Athletic Achievers

Losses have been few and far between on the wrestling mat for Elmwood Park High School’s Mike DiFrisco the past three years. He’s compiled an 88-15 record since his sophomore year, and finished his prep career this past February by making his third straight appearance at the state individual meet in Champaign. The senior, who’ll graduate in June, posted a 34-4 record during the 2011-12 season at 126 pounds and placed among the top eight in his weight class. Take into consideration that DiFrisco had never wrestled prior to entering high school, and it makes his climb up the ladder …

Those who’ve played organized hockey in Chicagoland over the years have undoubtedly had Bud Monaco officiate one of their games. If not more than one. Monaco’s been a referee for the past 40 years. He’s officiated games at every level imaginable — from the mites leagues (7- to 8-year-olds) to the AAA midget level elite league (under 18s), as well as Chicago area high school hockey leagues and even a league called the Continental Hockey League, which was popular in the 1970s and into the 1980s and made up of former semipro players, some of whom were onetime NHL prospects. …

Mary DeBartolo began ice skating when she was 4 with her brother, Joey, at the Southwest Ice Arena in Crestwood. But learning how to figure skate, like other girls her age, wasn’t Mary’s cup of tea. Her oldest brother, Anthony, played hockey at Southwest. And Mary wanted to do the same. Today, she’s a forward on the women’s team at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, an NCAA Division III school of around 6,000 students located in Winona, southeast of Minneapolis. The sophomore tied for third on the team in scoring during her freshman season last year, netting five goals and …

In Italian, lavoro means work. Add the letters “at” between the last two letters of lavoro, and you have Lavorato. And there arguably isn’t a harder-working boys high school basketball coach in the Chicago area — perhaps in the state — than Maine South’s Tony Lavorato Jr. He also may be the Chicago area’s high school coaching equivalent of Tom Thibodeau, the highly successful Chicago Bulls’ head coach, because Lavorato, like Thibodeau, leaves no stone unturned to help his team notch a victory, gets the most out of the players available to him, and is a stickler for playing within …

Indiana University, better known for its five-time national championship men’s basketball team, is trying to turn the corner with regard to its football program. Over the next few years, offensive lineman Dan Feeney likely will figure heavily into head coach Kevin Wilson’s plans to make the Hoosiers just as renowned on the gridiron as they are on the hardwood. Feeney — the son of Anthony and Kim (Adelizzi) Feeney, and grandson of Gloria Alitto Majewski, a former longtime member of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago’s Board of Commissioners — is in his freshman year this fall at Indiana. …

The old idiom, “Like father, like son,” certainly applies to longtime former high school basketball coach Tony Lavorato, Sr., and his two sons: Tony Jr. and Tim. Lavorato Sr., who coached a combined 29 seasons at two Illinois high schools — Hinsdale South and downstate Princeton — and was later inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, has watched his sons become successful prep hoops coaches themselves. Tony Jr., featured recently in Fra Noi, completed his 10th year at Maine South in Park Ridge last March. He’s guided the Hawks to regional championships each of the past …

The “student” portion of student-athlete often is glanced over, with the emphasis being placed on “athlete.” But that’s not the case with red-shirt junior midfielder/defender Mike Mascitti of Northern Illinois University. Being a student is front and center — It has to be. “The reason I’m here is to do well in school,” says Mascitti, a Downers Grove native who starred at Downers South High School. “I always have school No. 1 on my mind each day. If it were soccer first and academics second, soccer would get in the way and I wouldn’t do well in the classroom.” The …

Taking her game to the next level seems to come naturally for Shannon Caliri. Caliri, a right-handed batter, became a left-handed slap hitter around the age of 12 with the help of her coaches on the Wasco Diamonds’ travel team (based in Elburn) in order to fully utilize her speed. (Slap hitters are good at aiming the ball to a specific spot in the field where an opponents’ defense is weakest.) Caliri spent most of last spring pitching for St. Charles North High School’s junior varsity team, where she compiled a 14-2 record. But towards the end of the 2011 …

Last season, he was an honorable mention all-state defensive end for Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville who could be counted on to make big plays for the Warriors — be it a quarterback sack, throwing an opposing ball carrier for a loss in the backfield, or making a key tackle. Fast-forward to 2012, and the three-year prep starter has been assigned to the scout team at Northern Illinois University. Ippolito, Neuqua Valley’s all-time leader in sacks, won’t see any playing time for the Huskies because he’s been red-shirted — meaning the NIU coaching staff decided prior to the start …

EDITOR’S NOTE: Quinn’s accomplishments were brought to Fra Noi’s attention by his uncle, DuPage County businessman Jerry Marchese. We misidentified Jerry as Quinn’s grandfather in the magazine teaser, and we’d like to apologize for that error. Jerry informs us that his grandsons, Matteo and Danato DiMarco, are also standout athletes. We’ll be profiling them, as well as Quinn’s brother, Hayden, in future issues. The triple-option offense isn’t the prototypical football offense where a team runs a specific play that’s decided in the huddle. Plenty of responsibility falls on the shoulders of the quarterback, who must be able to read defenses …