Weaver wove a hall of fame career at Fremd

For the first time in 15 years, a familiar face is missing from the Fremd softball program.

Jim Weaver left the head coaching post after last season with 395 wins and many more accomplishments in his hall of fame career.

Not a bad tenure for someone who never even gave coaching a thought while he was at the University of Illinois after graduating from Dundee-Crown High School.

"Teaching and coaching were the furthest things from my mind in college," said Weaver, an English teacher at Fremd.

However, after graduating from Illinois and beginning to job search, Weaver got involved in coaching Babe Ruth baseball.

"I enjoyed it so much that it pushed me back to school for two years to get my teaching certification," he said. "It was one of the best decisions I've made."

It led to a return to sports and education which he also enjoyed while at Dundee-Crown. Weaver played football, basketball and ran track while in Carpentersville.

"Unfortunately, I didn't play baseball," he said. "That was one of my biggest regrets because the football program wanted us to run track, and that really formed how we approached multisport athletes in our program.

"It should always be the player's decision. I wasn't a great athlete by any means, but always enjoyed the competition and the mental side of sports."

And his teams always displayed the same characteristics.

"We stayed true to what we believe in as educators of young people," he said. "We're also proud of how we treated people with respect. From the umpires, to opposing fans, to our own players and families. It was always our focus to make sure we were doing things in a first-class fashion. We are also really proud of the fact that we believe we treated our athletes with respect and made Fremd softball a destination for players to spend an unbelievable four years."

You will notice Weaver uses 'we' as he discusses the past.

That team-first approach is one of the major reasons Weaver finds himself as a hall of famer today with a career record of 395-125-2 along with 10 regional crowns, three sectionals titles and three supersectional victories.

"No way I ever thought that would happen," he said. "I don't think anyone ever starts his or her career thinking about the end of it, and my love of coaching has never been about me.

"In fact if you ask anyone that coached for me, and players too, if they were paying attention to our verbiage, we tried to never use the word "I" in our program. It's always replaced with 'We.' "

Weaver was always about teaching athletes things they could use into their lives.

"Things like diligence, focus, punctuality, mental toughness, trusting your preparation, being functional and being a supportive and communicative part of an organization/team," he said. "These are the things that we try to teach our kids in Fremd softball because we believe they all translate to our kids being successful in their lives."

Weaver's life was influenced by many coaches in his youth.

"I greatly enjoyed many of my coaches growing up, and those experiences in totality made teaching an attractive choice," he said. "But in truth, the people that made it possible for me to coach were my parents and two grandmothers, who supported me by putting me through school. And then my grandmother (Virginia Weaver), who let me live with her for the two years I spent going back to school to get my certification."

That certification paid off handsomely for Weaver and all his players who later benefitted from his leadership on the softball diamond.

"We've had numerous former players who enjoyed the experience enough to want to make coaching their career (head coaches such as Molly Freeman at Hersey, Ellen Abreu at Schaumburg and Abby Tadelman at Grayslake Central)," Weaver said. "And several other girls who are assistant coaches now."

The Vikings recently hired former outfielder Kelly Voigt as an assistant to first-year coach Josh Teschner.

"It says a lot about how we treated our athletes and what they got out of the experience," Weaver said.

Many got to experience playing in the state finals as Weaver steered the Vikings to two appearances in the Final Four (second in 2010 and third in 2009) and one in the Elite Eight (2002).

While he enjoyed those trips immensely, Weaver said there were two things even more important to him.

One was family and friends.

"That includes my wife and children being invested in the program," he said. "And the loyalty and dedication of all the assistant coaches as well; especially coach (TJ) Valacak, coach (Christine) Vlaming (Pedersen) and coach Teschner. Their friendship and dedication to our athletes was unparalleled."

The other significant element was the connection Weaver and his staff had with the athletes and their families.

"We love watching those kids go out into the world and be successful in life," he said. "Be it going to grad school, getting married, having children or starting their careers, we love seeing how successful our kids have become when they post about what's going on in their lives on Facebook, or when we get an email from one of them.

"The connections with players and their families is what I've already missed the most," Weaver added. "Seeing our players in the hallway and not getting to spend that quality time with them after school is definitely harder than I could've imagined. Preparing a team and putting the puzzle together each year to get the pieces to fit was always a favorite part of running the program as well."

But now he is spending time with his favorite people.

"I stepped down for one reason - family," Weaver said. "A parent has a small window of time to enjoy his or her kids before they ship off to college, and I wasn't willing to miss out on that window with my own children."

He still loved everything about being the head coach for Fremd softball.

"But I would never want to look back and say that I spent too much time with other people's kids," he said. "And not enough time with my own."

Women's basketball

Saint Xavier junior center Brittany Collins (Maine West) led the way with 14 points and 8 rebounds while Cougars freshman guard Maddie Welter (Buffalo Grove) added 14 points when the No. 3 ranked Cougars (34-3) fell to defending national champion and No. 4 ranked Marian University (IN.) 66-52 in the NAIA Division II national championship game in Sioux City, Iowa.

Collins was named to the five-member All-Tournament first team.

Welter was named the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference's freshman of the year. She started every game for the Cougars and finished with 486 points and 117 3-pointers.

Softball

Wisconsin-Oshkosh senior Sara Brunlieb (Rolling Meadows) completed the final spring break of her career with her fourth complete game of the season, a 6-2 win over Wooster (Ohio). She struck out the final 4 batters she faced.

Brunlieb (4-2) has 49 strikeouts (7.30 average per game) in 47 innings, which ranks second Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. She has given up 8 walks with a 2.38 ERA in 8 starts.

• Illinois State sophomore Shannon Felde (Schaumburg) extended her hitting streak to 15 games and on-base streak to 17 games in an 11-3 loss to Wichita State (17-12, 4-2) on Sunday. It was the first loss for the Redbirds (15-13, 5-1) in Missouri Valley Conference play.

Felde went into the leading the MVC with her .510 batting average. She has reached the bases in every game (14) with a 12-game hitting-streak. She has nine multihit games, including a 4-for-6 outing vs. Delaware.

• Elk Grove graduate and Shaw University freshman Alex Masnica is the only Lady Bear to play in all 23 games. She also leads the team with 63 at-bats.

• Loyola sophomore right-hander Keenan Dolezal (Barrington) owns a 7-3 record with 3.11 ERA for the Ramblers, who are off to 16-7 start.

Rugby

The Arlington Stallions varsity and junior varsity sides traveled to Cincinnati last weekend for four preseason matches. They came away with a 3-1 record.

Saturday was the club's better day as varsity side defeating Walnut Hill High School 67-7 and the junior varsity defeated St. Xavier 31-6.

On Sunday, the varsity fell to Moeller High School 31-14 while the junior varsity narrowly won 20-17.

"There were several outstanding performances," said coach Paul Bergman. "James Joyce (Hersey) and Willis Goodwin (Rolling Meadows) played well in new positions and scored three tries apiece. Senior Josh Glassman (Hersey) had a great debut to rugby, scoring a try each day. Ian Stoddard (Hersey) won a game for us with his goal kicking on Sunday and Justin Goelkel (Prospect) tackled everyone that came near him. It was a great way to work into spring break."

Men's track

Augustana junior Josh Yamamoto (Fremd) was the winner in the 400 hurdles with a time of :53.10 in the Early Spring Opener at the Knowlton Outdoor Athletics Complex. Vikings junior Evan Murphy (Buffalo Grove) was third in the long jump (21-4¼).

Men's tennis

Augustana junior Eric Pohl (Fremd) won at No.1 doubles with partner Samuel Trotten in a 9-0 shutout over Elmhurst. The pair is now 11-4 on the season.

Falco at Oakton

First-year Oakton softball coach Andrea Falco previously served as head women's golf coach and assistant softball coach at her alma mater, Robert Morris University (sports facilities in Arlington Heights), where she competed for the Eagles' softball and women's golf teams from 2009-2013.

Falco graduated Cum Laude with her Master of Business Administration degree from RMU in May 2013, where she also completed her Bachelor of Business Administration and Associate of Applied Science in Fitness & Exercise degrees, earning dean's list recognition in each of her four years.

• Email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com