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Glenbard South's Riley ready to leave his field of dreams

To play baseball the right way there must be respect for the game. That respect extends to the conditions of the field.

No one is more meticulous where field conditions are concerned than Glenbard South baseball coach and physical education teacher Mike Riley, who is retiring after this season, his 17th with the Raiders and 29th overall as a head coach.

It might seem a ticky-tack point to raise about an Illinois Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee who has won more than 570 games plus five regional titles and six conference crowns.

It was important enough to Riley, though, to lay down the law before he came to Glenbard South from Rockford Guilford, where he'd enjoyed four straight 20-win seasons including a program-record 29-4 mark in 1997.

"When I first started here I basically told them I wasn't coming unless the field was irrigated," he said.

District 87 and parental donations came through with the irrigation systems. Glenbard South had its coach.

For Riley it was a round trip back to the area. A 1977 Hinsdale Central graduate, he began his teaching and coaching career there out of Southern Illinois University.

Despite his early, brash-sounding request Riley backed it up with diligence and vision, often taking maintenance matters into his own hands. Off days or before games, you may find him pushing a mower on the field.

When Riley had - or has - a question about ballpark maintenance, he'll call up White Sox head groundskeeper Roger Bossard, a legend in that trade. Riley has cultivated a professional relationship with the man known as "The Sodfather."

"A lot of people tend to go for the bleachers, the lights, things like that," Riley said. "Our No. 1 goal was to try to get the playing facility done, the surface, and try to get the peripherals later."

Win some ballgames, too. Entering Tuesday Riley's adherence to fundamentals translated to a 338-238 overall record at Glenbard South, 207-105 in conference play.

"You're never going to see us win 30 games," Riley said, citing a tough nonconference schedule. Yet he's won 20 or more games 11 times in 16 seasons at Glenbard South, a program-record mark of 26-11 in 2012.

"It's been a lot of years, a lot of different things. You think you've seen everything and there's always something new," said Riley, who has also coached football 34 years at Glenbard South, Rockford Guilford and the shuttered Rockford West.

Example: In Monday's 1-0 win over Aurora Central Catholic, Glenbard South escaped a bases-loaded jam when first baseman Dan Opem grabbed a line drive, stepped on first base to double up the runner, then tossed to shortstop Christian Dupuis for another forceout at second base.

"Obviously, there's triple plays in the big leagues, but I'd never been part of one in 34 years," Riley said. "It all happened in about two seconds."

After most of two decades at Glenbard South, suddenly his tenure is about over. Riley praised the parents who helped out over the years, his peers in school, athletes who have been "very well behaved."

Never married (despite a couple "close calls"), in retirement the Wheaton resident has no ties and nothing particular planned other than a little scouting.

Scouting for warm-weather places, not baseball. San Diego, maybe Arizona.

"I've decided I'm probably going to take a year off from coaching. I'll kind of re-energize and try to get back in shape. You tend not to eat very good when you're coaching. You tend to eat a lot of fast food when you're coaching," Riley said.

"My No. 1 goal is to get back in shape and take a couple vacations."

Athleticism

Naperville Central senior Alissa Gorzak doesn't spend much time working on track and field. That makes her marks more impressive.

A club soccer player and University of Virginia recruit at forward, Gorzak was called up to the United States Under-18 Women's National Team that went to Spain this past March. In 2015 she represented the country in call-ups to the U-19 and U-20 teams.

Devoting only about two days per week to track, in her first outdoor meet of the season, April 22 at the Neuqua Valley Invitational, Gorzak finished second in long jump at 18 feet, 2½ inches. The Redhawks program record is Lauren McNichols' 18-3, and Gorzak has gone 19 feet in practice.

She's the top-seeded long jumper entering Thursday's DuPage Valley Conference girls outdoor championships and also is the No. 8 seed in the 100-meter dash. Gorzak ran it in 13.09 seconds at Neuqua Valley and a week later ran 13.10 at Wheaton Warrenville South.

Small world after all

John Pugliese, Neuqua Valley Class of 2002, is a basketball lifer. Wearing No. 24 - which Wildcats coach Todd Sutton has since assigned to every starting point guard at the start of the season - Pugliese set the program's game and season assists records and held Neuqua's all-time record for 11 seasons.

He went on play at Lake Forest College, transferred to Wisconsin-Platteville, and has since coached for private, high school or college basketball programs in New York, Nebraska, Los Angeles (twice) and back at Platteville.

Deciding to further broaden their horizons, on August 2015 he and his wife, Billy, took a flier on jobs with the Stamford American International School in Singapore. Both are coaches and teachers, John the director of basketball for Stamford.

Fellow Neuqua graduate Kevin Cordes was born a decade later than Pugliese. A seven-time all-state swimmer and two-time champion on successive state runner-up teams, Cordes became a 13-time All-America swimmer at Arizona and the NCAA swimmer of the year in 2013 and 2014. A breaststroke specialist, he set world records in the 100 and 200.

In 2012 Cordes just missed a slot on the Olympic team and he's training for the 2016 Olympic Trials. His coach is former 200 breast bronze medalist Sergio Lopez Miro, the head coach for the Singapore Swimming Association.

The Stamford American swim coach and Miro happen to be friends, Pugliese said, so Cordes paid a friendly visit at the pool with the young Stamford swimmers.

Pugliese caught wind of this and, knowing Cordes was from Naperville, came down to the pool to visit.

Pugliese asked Cordes where he attended high school. Although they had just met for the first time in a city 9,360 miles away from their hometown, they quickly discovered they'd grown up just down the street from each other in the White Eagle neighborhood.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

Follow Dave on Twitter @doberhelman1

Glenbard South baseball coach Mike Riley
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