While recent Riverside Brookfield High School graduate Max Strong worked to excel as a student; he also had the responsibilities of a four-year, three-sport athlete.
“It was just time management. I was busy a lot,” Strong said. “It’s kind of just figure out what was more important and prioritizing. Then sleep became optional at the end of the day.”
Strong was pleasantly surprised to be rewarded in both regards.
Hailey Vlcek and Strong were named the RBHS Female and Male Athletes of the Year. Lucy Drenth and Strong were named the RBHS Female and Male Scholar Athletes of the Year.
“I kind of thought you couldn’t get both. But apparently you can,” Strong said. “I was told the coaches vote on [top athlete], so I was just surprised, excited. I thought it was very cool because that means all of the coaches at RB thought that I was one of the better athletes. I appreciated that. I tried my best and that’s where I wanted to be.”
Vlcek is the greatest girls swimmer in RBHS history, yet the award came out of nowhere to her. She will swim for the University of Illinois.
“I was really excited about it. I didn’t even know that was an award prior to the whole awards night,” Vlcek said. “[RBHS swimming coach Mike Laurich] surprised me with it, too. They kept it a secret from me so I was honestly surprised. It was really cool to get it after the hard work I put in over the years and being a part of the swim team.”
Strong will play lacrosse and football at NCAA Division III Illinois Wesleyan University. He competed in those sports all four years as well as wrestling. Avi Ponnappan (water polo, swimming, cross country) was another boys four-year, three-sport athlete for the Class of 2025.
Drenth will attend the University of Illinois. She was a four-year varsity girls soccer player, named All-Metro Suburban Conference in 2024 and 2023. She also was a four-year golfer, two seasons on varsity.
“[The honor] was awesome,” Drenth said. “I work pretty hard in academics and athletics is pretty important to me. To see both of those things pay off is rewarding and pretty awesome. It’s difficult having tough schedules academically. A lot of homework, it’s hard on its own, and trying to handle the schedule of games, especially when you have late games. It was definitely difficult. But keeping myself organized and on top of work was huge. There were times I was definitely behind, but in the end academics was important, so making sure I kept up was always a priority.”
In football, Strong earned Class 6A all-state honors as a linebacker this past fall. He was promoted to varsity midway through his sophomore year. As a freshman lacrosse player, he was part of the first season the Bulldogs played a varsity schedule. This spring, the program achieved its first postseason victory.
Strong said he first decided on playing lacrosse at IWU and then added football. He will major in biochemistry and pre-med with hopes of becoming a surgeon.
“[Attending IWU] was mostly being able to get a good education and being able to play the sports I love,” Strong said. “Having a great base for academics is more important to me. It was a mix between both as well as being a smaller school and that was kind of what I was looking for.”
Vlcek became the first girls RBHS swimmer with first-team all-state finishes – three times in the 200-yard freestyle. She was fourth in 2022, third in 2023 and fifth this past season with an even faster time. Her third place is the highest state finish by any RBHS girls swimmer or diver.
She has left the RBHS school record board far from updated. She owns all-time records for the 200 free, 500 free, 100 free, 50 free, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley and six more records on the sophomore level (5 individual, 1 relay).
Vlcek broke the 200 free record seven times and 100 free record five times.
“I think I learned a lot about myself [through swimming] and how to persevere even when things get difficult and when you put in the hard work, even when you don’t always feel like doing it,” she said. “It’s just always pushing yourself and learning to push through even when it gets hard. Also just learning time management, balancing my school work with being part of the team and being part of a team culture and supporting each other. It was fun getting to be a part of all of that.”
Vlcek plans to study biology at Illinois with medical or environmental plans. “I want to work with other people,” she said.
Strong and Drenth both took numerous RBHS advanced placement classes. Drenth, who will double major in accounting and finance at Illinois, especially enjoyed AP microeconomics and macroeconomics.
“All of the teachers at RB were so helpful. Balancing academics and athletics, they’re all very reasonable and always willing to help, which was a huge, huge thing,” Drenth said. “Academically, RB really taught me how to work hard and prioritize school and just a lot of the basic academic skills foundation that’ll be useful. For athletics, determination and hard work were huge. You find challenges in sports all of the time, academically too. Learning how to work through those and problem solving is pretty useful.”
Like the sports postseason, Strong said there were challenging stretches in school, such as numerous tests at the end of semesters or major projects, especially for Spanish class.
“As long as you stay on top of your time and you’re getting it done, day by day, you’re pretty much fine,” Strong said. “[I’ve also learned] just to have fun, do what you love to do and you’ll do well – as long as you have the motivation.”