Girls volleyball: St. Edward's Dovichi steps down

When Jaime Dovichi moved to the Fox Valley area from Edon, Ohio 13 years ago she knew little - make that nothing - of St. Edward High School.

Then Jaime Walton, she lived in Cary and had an extensive volleyball background, so she landed a coaching job at the highly successful Sky High Club in Crystal Lake, and as the freshman girls coach at St. Viator.

In March of 2004, St. Edward was looking for a coach after the legendary Marv Leavitt ended his run as the Green Wave's coach.

"I had no idea what St. Ed's was," Dovichi said Wednesday, the day after she informed her Green Wave team she was stepping down as their head coach. "I was living in Cary and working for Sky High and (Sky High director) Scott Harris said I should look into the St. Ed's job. I was thrilled it was a small school, a place where you knew all the kids, their families and the community."

Dovichi carried on what Leavitt had started at St. Edward, going 264-199 in her 13 years, which included seven regional championships and two trips to the IHSA state finals, where she guided the Wave to a fourth-place finish in her first season, 2004, and a third-place trophy in 2008. St. Edward finished 20-17 this season, losing to Harvest Christian Tuesday night in a Class 2A regional semifinal.

Now an office manager for Metro Prep Schools in Arlington Heights, Dovichi said the decision to leave St. Edward came down to one important thing - family. She and her husband, Tim, have two daughters - 6-year old Gracyn and 2-year old Brook. Tim Dovichi, the head baseball coach at St. Edward the past several years, took a job as a teacher, football coach and baseball coach at West Chicago this year. The Dovichis live in South Elgin.

"I think we aged my mom double time taking care of the girls this year and there were some days we never saw the girls," said Jaime Dovichi, a former junior college all-American at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio.

"It wasn't fair to my mom or the girls and it's caused me to put some things into perspective. I need to take a step back and focus on my family more. It's just not easy for me anymore and it's not fair to my family. I can't give 100 percent to everyone and everything like I used to."

Dovichi, who wrote an extensive blog on Facebook after the Green Wave's final match Tuesday night, said that particular social media site has been her way to stay in touch with all her former players and coaching colleagues. Retired St. Francis coach Peg Kopec, the winningest coach in IHSA girls volleyball history, added comments to Dovichi's post Tuesday night.

"Facebook is great," she said. "I've been able to follow all these kids over the years. It's been awesome and the memories will live forever."