Duffy is Grant's next athletic director

Tom Duffy, reluctantly, had two homes not long ago.

He found a new “home” at Grant a couple of years ago, and he doesn't plan on leaving it anytime soon.

At its meeting last week, Grant's school board approved Duffy's hiring as the high school's new athletic director, effective July 1, 2011.

“I'm just as happy as can be,” Duffy said. “This is a great place. I wish I had been here the last 15 years.”

Duffy will replace Mark Barczak, who is retiring at the end of the school year. Duffy is in his first year as Grant's assistant AD, after teaching math and coaching the Bulldogs' sophomore boys basketball the previous year.

The likable Duffy has coached several other sports, including cross country, golf, football and soccer.

“Tom Duffy is energetic and he's a veteran in athletics,” Barczak said. “His work ethic is incredible, and his personality is even more impressive.”

A 1985 graduate of Downers Grove South, where he played soccer, Duffy earned degrees from the University of Iowa and Eastern Kentucky University. He served one season as head varsity boys basketball coach at South Beloit High School in Wisconsin and came to Antioch High School in 1997, where he taught and was an assistant boys basketball coach until getting the head job in 2003.

Duffy left Antioch in 2007, when he and his wife, Kari, moved to Fountain Hills, Ariz., which is just east of Scottsdale. Kari became principal at Fountain Hills High School, while Tom became the head boys varsity basketball coach.

“My wife always wanted to move there,” Duffy said.

In the midst of the housing market crash, the Duffys put their Antioch house up for sale and moved to Arizona, where they rented.

A year later, however, the Duffys still had not sold their home.

“I was really worried about paying to live in Arizona and paying to live in Illinois (at the same time),” Duffy said.

So, the Duffys moved back to Antioch. Grant scooped up Tom, while Kari found work too. She teaches at the College of Lake County and Carthage College.

Duffy enjoyed his experience in Arizona except for maybe some of the road trips the boys basketball team took.

“It wasn't uncommon to (drive) two hours one way for a game,” Duffy said.

There was even a three-hour trip one way, from Phoenix to Tucson, with a return trip home the same night.

“That one we won,” Duffy said. “So that wasn't too bad.”

Barczak, for one, is thrilled Duffy is back in Lake County. And that seems to be the consensus at Grant.

“It's like the TV show, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond,' ” said Barczak, laughing. “Everybody loves Duffy.”