Long train coming: Workout warrior looks back on special prep career, ahead to next round of challenges
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The maroon Chevy Blazer is parked in the nearly empty lot behind Newman High School.
In the driver’s seat, Michele Salvatori adjusts her position and runs her hand through the thick mane of black hair that whips in the wind from her open window.
In the passenger seat, her fraternal twin sister, Megan, sits and waits, mostly looking forward or in the other direction.
Stationary is not a natural state for the Salvatori twins. Yet with all the nerves and excitement associated with the not-so-distant future, and all the recent memories colliding in the summer after their senior year, stopping is almost a welcome respite.
“I can’t believe how fast the summer is going,” Michele said. “I am not sure where June went.”
June was a blur of All-Star basketball games mixed with summer-league basketball in Iowa, ASA softball and a six-days-a-week training regimen to prepare her for Division I basketball at Western Illinois University.
All that’s left are the bruises. One on her wrist, one on her knee and another on her back, all from a weekend softball tournament where she played outfield for the QC Thunder.
June followed nine months of high school sports, starting with volleyball. Then came basketball, where Michele led the Comets to another Class 2A supersectional. Finally, softball, where she pitched Newman to its first Three Rivers Conference championship.
It all adds up to memories that last much longer than any bruise. It also adds up to SVN’s 2008-09 girls athlete of the year.
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In the rearview mirror, a litany of faces and places flicker and appear closer in the mind’s eye than they really are.
Home movies have been a must-watch this summer.
There’s one from a Christmas when the twins were 2, and Chris, their older brother, received a basketball as a present.
In the shaky, grainy show, Michele gravitates to the orange sphere. It probably was her first contact with the smooth surface of a basketball, but even with her tiny fingers and pudgy little arms, it seems to fit.
“It’s hilarious to watch,” Michele said. “I am trying to bounce it and dribble it off other presents. I even put it on my hip and look like a player already.”
Navigating forward, the sisters start playing basketball in third grade at St. Andrew Grade School in Rock Falls. Megan is moved up to the sixth grade A team. Michele is placed on the B team.
“She actually got moved up faster than I did,” Michele said. “She was just bigger and that’s why. I was a little runt.”
The twins are closest with each other, but also are each other’s biggest rivals.
When playing against each other, the polite, innocent demeanor goes out the window. Even to this day, the games get beyond personal.
“I scream all the time when we play each other,” Michele said. “She’s always fouling me. Every time I shoot, she pushes me. Then I scream and we argue about it.”
Megan fakes a wince in the passenger seat.
“No, I don’t,” Megan said and then looks away. Michele smiles at her.
“She does foul and she knows it,” Michele said.
Their parents know the drill. Deb and Joe Salvatori have had roles on pretty much every team the two have played on since grade school.
“We’re just a little different than other parents,” Joe said. “Everyone else drops their kids off and picks them up for practice. We stayed ever since T-ball. It’s going to be really different not having all the games to go to. I’ve really thought about getting back into coaching, but Deb doesn’t think I should.”
The rest is history chronicled in newspaper clippings and the scorebooks kept in the stands or on the bench by Deb or Joe.
Michele and Megan started on the varsity softball team right away as freshmen. Michele was the pitcher, and Megan was close to her left side at first base.
“I actually wanted to play shortstop during high school, but we needed a pitcher,” Michele said. “That would have been fun.”
Michele pitched every Newman softball game the last four years except two. Megan pitched those two and came in as a reliever once.
They also were brought up for the postseason in basketball their freshman year, with Michele taking a prominent role in injured star Jocelyn Mellen’s number 22.
As sophomores, they played varsity in three sports. They weren’t the only talented sophomore girls at Newman, as classmates like Amanda Trancoso, Katie Kipping and Mary Sue LeMay started making waves at the varsity levels in cross country and track, tennis and diving.
“This is such a talented class of girls,” Michele said. “It made it easier having those kind of girls around to practice against and train with.”
Trancoso and Kipping joined the Salvatoris on the basketball team that took some lumps two years ago.
Newman battled and lost to power programs from Morrison, Prophetstown, Rock Falls and Sterling, among others. The Comets finished 16-12 and 5-5 in conference.
“We knew we were going to lose games then,” Michele said. “We just had to realize that if we kept it close with those teams that we’d get better.”
The next two years Newman went 53-6 overall and 28-0 in conference, and advanced to the supersectional both years, where they lost each time to West Hancock.
Michele averaged 13 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.3 steals a game her senior season and was named SVN’s girls basketball player of the year.
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On this drive, Michele can only look back for so long. The road ahead is calling.
On August 22, she’ll move into Thompson Hall in Macomb. She will have a single room on the ninth floor. Megan will be in a single one floor above.
“I can’t wait for it to come,” Michele said. “We’ve already started buying things for the rooms and we’ve already set up our classes. It’s going to be different, but it’s going to be good.”
The preparation on the court has changed. She works out, usually with Megan, who is going to try out for the softball team.
WIU coach Leslie Crane has provided Michele with a workout plan. Two or three days a week, she runs 2 1/2 or 3 miles. Another day she does a series of sprints. Every day, Michele lifts weights and shoots 500-plus jumpers.
“It’s really different from high school,” Michele said. “I mean, during the season and the summer league, it’s not much different. But during softball or volleyball, I’d just focus on those sports.”
Joe and Deb plan to make it to as many home games as possible.
“Everyone keeps asking about having an empty nest,” Deb said. “That’s made us think about it more. We’re going to go down as much as we can. They play most of their conference games on Saturday and Monday. We’ll be there.
“Once we get a full schedule, we’ll hopefully find other games that are close.”
Michele’s going to study kinesiology to combine her interest in sports with a lasting career.
As a young girl, she dreamed of becoming an architect. When her math progression began to slow sometime before junior high, she realized that maybe designing buildings wasn’t in her future.
Instead, she set out to build a legacy in athletics. She did that at Newman.
Now she can turn west and start again.
Salvatori file
Hometown: Rock Falls
High school: Newman
College: Western Illinois
Family: Parents Joe & Deb; twin sister Megan; older brother Chris
Sports: Basketball (SVN player of year), softball (1st-team all-area), volleyball (2nd-team all-area)
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