Music teacher follows the beat of a beautiful heart
Twin Cities has some anniversaries to celebrate this year
Jiu jitsu instructors have a lot of experience under their belts
There’s a lot more on the lots at Bollman’s of Rock Falls
SHS alumnis’ program does more than just help players improve their game, it gets more kids on the court, forms friendships, teaches teamwork and instills confidence, all with a simple approach ... Be your best and outwork the rest
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6 Bigger than basketball
Where do the Elite come to meet? On the court, in a program that does more than just teach basketball: It helps get more kids in the game, builds friendships, instills confidence and teaches teamwork..
14 A beautiful heart
For Molly Jacobs, music is more than just the sound of an instrument, it’s the sound of happiness, and she’s found her happy place: teaching students to celebrate their noteworthy accomplishments.
22 Having some cents of history
Centennial, quasquicentennial, sesquicentennial, bicentennial, dosquicentennial ... The Twin Cities can observe them all this year.
32 Experience under their belts
Instructors at Sauk Valley Jiu-Jitsu are taking their years of training to the mat at a studio where students who invest time are finding the payoff well worth the perseverance and patience.
40 Rolling with the changes
The owner of Bollman’s of Rock Falls has transformed the longtime auto dealer into a place where there’s a lot on his lots.
ven though it’s been nearly 20 years since Josh Binder and DJ Olalde wore the uniforms of the Sterling High School basketball team, they haven’t forgotten how playing the game for the Golden Warriors became a profound part of their lives. These days, the 2005 Sterling High School graduates are sharing their hoops skills with a new generation of players.
Binder and Olalde are the driving forces behind Outwork Elite, a basketball program that hosts travel basketball teams and offers development camps and instruction sessions for both boys and girls. Its events have attracted hundreds of aspiring young basketball stars who’ve come together to have fun and improve their game.
Outwork Elite’s programs have brought together teens from Sterling, Rock Falls and surrounding counties to help build their collective talent — many of whom never played against one another during school, but get a chance to in Outwork’s program.
“We wanted to bring the Sauk Valley together,” Binder said. “We’re Sterling grads, and we have a lot of Rock Falls kids, Dixon kids, Newman kids, Polo, you name it. That was the idea, being small but mighty, but together we can be pretty dang good. There’s a lot of talent here, and it’s spread out. There’s a star here, and a star here, and we’ve said, ‘Boy, if we could col lect it all, we can show people what we’re made of.’”
Now in its sixth year, Out work Elite’s coaches preach to its student-athletes that no matter how high the deck may be stacked against them on the court, as long as they put in the time and work hard, good things will come from it.
“There’s a lot of talent here, and it’s spread out,” Binder said. “There’s a star here and a star there, and we’ve said, ‘Boy, if we could collect it all, we can show people what we’re made of.’”
SHOOTING FOR THE STARS Sterling High School alumni Josh Binder (left) and DJ Olalde started the Outwork Elite basketball program in 2017 to share their love of the game and tap into the talent throughout the Sauk Valley and bring it together on the court. CODY CUTTER/CCUTTER@SHAWMEDIA.COM
CODY CUTTER/CCUTTER@SHAWMEDIA.COM
DJ Olalde guides a player through a drill during Outwork Elite’s annual Presidents Day camp at Newman Central Catholic High School.
OUTWORK cont’d from page 7
In other words: Outwork your competition.
While improving their skills is important, the social aspect — building friendships — is just as important. That’s the thrill Olalde gets out of being part of the program.
Olalde said. “I can speak for us: When we were younger, we didn’t hang out with a bunch of kids from different schools. Now we have all of them together and get to see how they enjoy each other and like to hang out. It’s good to see these communities come together through basketball.”
Binder, who lives in North Aurora, and Olalde, who still lives in Sterling, run the operation, juggling their time between their primary jobs — Binder as senior director of advancement at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and Olalde as a sales manager at U.S. Cellular in Freeport — and their school coaching — Binder for the Kaneland School District’s feeder program in Kane County and Olalde as an assistant varsity coach at Dixon High School.
During their years on the court, as both players and coaches, they’ve seen players of all kinds: from small-town kids big on talent that they earned on the court to big-city players whose parents could afford to foot the bill for camps and training.
OUTWORK cont’d to page 9
Binder and Olalde strive to bring the best of both worlds together, providing big city instruction for a small-town price.
Binder said. “That’s our biggest thing, is to expose them to the game at a young age; and for the older players, to give them an opportunity to compete and see something that you don’t get anywhere else around here. Kids would have to drive to the Quad Cities, Rockford or the suburbs to get something comparable to what we have, so let’s provide that experience here.”
Binder and Olalde lead the program, but they employ a group of local coaches to help them with travel teams, instructional sessions and camps. Mike Menchaca, who’s also an insurance agent and varsity girls coach at Fulton High School, has worked with Outwork Elite since nearly its beginning. The 2001 Rock Falls High graduate remembers days when kids like him would play basketball on the streets or at parks, something he doesn’t see as often seen these days.
Menchaca enjoys seeing how Outwork Elite has helped get more kids engaged in basketball, and helped foster their talent.
he said. “Back in the day it was a different world, we could run outside and play for two or three hours and Mom or Dad would be okay with it. Now, nobody wants their kids to grow up in the streets to play ball, like we used to; if we’re going to do it, it’s going to be in these settings. I love it because these kids get to do some things, learn some things, and probably realize the potential that they have.”
Also helping out are Geoff Wing, an assistant girls coach at Sterling High, Seth Nicklaus, a former boys and girls coach at Faith Christian School in Grand Detour, and Tyler Merdian, who coaches in Polo.
In high school, Binder and Olalde played as underclassmen for Luke Yaklich, now the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and then for Pete Goff, who is the athletic director at DeKalb High School. Goff also advises Binder and Olalde on basketball matters on occasion. The pair also played basketball in college, Binder for St. Ambrose University in Davenport and Olalde for the University of Dubuque and Missouri Baptist. Binder also has collegiate coaching experience, most recently at Kiskwaukee College in Malta.
Binder and Olalde’s families are big believers in teamwork too, helping out at functions. In addition to their own families, Olalde’s sisters regularly help at camps, and Binder’s father Jerry, a former SHS principal and girls basketball coach in Wisconsin, lends a hand when he can.
In fact, the whole program is one like one big happy family, as far as Binder and Olalde are concerned. OUTWORK cont’d from page 9
OUTWORK cont’d to page 11
Olalde said. “We’ll get out to watch their games during the season when we can and support them, and it’s kind of grown into a little family type of thing. Our [social media] hashtag is ‘#OutworkFam’ and people have really bought into that, and it shows on a Sunday morning at 9:30 when you got 15 high school players helping you out for a camp, so it’s worth it.”
Since its beginning, Outwork Elite’s teams and players have racked up an impressive resumé of accomplishments on the court, but there’s more to their success than just wins, stats and records, Binder said. It’s seeing players go from light-skilled to four- or five-
Bolingbrook.
tool success during their time with the program.
The same can be said for another part of the Outwork Elite that’s near and dear to Binder’s heart: Its involvement with Special Olympics Illinois.
Outwork Elite’s Special Olympics camps — one in the fall in Sterling and another in the winter in Oswego — came as a result of both Binder’s idea of having one to honor his young daughter Maddie, who has Down syndrome, and the Special Olympics Illinois Region’s idea of a skills camp for its athletes. The nearly 200 Special Olympians who attend the camp work on skill development and fundamentals, and are then formed into teams to compete on the court. The camp not only improves their athletic skills, but helps build confidence too.
OUTWORK cont’d to page 12
OUTWORK cont’d from page 11
Binder said. “That has seemed to tie the whole community. One of our other hashtags that we use is ‘#BiggerThanBasketball,’ and at our core, it’s so much more than dribbling a ball or making a basket.”
Outwork Elite’s AAU youth traveling teams compete in several tournaments throughout the Midwest. “Super session” Sunday instruction is offered to middle school students in January and February at Newman Central Catholic, and its Fall Academy camp is on Sundays in September and October, also at Newman. Hour-long individual and small group instruction is offered Sunday through Thursday evenings at Sterling High School.
Find Outwork Elite on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter), or go to outworkelite.com for camp and instructional session dates, or for more information.
The program’s most recent event was its Presidents Day camp Feb. 18 at Newman, where about 100 middle school and high school students fine-tuned their shooting, ball handling, defense, strength and ability, and special skills for their positions – guards, forwards and centers. Some of the high-schooler, along with recent grads, helped younger players with there with their drills, passing along some of what they learned during their own time with Outwork Elite.
“Since we don’t see them every day, we make the most of the time that we do get to spend with them,” Olalde said. “With the relationships that we build, that’s what I enjoy a lot out of it. We’ve had kids who were at our first camps, and now they’re helping; some are going
to play college basketball next year or have the chance to do that in a couple of years.”
“Our alumni have come back to support the younger kids,” Binder said. “That’s a neat, full-circle moment when you’re now supporting the program that you came from.”
What tournament victory sticks out the most?
That’s tough to say for Binder and Olalde, who’d rather focus on the victory that’s most important to them: helping each kid learn and grow — both as a player and as a person. Those are the real winners, whether they’re the kind who find confidence on the court or they’re the ones who never thought they’d have a chance at college play but end up having colleges court them.
What’s been their game plan?
While you won’t find the word “can’t” in their rule book, they don’t teach with an iron fist, but rather an open hand that helps lift players up to be the best they can be.
Putting their shoulder to the wheel helps, too — as long as there’s a little something on it.
“It’s going to be all about having a chip on your shoulder, that we may not always be the biggest or the best — kind of what we do with being in a small town — but we’re going to just work harder than everybody,” Binder said. “From there, it’s kind of taken on a life of its own, from adding Special Olympics camps, to our first golf outing this past year [to raise money for the camps], doing more camps, having our Fall Academy grow into its own little thing. It’s become more of a year-round hobby than a job, and its great that we get to connect with so many kids in the area.” n
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
hile musicians often create music, Molly Jacobs can do one better: She creates musicians. Utilizing a lifelong love of musical performance and delighting at its mind-building elements, Jacobs has helped create the sensation of success and an appreciation for art through song and individual focus.
Jacobs owns Miss Molly’s Music Studio in Sterling, where she’s been teaching violin, cello, piano, acoustic and bass guitar and ukulele to a growing number of aspiring musicians since she opened this past September. During any given day when she’s giving lessons, her walls resound with the sound of people fiddling with fiddles, making strings sing, and tickling ivories — from grade-schoolers to adults who’ve decided to take up an instrument, each one tapping into their talents, or maybe discovering one they didn’t even know they had.
MOLLY’S cont’d to page 16
MOLLY’S cont’d from page 14
The violin is Molly Jacobs’ favorite instrument, but she’s also skilled in playing the piano, acoustic and bass guitars, ukulele and viola.
Jacobs found her own love of music at an early age, taking lessons before she was even old enough for kindergarten, sparked by a joy and pride in being able to take a journey through the musical soundscapes that she created. It’s a feeling she strives to instill in her students.
“What makes music interesting, even from the time when you’re young and get enrolled in lessons when you’re 4 or 5, is that I think every person has a desire to create,” Jacobs said. “Everyone wants to make something and create something, and I think when you’re young, it’s the magic of creating something they can hear in their head, and the realization of ‘I can play that.’”
Jacobs has experience teaching in both individuals and groups, but it’s the one-on-one where she gets to see the full realization of a student’s musical potential. No two students are alike — each has their own strengths, learning styles and approach to music — and she’s come to appreciate the individual focus, as opposed to juggling several different students at once.
MOLLY’S cont’d to page 17
“When you’re in a big group learning music, there are certain kids who want to be there to learn music and there are certain kids who don’t,” Jacobs said. “If you’re one of those kids who really loves music and you really want to be learning, you can only learn so much and go so far [in groups], so I feel the individual instruction is a way for kids to be really passionate about it and want to take it seriously, and to be able to dive so much deeper.”
Jacobs can train musicians as early as 3, which was when she herself started taking violin lessons — and if she could get a start on music that early in life, anyone can, she said.
“I just enjoyed playing an instrument, and it was just fun,” Jacobs said. “I remember being young and there was a kind of motivation and challenge to it. I always wanted to be on the next song [in the book], and felt that if I could get through this song I can get on to the next. As you get better at it, you can play more interesting songs.”
She would keep going on to that “next song” and she still plays the violin today, while also learning other instruments and expanding her musical knowledge.
Jacobs enjoys seeing students’ progress, from the first session to their first recital.
“It’s amazing watching a kid go from being really nervous and not knowing if they can do it, to doing it and being so overjoyed,” she said.
A homeschooled student before attending college, Jacobs has a bachelor’s degree in music education from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais and taught second- and third-grade students at Jefferson School in Dixon from 2020-22. She found that being a music teacher led to parents asking her to take on private lessons for their children. She started with just a few, and that number grew until she needed to have a waiting list.
“Music
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Eventually, she came to a tuning fork in the road: Continue teaching music in school, or teaching students in her own studio.
“I just sat down one day and thought, ‘Wait a minute, if I
took on all of these wait list kids, I’d have a lot of kids,’ — and this was with zero advertising and doing this under the radar,” Jacobs said. “I started to look at my numbers and realized that maybe I could make this work. I was young, I figured I didn’t have a lot to lose, so I figured I could try it.”
Jacobs left her teaching position in May 2022 and started her music studio, which, for its first 16 months, was at her Sterling home. Needing more space, she moved into an office suite on North Locust Street, where she’s been since. She opened her music studio on Sept. 1, and had an open house Oct. 21.
She’s had as many as 60 students on her weekly schedule so far, each in sessions that run from 30 minutes to an hour. Jacobs also teaches vocal abilities for beginners, as well as the nuts and bolts of music theory. There’s enough interest that she has a waiting list of people eager for education.
Having her own studio also gave Jacobs the freedom to utilize her own methods of education. Growing up with violin in tow, she was trained using methods instituted by renowned Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki, whose philosophy of using the violin as a tool for mental growth became popular around 75 years ago.
In Suzuki’s own words, which Jacobs quotes on her website: “Teaching music is not my
main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.”
The Suzuki Method, Jacobs said, helps students learn to play by memory and to have compositions be performance-ready before any shows start.
“Part of what the Suzuki Method does is teaches memorization. When kids learn the songs, they play them to memorization,” Jacobs said. “That’s something that not a lot of methods will really teach. It’s something that I do with all of my littles — whatever they learn, they’ll memorize it.”
Lessons are conducted weekly in trimesters, and Jacobs also wants students to continue practicing outside the studio. Each student gets to perform at a recital in the spring or fall; about 8 weeks prior to the big show, students get to pick out a composition to work on leading up to the event. Past recitals, which are in front of family and friends, have taken place in Morrison and Dixon. This year’s recital schedule will be finalized later this spring.
While recitals can be both thrilling and nerve-wracking for many students, Jacobs hopes those worries eventually turn into smiles when all is said and done.
“It’s amazing watching a kid go from being really nervous and not knowing if they can do it, to doing it and being so overjoyed that they were able to do it,” Jacobs said. “Music gives kids such confidence that extends so far beyond what we do here. I’ll have certain images in my minds at times where I see a certain kid perform, get done, the audience starts clapping, and the kid just lights up because they realize they did it. That is so invaluable, and they can carry that with them all throughout different aspects of their life.”
While some people can work for years before finding the perfect job, Molly was able make that dream job come true sooner than she had planned. She always knew that one day she’d get there after maybe a decade teaching in schools, but it worked out for her a lot sooner than she expected, by her mid-20s.
“It’s nice being able to work for myself and doing my own thing, and I’m doing the thing that I exactly wanted to do, and that’s teaching private music lessons,” Jacobs said. “Music was something that gave me so much joy growing up and gave me so much confidence, and I always wanted to be able to give that to other people. I wake up every day, come here, and help people discover the joy of learning music.” n
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
terling and Rock Falls’ past is full of stories people, places, facts and figures that have played a part in putting the Twin Cities on the map and helped tell its tales. Some are wellknown, while others can only be found when you dust off the history books and flip through the pages.
All those stories, big and small, have earned their place in local history books — but some of them just don’t always get their place in the local limelight.
When it comes to celebrating the past, most of the historical hoopla is usually reserved for benchmark anniversaries — 100 years, 200 years, and the like. People don’t tend to get as nostalgic when the 99th or 101st anniversaries come around.
But it’s not just centennial celebrations that bring the past to the present. Double the milestone and double the memories — there are 200 reasons to celebrate bicentennials, just ask anyone old enough to remember being around for America’s year-long love affair with liberty during its red, white and blue birthday bash in 1976.
Other milestone markers come with some linguistic tongue-twisters, though they don’t tend to get as much attention as centennials and bicentennials. There’s the quasquicentennial for 125 years and sesquicentennials for 150 years; and when it’s time to mark 175 years, you’ve got several different words you can wrap your tongue around — seven by some counts, including dosquicentennial and septaquintaquinquecentennial (though some who’ve done the math contend some of the terms don’t quite add up, but we’ll leave that to the linguists).
Some Twin City tales from the past have been featured in this magazine in recent years, like those of Prince Castle, the Sterling-to-Dixon interurban railway, the Academy of Music, the 1946-47 Rock Falls Rockets basketball team, and how the parks got their names.
In this issue of Sterling-Rock Falls Living, we’ll tell you a few more stories that have reached a milestone this year, tales mostly forgotten, but ones that deserve to be remembered: travels under the trains, the building of a familiar sight in downtown Rock Falls, the last ferry connecting the Twin Cities, landing the Whiteside County seat a second time, and natives pondering their future home.
You might not be able to say “septaquintaquinquecentennial,” but once you’re done reading, you shouldn’t have any trouble saying, “Hmm, now that was interesting.”
Thousands of vehicles every day go under the Union Pacific railroad on First Avenue to get from Sterling to Rock Falls and vice-versa.
Up until 100 years ago, that wasn’t the case: Motorists on First Avenue had to cross the tracks via an at-grade crossing, rumbling over the steel rails either before or after driving across the bridge over the Rock River. With Sterling’s Chicago and North Western railroad train depot sitting near the crossing, that meant cars and passengers had to wait for westbound trains stopped at the depot to move on.
Fred W. Honens
Together with the problem of having an aging bridge over the river, two traffic issues were solved at the same time with the construction of the First Avenue “Subway” — as it was called then — and a new First Avenue Bridge.
A bridge over the river was nothing new: An iron truss crossing was built in 1878 and work to replace it began in 1922. The subway, however, was new: It was considered “the biggest improvement in the history of the city” of Sterling, according to the April 19, 1924, Daily Gazette.
The crossing had several accidents in the years leading up to the Roaring ‘20s, especially as automobiles became more affordable to the general public. The intersection with Wallace Street also being next to the crossing didn’t make matters any better. Talks between the City of Sterling and Chicago and North Western began in early 1923 on the project, and were continued intermittently until the following year.
Fred W. Honens was Sterling’s mayor at the time — but he was also someone who knew how infrastructure worked. He was an engineer who worked on the Hennepin Feeder Canal nearly two decades prior.
SUBWAY cont’d to page 25
The First Avenue Bridge, seen here circa 1910, was replaced around the same time as the subway was built. A sign on the iron truss bridge warns that there will be a $5 fine for “riding or driving on this bridge faster than a walk.”
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Left: An article in the Jan. 17, 1900, Sterling Evening Gazette said the opera house would be “a pleasant feature in society circles in this city.” Above: The Franks Hall building, circa 1960.
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STERLING-ROCK FALLS HISTORICAL SOCIETY/ ILLINOIS DIGITAL ARCHIVE
An undated photograph shows a group of performers on the stage of Frank's Hall.
FRANKS HALL cont’d from page 26
Twin CitiesHistory
150
A short ride across the river could get a little rocky on the White Swan, as evidenced by these news briefs in the Sterling Standard, from 1878.
FERRY cont’d to page 28
Though no photos of the White Swan could be found for this article, this image shows a similar boat, an 1879 sidewheeler ferry.
FERRY cont’d from page 27
ou won’t hear Justin Penaflor say he’s mastered the art of jiu jitsu.
What he has mastered, though, is commitment — a commitment to dedicating time and toil to honing the self-defense martial art and combat sport through years of practice.
“Nobody that’s ever done jiu jitsu has ever mastered jiu jitsu,” he said.
So why does he do it?
“I like the never-ending work that needs to be done in jiu jitsu,” Justin said. “There’s always something to be worked on. … I just want to be able to train as much as I can for as long as I can.”
Penaflor’s not alone. He and his team of instructors at Sauk Valley Jiu-Jitsu in Sterling have been going to the mat for their students since 2016, when he started the business in his garage. These days, though, he’s got more mats to go to. The business has outgrown that garage and recently moved into its own storefront in the Lee Wayne Plaza on East Lincolnway.
Sauk Valley Jiu-Jitsu’s growth goes hand in hand with a growth in interest of the Japanese martial art that has a history stretching back centuries, to the 1500s. While Penaflor and his team haven’t built up centuries of experience, they have racked up an impressive number of years in the martial art that they’re putting to good use at the new studio, where the business has been since this past May.
Like many sports, there’s a health and wellness component to jiu jitsu. It’s good for the mind and good for the body. Just don’t expect results overnight.
Like the business’s own journey, jiu jitsu’s is one of patience — “It’s something that we measure by months and years, not days and weeks,” Penaflor said — but the destination can be well worth the time. “Come, give it a year, try your best, and I’ll promise you that in a year’s time you’ll be a completely different person.”
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Husband and wife, business owners, jiu jitsui instructors ... Justin and Stacey Penaflor are big believers in the benefits of the martial art they teach. “I like the way that I get to challenge my body and gain confidence about my skills,” said Stacey (center, training with Timmy Mills). “I like the never-ending work that needs to be done in jiu jitsu,” said Justin (at right, working out with Dylan Smith).
Jiu jitsu can be for most anyone, man or woman, large or small, young or old, experienced or not. What’s important is the commitment to becoming a better person.
Justin’s wife Stacey also is an instructor, and has seen many women embrace what jiu jitsu has to offer.
“I like the way that I get to challenge my body and gain confidence about my skills,” Stacey said. “Especially
as a woman, it’s great to build my confidence.”
Justin, along with his cousin Josh Penaflor, and Tony Garza and Stephen Gladhill, started Sauk Valley Jiu-Jitsu after they grew tired of traveling out of town to other gyms. The plan was a two-fold: They could train together in a proper gym setting without having to go elsewhere, and they could share the sport with local residents.
SVJJ cont’d to page 36
SVJJ cont’d from page 35
“We were always driving out of town to train with each other,” Josh said. “It just made sense for us to open somewhere for us to train locally, and naturally, people just started coming.”
Jiu jitsu’s roots originated with Japanese judo, and it consists of grappling, ground fighting and the application of submission holds, all using principles of leverage, angles, pressure and timing. Jiu jitsu was perfected in Brazil, and it’s often referred to as Brazilian jiu jitsu. The style benefits smaller fighters, who can use leverage and weight distribution to their advantage against larger opponents.
Ever eager to hone their own jiu jitsu skills, the quartet took part in competitions in larger cities across the nation, where they could not only compete against, but learn from competitors who hailed from Brazil and elsewhere.
“We wanted to go and test ourselves against the best, and then bring those experiences back here,” Gladhill said. “We brought it to the area and we love doing it all of the time. A lot of fighters who come in here really get good at jiu jitsu so that they can defend themselves on the ground. With all martial arts in general, jiu jitsu really adds to the ground game to make it full.”
SVJJ cont’d to page 37
workers,
uniform consisting of a heavy cotton jacket with a thick neckline, drawstring pants, and cotton belt. It’s for more than just looks, though. The loose-fitting garment can be used to opponents’ advantage, as it can be grabbed hold of and used to help execute moves. No-gi matches are done wearing
"People here are from all sorts of backgrounds. We
we all get together under one
tree cutters —
roof here
in this small community, all trying to get better than where we were yesterday."JUSTIN PENAFLOR, SAUK VALLEY JIU-JITSU OWNER
tighter fitting uniforms, like shorts and a shirt, that opponents can’t use in the same way, making them rely more on body mechanics, balance and positioning to take down their opponents.
Having traveled throughout North America, the team has earned prestigious honors from major competitions. Justin is an 11-time champion at the Chicago Open, and has a Pan American no-gi championship in his resumé. Gladhill became a no-gi world champion in 2016.
While some who practice jiu jitsu keep their eyes on the prize, others take it up to simply better themselves. Whatever the reason, Gladhill is happy to welcome them to the mats.
SVJJ cont’d to page 38
SVJJ cont’d from page 37
Jiu jitsu gives Garza “a sense of purpose,” he said, and he enjoys helping others find that same feeling. Jiu jitsu can also work out stress.
“It helps me in my everyday life,” Garza said, and challenging himself on the mat helps him rise to challenges in life, too.
“Things can get hard out on the mats,” he said, but “when you get out there in the world, it’s not as hard as you think it is and you can overcome adversity and many things. That’s really what keeps me coming in every day.”
And for those situations when push literally comes to shove? Bringing jiu jitsu to the fight can put the advantage squarely in your corner.
Stephen Gladhill (pinned) and Tony Triplett work out at Sauk Valley Jiu-Jitsui.
“This is one of the best martial arts out there to get into shape,” he said. “There’s no head trauma associated with it, and I really like it for that purpose. You can really get into good shape and become better in self-defense. There’s a mental thing to it, too; you’re coming out here every day, drilling your moves, and getting better day by day, 1% better. Eventually that will build up over time, and when you realize it, it will feel good every time.”
“You can learn how to take care of yourself in certain situations,” Josh said. “The world isn’t the safest today, so you might as well have something in your back pocket. It’s better to have it and not need it.”
It takes a sense of commitment to do well in jiu jitsu, Josh added, but “as long as you can push yourself to your limits, be willing to engage in your weaknesses, and attack parts of your game that aren’t the strongest, you can do well — and a lot of that will translate into life.”
As for your ego, leave it at home, Justin said.
“Don’t bring it in here, leave it at the door,” he said. “If you do that, and come in here with an open mind, you’ll get better every day.”
Both gi and no-gi are taught by Penaflor and his instructors. Gi classes for beginners, both children and adults, are on Mondays and Wednesdays; beginners no-gi for both levels are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Adult students can tangle with the more experienced ones with gi on Friday and no-gi on Sunday.
New to the gym’s offerings this year is a women’s class on Saturdays, which Stacey teaches. The class, which began Jan. 30, gives women a chance to learn alongside their peers without having to factor in techniques that can be more advantageous for men.
“Socially, you can come here and make a lot of friends that become like your family,” Stacey said. “Mentally, it’s a great outlet for people. There are lots of benefits.”
Jiu jitsu can help people test their mental mettle and develop discipline — and for those who wish to do so, be up to the task of taking on competitors at a tournament.
“It’s all about mental discipline,” Garza said. “The hardest part of it actually isn’t the day of the tournaments, it’s everything going up to it: You have to make sure your diet’s on point, you have to make sure you’re training right and smart, and not getting hurt.”
Despite the many medals, trophies and accomplishments, Penaflor and his instructors know that jiu jitsu is a sport that continues to evolve over time, and they look forward to evolving with it, honing techniques they’ve already learned, discovering new ones, and teaching them to students.
It’s an ancient art but its lessons are timeless, enriching those who practice it both mentally and physically, taking them on a journey that builds character and confidence through a balance of defense and discipline — and like Stacey’s husband says, it’s an art no one has mastered, but that everyone can learn from.
“Whether you’re rolling with the men or the women, with the bigs or the smalls, or with someone more athletic, there’s something you can take from anyone,” Stacey said. n
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
MORE INFO
Sauk Valley Jiu-Jitsu is located at 2323 E. Lincolnway in Sterling. Find it on Facebook or Instagram (@ saukvalleyjiujitsu), email saukvalleyjiujitsu@hotmail. com or call 815-631-6739 for updated class schedules or for more information.
By Cody Cutter Sauk Valley Media
