Manic schedule just fires up Walters

One 16-hour day blends into the next.

You mindlessly trade back baseball caps for football helmets, barely skipping a beat.

June melts into the high heat of July. Next thing you know the August school bells are ringing again.

This is how John Walters gladly spent his summer vacation.

"It was unreasonably busy," he said with a laugh. "I'm a pretty high-energy, high-strung guy, but it was really something. I loved it, though. I wasn't dragging at all."

If you are at all familiar with West Chicago's first-year football coach, you can truly believe he kept his graveled voice growling through an endless summer.

West Chicago hired Walters as its varsity football coach in the winter to replace Bob Stone, who stepped down to fully focus on his role as athletic director.

The move fulfilled a lifelong dream for Walters, who in the past grudgingly considered looking elsewhere for a head coaching job. By staying patient -- and loyal -- he earned the best of both worlds.

"This is the ideal situation," said Walters, a 1989 Glenbard North graduate and a physical education teacher at West Chicago since 1996. "I get to follow in the footsteps of my football mentor at a place I love."

There's only one problem. His schedule suddenly became insane.

Walters has been the Wildcats' varsity baseball coach for nine years, and the timing of the football job came right before preseason baseball started heating up.

It didn't take long for Walters to realize his life was drastically changing. While gutting out the spring he awaited the summer onslaught.

A typical June and July day started with a 4:30 a.m. blast from the alarm clock. By 6:30 he was in an office at the high school planning a day of summer football camp.

Camp ran from 8 to 11, followed immediately by an hour in the weight room. After that he met with his assistant coaches for about a half hour before breaking for lunch at home.

By 2 p.m. Walters was back at school getting ready for a baseball doubleheader later that afternoon. The twinbills ended between 7 and 8 p.m., and by 8:30 he was home.

A long-awaited hello to Michelle, his wife of nine years, and he finally earned some playtime with sons Colby, 6, and Carson, 3. Following a quick shower and quicker dinner, he was typically in bed by 10:30 p.m.

Six hours later it started up all over again.

"You'd get all fired up talking football, and then you'd have to go talk baseball," Walters said, "and then you'd get fired up about that. Going back and forth was tough but fun."

It would have been a much drearier summer if not for the support of Michelle and his assistant coaches in both sports. His experience as an assistant prepared him for the rigors of the job, but not completely.

To know what it's like he had to go through it. And, boy, did he go through it.

Surprisingly, he's ready to go through it again.

"I love both jobs," Walters said, "and as long as I can give the kids what they need, and keep the program going in the right direction, I'll keep doing both."

On Saturday, however, it's all about football when the Wildcats travel to Evanston to begin a quest for the program's first playoff berth since 2002.

Walters hopes to wait as long as possible before trading in those football helmets for baseball caps.

"I'm ready to go," he said, "we're all fired up and ready to go."