It's full speed ahead for Hall-of-Famer Kuceyeski

For his 60th birthday a couple years ago, Randy Kuceyeski got to check off the No. 1 item on his bucket list.

“I had always wanted to drive a NASCAR car and I got to do that at the Brickyard (in Indianapolis),” Kuceyeski said. “Richard Petty has this ‘driving experience' where you can go and drive. I got to do 16 laps. I averaged 168 miles per hour. It was amazing.”

Retirement has allowed Kuceyeski, a longtime teacher and head football coach at Libertyville, to address all kinds of other items on his bucket list.

Since he turned in his coaching whistle five years ago, Kuceyeski, better known as “Kuz” in football circles, and his wife Martha have taken a trip to Alaska, driven the back roads of Ireland, gone on a cruise to Sweden and conducted a major remodel of their house, which is located just minutes from the high school stadium that Kuceyeski called home for more than 30 years.

The next big trip on the docket is partly a bucket list item, but more of a celebration. Kuceyeski is planning to take his entire family, including all six of his grandchildren, to Yellowstone.

“In December, I will be five years disease-free, or cancer-free,” said Kuceyeski, who will turn 62 in 10 days and was diagnosed with oral cancer just before his final season at Libertyville in 2011. “I want to celebrate that with a trip to Yellowstone. We've always wanted to go there.”

Kuceyeski can also use the trip to celebrate another milestone achieved this year. He was just inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

The induction luncheon was held in Champaign last weekend and included the induction of 14 other coaches, including former Antioch head coach Del Pechauer.

The combined years of coaching for the inductees was 452 years.

Kuceyeski was honored for his 34 years of coaching at Libertyville, which includes his 18 years as head coach. In 2004, Kuceyeski reached the pinnacle, guiding the Wildcats to the Class 7A state championship. That came a year after Libertyville lost in the state championship game in its first-ever state finals appearance.

“I found out in January that I got selected and I was shocked at first. I'm just so honored and humbled,” Kuceyeski said of his Hall of Fame induction, which includes a space for a plaque in his honor on a wall at the University of Illinois football facility in Champaign. “It's an honor I share with everyone associated with the program at Libertyville. When you receive an honor like this, you don't do it by yourself.

“My wife was my No. 1 supporter. Also, my family and all the coaches on my staff and our players and parents and the community of Libertyville…so many people are a part of this award. This is really a reflection of how the program has excelled over the last 25 years.”

Over Kuceyeski's tenure, which ran from 1994 to 2011, Libertyville went 133-58 with 14 playoff appearances in those 18 years. The Wildcats reached at least the quarterfinals three times.

They were also a perennial power in the North Suburban Conference, often battling rival Stevenson for league titles.

“One thing I learned through the years is that winning is great but it's not all about just the wins and the losses,” said Kuceyeski, who points to his parents John and Kathleen, his college coach at Northwestern and his high school coach at Alliance, Ohio, John Pont and Gene Nara respectively, and his former assistant at Libertyville Karl Jennrich as being his biggest influences and mentors.

“The thing I really tried to focus on was making sure that from the first guy on the team to the last guy that we were creating a positive experience for every single kid on the team,” Kuceyeski said. “For 99 percent of your players, high school football was going to be their last experience with football for their entire lives. We wanted them to look back on that time and think that it was one of the best experiences of their lives.”

At Libertyville during Kuceyeski's tenure, there were certainly some poignant memories made that will last a lifetime for the players and coaches alike.

Obviously, the 2004 season ranks among Kuceyeski's favorite coaching memories. But not just because it yielded a state championship ring.

That year, Kuceyeski's only son John, one of his four children, was a senior on the team. John, now 29 and the director of scouting for the Iowa State football team, started at safety for the Wildcats.

“Getting to coach John in the state championship game was pretty special,” Kuceyeski said. “It was everything a coach and parent could ask for, all rolled into one.”

Kuceyeski had some other neat coach-parent moments on the football field at Libertyville. He also coached his daughter Kristen.

That's right Kristen, now 32 and in her seventh year of teaching English at Libertyville and coaching cross country there, played football. She was the Wildcats' placekicker during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

“A really great moment with Kristen was that she was the placekicker for us in 2001 on the night when we turned the lights on for the first time at Libertyville,” Kuceyeski said. “We beat New Trier that night. That was quite a night.”

One other big victory really sticks out in Kuceyeski's memory.

It was Libertyville's semifinal win at home over Prospect in 2003. That sent Libertyville downstate and into the state championship game for the first time in school history. The Wildcats ended up losing to Oswego (28-21) in Champaign, but that run opened the door for what was to come the following season, a 13-3 triumph over Cary-Grove in the 2004 Class 7A state title game.

“That win over Prospect in the semifinals was huge,” Kuceyeski said. “Prospect was the two-time defending state champion. And to beat them at home on our own field in front of what was the biggest crowd in the history of our school was incredible.

“I think that win kind of put us on the map.”

There is actually one loss that stands out to Kuceyeski.

It was the Wildcats' loss to Lake Forest (25-9) in the regular season finale of the 2011 season. It was Kuceyeski's final home game at Libertyville. The Wildcats went on to lose their next game at Rockford Boylan in the first round of the playoffs, the final game of Kuceyeski's career.

“That last home game at Libertyville was really special for me,” Kuceyeski said. “That year, I was going through the whole cancer thing, I had just been diagnosed, and that team was so great.

“When I was going through treatment, I had my captains, Stephen Skull, Michael Parker, Luke Matheson, Sam Styler, Kevin Bruns and Alex Gough, coming to my house to mow my grass, walk my dog, clean out my gutters. They were a blessing.”

Kuceyeski says that in an odd way, his diagnosis was a blessing. He had announced plans for his retirement after the 2011 season long before his diagnosis. But the diagnosis certainly helped him put a clearer separation between his coaching days and his retirement days.

“For some coaches, making (that transition) is pretty hard,” Kuceyeski said. “But it wasn't for me at all and I think it had a lot to do with my (health) situation. I think it was kind of God's way of helping me go from full-time coaching to no coaching at all.

“I think it also gave me a new perspective on how to live each day.”

Kuceyeski says he feels as healthy as can be and is thankful for each day he has to explore new things and hang out with his family, particularly his grandchildren from older daughters Erin and Brit, each of whom have three children. They range in age from 7 to 13.

One thing Kuceyeski and his wife have become big fans of is traveling the country to visit different college football stadiums. This fall, they'll make their way around the Big 12, following John's team at Iowa State.

When they're in town on a fall weekend, they head over to Libertyville to cheer on the Wildcats. Kuceyeski says he saw five Libertyville games during the 2015 season, which ended with another trip downstate for the Wildcats.

“I sleep a lot better during the week now, especially on Thursday nights. I guess I don't miss the daily grind of being a head coach,” Kuceyeski said with a laugh. “But I do miss those football Fridays. I try to go to as many Libertyville games as I can.

“I try to stay in the shadows, though, but it's fun to see old friends and talk to people in the stands. I love being in that atmosphere.”

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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