Overview

Our first full practice will be a parent meeting. There, we will go over our practice schedule, planned meets, what’s expected of the athletes, parents, and what you can expect from the coaches and team.

Our summer schedule will consist of 2 AAU meets District meet and Regional meet. There are also pick up meets that you might want to attend. TBD We are adding a few throwers only meets to our schedule this summer. location and dates will be announced at practice.

National meet will be held at Drake University, Iowa and thus we will provide an estimated cost per athlete shortly. Cost will include Hotel, Transportation, and Entry Fees.

We do realize the excessive cost of this meet and we are doing our best to help our families with the expenses, by offering fundraising opportunities. Parents please take advantage of this, for this is for you and your athlete. This also helps us keep the registration price low.

All fees raised go toward the advancement of the team. The fees include AAU Cards, Entry Fees, Uniforms, and Shoes, Transportation, Hotel Accommodations, Banquet, Awards, and Administration Cost. There may be additional cost if we do not raise enough money during our fundraising events. All athletes benefit from the team’s effort of the money raised. Those athletes/families that go beyond the required or suggested amount in our fundraising will be rewarded for their efforts at the banquet. We truly appreciate the participation, for our model is “Each One, Teach One”.

History

this article is from the tribune news paper from September 27, 1989

FOUNDER TURNS THEATER GROUP INTO TOP TRACK TEAM

Kathy JohnsCHICAGO TRIBUNE

When Wilbert Walters helped found the Aurora Sundowners youth theater group 21 years ago, he had no idea that it would produce accomplished athletes.

Athletics wasn`t the original purpose of the Sundowners. But shortly after Walters helped start the group in 1968, it became a youth track and field program for hundreds of young people from Aurora and nearby communities. Sundowners was founded by Walters and an Aurora couple who wanted to share their love of theater with area youth and ''keep teenagers out of trouble'' during the summer, Walters says. The handful of teenagers who joined the group performed for two seasons at local schools and nursing homes. But after its second season, youth interest in the theater group faded, and Walters decided to offer something to draw more participants.

''I was a state champion in track and field in high school in Louisiana and went to college on a football and track scholarship,'' Walters says. He switched the group to track from theater because ''track is very inexpensive, and it was one that I was familiar with,'' he says. Walters has been head coach of the varsity girls` track team at West Chicago Community High School for four years.

The group, which has evolved into a predominantly girls track and field team in recent years, has 45 members age 9 to 18, Walters says. ''We gradually got to be (mostly) girls because the girls just didn`t have the same kinds of sports available to them'' in the schools, he says.

The city of Aurora became one of the Aurora Sundowners` financial sponsors three years ago, Walters says. The Fox Valley Park District has been helping the group financially for 8 to 10 years, he says.

Walters worked as a health and physical education teacher and later as assistant principal and administrative assistant to the superintendent at the Illinois Youth Center, a correctional facility in St. Charles. He wanted to work as a coach. ''With all the energy . . . that I had, I thought, `I can do this,` '' he says.

Eight teenagers-four boys and four girls-were the charter members of the team, Walters says. Within a few years, the program blossomed into a team of 50 boys and girls, about 75 percent of whom were girls, ''from all parts of the area,'' he says. Students from diverse backgrounds ''became a group of one,'' Walters says.

With the Sundowners, ''there is fair play and equality-everybody gets a chance,'' Walters says. ''The emphasis is not necessarily on winning. It`s on learning how to participate, learning how to lose and accepting winning with humility.''

Walters and his wife, Celeste, have lived in Aurora for about 30 years. His job at West Chicago High School and more than 20 years at the Illinois Youth Center have given him more than 30 years` experience in education.

Three of the Walterses` five grown children have been participants with Sundowners.

Walters and his three assistant coaches try to strengthen students`

athletic prowess and encourage their scholastic ability, he says. ''We promote education in our program'' by continually telling the team members to study hard and stay in school. ''If anyone is going to be successful in life, he must have an education,'' he says. ''Track and field is just a sport.''

Walters` philosophy hit home with one Sundowner who wrote Walters a letter last year that reads: ''Thanks for teaching me how to run, talk to people and helping me develop a better personality. That`s being a friend as well as a coach because not all coaches are like that. The only thing they work on is your running, not the other important things.''

The team practices 6 to 10 hours a week at East Aurora High School in its summer season-June, July and the beginning of August-and wherever it can find a fieldhouse or gymnasium with space available in its winter season-January, February and March. The team competes in the Athletic Congress Competition, run by a national organization. Most of the meets are in Illinois.

Much of the group`s traveling costs are met with donations from the City of Aurora and the Fox Valley Park District, Walters says. Participants also pay an annual $20 fee.

The Sundowners is one of many programs that the city`s Sports and Youth Activities Department, helps sponsor, says Fred Rodgers, 37, department director.

It sponsors an annual ''Just Say No to Drugs'' program in May that reaches about 25,000 students in kindergarten through 8th grade in Aurora`s public and parochial schools, he says. Students create antidrug slogans, posters and rap songs to enforce the ''Just Say No'' theme.

The school curriculum during the week-long program also emphasizes that message, in class discussions, essays and worksheets.

Another program is called The Organization Developing Aurora`s Youth, commonly called T.O.D.A.Y. Rodgers says he started this leadership program shortly after he became director four years ago ''to get more youth involved in the community.''

The group sponsors activities such as teen dances, food and toy drives for needy residents and workshops on ''Say No to Drugs and Gangs'' and

''Parents Too Soon.''

Members must set a positive example for their peers, he says. ''They must believe in abstaining from alcohol, drugs and gangs,'' practice their beliefs and persistently encourage other teenagers to do the same, Rodgers says.

About 80 public and parochial school students in 7th through 12th grades are in the program.

The city also offers a gang prevention and peer program at Nancy Hill School to help build self-esteem in 1st through 3d graders, Walters says. Children attend classes at the school for 10 weeks in the summer to get academic help, encouragement in reading skills or simply something positive to do during the summer, Walters says.

Gang prevention has ''to start at the lower grades,'' he says. It`s a lot easier, he adds, to keep kids out of gangs than get them out of gangs after they`ve joined.

The program, which is offered independently from the Aurora public school system, also benefits older children, Rodgers says. About 20 preteens and teenagers worked as teachers` helpers to the 53 elementary schoolchildren in the program this summer. This provided the teens with paid summer jobs and the younger children with role models, he says.

The department also helps sponsor another summer school program for students ages 12 through 16 at Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove. Rodgers says he started the program two years ago for students who needed academic help but who also wanted a summer job and were not eligible for the county job placement program.

The students are paid for attending the summer program and must complete a community service project, such as collecting money for a charity.

The Sports and Youth Activities Department staff of two full-time employees besides Rodgers spend a lot of time ''one on one with kids,''

Rodgers says.

He tries to reach out to kids with ''family problems, school problems, just problems coping-period,'' Rodgers says. ''Basically the message is: There is a better way-we are here to help.''