Ragan has big plans for Wheaton Academy football
Speed and strength are obvious staples of football, and T.J. Ragan has spent half his life preparing players for the gridiron.
In his position as Wheaton Academy’s new head varsity football coach, Ragan won’t stop with a fit body.
“We want to use football as a tool to change lives,” he said Wednesday from his current post in Highlands Ranch, Colo., where he’s ending a four-year term as associate athletic director and director of performance at Valor Christian High School.
He’ll find plenty of material to work with at Wheaton Academy on the field and off in his newly created position as director of performance at the Christian school in West Chicago.
The main weakness in the Warriors program since football returned in 2006 after a 17-year lapse has been some difficulty running the ball between the tackles but primarily stopping opponents from doing the same.
Size and strength on the interior line have improved at Wheaton Academy over these past few seasons and can sometimes be skirted by quickness — think 160-pound nose tackle John Gemmel. Continuing the progress is right up the alley for Ragan, who was hired March 16 in the wake of the January resignation of Ben Wilson, who chose to spend more time with his family following surgery to remove a brain tumor.
(Wilson, who visited Ragan at Valor Christian in the past, will contribute as much as he would like, Ragan said. “It’s very unfortunate what he’s gone through,” Ragan said, “but as he’s put a stamp on the program he’s going to continue to do so.”)
“I’m encouraged by the kids,” said Ragan, who after his hiring met with Warriors players and has already scouted out a house just three doors down from the Wheaton Academy campus.
“We’ve got kids that are hungry for taking it to the next level, working hard, sacrificing, doing something for the greater good of the program,” he said. “That’s what I’m excited about, we’ve got a lot to work with.”
As well, with that life-changing stance previously quoted. A Christian who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Bethel College in 1991 (and also worked two years in athletics and performance at Orange Lutheran in California) — the 43-year-old father of four will find similar ideals at highly service-oriented Wheaton Academy.
“I’m very excited about it,” said Ragan, a Vancouver native and three-sport prep athlete. “Outside of my relationship with Christ and family I have two passions in my life, and one is strength and conditioning and the other is football.”
Aside from a year coaching linebackers, tight ends and offensive line at Bethel as a graduate assistant, coaching running backs and defensive backs a few years later at Johnson High in St. Paul, Minn., and extensive experience at youth levels, Ragan’s primary focus has not been football X’s and O’s but strength and conditioning, for which he is certified by National and Collegiate associations.
He does not see this as a liability. Noting that as part of football staffs in organizations spanning youth, high school, college and professional levels (Denver Broncos, 2010), Ragan said he’s been “intimately involved in everything that goes on in the program” through practices, games, team meetings, film sessions and the like.
And as they say, winning football starts in the off-season. That’s right in Ragan’s wheelhouse as a leader and tactician, on the field and off.
“In taking this job I watched a lot of film. I wanted to know what the makeup of the team was, what the makeup of the conference was, where they were at, and one of the things I think I can make an instant impact with is creating a culture of accountability,” he said.
“They’re in it to be a part of something.”
Scrum!
Floating somewhere in the back of high school parents’ minds is the availability of the elusive college athletic scholarship.
In that vein the leaders of the Predator Rugby Club, formerly the St. Charles Rugby Club, notify us there are at least 48 colleges and universities, from Arizona to Yale, that offer scholarships in women’s rugby.
Continuing further, club director Jay Crawford is inviting high school girls of all skill levels to check out a Predator practice and consider joining up.
The team photo on the club website (predatorrugby.com) shows a delightful-looking group of young ladies with nary a busted nose.
For information on Predator Rugby, call Crawford at (630) 730-7710 or email Jay@SCRugby.com.
Going out gracefully
It is hard to believe given his ageless, boyish appearance, but Glenbard South boys track and cross country coach Andy Preuss is retiring after this school year.
Once a conference track peer of Batavia’s Dennis Piron, Geneva’s Gale Gross and Kaneland’s Eric Baron in the disbanded Suburban Prairie North, Preuss and his wife, Carolyn, are Batavia residents. They raised three Batavia Bulldogs — daughter Caitlin and sons Michael and Matt.
Preuss was inducted into the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association 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’ coach for as long as his marriage, 30 years.
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 featuring 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. 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
Mascot vs. Mascot
Aurora Central Catholic Charger
(First round: defeated Aurora Christian Eagle)
Warrior equipped with lance
Shield is optional protection
Barrels forth on regal steed
No known photo exists of reclusive mascot
Scale drawing depicts 22-inch biceps
St. Charles East’s
King Charles the Great
(First round: defeated St. Charles North’s Polaris the Polar Bear)
Descendant of King Charlemagne (742-814), Frankish king also known as Charles the Great
Was bequeathed small inheritance, mainly textiles and livestock liberated during the Carolingian campaigns
Commands armies of brave male and female warriors
Smiling countenance belies serious skills with fleur-de-lis-topped scepter
Outcome: The Charger is a fierce mounted warrior but, alas, King Charles the Great has at his command many similar warriors. It’s good to be king.
Winner: King Charles the Great.