Piatek living the dream with Meadows boys volleyball

There was a quick correction made after Tim Piatek thanked Mr. Duellman for coming to Thursday night's boys volleyball match at Rolling Meadows.

Duellman laughed and told his former player he could call him Mike now. After all, Piatek has grown up and now holds the same position Duellman once did.

And it's the job Piatek wanted since he played for Duellman's powerhouse teams that made three straight Elite Eight trips from 1994-96.

"Everything I've done in my volleyball career is based off his philosophy of the game," Piatek said of Duellman. "It's unbelievable sometimes to pull up to the parking lot here in the year 2010. It's surreal.

"I can't believe I'm in this position. I'm so grateful."

Piatek got the chance to step up to it after two years as the junior varsity coach when another of his mentors, Janet Opels, decided to step down and coach the freshmen. He also teaches English at Wheeling and is a girls volleyball assistant.

Piatek spent two years as Elgin's head coach and a successful four-year run in charge of Neuqua Valley culminated with a third-place state finish in 2007. He said it was tough to leave there but was also a no-brainer to return to District 214.

But he had no idea it would lead him back to Meadows until there was an opening on Opels' staff in the spring of 2008.

"So many things fell into place for this to happen," Piatek said. "The next thing I know I'm interviewing for my dream coaching position."

After all, this was where Piatek not only was a two-time all-Mid-Suburban League volleyball selection, but he also played football, basketball and soccer and played the bass drum in the school band. There is a common ground with many of his current players since they attended Holmes Junior High and Forest View Elementary School.

"There is still something about being back here," said Piatek, who spent a year as a volunteer assistant with Duellman after graduating from Eastern Illinois. "It's been a dream of mine since I was 18.

"As soon as I wanted to be a high school teacher this is where I wanted to be."

And Meadows senior Jack Nickle is glad Piatek is back where he felt he always belonged.

"I like his coaching philosophy," Nickel said after Thursday's three-game loss to Elk Grove. "He really preaches energy and communication a lot.

"I was happy to continue with him. For all of the players who had him before it was an easy adjustment."

While most of the Mustangs are familiar with Piatek, most of them are unfamiliar with competing at the varsity level. Only three players have varsity experience and they played just their third match of the season Thursday.

But even though they've lost all three matches, Piatek likes what he's seen going into the tournament Meadows hosts this weekend.

"They understand my philosophy and approach to the game," Piatek said. "This year we're running a new offense and I'm so happy with how quickly they've adapted to that, especially the setters (seniors Bryan Bourn and Neal Butler).

"(Junior hitter) Scott Shewmon is an excellent player and he's only played his sophomore year. He's got all the potential in the world."

And Piatek's ultimate goal is to have his players strive for the same goals and dreams he achieved at his alma mater - such as finishing second in the state his junior year.

"Our main goal is to get some stuff up there," Piatek said as he looked up toward the boards on the gym walls commemorating all of the successes of Meadows' athletic programs. "It was incredible to be part of a program like that. So much of who I've become was shaped on those experiences as a high school volleyball player.

"My ultimate goal is I want to give some of these kids the opportunities and experiences I had. Hopefully when they're 32 they'll look back on the experience fondly."

Unofficial Gummerson reunion: An indoor girls track meet in March at Jacobs with Conant and Marengo turned into a reunion with retired Conant boys track coach Ron Gummerson.

The Jacobs girls team is in its first year coached by Matt Campbell, who was a successful hurdler for Gummerson from 1998-2001. Campbell, who has taught at Jacobs for three years, said he was asked to set up a home meet and invite any two teams he wanted.

So, Campbell called Conant girls head coach Bob Borczak, who ran for Gummerson in the mid-1970s. Then he called Marengo, where current boys coach Bob Fecarotta was a teammate of Campbell's who was a sprinter and long jumper.

Kevin Mogge, who is Borczak's distance coach, and Darren Niedermeyer, who coaches the Conant boys and girls in the pole vault and the boys in the jumps, also competed for Gummerson.

Naturally, Gummerson made the trek to Algonquin for the meet.

"It was great gathered around the mentor and talking," Borczak said.

"I don't think he was influential in saying as much, you should do this or you should be a coach," Borczak said. "But I've found a lot of my coaching style was his.

"He's not a yeller and a screamer. He'd yell, but it was a good yell if you were coming around on the mile relay in the last 10 meters."

Prospect boys track supports St. Baldrick's: Prospect assistant boys track and football coach Joe Rupslauk joked about how scary it would be to have an entire group of athletes who looked like him with shaved heads.

But it wasn't just all in good fun that everyone on the Prospect boys track team shaved their heads last month. In what Rupslauk called "a selfless act," they did it as part of St. Baldrick's Day, a foundation that raises money for childhood cancer primarily through head-shaving events.

"The event was incredible and the kids rallied hard to make it happen," Rupslauk said.

Rupslauk said the boys track team raised $1,100 in donations in two days.