Hampshire girls coach Ellett stepping down after 151 wins

The good ones keep leaving us.

On the heels of Jacobs girls basketball coach Ed Haugens stepping down after seven years, Hampshire girls coach Sue Ellett has decided to do the same.

Ellett told principal Chuck Bumbales and athletic director Dave Hicks last week, and then her team on Tuesday morning, that she's decided to hang up the whistle after, like Haugens, seven years at the helm of the winningest and most consistent girls basketball program in Fox Valley area history.

Ellett took her time to become a head girls basketball coach and has decided, for a variety of reasons, that her time is finished as a head girls basketball coach. She will remain the head girls golf coach at Hampshire, and golf has much to do with her decision to step away from the gym.

As much as basketball has meant to Ellett - and trust me, the game was more than life to her at times - her daughters mean more and they are the No. 1 reason Ellett has decided now is the time to change her focus. Daughters Taylor, who will be a senior this fall and Connie, who will be a junior, are pretty darn good golfers and, like their mom, figure to land a scholarship of some kind to play that sport in college. But that also is going to take some work on mom's part.

"I want to hit the college stuff hard for Taylor and Connie," said Sue, who played golf on scholarship at Northern Illinois. "Golf scholarships don't come knocking on your door. I'm their coach and their mom. I want to go on their college visits."

And there's family in general. Sue's husband, Doug, stepped away from coaching a few years ago after a long career in baseball and football, and now it's time for the couple to have some time away from athletics in general.

"I was watching a TV show recently about the 50 things you should do before you die and I've never done any of them," Sue Ellett said. "Life is short and I've spent over half my life coaching girls basketball. It's been like a great book but all great books come to an end and I don't want to be like The Grapes of Wrath. Doug and I want to do some things together and do things as a family."

One might look at seven years as a head coach and say, "Oh, that's not long." But Ellett has been coaching for over 20 years. A 1984 graduate of Dundee-Crown who was not only a state golf qualifier before there was an IHSA state series for girls but also played on Joe Komaromy's 1984 Dundee-Crown Elite Eight girls basketball team, Ellett began teaching math and coaching seventh grade girls basketball at Kaneland in 1988. She also coached the eighth grade boys at Hampshire that school year while Doug, whom she married in 1987, coached the Hampshire seventh grade boys.

Her coaching career included being Dick Rink's sophomore girls coach at Kaneland and three years as the assistant to the legendary Milt Awe at Hampshire before she went to Burlington Central and taught math and coached the BC Middle School's seventh grade boys team for four years. One of her players was current BC varsity boys coach Brett Porto.

In 2001, Awe had put in his papers to retire as a teacher and he knew he wanted Ellett as his replacement. There were no teaching openings at the high school but she landed a job at the middle school and became Awe's assistant again in 2002. That season, the Whip-Purs went downstate for the second time and came home with the third place trophy in Class A.

Now it was Ellett's time. A retirement created a math opening at Hampshire High School, Ellett moved into that classroom and took over the program from Awe, who won 384 games in his 17 years of making Hampshire a respected name around the state in girls basketball.

In her seven years, Hampshire went 151-53. Her first season the Whips were 30-4 and took second in Class A. They won four regional titles under her and though they never made it back to Redbird Arena, they had only one losing season in her seven, that a 12-15 campaign in 2005-06. Since then, the four years that seniors Chrissy Heine, Cassie Dumoulin and Bridget Dumoulin have been a part of the program, the Whips went 89-26, won three conference titles and three regionals. This season, they were 29-2 and lost a heartbreaker in a sectional final to Final Four qualifier Oswego. This year, the Whips were 30-0 at three levels in the Big Northern East.

"When I took the Hampshire job seven years ago I knew it was my destiny and my final stop," Ellett said, acknowledging Rink, Frank McQuade and Awe for mentoring her until she was ready, in her own mind, to be a head coach.

"I've poured my heart and soul into it for seven years and I'm very content leaving. I'm happy and satisfied with what we've done and I feel I've left the program in good standing.

"I was fortunate enough to be an integral part of keeping the tradition going. I came in 30-4 and I'm going out 29-2 and the years in between have been wonderful wonderful years. I'm extremely proud of everything we've accomplished and all the great kids we've had."

Ellett has always been a teacher first and it warms her heart to see former players like Nicole Watzlawick, Amanda Walker, Jackie Heine and Stephanie Smith now teaching and coaching.

"It's kind of neat to see the kids you've coached go on and coach," she said.

She's also proud of more than just her 151 wins and state medals. She started the Whip-Pur Reading Club and has had her players involved in numerous community projects and events over the years.

"I hope I'm not always remembered by the number of wins I had," she said. "We've tried to do things with and for the community. You can do a lot of things as a coach that impact kids."

Ellett has made no bones about her personal displeasure with Hampshire's decision to leave the Big Northern Conference for the Fox Valley Conference in the fall of 2011.

"I'll be honest," she said. "If we hadn't gone to the Fox Valley Conference I may have coached two more years. It's not that I dreaded the competition. Girls basketball at Hampshire High School will be fine, but the behind the scenes stuff and all the things that are going to change is going to take a lot more time to prepare for. You'd have to start scouting next year and that would have been a lot of extra work for one year, because when Connie graduates, I'm done coaching golf too, and I would have been done with basketball.

"I've given all I can give to coaching and I don't like to do things halfway."

While she acknowledges she'll miss what has been her passion for much of her life, other things are more important.

"It'll be different but I'm not going to miss all the long bus rides and the late nights wondering if my kids' homework is done and if I'll even get home in time to see them," she said.

One lesson she learned from Awe is to surround herself with good people, and she acknowledges two of those specifically -assistant coaches Joe Watzlawick and Brian Gilbert.

"My assistants have been second to none," Ellett said. "Joe's been with me all seven years and Brian's been here the last four and he's really made a difference in the program. My advice to any new head coach is to surround yourself with quality, knowledgeable assistants."

There's two more things before we close the book on Sue Ellett's basketball coaching career at Hampshire.

First and foremost - who might her successor be? Normally we don't ask that question when a coach steps down but this is one of the most high profile high school programs in the area in any sport so ...

We would suspect both Watzlawick and Gilbert might be interested, and we'll throw the name of Melissa (Tarrant) Haugens out as a possibility. Her Hampshire freshman team went 28-1 this season. We'll leave it at that. Bumbales and Hicks will likely make that decision as soon as possible so the new coach can get rolling with spring and summer plans.

Finally, Ellett doesn't want anyone to think she's "quitting".

"I hope they don't think I'm quitting," she said. "I'm just calling it a career, and a career I'm very proud of."

As well she should be.

jradtke@dailyherald.com