Life of Riley made richer with Montini football title

Montini athletic director Don Riley is retiring at the end of this academic year. Saturday in Champaign he basked in Montini's 29-28 win over Joliet Catholic for the Class 5A championship.

"What a great way to go out, just unbelievable," said Riley, who spent the last 14 years as athletic director at the Lombard school, 27 overall.

Coach Chris Andriano's championship may have made Riley greedy, but with outstanding girls basketball and wrestling teams in the house, why not?

"Now I'm looking forward to basketball and wrestling, because maybe we'll do this again. But what a great going-away present Coach A gave me. That's unbelievable," said Riley, who noted that Mike Ditka delivered a pep talk at Montini's final practice.

Riley, who lives in Bolingbrook and will turn 63 on Dec. 6, was a business teacher before taking the AD job. He coached freshman baseball and football for several years but really excelled coaching girls basketball.

In 10 seasons coaching the Broncos varsity, Riley compiled a record of 226-75 with quarterfinal appearances in 1989, 1990 and 1993. His teams won six regional titles and numerous conference championships.

Riley's Amateur Athletic Union girls teams were 16-Under national champs in 1994 and took second in 1996. In 1993, his U-17 team placed third in the nation.

In Champaign Riley said Andriano pretty much announced beforehand he'd go for a 2-point conversion if it gave the Broncos a chance to beat Joliet Catholic.

"He talked about it in the locker room before the game, that if it came down to it he was going for 2," Riley said. "No sense to leave it on the field."

Metea kicks off

Metea Valley football coach Ted Monken reports that things went well for the freshmen and sophomores in his startup program. The Mustangs sophs went 6-3, the freshman A team went 6-2 and the B team 7-1.

"I think for the most part we're pretty pleased with how the year went," said Monken, whose father, Bob, spent his 51st year of coaching football with the defensive backs.

"Two of the three (sophomore) losses we had were pretty close games, they came right down to the end," said Ted, who came over from St. Charles East. "We very easily could have been 8-1, but in a way maybe 6-3 helps us. It'll keep us a little hungry."

Heading the hungry are tailback Tre Sean Mackey, big receiver Ray Parker, defensive backs Preston Mitchell and Alan Williams, and two-way lineman Zach Wood.

Now the goal is to hit the weights to avoid being "out-physicaled," Monken said, "so when we get a muddy or rainy night we can push back as hard as they're pushing us."

Muddy and rainy prevailed this fall. So did the Mustangs. They opened their slate of nine true sophomore games with a quality 34-23 win over Lemont. Metea followed with wins over Bradley-Bourbonnais, DeLaSalle and Larkin before losing to Brother Rice and Neuqua Valley. Metea clung within 7-6 in the fourth quarter before Neuqua broke a long run.

"We went from feeling pretty good about ourselves to feeling pretty bad in a hurry," said Monken, who finished 2-1 down the stretch, shutting out Joliet Central, beating Joliet West and losing to Marian Central.

"In a lot of ways, these sophomores were very much like freshmen because the system was completely brand new, it's a brand new school," Monken said. "I think they picked it up very well and the success we had was a solid, good start."

In 2010 Metea Valley will compete in the 14-team Upstate Eight Conference's big-school Valley Division with Waubonsie, Neuqua, Lake Park, Bartlett, South Elgin and East Aurora.

"I'm just looking forward to playing some varsity football and asking everybody not to kick our butts next year because we only have juniors," Monken said.

More football? You bet

As reported here Nov. 12, 15 proposed IHSA Bylaw amendments including one pertaining to football scheduling made their way to a statewide series of "Town Hall" meetings and a Nov. 23 meeting of the IHSA's Legislative Commission in Bloomington.

Eureka principal Rich Wherley had proposed that the IHSA schedule all football games in 10-team regional formats in a two-year cycle (home and away), effectively ending football conferences.

"It didn't receive any support," said Benet athletic director Gary Goforth, a first-year member of the Legislative Commission who attended a Town Hall session at Addison Trail and the Nov. 23 meeting.

"He did a nice job presenting it," Goforth said of Wherley's proposal. "He did a lot of background work for it. But in our conference, with conference affiliations and rivalries, I just don't think that would satisfy the (IHSA) membership at this time."

However, a proposal was accepted for a state series in coed tag-team ultimate fighting.

Nah, just kidding.