Maine West athletic director resigns

Citing personal reasons, Maine West High School’s athletic director, Christopher Addante, has resigned and will step down from the post at the end of the school year, officials said Thursday.

Maine Township District 207 spokesman Dave Beery said Addante’s departure is unrelated to the hazing scandal involving the varsity boys soccer team that led to the firing of two coaches at the Des Plaines school.

“It has nothing to do with hazing investigation or anything related to this,” Beery said. “This is a case of him having kids who are involved in athletics themselves. The demands of the athletic director’s job (are) such, he is not having an opportunity to watch or support them the way he would like.”

Earlier this year, the school board fired soccer coaches Michael Divincenzo and Emilio Rodriguez after allegations surfaced last fall that senior members of the boys soccer team hazed freshmen players, leading to criminal charges against six athletes. Both coaches have appealed their dismissal with the Illinois State Board of Education.

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office is reviewing the charges against the athletes and investigating accusations of hazing at Maine West going back to 2007. The families of four current or former students are suing the district, the school’s principal and the two fired coaches.

A Maine West graduate, Addante was hired in 1994 as a business education teacher and baseball coach. He worked as Maine West’s athletic director for seven years. In 2004, he was named the Illinois High School Association “Class AA” Baseball Coach of the Year by the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association, according to the school’s website.

Addante will return to the classroom to teach business education at that school, Beery said.

In his Feb. 28 resignation letter, Addante wrote he needed “to devote more time to my family, especially with a son playing international hockey/travel baseball and a daughter who is entering high school as a three-sport athlete.

“My wife works full-time as a teacher and with my current job, it is very difficult for us to support our kids the way we want and the way they deserve,” Addante wrote.

The district will seek candidates to replace Addante as athletic director after the school year ends. There are no internal candidates at present in the line of succession, Beery said.

“The job opening will be posted. There will be an interview process,” Beery said.