Ela Soccer Club's New Assistant Director Will Wear Several Hats

The Ela Soccer Club has announced the hiring of Richard Drake as their full-time assistant director of coaching, high school programs director and elite staff coach. Drake will oversee an organization that includes 1,200 participants.

Drake has been the assistant women’s soccer coach at Loyola University for the past six years. Before that, he served as an assistant coach at DePaul, Marshall, University of Minnesota and University of Cincinnati. Drake has a total of 14 years of experience as an assistant coach. In charge of player recruitment and team training during his tenure at these NCAA Division I programs, Drake saw his teams log six NCAA playoff berths.

Besides building the high school and elite level programs and assisting players with aspirations to play at a college level, Drake will also create a goalkeeper training program.

A native of Harvard, Illinois, Drake played high school and club soccer before playing at the college level at Aurora University. After graduation, he played professionally for the United Soccer League's Rockford Raptors.

In other Ela Soccer Club news, open tryouts for their competitive programs run from May 15 through June 7 and are open to all players between the ages of 7 and 17. All players are placed in a program according to their level of competition and training. Anyone planning on playing must register for tryouts at www.elasocer.com. Tryouts are held locally at Lake Zurich High School and the nearby Knigge Field. Players should attend a series of two tryouts and arrive 20 minutes prior to their tryout start with a ball, shin guards and water. Specific dates and locations are posted on the Ela Soccer website, or can be obtained by calling the Ela Soccer office at (847) 726-6909.

Lake Zurich Bears senior basketball players Mike Boyd and Tyler Every will continue to be teammates next winter. The two will be playing for North Central College in Naperville, and Bears coach Billy Pitcher believes that the 6-1 Boyd can walk onto the court in the upcoming season and immediately help the Cardinals, especially with his highly accurate perimeter shooting. While recently competing in the Illinois High School Association 3-point shootout, Boyd advanced to the sectional championship.

Every is recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that he suffered last season, but the 6-7 center is well on his way to a full recovery. Coach Pitcher believes that Every’s size and passion for the game will be a tremendous asset to the Cardinals' future fortunes.

In other basketball-related news, Colin Rathe, the Bears' starting point guard for the last two seasons, has committed to Illinois Wesleyan to play soccer.  Rathe has been one of the Bears’ top basketball players, as well as a team co-captain the past two seasons. He was also an all-state soccer selection last fall.

Congratulations to LZHS senior Eric Porter, who tied the school record in the high jump last Friday in the Lake County Invitational. Porter cleared 6-5, tying the 30-year-old mark set by Frank Burton in 1981. Porter currently owns the third-best jump in Lake County this spring, trailing Libertyville’s Jeremy Birck and Warren’s Isaac Jean-Paul. Porter’s jump allowed him to qualify for the state meet. His next challenge will be at the Palatine Sectional this Friday.

Lake Zurich won the Invitational for the second time in five years under coach Chad Beaver. Although Porter finished second to Birck (6-7), his eight points were enough to help put the Bears over the top. While Lake Zurich won just two events, they accrued enough points based on their strong showing in second, third and fourth place. The Bears finished with a total of 93 points, just beating Deerfield, who placed second with 91.5 points.

Senior Alex Brend, who has committed to Purdue in the fall, broke two Lake Zurich school records, in the 800 and the 1600. His winning time of 1:53.58 in the 800 was the best in the state this spring and broke Joe Kraft’s time of 1:55.8, set in 1983. Brend’s time of 4:18.9 in the 1600 broke his own record set just three weeks earlier. He finished second in that event, behind Barrington’s Erik Peterson (4:18.86).

Also, the 1600 relay team of Mike Rantis, Chris Rantis, Jacob Brinlee and Brend copped a clutch win in the 1600 relay with a season-best time of 3:23.04 in the final race of the meet. It was this victory that put the Bears over the top for the Invitational title.

Kudos to former Lake Zurich High School girls basketball star Lisa Foss. She is a member of the 2011 class that will be inducted into the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame. Foss played for the Bears from 1982-86 before moving on to Northern Illinois, where she played from 1986-91. She was NIU’s MVP three times, and set the men’s and women’s all-time scoring record with 2,500 career points. She was also the school’s first female to achieve a 20-points-per-game scoring average. Foss was also the 1991 North Star Conference player of the year. During her time at NIU, the All-American set or tied 13 individual records.

After graduating from NIU, Foss played professionally in Spain and Switzerland, and toured with Athletes in Action. It’s a head-scratcher as to why it took this premier b-ball player this long to get inducted.

Foss has been conducting camps and clinics for the last 19 years, and will soon be opening the Lisa Foss Sports Leadership Academy for Girls. More information about the Academy can be found at Girls@BlueChipSports.net.