Highly touted cheerleading coach returning to Buffalo Grove High

Jeff Siegal, Elk Grove High School's prized cheerleading coach whose coed varsity cheerleaders brought home five consecutive state championships, is returning to his hometown school.

Siegel will trade in the Grenadiers' green and gold for the Buffalo Grove Bisons' orange and blue next year.

"It was a tough decision," said Siegal, who has been coaching for 17 years, mostly with Buffalo Grove and Elk Grove in Northwest Suburban High School District 214.

Most recently, Siegal split his time between the two schools, as an instructional assistant for special education and a boys volleyball coach at Buffalo Grove by day, and coed varsity cheerleading coach at Elk Grove after school.

That routine was starting to take its toll.

"To be honest, the travel back and forth is a killer," said Siegal, who lives in Buffalo Grove. "Sitting and eating dinner in your car is not fun."

Siegal earned his cheerleading stripes at Buffalo Grove where he coached for seven years, leading the coed squad to victory at the Illinois Cheerleading Coaches Association state championships in 2000 and 2001 and winning a national title with the AmeriCheer competition in Orlando.

He left District 214 in 2001 for a brief time coaching Northwestern University's Spirit Squad. When he returned to Buffalo Grove, the coed cheerleading program had dissolved but Elk Grove needed a head cheer coach.

Elk Grove earned distinction as a cheerleading powerhouse shortly after Siegal took over the program. But it was hard being head coach there when a majority of his daily activities involved Buffalo Grove students, he said.

"There I am leading an award-winning spirit group at Buffalo Grove High School and I felt bad that I cannot be there (for) a lot of football and basketball games," he said. "There was times that I was torn between two places."

Serendipitously, several of Buffalo Grove High School's cheerleading staff members decided to pursue other opportunities within the district and the head coach position became available.

Siegal decided it was the right time to make a switch.

"I needed to do something for myself for once," Siegal said. "I'd like to get married and coach my own kids. This (Buffalo Grove) is where I first started coaching. ... It's home."

Buffalo Grove welcomed Siegal with open arms.

"We're all very excited to have a coach of the caliber of Jeff Siegal," said Mark Schaetzlein, assistant principal for student activities at Buffalo Grove High School.

"His demonstrated history of success in the world of coed cheerleading makes him an excellent coach to lead out team through the coming years."

While Siegal will head up the entire program, he will have assistants to lead the junior varsity team, Schaetzlein said.

Meanwhile, Elk Grove High Principal Nancy Holman is confident the coed cheerleading program will continue to thrive despite Siegal's departure.

"I am absolutely not at all apprehensive about (the program going away)," Holman said. "Jeff has been outstanding. He has made tremendous contributions to this school for five, six years. From our end, we'll be sorry to see him go."

Siegal says he is leaving Elk Grove's coed cheerleading program in capable hands with longtime assistant coaches Danielle Damato and Angela Battisti, whom he mentored and recommended as head coach and assistant coach, respectively.

"They will do a great job," Siegal said. "I will be there for them, if they want my help. But I'm not going to step on their toes. It's their program now. I want to see them succeed and move on to the next level."

Yet, saying goodbye to his coed cheerleaders was not so easy.

"They did not want to see me go," Siegal said. "It did not go over very well. They were quite upset."

But when the tears dried, his students and co-workers at Elk Grove supported his decision to leave, Siegal said.

"I had such a connection with the kids there," he said. "They were a real special group to me."

Even with roughly 13 seniors leaving Elk Grove's coed team this year, there is still a good core of students returning.

"They are going to be very strong next year. ... I'll be very happy for them," Siegal said, admitting it will be uncomfortable when the two schools meet in competition.

"It will be a lot easier in a couple of years when all the kids I coached at Elk Grove are not there anymore," he said.

Siegal's hand-picked choreographers, who have worked with him for years and whose identities he will not divulge, will go with him to Buffalo Grove.

Siegal plans to revive the coed team at Buffalo Grove. Just as in Elk Grove, students have already flocked to be part of something that could become the highlight of their high school career.

Roughly 75 students tried out for Buffalo Grove's cheerleading program, and about 60 made the cut for next year, including 20 girls and 20 boys who will make up the new coed squad.

"I do want a new challenge," Siegal said. "It's exciting to see kids excited."