Service at all levels is Whittington's command

There's no paycheck.

There's not even the hope of some good old-fashioned father-son bonding time.

Chuck Whittington, Jr. is an assistant football coach at Grayslake Central, and gets no visible payoff for his commitment.

Whittington is strictly a volunteer. And his son Chipper, a 12-year-old baseball player, doesn't play football and won't even go to Grayslake Central someday. The Whittingtons live in Gurnee and are in the Warren district.

And yet, with no personal or professional connection to the school, Whittington devotes hours each day to the Rams, in season and during the off-season as well.

Why?

Well, for starters, he loves football. He was a quarterback in high school and loves being connected to the game again.

But more than that, Whittington loves service.

"I grew up in an environment where commitment to service was very important," Whittington said. "I was taught to contribute wherever I could."

For Whittington, that means serving in the community, which is how he got started coaching football in Grayslake in the first place.

It means serving country as well.

Whittington, a former Grayslake resident who first stepped to the plate 12 years ago when neighbors asked if he would volunteer to coach a local youth football team, is also serving at the highest of levels.

Whittington happens to be a general in the U.S. Army.

So watch out, Rams, or Whittington might just make you drop down and give him 20!

"You can easily tell Whitt is a military guy," Grayslake Central coach Nick Goshe said. "He's got acronyms for everything. He's got quotes for everything. The way he stands-you should see him during the national anthem. He salutes the flag and is in full military form. Everything with him is militaristic."

Whittington grew up in a military family - his father was in the Air Force and his grandfather was in the Navy - and has been a military man himself since graduating from Southern Mississippi in 1986. He has served two tours in Iraq, including a one-year stint in 2007, and was recently promoted to general.

As of August, after being confirmed by the Senate, he is now a deputy commanding general for the 29th Infantry Division and could be called again to service any time.

In the meantime, he is the executive director of Lake Forest-based Pactiv Corporation, the maker of Hefty Brand products - and is the only football coach in Lake County who knows how to teach someone to literally battle in the trenches.

"It's almost a little intimidating when you think about the fact that you're being coached by an Army general," said Grayslake Central quarterback Ray Beckman, who works most directly with Whittington, the team's quarterbacks coach. "But then you realize having him as a coach is such a great opportunity to really learn a lot and to get a lot of great help. He is such a leader for our whole team. He's made me a better leader. Everyone respects him so much."

The respect is mutual.

A fan of journalist Tom Brokaw's book "The Greatest Generation," which describes the selfless and courageous generation that grew up in the United States during the Great Depression and served in World War II, Whittington believes he's getting to know the "Next Greatest Generation." He says he sees the same kind of admirable and inspiring qualities in both the boys he coaches at Grayslake Central and the boys he leads in battle.

"It's so refreshing to see that out of young kids, teenagers," Whittington said. "There are some really good kids out there, doing really great things for others. As much as it seems like I might be sacrificing time with my wife or my kids to coach, the experience has been just as good for me because it's allowed me to get to know all of these great kids."

Whittington has known some of the Rams since they were very little kids.

He first started volunteering with the Colts youth football program in 1998. Some of the football players who graduated from Grayslake Central last year were coached during Whittington's first year of service, when they were just 6-year-olds.

Whittington followed their careers and continued to coach them, and as the years went by, he became more and more of a coaching sensation in town.

Eventually, as Whittington's original players started to enter high school, former Grayslake Central coach Mike Munda heard about Whittington and asked him if he wanted to help out the Rams.

Besides his one-year deployment to Iraq in 2007, Whittington has been with the Rams ever since, not only coaching on the field, but giving the players motivational speeches about leadership, trust, commitment and accountability, which, by the way, are some of the same speeches he gives to his young soldiers.

"It's funny how this all got started, just being asked to coach youth football by some neighbors I knew," Whittington said. "I think the one thing I thought about when they asked was 'Parent, Preacher, Teacher, Coach.'

"When I was growing up, my father was gone a lot because he was in the military and often mobilized. I had coaches and teachers who took an interest in me when he was gone and that really helped me as I grew up. I think I've always kept that with me and that's why I wanted to help (the youth teams). If you take an interest in a kid, you can make a difference."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com