Family name no big deal to South Elgin's Kumerow

You don't need binoculars to know when Eric Kumerow enters a local gym to watch his daughter Cortney play basketball for South Elgin, or when he heads for the bleachers to watch son Jake play football, or when he stalks the sidelines to see younger sons Kyle and Derek playing football for the Bartlett Raiders.

You also don't need to spend more than a few minutes with the Kumerow family to realize they don't really care if you know Eric's background or not.

For those of you not familiar with the Kumerow name, Eric was an all-state quarterback in football at Oak Park-River Forest High School, from which he graduated in 1983. He went on to become an All-American and 31/2-year starter at linebacker and defensive end for Ohio State. He was then drafted by Don Shula and the Miami Dolphins with the 16th pick in the first round of the 1988 NFL draft. After three seasons with the Dolphins he was traded to the Bears. An Achilles injury forced him to miss the 1991 season and he was cut by Mike Ditka prior to the 1992 campaign, ending his NFL career.

After spending some time in Florida where they owned and operated a gym for eight years in Fort Lauderdale, Eric and wife Tammi, also an Oak Park grad, decided in 2003 to come "home" to the Chicago area. He coached football for one year at North Central College in Naperville but decided he'd miss too much of his own kids' activities. He now works in sales for DuKane Precast in Naperville, while Tammi is an instructor at Lifetime Fitness in Warrenville.

How the Kumerows landed in Elgin Area School District U-46 can be attributed to Eric's mom.

"We really didn't pinpoint where we wanted to live, we just wanted to move back home," Eric says. "My mom found the house in Bartlett and when South Elgin (High School) was built it didn't bother us at all being in the South Elgin zone. We've been very happy with it."

While Kyle and Derek haven't hit high school yet, Jake, who now stands about 6-foot-3, will be a senior wide receiver for coach Dale Schabert's Storm next year and the 6-2 Cortney is winding up a South Elgin basketball career in which she will score 800-plus points for the Storm before it's over.

As easy as it would be to rest on the name, Cortney wouldn't think of it. Her own hard work has her scoring over 11 points per game and averaging 8 rebounds per night for the 15-7 Storm, who have won 5 straight heading into tonight's Upstate Eight game with Streamwood.

"To me he's always just been dad," she said of Eric. "People are always like 'your dad played football.' But it never really phased me. I don't realize it unless there's a Classic game on (ESPN) and I say, 'Oh, that's you!' "

Eric says he's made a conscious effort to not bring up his athletic past to his kids on a regular basis.

"Over the years I've been very laid back about the situation," he said. "I don't want to put pressure on any of them to be following in any footsteps. I coached them when they were littler but there's a lot of craziness in youth sports.

"They don't have to be me. I want them to be themselves."

South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast appreciates the approach the Kumerows have taken.

"I graduated from Forest View in 1984 so I was very familiar with Eric playing football," Prendergast said. "I came into South Elgin and I was coaching football and I read off this freshman's name, Jake Kumerow. Just by chance I ask if he's related to Eric Kumerow and Jake says, 'Yeah, he's my dad.' I'm like 'Holy Cow'. Then I get the girls basketball job and they tell me Eric has a daughter and she's 6-2 and she plays basketball.

"But Eric is very humble about his kids. He's been a great help and he's a really nice guy. Big, too. He was all-everything at Oak Park and Ohio State. He did all the things people talk about doing. It's been a good experience getting to know him. I'm a football guy and I got a chance to sit with him at the Daily Herald All-Area basketball banquet and pick his brain about football stuff."

Kortney is part of a senior class that is the first four-year class at South Elgin. High school basketball will be over for her soon, but then there's college and she'll most certainly play at that level, sans the pressure of having to go pro.

"I'm glad we don't have some crazy dad harping on us all the time about having to go pro," said Cortney, who has visited Carthage in Wisconsin and is keeping her options open for more visits.

"I don't go all hard core on them," Eric says about his kids playing sports. "If it's in them it's in them."