Lady's Jahbat Soccer Club Undefeated in First Season

By Paul Harris-Hertel

2006 Lady's Jahbat Soccer Team.

The Evanston-based Lady's Jahbat soccer club, made up of former Evanston Township High School and New Trier stars, has rolled through its first summer in the Illinois Women's Soccer League (IWSL) with an 11-0-1 record. The team has played so well that founder and coach J.J. Gregoire has thought of making the team semipro.

"Most of our players play for top Division I college programs, so we're very strong," said Gregoire. "We would be able to face tougher competition from all over the Midwest if [we turned semipro instead of staying in the IWSL]."

Gregoire added that to make the switch to semipro, his team would need its own home field to host teams from out of state. Currently, Lady's Jahbat plays some of its games at James Park in Evanston. Gregoire said he would like for home games to be at a soccer facility, mentioning Loyola University as one possibility.

However, he added that he would prefer the Northwestern or the ETHS field as a home, because it would be closer to the North Shore residences of his players.

Another obstacle in the team's quest to turn semipro is money. Playing teams from other areas would mean a good deal of travel.

Gregoire said, "If any business would like to support us, we would be interested in sponsorship."

In its inaugural season, the only game Lady's Jahbat did not win was a 1-1 tie against Barrington U-23. In that game they were shorthanded, fielding only nine players.

The success of the women's team comes five years after the Men's Jahbat soccer club started. Gregoire's son started the men's team after the Evanston International Soccer Team (EIST), founded by Gregoire himself, folded.

The name Jahbat is an acronym for Jamaican, American, Haitian, Belizean, African, and Trinidadian, the nationalities that were represented on the EIST.

After the establishment of the men's team, the creation of a women's team was a natural move for Gregoire, who has been coaching soccer since 1967.

"I felt like kids [needed] somebody to help them develop, so I went into coaching," said Gregoire, explaining why he ended his playing career after a semipro stint as a teenager in Haiti and several years playing with traveling teams based in Chicago once he came to the United States.

Besides coaching at the club level, Gregoire was a head coach at Niles Seminary College (now St. Joseph's) in Chicago, as well as at Northwestern for one year. But for now, he is content with staying at the club level and building Lady's Jahbat into a bigger and more competitive team.

" [Our team] needs support to take our kids to other places," explained Gregoire.

"Soccer is developing rapidly throughout the country, and we need to go to other places to play tougher competition."

Evanston Athletic Spotlight: Heidi Toft

By Paul Harris-Hertel

After swimming for four years at Evanston Township High School and winning a State championship in the 50-yard freestyle her senior year, Heidi Toft went off to Arizona State. It was in Arizona where the coaching bug bit her, and before long, she found herself back in her hometown.

"I coached a club team for a year in Arizona while I was still in college," said Toft. "I came home in the summer of 1996 and took over as coach of the [Wildkit Swimming Organization] club team right away."

That fall, she also became an assistant coach for the ETHS girls swim team. She still holds these two jobs.

"Both of those jobs fell in my lap right away. It was pretty nice," she said with a laugh.

In her current role as assistant girls swim coach, Toft works with one of her coaches from her high school days, Chuck Fargo, who is still an assistant with the girls and boys swimming teams. She stated that Fargo and former head swimming coach Tim Richardson were instrumental in her success at the high school level, and credited them with helping her get recruited to Arizona State.

"When I was in high school, I wasn't really into training," Toft admitted. "I really enjoyed competing, though. [My coaches] helped fuel my competitive fire, and that's what prepared me for college."

That competitive fire helped Toft set a school record that still stands in the 50 freestyle, her main event, in 1990. That school record time of 23.78 seconds was also good enough to win the State title that year. She added a third-place finish in the 100 freestyle and anchored a second-place relay team in the 200 freestyle relay at the State championship meet that same year.

In college, Toft swam the 50, 100, and 200-yard freestyle individual events. In addition, she was an All-American in three relay events in 1992. One of the more notable moments in her collegiate career came when she faced off against Jenny Thompson of Stanford in the 100 freestyle. Thompson went on to win 12 Olympic medals, including eight gold medals.

"It was interesting facing an Olympian. I tried to stay with her, but that didn't last long," Toft recalled.

These days Toft doesn't do much competing in the pool, although she trains with the Illinois Masters adult swim club, which she also coaches. Her only competitive swimming comes during the Masters state and national meets, or the "big races," as she calls them.

But coaching takes up most of her time, and she particularly enjoys the unique experience of coaching at her alma mater.

"I think one of the best things about growing up in Evanston and then coming back is the diversity," Toft said. "I didn't see that when I was in Arizona."

"Swimming isn't a very diverse sport," she added, "but ETHS is very diverse in terms of racial and socioeconomic background. Being able to be competitive with a team that's not like every other one is nice."

Evanston Swimmers Compete at U.S. Sectionals

By Paul Harris-Hertel

From July 20 to 23, 11 Evanston Township High School swimmers racing for the Wildkit Swim Organization (WSO) club team competed in the U.S.A. Swimming Speedo Championship Series sectional meet at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

That series preceded the national meet in Irvine, Cal. The sectional was an open meet, which means that there were no age restrictions, and as a result, many college swimmers entered the races. Although none of the WSO swimmers qualified for nationals at the meet, Coach Kevin Auger was pleased with their performance.

"Of the nine girls and two boys who swam, [2006 ETHS graduate] Amy Reams was the only one who wasn't a sophomore," said Auger. "Just for them to swim against this level of competition in their sophomore year is great."

There were two individuals who performed well enough in the prelims of their respective events to make the sectional finals. Becca Thompson finished 22nd in the finals of the 100-meter backstroke and 21st in the 200-meter backstroke finals. Sophie Borchers added a 24th-place finish in the finals of the 100-meter butterfly.

Others who did well at the meet included former ETHS swimming star Terry Silkaitis, who helped lead the Wildkit boys swimming team to a State championship in 2001. He won the 100 freestyle finals in 51.24 seconds, an Olympic qualifying time. At this meet last year, he swam two seconds faster in the same event.

Silkaitis recently graduated from the University of Minnesota and is now coaching for the Evanston-based Flying Fish Swim Club. His former coach said the swimmer's primary motivation in traveling to Minneapolis was not to win races.

"Terry mainly wanted to bring kids [from the Flying Fish] along with him who wouldn't normally participate in this kind of competition, not necessarily to compete for himself," explained Auger.

As for the WSO and current ETHS swimmers, Auger said he believes the experience will help everyone who swam in the sectionals prepare for events down the line.

"There's time in the future for the swimmers to get to nationals, both individually and as a relay team," the coach said. "I was very happy with their performance here."

The Evanston Arts camp held it's final performance of dance, drama, and music on Aug. 3. Their art was also on display in an informal gallery.

After two weeks of learning about Hawaii, kids at Evanston Ecology Center's Kinglet camp were taught how to hula dance by The Barefoot Hawaiian Inc. of Des Plaines.
Photos by Susan Lacy-Ryan