By TR HARLAN

For the third time in five years, the Chesterton girls are the standard by which the rest of the Duneland Athletic Conference is judged.

Welcome to the party boys.

With a point total of 30.5, the Chesterton boys athletics teams won their first DAC All-Sports Award during the 2006-2007 school year. The girls tallied 27.5 points to run away with their title.

“Three of the last five years, the girls have won the All-Sports Trophy,” Chesterton Athletic Director Garry Nallenweg said. “This is the first time in the history of Chesterton High School that the boys have won it.”

The All-Sports Awards have been handed out since 1971 with Valparaiso tallying the vast majority of the honors for both the boys and girls.

“We’re delighted to win both in the 2006-07 season,” Nallenweg said. “We won two conference titles on the boys and girls sides, so it shows that we’re in the upper half of the conference across the board.”

The All-Sports Award takes into account all 10 sports sponsored within the conference for boys and girls.

Points are awarded to schools based on their finish in the league standings. One point is awarded for first, two for second, three for third, etc … and the school that accumulates the fewest points is the winner.

“We are the smallest school in the Duneland Conference, but our numbers are increasing,” Nallenweg said.

“We have about one third of our student population participating in extracurricular activities. It just goes to show that you don’t have to have a ton of athletes, but the one’s that are here are committed, dedicated and willing to be coached.”

On the boys side, the Trojans picked up a share of the conference title in boys soccer and were the outright winners in swimming. Other sports sponsored include cross country (third), tennis (fourth), football (tied for third), basketball (tied for second), wrestling (third), baseball (second), track (seventh) and golf (third).

On the girls side, Chesterton won league titles in swimming and gymnastics. Other sports sponsored included cross country (fourth), volleyball (second), golf (second), soccer (fourth), basketball (tied for fifth), softball (tied for second), track (tied for second) and tennis (third).

“When you look at the sidelines of some of the other programs in our conference, you see a lot more kids than we have in sports that are non-cut,” Nallenweg said. “In some cases, you’re looking at teams with 100 kids and we compete with 60. We get a lot of mileage out of those that do choose to play.”

And that’s just one problem Chesterton has had to overcome.

“A lot of people were concerned when we went to one middle school that our athletics at the high school would suffer,” Nallenweg said. “Our numbers have dropped, but for the most part, those that want to participate continue to be successful.”

Nallenweg points to three significant factors for the success.

“It’s a great accomplishment for our athletes and our coaches have to be commended for it too,” Nallenweg said. “They do a great job with our student-athletes. We’ve very proud of the things we’ve accomplished.

“We also had a real nice couple of classes come through and we still have some very good athletes in the building in the senior class. Hopefully the younger groups can compliment their abilities, but that remains to be seen.”

Nallenweg also knows that the community as a whole should feel proud of the accomplishment.

“We have great support from the community in a majority of our programs,” Nallenweg said.

“We know that we couldn’t have accomplished this without the positive support we get from the community. We have a lot of lower level programs that have helped teach our kids what it takes to compete and to increase their skill level before they get to the high school. We know that will continue and we hope to get even more kids involved.

“We want to replicate this feat again.”

Duneland Athletic Conference

Boys All-Sports Standings

CC Ten FB Soc Bball Wre Swim Base Tra Golf Total

1. Chesterton 3 4 3.5 1.5 2.5 3 1 2 7 3 30.5

2. Crown Point 4 3 1 8 2.5 1 3 1 4 6 33.5

3. Valparaiso 7 1.5 5.5 3.5 1 5 7 5 2 4 41.5

4. Lake Central 8 6 7 3.5 4 6 2 4 6 2 48.5

LaPorte 1 5 2 5.5 7 7 8 3 5 5 48.5

6. Merrillville 5 7 5.5 5.5 5 2 6 6 1 8 51

7. Portage 6 8 3.5 1.5 8 4 4 7.5 3 7 52.5

8. Mich. City 2 1.5 8 7 6 8 5 7.5 8 1 54

Girls All-Sports Standings

CC VB Golf Soc Bball SB Swim Gym Tra Ten Total

1. Chesterton 4 2 2 4 5.5 2.5 1 1 2.5 3 27.5

2. Valparaiso 3 6 1 1 7.5 6 4 2 1 5 36.5

3. Portage 1 5 5 2 3.5 2.5 5 5 8 6 43

4. Crown Point 5 8 3 5 5.5 4.5 2 3 5 4 45

5. Lake Central 2 7 4 3 7.5 1 3 8 2.5 8 46

6. LaPorte 6 1 6 7 3.5 4.5 7 6 6 2 49

7. Merrillville 8 4 8 6 2 7 6 4 4 7 56

8. Michigan City 7 3 7 8 1 8 8 7 7 1 57

Posted 8/23/2007