Smith, Mangano ready for what retirement brings

A lifetime educator and high school administrator, Naperville North athletic director Doug Smith recognizes the warmth people feel for their prep glory days.

It is special enough, he believed, that he initiated halls of fame at three of the four high schools where he’s worked: at Monmouth, Woodstock and Naperville North, where his final day after 28 years as an athletic director, the last eight with the Huskies, is June 9.

“Regardless of where you come from, what high school you graduated from, whether it’s a big or a small high school, people take pride in their high school athletic programs,” said Smith, who began as a social studies teacher and two-sport coach at East Peoria in 1978.

“Everybody has their own traditions they rely on, and to keep that legacy alive in that particular community, I think it is a very important thing to keep going.

“Whether you induct somebody from the class of 1940 or the class of 1980, I think it’s important to those individuals. I think their high school years mean a lot to them.”

People thought enough of Smith, a Morton Potter from the Class of ’73, to induct him into the Woodstock High hall of fame he founded. That goes hand-in-hand with Smith’s other legacy, the Hoops for Healing boys Thanksgiving basketball tournaments.

“That’s pretty close to me for obvious reasons,” said Smith, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in February 1988, the year before he arrived at Woodstock.

Between the two Hoops for Healing tournaments — the original at Woodstock and the more recent version developed with Oswego athletic director Steve McInerney — more than $100,000 has been raised for Camp Hope for children, through the Edward Foundation. In his retirement Smith will stay on as a volunteer, soliciting sponsorships.

Much has changed in the years since 1983, when Smith became Monmouth’s athletic director. Girls athletics has blossomed as have club sports and the full-blown onslaught of summer activities be it Amateur Athletic Union basketball or seven-on-seven football.

Thus, things became more complicated. Smith recalls earlier printings of the Illinois High School Association handbook being about 70 pages long.

“Now there are so many rules and regulations you’d better check with somebody on what you can do and can’t do,” he said. “They have rules, but they also have exceptions to the rules.”

Back when he started there were no computers in schools, no email. Every contract or correspondence Smith wrote he did by hand. If someone needed to be reached quickly it was by telephone of the land-line variety.

“You didn’t have cellphones, you didn’t have walkie-talkies,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse, but when you were home for the day you were home for the day, nobody could get a hold of you. Now you’re on call 24-7.”

Smith and his wife, Nancy, have two 20-something daughters, Dana and Carey. They obviously all did well enough as a family for Smith to remain an athletic director for nearly three decades. This, though, has also changed.

“When somebody was an athletic director, they were an athletic director for 25, 30 years. You don’t see guys staying in the business that long,” said Smith, who will be succeeded in his role by Naperville North graduate Jim Konrad.

“It’s a very time-consuming job, you take a lot of time away from the family. And some guys realize it’s too much time away from the family.”

Unless, of course, school and family are intertwined.

“All the good coaches I’ve had a chance to work with in three different schools, the athletes, just a lot of positive experiences that I wouldn’t trade in at all,” Smith said. “That was the good thing about this job — every day was different, every season was special. I wish I would have written down all the stories, I could have written a book.

“It’s kids and coaches doing what they love to do, and you can’t put a price on that.”

The able assistant

Doug Smith would be the first to say his job is made a lot easier by his administrative assistant, Kathy Kavanagh.

At Hinsdale Central four different athletic directors had rough spots smoothed out by the charming Joan Mangano, who is retiring June 30 after 33 years in education, 31 as an athletic secretary.

“You have to like what you’re doing to stay that many years, and after a while it becomes like family. These are your family members,” said Mangano, Morton West Class of ’59, who’ll be succeeded by Wanda Swik.

Mangano could also write a book based on her tenure under Red Devils bosses Gene Strode, Ken Schreiner, Tom Schweer and now Paul Moretta.

One great story features the Old Oaken Bucket, the traveling icon earned by the victor of the football game against Downers Grove North. Hinsdale Central won the game this particular season. The following Monday two boys arrived “claiming they were from the library,” Mangano recalled, wanting the Bucket for photographs.

Of course they weren’t from any library, and the Bucket-napping lasted until only the next day when it was found safe and sound, protected by plastic wrap.

“I’m surprised I’m still here,” said Mangano, whose boss at the time, AD and football coach Ken Schreiner, was not pleased. “I thought I was going to die.”

It would be hard to stay angry at sweet Joan, though, so while the number of sports and electronic gadgets multiplied around her, she pressed on.

“I still like to do things the old-fashioned way, but that’s just me,” she said. “I’m not into the computers. When they came out I was like, ‘I’m not going to use it because they’ll be here today and gone tomorrow.’ Boy, oh boy.”

She’s got two boys, now men, Downers Grove South graduates Jeffrey and Brian. After her June 6 retirement party at U.S. Cellular Field she’ll have time to watch her four young grandchildren scuffle around on various fields of play.

Athletic administrative assistant is a year-round job. If after her first free summer in decades Joan finds herself bored, she may look for part-time work.

Making one of the state’s most accomplished athletic programs click, after all, is never boring.

“It’s been a good ride,” she said.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com