for the Panthers Sports Club, according to the club's Web site.

I'm not sure what a Master Coach is exactly, but one would assume it's an important position for the PSC travel program. What is for certain is that Bercot, who began playing volleyball in the PSC in-house program, will get a chance to see some of the young talent in the Brook with the 14U team.

Getting her varsity players onto club teams at an early age was what Bercot stressed as her biggest goal for the Raiders program when The Brook Blog spoke to her during the varsity season. This is a positive development for both the Panthers and the Raiders.

In other PSC volleyball news, tryouts for the 12U club team will be held on Dec. 6 at Brooks Middle School following the in-house championships.

This is the eighth week of the journal Thomas Page is writing for The Brook Blog about his attempt to lose 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009. Page is losing weight to improve his health and raise money for his Bolingbrook Bandits 12U team.

Well, we have been sick this week. I was able to work out once with Angel but only twice for cardio. We have the flu. I am trying to encourage my oldest son to work with me and continue his work out that he was doing for cross country. I find it has been a challenge all in its own. He too seems to have hit a rut.

I will be leaving next week for my annual trek up north to the UP of Michigan. I was enjoying fitting into my hunting clothes. I will even have to go shopping when I come home. My pants are just too loose which is a problem I actually enjoy having I must say.

Thomas Page is the manager of the U12 Bolingbrook Bandits youth baseball team. He is attempting to lose 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009. This is the seventh week of his weekly journal for The Brook Blog.

Everything is going very well so far. Good thing too, holidays are approaching quickly. That's is a difficult time for anyone on a diet.

I have noticed since doing my work outs, my endurance has increased a whole lot over the past few weeks. I find that I am able to do more for longer periods of time! This is very exciting because I love to work out. It's very hard but the feeling you get when you are done is a euphoria that is very hard to describe. I am getting more and more fit every time I see Angel.

She didn't stop.

After training for months for the Chicago Marathon, Barbara Nance didn't pull out of the race because of the tendonitis which had been hampering her left hamstring for the month leading up to the race. She couldn't run. So she walked.

Nance kept going even when race officials began taking down the barricades, opening up the streets, disassembling the water stations and telling her to walk on the sidewalk. Nance wasn't finished. So she got on the sidewalk and kept going for the final 14 miles.

"You're in the middle of all this," said Nance, who has lived in Bolingbrook for 10 years, "and nobody's respecting that you're trying to finish. It was really a challenge."

This was a race she wanted to complete a year earlier when the extreme heat caused race officials to turn around her group after 16 miles. Now in her second attempt to finish a marathon, the course itself was falling apart around her.

The 48-year-old knew she could keep going because of the support her running group provided. The Elijah Running Club, based out of her Forest Park church, was there to provide water for her thirst and support for her spirit. She saw her friends in the neon green shirts and knew she could keep going.

"If they had not been out there, I wouldn't have been able to make it," Nance said. "So my focus was getting to the next green shirt to make it through."

The Elijah Running Club trains people who have never run before to finish marathons. That was the case for Nance, who said the only running she ever did "was after my children."

So when fellow members of the Living Word Christian Center told her about the running club, she joined up. Improving her health was her main inspiration. Nance said she was taking medication for high blood pressure, suffered from daily headaches and was constantly tired and in pain.

The aches and pains didn't go away immediately, but Nance stuck with the club. She ran every Saturday with the club and twice a week on her own. Nance credits her faith with giving her the fortitude to push herself.

"The scripture says I can do all things through Christ," said Nance, who is a native of Gary, Ind. "So that's what I quoted every time I would go out and run and I would feel sick or tired or whatever it was. I said, 'Well if Christ is in me, then I can do all things.' One step in front of the other."

Thomas Page is the manager of the 12U Bolingbrook Bandits. He is trying to lose 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009 to improve his health and raise money for his travel baseball team. This is the sixth week of his journal for The Brook Blog.

Well, it has been difficult coming up with things to write about, but this one not so much, I'm naming this one mind over matter.

Have you ever noticed how many fast food restaurants we have around? Have you ever noticed how HARD it is to eat out healthy? We went out to dinner the other day and for a "healthy" choice, dinner was somewhere under 650 calories but they could not "promise" that. I have been trying to target my craving time (between 2 and 5) with something sweet like a piece of fruit or something of that nature but wow, it is so hard not to just pull in to grab a bite to eat.

I think that is one of the most difficult aspects of dieting is cutting the fast food. With the holidays fast approaching, well, it will be a challenge to say the least.

Larry Randa reports that the Humphrey Middle School boys soccer team is the Valley View School District tournament champion for the second consecutive year.

Eighth grader Omar Calleros was named tournament MVP.

Team members are Jason Glassco, Luis Marquez, Brian Najera, Brian Dominguez, Gerardo Lira, Christopher Fragosa, Jimmy Mendoza, Jovani Enriquez, Jordan Marquez, Steven Darko, Brandan Hernandez, Eduardo Gonzales, Freddy Ponce, Gamaliel Torres, Jesse Delabra, Steven Ramirez, Eric Sarpong, Ivan Perez, Adan Gonzalez, Alexis Garcia and Devon Hamilton. The coaches are Nicole Olson and Mike Stoehrmann.