Sports run in the family
If you’re an Illini fan, you may have heard the name James Augustine. But not as many know about his sister and EIU student Sarah.
Sarah Augustine, 19, has said that her brother is her role model and at 5’5,” she has said she looks up to her 6’10” brother “literally.”
“I love to watch my brother play,” Augustine said. “Knowing what he has accomplished in the past four years is amazing.”
In fact, the Augustine family is nothing but sports.
Sarah’s father Dale was a football player at Wisconsin-Oshkosh, her mother Barb was a swimmer for the same school, her uncle Dick Sorenson played football for the Miami Hurricanes while her cousin Nick Sorenson plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars and her uncle Jerry played professional baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1973-1985.
Although she played basketball for a few years in junior high, Sarah would take after her mother and be a swimmer. Augustine took up swimming at age 8 and at Lincoln Way East High School in Mokena, Ill., she swam and played water polo for four years and was on varsity all four years for both sports.
Augustine has said she did not join swimming at Eastern since it conflicted with her brother’s basketball season and wanted to see her brother play his senior year.
“She’s real proud of her brother; she traveled a lot with us,” mother Barb Augustine said. She’s been to the final four game, been in Georgetown. She experienced the whole thing with the family: winning and losing.”
In fact, she has said the main reason for going to Eastern was because she wasn’t interested in U of I and Eastern was close enough to watch her brother play.
Sarah, who has said she never missed a game of her brother’s junior high traveling basketball team, said the most exciting game she has ever been to was the Arizona game (where Illinois defeated Arizona 90-89 in OT on their way to North Carolina on March 26, 2005).
“I think I was the only person in Allstate Arena that had faith in the team, and sure enough, they came out on top. They kept fighting and did not give up,” Augustine said.
As far as relations with her brother are concerned, she has said they both get along pretty well.
According to Sarah, James “always has a smile on his face.” “If he is in a bad mood, you would never know it. The most important thing I have learned from him is to just be yourself. If you are just being yourself, you will be a lot more respected than if you are trying to be someone you aren’t.”
This week, James is in Orlando for the NBA’s pre draft camp at Walt Disney World. The draft is June 28. Meanwhile, Sarah will return to Eastern this fall to concentrate on her elementary education major while considering taking up swimming once again.
“I miss it [swimming] a lot, and I might take it up soon. We’ll see,” she said.
