Buddy system leaves Mills in charge at Wauconda

Dave Mills and Glen Kozlowski have been friends since they were catching passes at Brigham Young University more than 25 years ago, one a rowdy wide receiver, the other a soft-spoken tight end - excellent at their crafts.

Mills, the tight end, earned All-American honors his senior year in 1984 in helping BYU win the national championship. A year later, Kozlowski tore his ACL five games into his senior season, after a monster junior year, but found his way onto the Bears roster the next fall. He was spirited and athletic enough to become a special-teams ace, despite playing on a knee that was never the same, and survived six years in the league.

"I always joke with him that he was the best one-legged wide receiver to play in the NFL," Mills said.

Both Mills and Kozlowski married when they were still in college - and are still married to the same women - roomed together on the road and became dads just months apart. They took different routes professionally, but the former route runners became best friends.

That's not going to change.

Mind you, for the first time in their lives, they're on rival teams. Mills was named Wauconda's head football coach last week, replacing Kozlowski, who left to take over the football program at fellow North Suburban Conference Prairie Division member North Chicago.

Kozlowski is the reason Mills is at Wauconda in the first place.

Since their days at BYU, they talked about one day coaching with each other if the opportunity ever presented itself. That scenario finally happened in 2002, when Kozlowski was named coach of Wauconda. At the time, Mills and his family - wife Wendy, who's also a teacher and coach, and kids Kasey, Davis and Kelsey - were living in Utah.

"My family and I were looking for a new adventure," Mills said. "Everything came together."

Mills - who had coached high school football in Utah for several years, including a four-year stint as head coach at Provo - took a job at Wauconda in the business department while Wendy found employment at Libertyville. Mills served as Kozlowski's defensive coordinator. Together, they slowly helped bring back respectability to Wauconda football. The Bulldogs won just one game their first three years, but by 2007 were in the state playoffs with 7 wins.

"It was a learning process, together," Mills said.

Despite missing the playoffs last fall, the program is in great shape, with participation up considerably compared to when Kozlowski came on board.

"I walked into the weight room (Friday) and there were 35 kids in there," Mills said. "When Glen and I first showed up, we had to beg to get 10 kids in there."

Mills plans to carry on what Kozlowski started, but he'll do it with a different approach. A softer one.

"He's more quiet and I'm a lot louder, but we both are very intense competitors," Kozlowski said. "He just shows it in a different way. He's really low-key, and I'm going to be right in your face and loud.

"His approach will be different, but the thing that people underestimate is how competitive he is."

Make no mistake, Mills is driven. He was in camp with the Redskins in 1985 and Patriots in 1986, but both times just missed making the Opening Day roster.

"I was the guy who was cut on the last cut," Mills said. "It's like going to your favorite restaurant. You can smell the food, and then you go to open the door and someone turns the lock and locks it."

At Wauconda, Mills serves as department coordinator for the applied arts department. He'll step down from that position following the school year so he can focus on being the head football coach, although he will continue to teach business.

And come this fall, when Wauconda and North Chicago play each other on the football field, the business teacher will be all business, even though his fiery best friend will be on the opposite sideline, trying to outsmart him.

"We've already talked about it," Mills said. "We said, 'After the game, whoever wins, all you get to do is smile. Neither guy gets to say a word.' It's going to be good competition, just like a rivalry should be."

You don't have to tell Kozlowski when the game will be played.

"Week 8," he said. "I look forward to it. It's good to have healthy rivalries. This is a natural rivalry now and I would expect my kids from Wauconda to play their tails off to beat me and to play against us hard. I'd be disappointed if they didn't."

One best friend will best another. A friendship will carry on.

jaguilar@dailyherald.com