Donatucci, Pendergast team up at Schaumburg

The two winningest football coaches in Mid-Suburban League history have joined forces to form a dynamic coordinator duo at Schaumburg.

Mike Donatucci, who retired last fall with 137 victories in 19 seasons at Fremd, came down to run the Saxons’ defense.

Dave Pendergast, who stepped down at Conant in 2004 with 115 wins in 18 seasons, joined his one-time rival to run the offense.

Schaumburg head coach Mark Stilling couldn’t be happier with how he was able to fill the two openings on his staff.

“It’s been better than anything I could have expected or imagined,” said Stilling, who was an assistant for Donatucci in the late 1990s. “Both of them work extremely hard and the three of us have a really good integration of ideas. Not just scheme-wise, but with organization and planning all the day-to-day things.

“Both of them are incredibly passionate about football and they wouldn’t have stayed in football as long as they have if they weren’t. To see how concerned they are about kids beyond football and to see them working with kids has been refreshing, too.”

Even though Donatucci and Pendergast have different personalities, Stilling said they are similar in what they want to accomplish.

The best part for Stilling has been how Donatucci and Pendergast have meshed with the rest of the Saxons’ coaching staff.

“It doesn’t feel like we’ve been together for only a few months,” Stilling said. “The entire staff did a great job of preparing and learning the entire system.

“And for all both of them have accomplished they are unbelievably humble and open to ideas.”

Three of the other MSL coaches who were involved in changes last fall have also landed at other schools in the league.

Dave Dunbar, who retired at Wheeling, is working with the defense at Hersey. Former Buffalo Grove coach Jim Farrell is helping Brent Pearlman with the offense at Wheeling and former Hoffman Estates coach Bill Helzer is assisting the defense at Barrington.

Feeling good about the transition:First-time head coaches can feel overwhelmed by all of the extra responsibilities which are part of the job.

Fremd coach Lou Sponsel is glad to have a pair of familiar, experienced faces as coordinators with Steve Patton on offense and Danny Davis on defense.

“I’m lucky that Tucc (Mike Donatucci) left us a pretty darn good staff,” Sponsel said. “It’s a good feeling that the staff can all look at each other in a meeting and we all trust each other and have each other’s back.”

Fremd also added former Grayslake Central head coach Nick Goshe to the staff to work with the offensive linemen.

Providing some perspective: New Buffalo Grove coach Mike DiMatteo also took over a struggling program more than a decade ago at Lake Zurich.

So DiMatteo brought in former Lake Zurich players such as quarterback Matt Blanchard, who is currently with the Chicago Bears, Miles Beatty and Josh Ugaste to provide their perspective on being part of a program’s turnaround.

“They talked about what it takes to get to the next level,” said DiMatteo, who had Lake Zurich in the 7A semifinals by 2002.

DiMatteo said a four-day camp at St. Joseph’s College in Renssalaer, Ind., also provided major benefits.

“They had never done that before and it was really eye-opening and great for them,” DiMatteo said. “‘We had no problems at all.

“Honor, class and dignity are three things we talk about and they’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do.”

Not a novelty anymore: Conant made history in 1994 when soccer star Jenny Grubb became the first girl to kick a field goal in an IHSA varsity football game. Since then, teams using girls as placekickers has become more commonplace.

So it’s nothing new for Conant coach Bill Modelski to have junior soccer player Drew Wentzel handling the team’s placekicking chores this season. Modelski was looking to solve a problem with kicking extra points and field goals from last season.

“We recruited her and she’s pretty good and pretty tough-minded,” said Modelski, who was Conant’s defensive coordinator when Grubb was doing the kicking. “She had a lot of success on the girls soccer team.

“She’s very accurate and her range is OK. She looks like she’ll do just fine.”

Modelski said Wentzel would not handle kickoff duties.

Better get there earlier: All MSL crossovers and division games on Fridays have been moved up to 7 p.m. varsity starts this season.