Track won’t be the same without Jakalski, Preuss
On a training run years ago at Herrick Lake Forest Preserve in Wheaton, Glenbard South’s boys track team came upon Lisle coach Ken Jakalski, whose team was doing the same thing.
As Glenbard South coach Andy Preuss remembered it Jakalski wore a tropical bird costume — “a toucan outfit,” he called it.
Their paths cross once again, in a way, as each of these retiring Hall of Fame coaches enters the homestretch.
Motivation via toucan suit is not abnormal for the 60-year-old Jakalski, who came to Lisle 26 years ago, hired by Lions legend Carlin Nalley after 11 years combined at Aurora Central Catholic and Yorkville.
Whether assigning his athletes affectionate nicknames such as the Flying Breadstick or the Mad Stork, decking himself out in NASCAR garb for a cross country meet at the “Westmont 500,” holding an Easter egg hunt at Wilde Field or backing his vehicle up to the track and blaring polka music on his annual “Polish Day” training session (he’s Polish), Jakalski knows personal records are good but relationships and memories are better.
“I tell the kids like 25 years from now that’s the stuff they’re going to remember,” he said. “It’s not necessarily the wins you’re going to remember, but it’s things like Polish Day.”
Eccentric? Perhaps. But as in his literature and language arts classes, the razor-witted Jakalski is driven by passion as well as a respect for the sport and the kids who compete.
“We’ve always said the most important thing is for the kids to have fun and feel good about themselves in the process. If you can do those two things you’re going to be a successful coach, because those two things are why kids come out.”
Jakalski, who will retire having hosted both boys and girls track sectionals all 26 years at Lisle, is a Chicago native whose silly side is balanced by professorial knowledge of sprint science. At Aurora Central and Yorkville he began speed training experiments which later earned him the nickname “The Inspector Gadget of Track and Field.” Parachutes. Surgical tubing. Cables. Thigh trainers.
As a high school tennis player he used a then-rare two-hand backhand dismissed by a local pro. But it worked for Jakalski, and a certain biomechanical curiosity was born.
“I think that sewed the seed, that if I ever got involved with anything I want to make sure I got all these things right,” said Jakalski, who has also served as Lisle’s athletic director.
Later, his analysis of biomechanics and training methods in his “The Book of Zoom” drew an endorsement by Dr. Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University’s Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness. Jakalski has visited locomotion labs at SMU, Harvard and Rice to investigate the mechanical aspects of speed and has spoken on the subject nationwide and at several Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association clinics.
Also interested in measurement of speed as a training tool, Jakalski made Lisle the nation’s first high school to integrate Lynx System cameras and timing software with meet management. His testimonial on the Freelap Timing System is listed alongside those by folks such as Olympic gold medalist Justin Gatlin and U.S. Olympic Track and Field coach Brooks Johnson.
He’s not being forced out of Lisle by an administration he called “outstanding”; he doesn’t feel pressured by his wife of 37 years, Sue, with whom he has three adult children, two of them teachers.
“You want to end on a good feeling,” said Jakalski, named to ITCCCA’s Hall of Fame in 2005.
The terminally boyish-looking Preuss earned entry in the winter of 2011, in the middle of his 31st year at Glenbard South.
After one year teaching at now-retired Ashton, west of Rochelle, Preuss was offered a job at Glenbard South for the 1980-81 school year.
“One year’s turned into 32 now,” said Preuss, the Raiders’ boys track coach for as long as his marriage to his wife, Carolyn — 30 years. Batavia residents, their three children all were Batavia Bulldogs.
A 1975 Willowbrook graduate, he went out for cross country because, he said, he had nothing else to do and he’d seen coach Jim Tyree’s name in the paper. A few months later he joined Tyree’s track team.
“He said, ‘You’re going to be the best high jumper we’ve ever had here,’ and I was too dumb at the time to realize that it was because I was such a bad distance runner.”
Ironic for two reasons. Not only did Preuss jump 6 feet, 7½ inches at Willowbrook and set Illinois State’s record at 6-10½, he also coached a slew of top-notch distance runners — Micah VanDenend, Tim Schaefer, Dan Kuhlman and the MacTaggarts, Eric and Bruce. There was the 2007 Nike Outdoor Nationals, when Kuhlman, Kevin O’Brien, Tim Honig and Ben Matthies won a national 3,200-meter relay title.
All told, Preuss has had 82 all-state track athletes, including relay runners. The Raiders have produced 15 cross country all-staters in Preuss’ time, including Class AA state champ VanDenend in 2001.
A driver’s education and physical education teacher by trade who 25 years ago was named an assistant athletic director, Preuss is quick to laugh, generous, and doesn’t take himself too seriously despite a great amount of success. About his specific coaching responsibilities in a sport where there’s many different events and techniques, he joked: “If we ever do well that day, that’s what I coach.”
“I would say I’m much more laid back than a lot of people,” Preuss said. “I think I’m student-athlete centered, maybe. I understand they’ve got other things going on in their life. I help them try to set goals and help them work on their goals. Some people thrive on that.”
Informed by mentors Terry Artman and Lee Halberg, Preuss said he’s a subtle motivator when times are tough.
“I’m not a yeller, I’m not an in-your-face type. You don’t have to go up there and say, you dropped the ball today, buddy. They know they dropped the ball. I think it just depends on how you read kids and what they need at a certain point in time. Nobody feels worse than they do. I think you build on the positives and minimize the negatives.”
The tact has paid off with seven top-10 cross country finishes, all since 1999, including the 2001 AA title; and four top-10 track finishes including last year’s third-place in Class 2A with superstar 400 runner Garret Payne.
Preuss admits he can’t sit still. The current ITCCCA president, he’s staying on for another full year after his retirement from Glenbard South comes due. He’ll be attending this summer’s Olympic Trials in Oregon with, among other track pals, fellow retiree-in-waiting Dave Jackson of Hinsdale South. In September Preuss will go up to his father Bob’s island cabin in Nym Lake, Ontario. Later, he may even sell golf equipment.
Preuss’ personality will allow him to do whatever he’d like.
“You remember the relationships, because that’s kind of what it’s all about,” he said. “When it’s all said and done, you remember the winning, but you remember the relationships, and that’s the important part.
“I’ve been one of the luckier guys. I should have played the lotto.”
doberhelman@dailyherald.com