Manning's homecoming evokes some mixed emotions

An emotional attachment to Hoffman Estates is still evident for Marty Manning.

This wasn't just any place or team where Manning played basketball. He was the Hawks' all-area point guard in 1996 when they made the first of their two trips to the Class AA state tournament in Peoria.

But Manning will have to detach those usual emotions when he walks into his old school Saturday night. Around 7 p.m., Manning will get his first shot as Huntley's head coach to face Hoffman and his former coach, Bill Wandro.

"I'm excited but I have kind of mixed emotions," said Manning, who is in his fourth year in charge of the Huntley program. "It will be difficult to win a game against him (Wandro) and Hoffman in general.

"Once we get on the floor I'll be pro-Huntley. But I've scouted them a couple of times and I still find myself pulling for them and hoping they do well."

The sophomore undercard also has an interesting twist in a battle of the Mead family. Jason, the eldest of three brothers to play for Wandro and the Hawks, will lead his alma mater against middle brother Bryan and the Red Raiders.

Both teams schedules finally opened up to allow the matchup to take place. Wandro has usually seen Manning's teams play a couple of times each year but admitted it's been weird scouting them.

And Wandro's admiration for Manning is a big reason for the matchup. One of his favorite Manning stories occurred in the summer of 1991 when he was working at Northwestern basketball camp shortly after getting the Hoffman job.

"I was watching the game with a friend and I marveled at this little kid weaving in and out of everybody, making unbelievable passes and stopping on a dime and shooting 3-pointers," Wandro said. "I said, 'God, I'd like to have a kid like that at Hoffman.'

"His coach comes up to me and says, 'Hey, you have to be as happy as can be, because this kid is coming to Hoffman. The rest is history in terms of turning the program around."

Manning may not have looked much bigger than a grade-schooler as a senior at 5-feet-9 and around 130 pounds. His numbers weren't eye-popping at 10 points and 61/2 assists a game.

But Wandro called him "the leader" of a 27-4 team that had a powerful inside game with 6-7 future Indiana football player Nick Abruzzo, 6-5 Steve Gorman and 6-4 Mark Ganek. They fell an agonizing point short in the state quarterfinals to Westinghouse.

"I remember driving home from the state tournament and talking about things," Wandro said, "and he really wanted to coach."

Manning went to Illinois to study business with a plan of eventually going into teaching and coaching. He was helping former teammate Tony Reibel with Hoffman's feeder program and saw his career path change when he lost his job as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

He wound up at rapidly growing Huntley as a business teacher. He spent his first year as a girls assistant for Steve Raethz, another ex-Hoffman all-area player, and two years as the boys sophomore coach.

Manning said "he was kind of in the right place at the right time" to get the varsity job when it opened. A school referendum didn't pass, so no new teaching positions were created to bring in an outside candidate.

But Manning was definitely the right guy with a 70-33 record and two regional titles. He has a young team this year led by 6-2 junior Tyler Brunschon, the No. 2 scorer in the Fox Valley Conference, that is 12-7.

Clearly, the pupil has picked up a lot from the mentor who has won 325 games with only two sub-.500 finishes in 18 seasons.

"Once I got into coaching I found myself doing a lot of similar things," Manning said of Wandro. "I learned a tremendous amount from him."

Which Manning hopes to use toward a happy homecoming Saturday night.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com