Ameen Solebo of Mather. All-conference in football, wrestling runner up, and defending city champion in the shot put.
When you goto a school that is not named Lane, Simeon, or Morgan
Park there is sometimes a tendency for an athlete to be overlooked.
Even in a blog like this that specializes in the CPS, athletes still
get over looked. Not by design, but because the CPS has so many good
athletes. A good example of this is Monica Pinkus of Northside Prep.
She went from being known mainly by the girls swimming or Northside community, to one of the most talked about athletes because she got
recognition as the female athlete of the year. The reason why she was
not talked a lot about was because her sport was girls swimming- a sport
which was given only little coverage in this blog.
In the case of Ameen Solebo of Mather, I write a lot about his
sports of football, track and field, and wrestling yet, I still rarely
mentioned his name. Not any longer. For his on field performance, I am
giving Ameen Solebo the CPSfan.com boys 3-sport athlete of the calendar
year 2009.
Solebo is known all over Mather, but for those of you not familiar with Solebo's accomplishments here they are.
Football
Solebo is one of the top players for a Mather team that completely overachieved this year. Mather is in a Chicago conference. Teams in a
Chicago conference only have one goal. That is, to win the Chicago
conference and get moved up to the more competitive Illini conference.
For years, Mather was in the Illini conference and even won a Prep Bowl
not too long ago. But Mather fell on hard times and got sent down to
the Chicago conference a couple years ago. At the beginning of the
season, I had Foreman - with their bruising running game and Taft with
quarterback Mike Shewchuck pegged to finish ahead of Mather. But,
Mather behind the play of Solebo and company prevailed to win the
conference and thus move his team up to an Illini conference next year
(probably the one with Lane and Simeon).
For his efforts in football, Solebo was named all-conference.
Wrestling
When I think of the top wrestling programs in the CPS, I think of
Lane Tech, Kelly, Fenger, and Mather. Mather and Lane are fierce rivals
and their dual meet that they hold every year is much anticipated. One
of the top wrestlers in Mather's program is Ameen Solebo. Solebo
advanced to state in wrestling two years ago. Last year Solebo finished
in 2nd place in the city at 189 lbs to help Mather to a 3rd place city
finish.
Track and Field
Mather also has one of the top track and field programs in the
city. A large part of Mather's success the past two years has been due
to the efforts fo Solebo.
Two years ago Solebo finished 4th in the shot put and 3rd in the
discus at city.Last year, Solebo finished 1st in the shot put and 2nd
in the discus to help Mather's 4th place city finish. Solebo finished
4th at the tough Loyola Academy sectionals - just missing the second
and final state qualifying mark. The top 3 advanced to state.
Oh, by the way, Solebo also runs on Mather's 4x1 and 4x2 relay teams.
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