End of successful coaching run not all bad for Oeffling

Today is a sad day for Grant's girls basketball program, but it's a good day for Tom Oeffling.

Never mind that Grant's 63-52 loss to Mundelein in the title game of the Class 4A Stevenson regional Thursday night was the last game for the coach who turned a mediocre program into one of the best in Lake County.

Oeffling gets to see his son today.

"I see him on a Sunday," Oeffling said. "That's really what it boils down to (during the basketball season)."

No more.

Oeffling became a school administrator at Grant at the beginning of the season, and you can't do that job and be a coach at the same time. But with a returning group that included five seniors who'd been with him on varsity since their sophomore year, Oeffling requested one more season on the bench.

School administrators granted him his wish.

"They were gracious enough to allow me to see this group out," Oeffling said.

Nothing means more to Oeffling than his family: wife Megan, son Tommy, 3½, and daughter Wynne, 1½. It's because he has such good perspective on what's important in life that he never seems to lament too much a loss.

I can't tell you how many times I've called him to talk about his basketball team and the first thing he asks me about is my 4½-year-old daughter.

"How's Isabella?" he'll say. "What's she into now?"

So whether he decided to become an administrator or remain a teacher in the classroom, his years as a head coach were numbered.

"I will (miss coaching), but I miss my family more," said Oeffling, a jeans-wearing guy who "dressed up" in khakis and a pin-stripped button-down shirt for Thursday night's regional final.

"It's really hard. I struggle with it. … I have a profound respect for these guys who can (coach) for a career. I really do, because I don't have that mettle. I don't know what to call it. I ache. I really do. I miss (my family) so much."

Oeffling, a Johnsburg graduate, arrived at Grant in 1994. He coached the freshman girls basketball team for four years, spent a season as varsity assistant, then took over as head coach in 1999.

"I said to (then athletic director) Frank Cittadino, 'Give me five years,' " Oeffling said.

Grant won nine games in each of Oeffling's first two seasons, then the program took off.

The 2007-08 Bulldogs enjoyed their seventh straight winning season and sixth in a row of 20 or more wins. In 25 seasons before that, the team had just six winning seasons.

"When Tom came in, honestly, he set the bar," Grant athletic director Mark Barczak said.

Now, after nine seasons as head coach, Oeffling's time is over.

"Mr. Oeffling means the world to me," Grant senior Jamie Swanson said. "He's never been my teacher, but he's my really good friend. I watch his kids. He has a great personality, he was an awesome basketball player, and he's an awesome coach. I've never had a coach like him."

Neither has Grant girls basketball.