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Pisani, Kirstein bring Naperville North, Neuqua Valley together

For years they've been teammates, but on Friday Louis Pisani and Liam Kirstein represented different teams.

Seniors at Naperville North and Neuqua Valley, respectively, Pisani and Kirstein are both four-year team managers for their schools' boys basketball teams. At Naperville North's senior night game the Dog Pound student section really let Louis have it.

"When they announced Louis he got a bigger applause than some of the athletes did because they've been so good to him and treated him just like everyone else, really," Louis' mother, Kish Pisani, said. Kirstein was recognized the week before at Neuqua Valley.

The Pisani and Kirstein boys have autism, Kish said. They and their families have known each other since the boys were 2 years old, introduced by a speech therapist.

Once neighbors in south Naperville, a job transfer forced the Pisanis to move to Montreal when Louis was in fifth grade. They returned at the start of his freshman year, relocating to the north side.

The boys are sports nuts - fans and participants. In fact on Sunday they were slated to play for the DuPage Valley Special Athletes basketball team at a tournament in Hoffman Estates.

The two families started DVSA because they wanted to offer activities similar organizations didn't. Like downhill skiing, flag football, unified soccer. ("Unified" joins special needs athletes with students.)

Both families had their sons in the typical kids' leagues until it became a safety issue.

"We have always had our kids involved in both courts, whether it's been in the Special Olympics court or field, or a regular court or field," Kish Pisani said.

Louis and Liam shared a regular court last Friday. Special moments ensued.

"As parents we were overwhelmed and touched by that night, It summarized Louis' entire four years at North where he has been included on the sidelines for football and basketball and treated like a teammate," Kish Pisani said.

"The more opportunities the schools can provide for kids like Louis, the better it is."

Roll 'em

Waubonsie Valley girls bowling coach Marty Miller and his Warriors return to Cherry Bowl in Rockford to compete for a fifth consecutive state trophy on Friday and (barring the unforeseen) Saturday. Winner of regional and sectional titles this season, Waubonsie won state titles in 2013 and 2014 and placed third in 2012 and 2015.

Headed by senior Violet Kirk, individual winner of the Reavis sectional and tied for 12th last year at state, Waubonsie also brings senior Veronica Dreyfus and juniors Serenity Quinteros, Mirica Yancey and Angelica Hernandez to Rockford. Kirk's 1,400 score at sectional (233 average) topped all girls at the six sectional competitions.

Individually, Metea Valley sophomore Alexis Sutherland looks to approach the 2015 seventh-place finish of since-graduated Mustang Jordan Newham. Lake Park senior Samantha Sztym continues the Lancers' strong bowling tradition as an individual after helping Lake Park advance as a team in 2015.

Three of the four advancing teams at the Reavis sectional - Waubonsie, West Aurora and Oswego East - finished Nos. 3-5 behind 2015 defending champion Lockport and runner up Collinsville.

Lockport, like Waubonsie a regional and sectional champion, has been entrenched atop the rankings at IllinoisBowling.net. Lockport's score of 6,300 at the Joliet West sectional was 493 pins higher than the runner up - but just 52 pins better than Waubonsie's 6,248 at Reavis.

"Rankings are what they are, but you've got to play the game," said Miller, who either as a private or high school coach worked with the last three individual state champions, including Waubonsie 2014 graduate Julia Bond.

"This tournament, for the most part, is won on Saturday afternoon in the 11th and 12th game," Miller said.

Nicely done

Following up last week's item about the United States Olympic Marathon Trials on Feb. 13 in Los Angeles, neither Lake Park graduate Lindsay Flanagan nor Wheaton Warrenville South grad Mike Popejoy achieved the near-impossible task of a top-three finish to make the U.S. squad.

Flanagan finished an impressive 14th among 149 female finishers at 2 hours, 39 minutes, 42 seconds. Popejoy finished 88th out of 105 men at 2:35.44.

One DuPage County graduate we missed when initially scanning the field was Naperville North's Tyler Jermann. A redshirt junior at Iowa State, Jermann finished 36th at the Trials at 2:24.15.

Short man, big hook

We were introduced to Notre Dame's Bengal Bouts by Benet graduate Mike Lee, a three-time champion in South Bend. Lee postponed a financial career for professional boxing; as a cruiserweight he is 16-0-0.

After Notre Dame junior Alex Alcantara graduates he plans to stick with finance, but he's no palooka. The 2013 St. Francis graduate won the 2015 Bengal Bouts 135-pound title and on Sunday won his 144-pound preliminary by unanimous decision. His Wednesday quarterfinal bout finished past deadline for this column.

"At any weight class you box at there's going to be competition. I'm real confident in what I can do, so the rest just kind of settles itself," Alcantara said.

At St. Francis Alcantara obviously didn't box but certainly sparred. In addition to playing defensive back and slot back on the football team, he was the Spartans' first wrestler to qualify for sectionals. Feeling a "void" in competition after leaving high school, he played intramural tackle football and added boxing his sophomore year.

The Bengal Bouts are a big deal. Knute Rockne started a boxing program at Notre Dame in 1920, but it wasn't until the next decade the Bouts assumed their chief goal - aiding Holy Cross Missions in India, focusing on what is now Bangladesh.

Alcantara said last year Bengal Bouts and its supporters raised around $130,000, and over 85 years have funneled more than a million dollars to the area. Last summer he went to Bangladesh for two months with some other boxers.

"It didn't feel like a service project. It really felt like I was going to visit family," Alcantara said. This year he was part of the panel that decides which boxers visit India.

Meanwhile, they'll try to avoid Alcantara's mean left hook. He's even earned a mystical nickname, "El Cadejo."

"I feel I'm quicker than a lot of guys out there, so I try to use that to my advantage," said Alcantara, who at 5-foot-6 can't use height as an edge.

"It kind of feels as if I have a target on my back. I'm confident with the work I've put in. I'm just going to go out there and have fun with it."

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