In choosing Cornell, Nick Mlady consulted with Zac Canty, a wide receiver from Naperville North who also ventured out to Ithaca, N.Y. After earning honorable mention all-Ivy League honors as a junior in 2007, Canty caught 51 passes for 496 yards in his senior season as the Big Red finished 4-6 overall and 2-5 in conference. Mlady and Canty didn't play together at North - and won't at Cornell - but the connection helped answer some questions and come to a final decision.
DVC: January 2009 Archives
Naperville North senior running back Nick Mlady, who will leave the school as its all-time leading rusher, has committed to play at Cornell next season.
Arnas Gintautas, a 6-3, 210-pound forward on Naperville North's basketball team, will likely need shoulder surgery for an injury suffered during football season. Huskies basketball coach Mark Lindo said Tuesday that the junior will probably miss the rest of this hoops season. Gintautas finished 2008 with 54 total tackles and three sacks on the gridiron.
"He just tried to fight through that and get through the basketball season because he does not play a spring sport," Lindo said. "It hurt his range of motion, he's been in pain and he's played through that (since) the last couple weeks of football. (He) played with quite a bit of pain and guts."
Naperville North senior Alex Helms has committed to play football at Concordia (Minn.) next season. Though Helms was a unanimous all-DuPage Valley Conference offensive lineman last season, the Division II St. Paul university recruited Helms as a linebacker, his part-time position for the 10-1 Huskies. As a pulling guard in North's double-wing offense, Helms helped pave the way for Nick Mlady to break the school's career rushing record and was voted the DVC's outstanding offensive lineman.
Northwestern offensive line coach Bret Ingalls will jump to the NFL and work for Naperville native Sean Payton in New Orleans. The Saints will get an assistant who apparently had some good connections in the Chicago suburbs.
ESPN.com Big Ten writer Adam Rittenberg reports in his blog:
(Ingalls) coached the Big Ten's youngest line this season and got decent results, as Northwestern tied for second in the league in fewest sacks allowed (22) and went 9-4. Ingalls' biggest contributions have come as a recruiter, as he helped land top line prospects like Brian Mulroe (Loyola), Nick Adamle (Wheaton North) and Jeff Radek (Neuqua Valley) last February.
Payton and Ingalls worked together at San Diego State in the late-1980s and early-1990s, helping develop a running back named Marshall Faulk.
