Gaspari + 'retirement' = one very happy football coach
Mike Gaspari is having the time of his life in his retirement. It is, of course, a full-time job.
After doing the yard work, grocery shopping and house chores he lacked time for during 33 years as an educator, 26 at Batavia High School and 20 as the Bulldogs' director of athletics, the former head football coach watches hours and hours of game film.
"He's getting a lot less sleep than I am, especially on the weekdays," said his son, Bulldogs quarterback Noel Gaspari.
Mike Gaspari knew before his retirement he'd remain with the football program in some capacity. His film studies, about four hours daily often dragging into the wee hours, bolster his position as offensive coordinator for Dennis Piron, his longtime defensive coordinator and successor as head coach.
"I feel blessed to still be doing it," said Gaspari, who coordinated the offense as head coach but now has a lot more time to focus on it.
The results speak for themselves. Through four games Gaspari's multiple-look offense has scored 169 points, most of any team in either division of the Upstate Eight Conference. The veteran defense, coordinated by Matt Holm, likewise leads the league with 32 points allowed. The combination has gotten Batavia off to its first 4-0 start since 2006 when the Bulldogs were Class 6A runner-up.
Ten players have scored offensive touchdowns. Twelve have caught passes and nine have run the ball while Batavia has averaged 378 yards of offense.
"Mike is awful good at what does," Piron said.
The genesis of an offense Piron forecasted in the preseason as being like "Madden 2011" begins in Gaspari's man cave. After chores are finished, practice done and the nighttime news watched with his wife, Marcia, he can spend quality time with the DVD machine.
"Actually the bulk of my time has been spent doing football work, and that's been absolutely wonderful. I'm more consumed with that than ever before," he said.
Even over the phone you can tell he's smiling.
"The biggest thing for me that's changed is just the opportunity to watch more film on the opponent, weekly. The other thing that's really made a difference on game night is being in the press box. Being a game-caller from the press box, it's really a huge advantage. There's times I feel it's cheating, almost."
Now that he observes no schedule other than football and has relinquished athletic administrative duties to Dave Andrews and the football stuff to Piron, Gaspari can feverishly plot schemes to his heart's content.
"It was an all-consuming job during the day," Gaspari said of the AD post. "I didn't really have much time to think about football until 2:30 rolled around. Now, there's more time to do that."
Batavia is loaded with experience on each side of the ball including his own son, Noel, the rare three-year starting quarterback at Batavia. The coach admitted that had the talent cupboard had been bare he likely would have remained as head coach rather than have his successor saddled with "another 2-7 year."
"It was a little bit easier to step aside because I had a feeling it was going to be a special year," Mike Gaspari said. "But we still have a long way to go."
Noel's sophomore season could have been special, too, a father and son reunion. Instead it was an often bitter slog through that 2-7 season. There were accusations of statistics being padded, suspicions that Noel being varsity quarterback was a patronage job.
"My sophomore year was tough," said Noel, who this season has completed 69 percent of his passes for 906 yards, 9 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
"There were a lot of different things going on, the kind of things people wouldn't believe," he said. "I was kind of disappointed with some of the publicity we faced. It was almost discouraging, but we fought through it."
Like the Bulldogs' record, the tables have turned.
"What is so much fun for me personally," Piron said, "is how much fun Mike is having, how much fun his son is having."
Piron said: "There's no better way to do it take the man who built the program over a 26-year career, then have him take over the offensive side of the ball."
The Batavia graduate said he hopes Gaspari stays on "until I'm done coaching."
Marcia Gaspari will surely have some say in that. But right now, this retirement gig is a blast.
"I couldn't be happier about how it turned out for this team and how things are going for me personally," Gaspari said. "I feel blessed to be able to be doing what I'm doing right now. It's a special job. To simply be a football coach, it's a great experience right now."
Tera-fic
You have to be a member of the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association to get in, but St. Charles High School graduate Tera Moody, who most recently placed fifth in the USA Half-Marathon Championships, will speak at the ITCCCA fall meeting at Angelo's Ristorante in Elmhurst on Oct. 5.
Former Saints coach Tom Roderick, an ITCCCA Hall of Famer now coaching at North Central College, contacted the 30-year-old Moody and asked her to speak, according to ITCCCA President Andy Preuss of Glenbard South.
Preuss said the theme Moody will address is "the transition from high school to college to world class," a topic she can expand upon.
A four-time all-state cross country athlete and two-time track 1,600-meter winner at St. Charles, she went on to the University of Colorado, where as a freshman she won the Big 12's 10-kilometer race and as a sophomore helped the Buffaloes to the 2000 NCAA cross country title.
A member of two world champion USA Track teams, Moody placed 28th in the marathon at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Her personal-best marathon time of 2 hours, 30 minutes, 53 seconds, at the 2010 Chicago Marathon, ranks 76th all-time among United States women.
Saints and Stars align
A week ago, on Sept. 15, St. Charles North's girls swim team hosted its crosstown pals, St. Charles East. The winner was a pair of charities.
From monies raised during a third-annual golf outing on Aug. 19 at Pheasant Run, about $3,000 was split between the local chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America and the Cure for Grace Fund, according to North Stars coach Rob Rooney.
Each year the squads select a charity to donate proceeds from the golf outing. The Saints chose the Lupus Foundation because Nancy Suess, mother of graduate Juliet Suess now swimming at Occidental College in Los Angeles died from the disease.
St. Charles North chose the Grace Fund in honor of former DeKalb swimmer Grace Waller, in remission from cancer and swimming at Oakland University in Michigan. Her father, Brad, delivered an emotional speech at the Aug. 19 post-golf dinner, Rooney said.
"We're looking to grow it every year," Rooney said of the charity effort.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com