Sunday Slam: Hersey's Pardun, Meek Form Bond Through Painful Disorder
Big Football Performances for Palatine's Ball, BG's Palano and Wauconda's Vanselow; Ex-Wheeling coach Wool Part of Evanston Hall of Fame Basketball Team
Joe Pardun and Ben Meek share a commonly uncommon and painful bond.
Pardun, a 1995 Fremd graduate, has continued a family tradition of teaching and coaching at Hersey for nearly 25 years. About 2½ years ago Pardun met Meek, who is now a freshman at Hersey.
Meek started helping the football and baseball teams Pardun coaches when he was in middle school. They also assist each other by talking about the painful neurofibromatosis (NF) they suffer from and the Chicago area’s big Shine a Light NF Walk coming up on Saturday, Sept. 30 at Deer Grove East in Palatine.
“I say to Ben all the time, in a way it makes you appreciate everything, coaching football and doing active things,” Pardun said. “You do appreciate it more when you are up and about. (Football) Friday nights you appreciate a little more. He’s incredible. The kid never complains.”
Meek started helping Pardun on the football sideline during the Spring 2021 COVID season that would be the last of his highly successful eight-year run as head coach (50-27). Pardun has remained on the staff since Tom Nelson took over and is also an underlevel baseball coach for Wally Brownley.
Meek is the ball boy during football games and helps daily at practices by working the scoreboard and helping with drills. In baseball, Meek helps Pardun as a manager and scorekeeper.
“He loves being in the dugout and loves helping with football so it’s pretty cool,” Pardun said. “All those guys (since 2021) who have grown up now know Ben. When he’s with us on the sideline, he gets yelled at by the coaches when he’s not fast with the ball. He loves it because he’s one of them. His mom (Kristin) is awesome and she likes him being independent.”
Pardun was an all-Mid-Suburban League tight end and defensive end for Fremd’s Mike Donatucci in 1994. But that honor came with levels of pain that not only kept him from playing in college but got progressively worse in his first two years as a student at Eastern Illinois.
“In high school a doctor told me I have nerve damage from football,’ Pardun said. “I had all this pain my senior year and could have nerve damage from tackling. The doctor said it probably wasn’t a good idea to play in college.
“My freshman and sophomore year of college it was getting worse. I was a 20-year-old in tears and knew something was wrong with me. My dad (Phil) said there was a history. I had two big tumors on my spine and came in for surgery that Monday. You’re so relieved when you don’t know what’s wrong with you at that age and then the pain is gone.”
Pardun has schawannomatosis, a type of NF that is a rare genetic disorder that causes multiple tumors to form (schwanomas), according to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website. The schwanomas grow on coverings of the peripheral nerves throughout the body and can cause debilitating pain and neurological dysfunction. It affects 1 in 40,000 people and the tumors are typically not life threatening.
Pardun said he’s had more than 10 surgeries for tumors, mostly on his spine, since the NF was first discovered when he was in college. He’ll go to the famed Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to monitor for more tumors. Joe said his dad Phil, a longtime teacher and swimming coach at Rolling Meadows, had a couple of tumors as a teenager but none after. Joe’s brother also had a couple of tumors.
“The pain is very manageable with good doctors,” Pardun said. “With a condition like NF there’s no cure and no rhyme or reason to it. It doesn’t bother me unless it becomes painful.
“Now that I get regular scans I’ll know when something is wrong and starting to grow. One that I had a couple of years ago was the worst I’ve had since I was a teenager. When you sneeze it feels like someone stuck you with a prod. It’s kind of scary. Typically they take them out and the pain is gone.”
This will be the third year Pardun has participated in the walk that runs from 9 a.m.-noon on Sept. 30. The Hersey football team has helped with the early-morning setup and will be there again this year. During the last two years the “Mighty Meeks” and “Coach’s Crew” have raised more than $50,000 to support the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
And the hope is it will help make the bond between Joe Pardun and Ben Meek one that isn’t so painful.
Thursday Nights a Big Rush for Palatine
If Palatine has a mid-September Thursday night football game nearly 30 years from now it might be a good idea for the school’s record-keepers to be prepared.
On Thursday night, the Pirates’ Dominik Ball set the program record when he rushed for 290 yards in a 49-20 victory over Evanston. It was almost 27 years to the day when Bubba Mariani set the record with 282 yards on 18 carries in a 46-12 win over Schaumburg that was also played on a Thursday night. Mariani broke a 28-year-old school record when he surpassed the 255 yards by Tom Patch in 1968 against Elk Grove.
The Tulane-bound Ball had more than 200 yards at halftime, according to the Daily Herald’s Dick Quagliano. Mariani, who is now in his first year as a head coach at Boulder City (Nevada), had 197 at halftime in his record-setting performance. Mariani was the Daily Herald’s 1996 All-Area team captain as Palatine went 12-1 and reached the Class 6A semifinals in Joe Petricca’s final season as head coach.
Palano Breaks Bison TD Record Logjam
Defense is taking Buffalo Grove linebacker Anthony Palano to the country’s top Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) program in South Dakota State. Offense vaulted Palano to the top of the school’s record books for touchdows in a game.
When Palano rushed for 6 touchdowns in a 62-14 win over Vernon Hills in Week 3 it broke a four-way tie for the school record shared by Ben Orcutt (1975), Jimmy Trieb (2016), Tom Trieb (2018) and Michael Cervantes (2022), according to head coach Jeff Vlk.
Orcutt, a three-time all-MSL pick from 1974-76, initially set the record of 5 TDs in a game when he rushed for 222 yards against Wheaton, and fittingly at Red Grange Field, named after one of the most legendary running backs in football history. Jimmy Trieb tied it in 2016 against Elk Grove with 2 rushing, 2 receiving and one on a blocked punt.
Trieb’s brother Tom equaled it with 5 rushing TDs in the 2018 opener against Downers Grove North. Cervantes also used multiple ways to get five last year against Rolling Meadows with 2 rushing, 2 receiving and one on an interception.
Palano verbally committed this summer to South Dakota State, which won last year’s FCS title, is ranked No. 1 and improved to 3-0 after dismantling Drake 70-7 Saturday. Former Palatine and South Dakota State star Jesse Bobbit is in his first year as the Jackrabbits’ defensive coordinator and coached the safeties last year.
Wauconda’s Moving Vanselow
Wauconda needed all of senior Connor Vanselow’s 294 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns of 3, 83 and 26 yards Thursday night to improve to 3-1 with a 27-24 Northern Lake County Conference comeback victory over Grant.
Vanselow, who rushed for 1,071 yards and 15 TDs as a junior, also had 100-yard games in wins over Hinsdale South and Round Lake. His college recruiting interest includes offers from Valparaiso (non-scholarship Division I) and St. Francis in Joliet (NAIA).
Vanselow and the Bulldogs have big NLCC tests the next two weeks at home against Grayslake Central, which has won two in a row, and undefeated Antioch. Central is in its first year under Brent Pearlman, who coached Prospect to three state titles, also was a head coach at Wheeling and a standout linebacker at Buffalo Grove. Antioch has become a perennial Lake County power under former Conant standout Brian Glashagel.
Vanselow also has an MSL connection. His dad Kurt had 8 interceptions as the starting free safety for Hersey’s 1987 Class 6A state championship team and had one in the title game victory over perennial powerhouse East St. Louis Senior.
Wool and the “Kardiac Kits” Enter Evanston’s Hall of Fame
Lou Wool was a familiar face to MSL basketball fans during his 10-year head coaching tenure at Wheeling (2000-10). His 2004 team made the school’s only MSL title game appearance, where it lost to Elite Eight bound Hoffman Estates, behind Daily Herald All-Area picks Dan Rukavina and Alex Washington and all-MSL pick Alex Yekelchik.
Wool also became familiar to MSL hoop followers in 1984 as one of the co-captains of an Evanston team that featured future Purdue star and NBA player Everette Stephens. The Wildkits were 32-0 with a series of harrowing postseason finishes before losing the Class AA title game 53-47 to Simeon with Ben Wilson, who was tragically murdered just before the following season, and Tim Bankston. They edged Benton in overtime and St. Joseph by 2 points in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively.
Wool and the 1983-84 Wildkits were part of the Evanston Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2023. They were recognized at halftime of the football home opener and a Hall of Fame luncheon and were also honored during a basketball game last season.
The Wildkits’ run to Elite Eight in Champaign included three MSL teams. In the supersectional before a sellout of 8,117 at Northwestern’s Welsh-Ryan Arena, they edged Buffalo Grove 71-67 although the Bison had the top two scorers in Paul Petersen (26 points) and Brian Coderre (21). Stephens had 15 and Wool 11.
In the sectional final, Evanston faced a Hersey team led by first-year coach Don Rowley that got rolling late in the season after star point guard Brian Gregory, who led a 1985 Elite Eight trip, returned from a leg injury. The Wildkits held on 83-75 was Stephens had 23 and Wool scored 18. And they needed Stephens’ 22-footer with three seconds left to cap a 76-74 comeback win in the sectional semifinal over MSL champion Prospect and future NFL quarterback Jeff Francis.
Wool’s niece, Leighah-Amori Wool, was also part of the Evanston Hall of Fame Class of 2023 as a four-year starter in basketball and first female to surpass 1,000 career points. She played at Western Michigan and Stony Brook.
Copeland Taking NIU to Face National Champs
Ryan Copeland isn’t taking the easy road into his first season on the job as Northern Illinois’ head baseball coach. The former Elk Grove star has a trip to play Louisiana State University, which just won its seventh NCAA title, for a pair of games on Feb. 22 and 24.
Copeland took over the NIU job in June after four seasons as head coach and eight overall in building Illinois Springfield into a Division II power.
Braves Clinching a Celebrations for Two MSL Products
Buffalo Grove grad Jeff Pink helped make sure all Atlanta Braves players and coaches, including Hoffman Estates grad Sal Fasano, had NL Eastern Division championship hats and shirts to celebrate their clinching the title last week in Philadelphia.
Pink, the Manager of Clubhouse Operations for the Braves, was in the middle of the on-field celebration and distributing the title swag. Fasano, who had an 11-year big-league career as a catcher with nine teams, has been the Braves catching coach since 2018.
Braves manager Brian Snitker is also a big Illinois success story from Macon in the central part of the state. Snitker played for a Macon team that finished second in the one-class state tournament in 1971 and had its remarkable run chronicled in Chris Ballard’s excellent book, “One Shot at Forever.”
Hoffman Grad Pegler Wins Broadcasting Award
Kurt Pegler, who graduated from Hoffman Estates in 1983, has been a fixture on the Peoria sports scene since he joined WMBD-TV in 1987 as an intern out of Illinois State University. Pegler was hired full-time in 1990 and is now sports director at the station.
Pegler was recently honored by the Illinois News Broadcasters Association with the 2023 Crystal Mic Award. He received it in the best sports report for small market television coverage for his story on the Washington High School football team’s “Mom’s Night.”
Pegler has also won the Illinois Broadcasters Association’s best downstate sportscast award three times. He has done play-by-play on Missouri Valley Conference men’s and women’s basketball and for the IHSA state tournament.
Wolf Prowls Over to St. Viator Basketball
Gary Wolf may be new to St. Viator’s boys basketball program but he brings a wealth of experience to head coach Mike O’Keeffe. Wolf was an assistant for 17 years at Leyden for the legendary Norm Goodman and Bruce Buhrandt and was also an assistant at Hinsdale South.
Wolf is a member of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame as he went 451-346 in 23 seasons as head coach at Leyden. He was also an assistant football coach at the school. Thanks to longtime Herald and prep sportswriter Greg Swiderski for the heads up.
Noda Says Nada to No-No
The Houston Astros were two outs from a combined no-hitter when Oakland A’s rookie and Grant product Ryan Noda came to the plate earlier this week. The lefty-hitting Noda said said it was a relief to drill a clean single to center field off Ryan Pressly, the fourth reliever of the game after starter Hunter Brown went 5 innings.
Noda also hit his 15th homer earlier in a series where the A’s took 2 of 3 from the defending World Series champion Astros. He has a slash line of .238/.376/.429 with 21 doubles and 52 RBI in 114 games.
“It says we are progressing,” Noda said in an Associated Press story after he broke up the no-hit bid. “It says we keep battling for each other. We keep coming every day wanting to win and expecting to win.”