North Cook News

The Arlington Heights School District is saluting some of its area sports teams on their recent achievements.

“It was the most amazing experience I had in seeing that wrestling really creates a community that students, no matter your size, your grade, your gender, that you create a team together, that you watching, you appreciate your coaches and the other team's coaches,” Arlington Heights Schools Supt. Lori Bein said in a video posted to YouTube from an April 11, board meeting after several students from a pair of area schools qualified for the state wrestling tournament.

Coached by Jay Bingaman and Dan Burdi, South Middle School’s Carlo Difalco made the tournament, along with Thomas’ Anthony Klikas, Stone McKon and Owen Pham, all of whom were coached by Mike Damico, Ben Hamilton and School Resource Officer Danny Malik.

Board members added they are especially excited about the steps the wrestling program has taken over just the last five years.

“It really is an amazing sport to be a part of,” Bein added. “So thank you our coaches for making it a reality here, for our board for supporting this as a new sport that we just piloted five years ago, to families for all that you do and students for putting forth great effort and really being great role models for your peers as well.”

The Board also recognized the 7th-grade girls’ volleyball team from South and the girls' 8th-grade team from Thomas, both of whom also qualified for the state tournament.

The South team is coached by Sophia Vassos and Chris Fahnoe, with Lea Alleman, Cara Benassi, Reese DeCook, Harper Giersch, Ella Gunderson, Elyse Kennedy, Evelyn Mueller, Anna Range, Ava Starzyk, Samantha Tam, Isabella Valentin, Nora Wathen, Alexa Aguirre and Jena Hasan composing its roster.

The Thomas team is coached by Todd Slowinski, with Faith Darby, Allison Fritzsche, Reese Ginsberg, Danielle Jensen, Lily Mattix, Freya McBride, Logan Nosik, Maya Patryarcha, Valeria Saberbein, Mahalakshmi Vullakula and Samantha Wolverton all making up its roster.

During the meeting, all the coaches gave special thanks to the players, signaling them out for their hard work and dedication throughout the entire season.