Principal credits colleague and coach for success

Bill Doran has come a long way from Pentwater, Mich.

Pentwater, a town of about 1,000 residents seated on the shore of Lake Michigan, is where Doran grew up in the '60s and '70s.

It's also where he met Jim Wallis, who moved to Pentwater when Doran was in middle school to teach social studies and coach high school basketball.

Doran says Wallis' encouragement and example pushed him to be the first in his family to attend college and later, to become a teacher and coach.

The two men have maintained a close relationship over the three decades since they first met and are now both principals in Community Unit District 300: Doran is the head of Westfield Community School in Algonquin, while Wallis runs Hampshire Middle School.

"There has not been a nonfamily member that has had more of an impact on the direction that my life has taken than Jim Wallis," Doran said.

Wallis coached Doran at Pentwater High School in the late '70s and early '80s. During that time, the team won conference and district championships and Doran, who played point guard, was named to The Associated Press first team all state.

Doran also netted 44 points in a game against Covert High School - a Pentwater record that still stands.

"Bill was the best high school player I ever coached," Wallis said. "He was confident but not cocky."

Wallis' tough, demanding coaching style earned respect for the small Western Michigan school and built a foundation for success after Wallis left in 1982.

"He's held in incredibly high regard here by the people in town, the people who played for him," said current Pentwater coach Steve Ernst. "He left the program in phenomenal shape. The legacy he established continued into the '90s."

Wallis' concern for his players didn't stop when the game clock ran out. Doran says his coach kept encouraging him to go to college.

"He kept saying to me, 'Bill, I think you have the ability to be a college basketball player,'" Doran said. "I didn't think much of it."

But Wallis didn't give up, driving Doran to small schools around the Midwest.

"I really pushed him hard. I felt it was something that Bill could do," Wallis said.

Doran eventually settled on Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he spent two years.

Meanwhile, Wallis became head coach at Judson College in Elgin, now Judson University. One of his first recruits was his star point guard at Pentwater, Bill Doran.

Doran played for Wallis for two years before becoming an assistant coach at Judson. After graduating from Judson in 1987, Doran followed Wallis' example, landing a job teaching at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School and coaching basketball at Dundee-Crown High School.

"I had a view of how he was able to impact his players as a teacher and a coach," Doran said. "I modeled most of my coaching after him."

After nine years as Judson's head coach - the longest tenure in the university's history - Wallis gave up coaching to spend more time with his kids.

This time, Wallis followed Doran into District 300 and became the athletic director at Hampshire High School.

Doran eventually earned his doctorate and has been principal of Westfield for more than a decade. Wallis has been principal of Hampshire Middle School, where Doran's son now attends school, for three years.

So while Wallis has the edge in coaching experience, he says the two have reversed roles as District 300 principals.

"I call Bill and ask Bill for advice and suggestions," Wallis said. "Bill's more my coach than I am his."

But Doran said not much has changed.

"Even though we're colleagues, I still look to him as a mentor," Doran said. "I still call him Coach Wallis."

Judson University honored Doran last year, naming him alumnus of the year. He invited Coach Wallis and talked about his influence on his life.

"I did not realize that I had made the impact that I had made," Wallis said. "I teared up a little bit. Whenever you have people tell you you've been a part of their life, you remember why you teach."