Lukas Verzbicas is in some pretty good company.
As in Michael Jordan and Walter Payton.
The Palos Heights resident and former Sandburg track and cross country star joins those iconic names and more in a new hall of fame.
The Illinois Sports Hall of Fame will welcome hundreds of athletes and coaches for its first induction banquet June 13-14 at the Bank of Springfield Convention Center in Springfield.
There are a handful of people from the Southwest Regional Publishing area who will be inducted.
Tom Graves, another legendary Sandburg runner, joins other area luminaries that include Oak Lawn native and former Northwestern baseball coach Paul Stevens, former Richards and NBA star Dwyane Wade, former Mount Carmel football coach Frank Lenti, current Caravan football coach Jordan Lynch, former Caravan standout Simeon Rice, Evergreen Park native and NHL great Chris Chelios and former Mount Carmel wrestler Joe Williams.
Verzbicas retired from competitive running in 2016 as multiple injuries suffered in a 2012 biking accident in Colorado took its toll on his abilities to be an elite triathlon athlete.
However, the hall of fame is recognizing his amazing high-school career, which included winning the 2010 Class 3A state cross country championship, winning the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships twice, winning the Nike Cross Nationals Invitational and breaking the four-minute mile barrier.
Although his dream of being an Olympic triathlete was dashed, Verzbicas said he was glad that after the accident he was able to get the opportunity for a comeback.
“I feel very blessed to have a normal functioning body, even though I wasn’t able to come back to that same elite level,” he said. “Just to be able to compete again was a very great experience.”
Verzbicas is 32 and runs a consulting company. He said he wasn’t familiar with the new hall of fame, but is honored to be a part of it.
He recently ran for a seat on the District 230 board but lost. One of the things he wanted to accomplish as a board member was to get the ball rolling on an elite sports school in the area, such as IMG Academy in Florida.
It’s something he still wants to pursue.
“We don’t have anything like that in Chicago,” he said. “That’s something I would like to see if it can happen around here. We’re in an area with so many great athletes. It’s not only running, but we have great basketball and baseball … all of it.
“I talked to some of the athletes in the area and they agreed we need something like that. It’s just an idea. We’ll see.”
Still No. 2
Even though Marist’s boys volleyball team split a pair of matches with the nation’s No. 1 team, the RedHawks stayed No. 2 in the April 9 edition of the USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association rankings.
The RedHawks were swept in three sets by No. 1 Mira Costa in Manhattan Beach, California on April 3. But two days later they beat Mira Costa in five sets to win the Karch Kiraly Tournament of Champions.
Huntington Beach, whom the RedHawks beat in the tournament’s semifinals, was ranked third. Marist maintained its No. 1 ranking in the Midwest.
Lyons moved up to No. 15 in the nation and third in the Midwest.
Bobblehead Kendall
Not only is Sandburg graduate Kendall Coyne Coyne back on the ice for the USA, she was bestowed with another honor — a bobblehead.
The Rockford IceHogs gave away Schofield bobbleheads in late March as a part of a Women in Hockey Night promotion.
On the ice the 32-year-old is back with Team USA and playing in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships, which wrap up on April 20. She also is seeking to play in her fourth Olympics competition in 2026.
Sports bits
St. Laurence boys basketball coach Roshawn Russell was named Illinois Basketball Coaches Association District 8 Coach of the Year.
Former Mount Carmel star basketball player Tracy Abrams is back at the school as an assistant hoops coach.
In hi
s first 28 games with Trinity Christian’s baseball team, former Morton College and Morton High School standout Hector Mendoza was hitting .377 with 21 RBIs and stole seven bases.
Former Evergreen Park baseball star Alejandro Munoz was hitting .461 with 24 RBIs and 10 doubles in Moraine Valley’s first 30 games.
St. Xavier’s Payton Antkiewicz threw the 48th no-hitter in the softball program’s history as the Cougars beat Viterbo April 12 in a five-inning second game of a doubleheader in Chicago.