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Jack's Army is on the march again

Like all new parents, Mike and Liz Pribaz thought their baby boy was one in a million.

They didn't realize how right they were.

Shortly after little Jack Pribaz debuted with a full head of hair on March 5, 2009, a nurse noticed he was having seizures. Within 17 hours of his birth doctors were giving the newborn a battery of tests. Nothing specific was found, and reassured that sometimes babies experience seizures that disappear over time and armed with anti-seizure medicine, the young family headed home.

The seizures didn't go away. They got worse. After another round of tests the couple was told Jack's baseline brain activity was severely abnormal, with the terrifying kicker he might not reach his first birthday.

Happily, Jack soon will be celebrating his sixth birthday party. But while a special diet and experimental drugs improved his brain patterns and reduced the seizures, it was quickly realized he was not developing normally. Within only months after Mike and Liz had their second child, Matt, in November 2010, the younger tyke already was outperforming Jack in attaining developmental milestones.

It took an uncertain two and a half years after Jack's birth to discover his ailment, which left him unable to speak, control his head or sit unassisted, and it required surgery to implant a feeding tube for nutrition.

A new genetic test revealed something called KCNQ2 encephalopathy, a rare mutation of a gene called KCNQ2 - "which means nothing to anybody except for a handful of us in the world," said Mike Pribaz, a former St. Francis teacher now in his 11th year teaching history at Wheaton North. He's the Falcons' boys golf coach and an assistant to Dave Eaton in girls basketball.

"When we got our diagnosis in the fall of 2011 they said, we don't know anybody else," Pribaz said.

Thanks to the Jack Pribaz Foundation - known locally as Jack's Army - which advocates for research grants, partners with physicians from Baylor University to Lurie Children's Hospital and spreads awareness about KCNQ2, Mike Pribaz said about 150 people worldwide have been identified with the condition. The Foundation has since created a second website targeted to worldwide patients, kcnq2.org.

The Pribazes have traveled everywhere from Seattle to Denver to Belgium to England to spread the news and gain information and grants. But Jack's Army is well-known locally with annual golf outings and, for the last three years, a girls basketball exhibition at Wheaton North.

"I can't thank the Wheaton North girls enough," Mike Pribaz said. "It's because of them that we're here."

On Jan. 31 the event will shift to St. Francis where the Wheaton-Quad Cities Jack's Army Shootout will bring in varsity and sophomore boys basketball games between Wheaton North and Moline, Wheaton Warrenville South and Rock Island and St. Francis and Rock Island Alleman.

"It'll be a nice event, and on top of it we'll have six really good varsity teams," said St. Francis coach Bob Ward, the former Wheaton North history teacher who once had - you guessed it - Mike Pribaz as a student-teacher.

Sophomore games, starting at 2 p.m., will be held in St. Francis' old Slant Dome. Varsity games, starting at 3:30, will be played in the Spyglass Athletic Center. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students, but everyone gets a free Jack's Army T-shirt and there will be video presentations and literature on KCNQ2 plus the usual 50-50 raffles, shooting contests and such.

"If just a couple people come out of that event and have an idea, know somebody, get another diagnosis, that's our goal," Mike Pribaz said. "We just can't sit quiet about it."

Jack will be there, too. He does 'tons' of therapy," his father said, has a full-time aide but also attends Bower Elementary School in Warrenville after going to Jefferson in Wheaton last year.

"Jack's life has been very productive so far," Mike Pribaz said. "He's done more than any 5-year-old that I know."

Congrats

Benedictine University will induct its Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2015 on Saturday. The group of four includes St. Francis High School graduate Bridget (Kilpatrick) Wiacek, a softball pitcher.

Out of Benedictine's Class of 1992, she earned National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America and All-Region honors for the Eagles, who went 30-9, won the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin and reached the Division III championship. From 1989-92 she went 64-30 with 89 complete games.

A familiar name to area basketball fans, former St. Patrick star Terry Frigo also is among the Hall of Fame inductees. At Benedictine he owns the season and career records for blocked shots, ranks second all-time in scoring and fourth in rebounds.

Marathon woman

Lindsay Flanagan said marathon runners don't peak until they're in their 30s. Since she doesn't turn 24 until Jan. 24, her debut in the road event indicates a promising future.

The 2009 Lake Park graduate, now a professional runner under the Mizuno banner, placed ninth among all women and was the third United States woman to finish in her first marathon, the Chevron Houston Marathon on Jan. 18. Flanagan ran the distance in 2 hours, 33 minutes, 12 seconds.

"It was fun," said Flanagan, who graduated from the University in Washington last March with a degree in public health and nutrition and a minor in global health.

"It was in Houston, Texas, we had great weather," she said. "I'd say it was 48 degrees when it started, and the course was flat until the end."

At Lake Park she ran as if all her courses were flat. She won the 2008 Class 3A cross country title, earning Gatorade's Illinois girls runner of the year, and twice was runner up in the 3,200-meter run in track before competing at Washington.

Last year Flanagan capped her five-year career with a second-team All-America finish in the 10,000. Younger sister, Kaylee, also a former Lancers standout, is following in her footsteps at Washington.

A real plus to Lindsay's time is it broke the United States Olympic Trials A-standard of 2:37. Flanagan plans on attending the Trials in Los Angeles in February 2016.

"The main goal in the long term is the marathon and the Olympic Trials, even if not in 2016 then 2020 and all the years after that," she said.

Flanagan left Seattle directly for her new residence in Washington, D.C., to start training with her new team; she signed with Mizuno in July 2014 and her lease began Aug. 1. After the Houston Marathon she began her recovery by returning to the family home in Roselle for a couple weeks.

Flanagan and the Mizuno coaching staff will gauge her recovery from the marathon and training before plotting further road races this spring. She said United States Track and Field offers road racing championships "every couple months."

The bonus is under Mizuno "you're taken care of nicely," she said.

"The fact that dream from high school came true is really cool. I'm really lucky," Flanagan said.

"I've always loved running and everybody always hopes you can grow up and be a professional athlete. The fact that I was able to do that has been special and it's very exciting."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

Follow Dave on Twitter @doberhelman1

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