David Vales was around in 1992, the first year the IHSA sanctioned boys volleyball.
He was a student at Richards but didn’t play the sport. He was a football and basketball player who had been fighting cancer, but was in the stands when the Bulldogs won their historic state championship at Niles West.
“We were like, ‘What’s boys volleyball?’’’ Vales said. “But the team was going to state, and we went. It was an eye-opening experience and I knew it was going to start taking off from there.”
The 50-year-old Vales is making a little history of his own in both boys and girls volleyball.
He is in his 25th year of teaching and coaching at Sandburg and a couple of milestones are within reach.
If the Eagles (16-21 last year) win 15 matches this season, he will have won 900 for his career. The next victory will give him No. 500 as a girls coach.
But the most important number is 2. That’s how many times he has survived cancer. The first came when he had Hodgkin’s disease when he was 15.
He beat that, but in 2023, he had to battle non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and again came out on top as his last treatment was in Jan. 2024. However, he still receives scans every month to make sure the cancer is staying away.
Vales said he stays positive. He has his motto of “it’s day one,” which he came up with before he was diagnosed a second time. He also went through some life changes including shaving his head long before the cancer hit.
“It’s been my motto probably since before COVID,” he said of ‘It’s day one.’ “It’s one day at a time. That’s how I always take life. If I had a bad day today, that’s all right. Tomorrow is another day. It’s day one.”
The Eagles had a streak of 19 straight regional championships snapped last year but Vales has high hopes for 2025.
“We lost a lot of players from the 2023 team and we went young,” he said. “We had a freshman and some sophomores and the seniors were trying to figure out their roles. Now we have 10 players back from last year either starters or those who played big roles.
“We look to compete with just about anyone.”
Senior libero Morgan Begley, who is heading to IU Indianapolis, and 6-foot junior hitter Bella Maras are a pair of Eagles to watch this season.
Add Burbank to the list
Burbank American’s Senior League joins a group of other local teams that shined on the national level on the baseball diamond this summer.
Burbank finished 2-2 in the World Series in Easley, South Carolina. The wins were memorable. In a 9-0 victory over the East representative, four pitchers combined for the shutout with St. Laurence’s Evan Panther picking up the win, striking out five in three innings.
Another pair of St. Laurence stars helped on offense as Jacob Hite had three hits and two runs and Ryan Lotus added two RBIs.
Burbank also beat Texas 10-9 in eight innings after being down 6-0 at one point.
Hite singled home Reavis’s Nathaniel Serrano for the winning run. Panther had three hits and St. Laurence’s David Campbell three hits and three RBIs.
Caravan’s Seymour joins Rays
Former Mount Carmel baseball star Bob Seymour was promoted to the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 14.
Seymour was hitting .263 with 30 home runs and 87 RBI for Triple-A Durham.
On Aug. 15, the left-handed hitting first baseman went 0-for-3 with a walk in his debut in a 7-6 road win over the San Francisco Giants.
Fire report
The Chicago Fire trailed 2-1 to St. Louis in an MLS match in front of an announced crowd of 17,485 on Aug. 16 at rainy SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview. But Philip Zinckernagel scored in the 67th minute and Brian Gutierrez added another goal 20 minutes later for a 3-2 victory.
The Fire (11-9-6) visits Philadelphia on Aug. 23.
The Fire II received goals from David Tchetchao and Claudio Cassano and a shutout from David Molenda in a 2-0 victory on Aug. 15 in an MLS NEXT Pro game at SeatGeek Stadium.
The Fire (11-5-5) visit the New York Red Bulls II on Aug. 24.