West Chicago honors Dierking, Hansen

It's a good thing for Scott Dierking both North Central College and Purdue football teams are on their bye week.

Without having to cheer on his son, Shane, North Central's starting free safety, or his college alma mater, Scott Dierking's calendar clears Saturday to accept the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the Community High School Education Foundation of West Chicago.

Dierking, Class of '73, will be the first District 94 recipient for athletics.

In this fourth class to be acknowledged, he'll join his backfield coach at West Chicago, Ronald “Butch” Hansen (Class of '55), who for more than 40 years wore many hats as a West Chicago athlete, teacher, coach and administrator.

“Butch was probably the first high school coach that was better than all of his players. He could still run,” said the terminally modest Dierking, still Purdue's fourth leading rusher, who played running back with the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “He was in his 40s when he was my backfield coach and I couldn't keep up with him.”

With Dierking, Hansen and head coach Paul Unruh, West Chicago won the Little Seven Conference in Dierking's senior season for the school's first conference title in history. It set the stage for the Wildcats' 1974 state championship in the first state series in football. Dierking was a football all-American as well as a state wrestling champion at 185 pounds and a state-qualifying track sprinter.

“It was a special time when played in the early '70s,” Dierking said. “There hadn't been a lot of success until that point.”

Dierking advanced to college and pro ranks before entering the business world, returning with his bride Erin, a fellow Purdue graduate, to produce children Shane, Caitlin and Dan — the Wheaton Warrenville South star back who also played at Purdue.

“There's no doubt that he was probably the best all-around athlete I'd seen at West Chicago,” said Hansen, who works and plays at St. Andrews Golf & Country Club in West Chicago, where Saturday's reception will be held at 6:30 p.m.

Hansen did it all. A three-sport athlete in high school, at Northern Illinois he was the co-captain of the football team his senior year and also played basketball while working toward degrees in physical education and mathematics.

He came back to the Wildcats in 1962 as a teacher, coach and, for 20 years, athletic director. Hansen also served as president of the District 94 Teachers Association before he retired in 1993.

“It was an easy transition for me,” Hansen said of the return. “I was well received when I came back.”

And since. Saturday's Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award joins a litany of honors he's received: Wildcat Booster of the Year, an Outstanding Teacher honor and induction into WeGo's Hall of Honor; induction into the Illinois Athletic Directors Hall of Fame and the American Football Association Hall of Fame as a semipro player. In 1993 he received a Kiwanis Spirit Award and just last year Hansen was presented a service award after 48 years with the Knights of Columbus.

“I'm very proud to receive (Distinguished Alumni), but very humbled by it, too,” said Hansen, married to his wife, Bonnie, for 50 years. “I know a lot of people in the community, I know a lot of alumni, and there's a lot of people out there that certainly are worthy of this type of thing. The problem the foundation has is getting the nominations.”

In his varied roles Hansen has made plenty of speeches. Dierking has not. Still, having toasted his daughter Caitlin her husband, Brad, at their wedding in front of several hundred people may have loosened him up for Saturday.

“I'm sure there will be a lot of people I haven't seen in thirty years,” Dierking said, “and with Butch there I'm sure it'll be just fine.”

A friend indeed

As intense as Benet boys basketball coach Gene Heidkamp is on the court, he's as nice off it.

Heidkamp, his Redwings players and assistant coaches will conduct a pair of charity basketball clinics for grade school students this Sunday at Benet.

All proceeds of the clinics (3-5 p.m. for kindergarten through fourth-grade, 5-7 p.m. for fifth- through eighth-grade; $30 per child) will go to the Danny Did Foundation, which was started in January 2010.

“It means a lot to me,” Heidkamp said. “The people who run this foundation are lifelong friends of mine.”

The Danny in question was the son of Mike Stanton, who lived just down the block from Heidkamp when they were tots in Chicago; Mike's brother, Tom, coached with Heidkamp at Nazareth. Danny Stanton was just 4 years old when he died in December 2009 following a seizure while he slept.

The Danny Did Foundation (DannyDid.org) attempts to prevent deaths caused by seizure by, in part, advancing awareness of Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy; and mainstreaming seizure detection and prediction devices. The timing of the clinic, which is a community service project for the Benet players, also is an awareness builder for National Epilepsy Awareness Month. The condition affects 3 million people in the United States, 50 million worldwide.

Heidkamp calls the clinics “a combination of instruction and fun.”

“I also think it's a good opportunity for our kids to be involved with service,” he said. “It's something we take a lot of pride in, something the kids do a great job of, getting involved with different causes.”

Registration for Coach Heidkamp's clinics at Benet is online at events.org/basketball.

It's a first

Metea Valley athletics has celebrated many firsts in its brief history. Here's a biggie.

The three-year-old Aurora high school will host its first senior recognition ceremony on Saturday, when the boys soccer team hosts Lake Park at 9 a.m.

Coach Josh Robinson's players best get their beauty sleep. The members of first senior class will be honored starting at about 8:15 p.m. Saturday morning.

Century mark

Timothy Christian Schools celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Among several events planned is the TCS Fest at the Elmhurst campus from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 1.

Along with the Trojans boys junior varsity and varsity soccer games against Illiana Christian, there will be cool stuff like a pie-eating contest, bean bag tournament and a tour of the old Cicero campus. If parking's tight there will be free parking and a shuttle from Oakbrook Terrace Tower.

Officially opened on Aug. 13, 1911, in a rented hall housing 60 pupils in Chicago, in 1951 the school expanded to include a high school, built in Cicero. Timothy moved to its current Elmhurst location in 1962.

“I think for people with a long history here, this is a very significant milestone,” said Jim Woudstra, in his 12th year as Timothy Christian athletic director.

Trojans athletics has its share of highlights over the years, championships in boys soccer and girls cross country, four girls track titles. But as Woudstra said, “It's not always about championships.”

“To me it's always been more about the journey than the end result,” he said. “And to me the journey is seeing kids and coaches working together every day.”

For more info on TCS Fest, visit timothychristian.com.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com