Raising the bar

Allie Yemm, in shorts and a T-shirt, looks like any other teenage girl. The Sterling senior, a member of the Golden Warriors swim team, is soft-spoken, courteous and completely at home in the weight room.

“I don’t know, just since the first time I was up here I’ve been comfortable here,” Yemm said. “In the pool, you’re completely isolated from everything else. Here you’re with everyone. It’s just a completely different environment.”

Yemm has the pedigree to be something special in the pool. Three of her siblings (Paul, Christina and Steve) starred at Sterling before swimming in college.

Allie wants to add her name to that list. She’s a three-time state qualifier with a strength in the breaststroke. She knows the state meet attracts the attention of coaches like the one from Nebraska who has shown interest. She also knows weight training will cut her times and bring the scholarship offers.

“It makes a huge difference by training up here,” Yemm said. “I’ve also been working out with my brother Steve [a sophomore at the University of Illinois-Chicago] and he’s put me through some of their training and it’s amazing how it works.”

Division I swimming is Yemm’s dream. Few programs around have produced as many D-I athletes as the Sterling swim program has over the past decade. Both the boys and girls use a training program provided by James Wike, who was a four-time state champion at Sterling and a part of the University of Auburn’s 2006 and 2007 national team champions.

The reminder that college is the goal is always there.

“I was lifting the other day and Maggie Wike [Sterling’s girls swimming coach and James’ mother] came up behind and started whispering D-I,” Yemm said. “That gets you going.”

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Division I athletes aren’t foreign to the halls of Dixon High School either. Just from the Class of 2009, Joe Roth will wrestle at Central Michigan, and Matt Logan will run cross country at DePaul.

The issue Dixon coaches face is bridging the workout gap between those committed to the next level and those not looking for success after high school.

“There are kids like Joe Roth and the cross country runners, who bought into the program set out for them by their coaches and it definitely paid off for them,” Dukes football coach Tony Agrimonti said. “What we’ve talked about is getting every sport online with a base program and then tweaking a little depending on sports.”

Agrimonti said 70 boys are signed up for the football program. Of those 70, he said 42 percent have lifted consistently three days a week over the summer.

“We have a lot of the younger kids up there,” Agrimonti said. “It’s some of the varsity kids that aren’t there. The kids that are up there are working hard, but I look at the percentage you have lifting as about the percentage of wins you’ll have that season. That puts us at 4-5 at best. The guys have to start realizing that.”

Agrimonti, the 1995 Class AA state shot put champion at Ottawa, knows the premium on offseason lifting has increased over the years. He uses a system designed by Joe Kenn, the director of athlete development at the University of Louisville.

“There so much more knowledge out there and the kids come in with a better idea of what they need to do,” Agrimonti said. “There are still some myths out there, but not many.”

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While college is on the mind of many athletes, others are just thinking about wins and losses when the season comes around.

George Canales will be a junior when school starts at Newman this fall. He is a football player and a wrestler.

“I’d love to do either sport in college, but that’s not really even on my mind right now,” Canales said. “I am just in here doing this because I know it’s going to help the team.”

Canales and Austin Sensenig, a football teammate, were two of last lifters left during Thursday evening’s session in the sparkling weight room in Newman’s new athletic facility.

The weight room opened last September after a group effort of athletes, parents and coaches put the finishing touches on it by piecing together the machines. It features free weights on one end and elliptical machines on the other. It also has air conditioning and four flat-screen TVs.

“The first time I walked in I was in awe,” Sensenig said. “It’s really a blessing to have this. It’s changed everything for us.”

Sensenig had gone as far as working with his own personal trainer before the new facilities opened.

“The old room was pretty small,” he said. “If you got too many people down there it was hard to get anything done. Here you can have the whole team here and be fine. It’s really made this more of a team atmosphere.”

Newman’s lifting program was designed by Matt Magnum, a Sterling firefighter and a certified strength conditioner at Northern Illinois University. Mike Smit, the fitness coordinator at the Sterling-Rock Falls YMCA and a new Comets football assistant, also has helped.

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In a few short weeks, the offseason will end. Summer conditioning will turn into preseason practice.

Then the games will begin and a lot of these bird nesting in local weight rooms will be out on the field.

That’s when it’ll be evident how high these birds might fly.