Like father, like son: Coaching suits Drach just fine

The football doesn't fall far from the tee at Hobart College in western New York.

The Statesmen's head coach is the son of a former coach, as is the defensive coordinator.

So is the quarterbacks coach, and that's who we're focusing on. Jonathan "Jon" Drach has helped Hobart to a 29-4 record the last three seasons and consecutive unbeaten seasons in the Liberty League. He is the 34-year-old son of former St. Charles and West Aurora coach Roger "Buck" Drach.

Briefly a fish out of water in the business world, Jon is in his element at Hobart, where he's been coaching since April 2007. The Statesmen, who reached the Division III national quarterfinals in 2012, are rated No. 12 by D3football.com.

"My upbringing was everything," said Drach, who directs much of the program's recruiting. "The way football was so important, and I really do enjoy the game. But above that I think it's about the relationships and the people that drew me into it."

He rattled off names of several teammates from his father's St. Charles Saints of the late 1990s who are coaching in various spots - Jason Potter, Adam Freed, Clayton Figge, Eric Evans and others.

Drach believes they heard his father's "message of hard work and dedication," he said.

An all-state quarterback at St. Charles, Drach went on to a sterling career at Western Michigan, a three-year starter who as a senior completed 67 percent of his passes. Meanwhile, he made the dean's list six times and was a two-time selection to the Mid-American Conference All-Academic Team.

Graduating in 2004 with a degree in business finance and economics, out of college Drach worked an unenjoyable two years trading European equity futures. Whatever those are.

He returned to the football life as his father's offensive coordinator at West Aurora before joining Hobart, in the part of New York state usually described as "idyllic." Jon said his father tries to watch a couple games each year, usually on back-to-back weekends when he can visit a while.

Jon said the learning curve wasn't very steep having been around football, and football coaches, all his life. Treating each player differently, often difficult but essential, was a challenge he's learned.

Drach is in charge of recruiting several areas of New York as well as New Jersey, 13 western states and Canada. The recruiting angle took a little longer to get the hang of, he said. Being a former all-academic player who deals with similar types of athletes interested in this liberal arts college of just under 2,300 students, that wasn't too great a stretch either.

Finding common ground with Hobart head coach Mike Cragg and defensive coordinator Nick Grange, as the son of a football coach Jon Drach wanted to positively affect young lives. He'll get the full boat in February when his wife, Janelle, is expecting their first child. It's a boy! - Jon, to whom organization is essential, had to be prepared.

A man truly prepared for fatherhood is a rarity. It seems certain, though, that Buck Drach raised the right kind of football coach.

"It's not about the X's and O's," Jon said, "it's about the kids."

High-profile midfielder

Top Drawer Soccer recently held its second annual TDS Combines Series in Schaumburg, where some of the Midwest's top prep girls showed their stuff in front of scouts and coaches representing some 20 colleges.

Afterward the TDS staff, coaches and scouts compiled a list of the players that impressed them the most. They pared it down to 11, which included St. Charles East freshman midfielder Brynn Miller.

Among her hustle and passing abilities, they cited Miller's leadership and "contagious competitive fighting spirit." All she's missing is a couple of commas.

From Charger to Hoosier

Aurora Central Catholic usually holds its Athletic Hall of Fame induction during a home basketball game. There will be a winter ceremony but one honoree was saluted at halftime of Friday's homecoming football game against Guerin because during basketball season, well, he's a little busy.

Tim Buckley, out of ACC's Class of '81, is among ACC's 19th Hall of Fame class. A basketball and football player at ACC returning to his alma mater for the first time since he played basketball at Waubonsee Community College, Buckley is associate head coach for the Indiana University men's basketball team.

Though Buckley played on a 22-8 basketball team as a junior - he recalled home games played in the bare-bones gym nicknamed at the "Echo Chamber" at ACC's old campus on Root Street - his is more a lifetime achievement award.

In his seventh year at Indiana and his third stint with Hoosiers head coach Tom Crean, including Crean's first and last years at Marquette, Buckley's ACC Hall of Fame induction will be his third.

In 2012 the 51-year-old Buckley was inducted both at Waubonsee and at Bemidji State in Minnesota, where he played basketball and earned bachelor's and master's degrees.

When it comes to halls of fame there is no such thing as three's a crowd.

"They were all special places I went to, so obviously it's a great honor," Buckley said after wrapping up basketball workouts in Bloomington.

And ACC was the first.

"It's kind of where you grow up and start to become a man," said Buckley who, among many other recruits, got Dwyane Wade aboard at Marquette.

"It really helped me to be around the coaches I was around, particularly Jim Schmid and Mark Lindo. Bob Stewart was the football coach. They were all people of high character," he said.

Buckley remains in touch with Schmid and Lindo, respectively an inaugural (1996) and 2009 inductee into the ACC hall.

The work ethic and belief they provided helped pave the way to Buckley's interesting 20-year coaching career that hasn't lacked challenges. Out of Bemidji State as an assistant, at age 26 he became the youngest men's head coach in the country at Rockford College in 1989.

He succeeded in six years as a head coach at Ball State and as an assistant at Wisconsin and at Iowa. In his first year with Crean at Indiana he survived the 6-win post-NCAA sanction season of 2008-09, rekindling an upward trend that had the Hoosiers ranked No. 7 nationally in 2012-13.

"You knew if you did it the right way, did it with great work ethic and tried to overachieve you knew it would happen," Buckley said of prevailing over that dark period at Indiana.

"And that's what I've tried to associate with throughout my professional career. Those were the kinds of people and the values that were instilled to me at ACC, they were things that stuck with me as I tried to advance professionally."

He also recalled teachers saying: "Oh, another Buckley."

Humility and humor help, too.

"I'm just very thankful for the opportunity and very privileged," he said, "and it brings back a lot of memories."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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