It’s Kivland Day at Prospect
Pat Kivland, who competed for Prospect and coached there for 36 years before retiring in 2010, was honored posthumously at the Mt. Prospect school on Wednesday before the start of the Prospect-Rolling Meadows boys gymnastics meet.
Kivland also met his wife, Tina, at Prospect.
“He was a real character,” said Tina Kivland, who met her husband of 39 years in the same gym when he was a first-year teacher and she was student teaching there.
“If you didn’t have a sense of humor, you had no business talking to him. It was great being with him all this years. It is one of the things that kept our marriage alive. It is like Jack Benny; 39 years and still going.”
Prospect head coach Randy Smith and his assistant Dave Porcher presented Tina Kivland with the MSL team championship trophies from 1964 and 1966 that Pat Kivland helped earn.
Pat Kivland passed last November at the age of 64 after a battle with pulmonary fibrosis.
“He spent many hours here,” Tina Kivland said. “It was very great of them to present me with these trophies. He will never know his grandchildren, but it gives me something to show them.”
“It was an honor to be able to be a part of this,” said Porcher, who competed for Prospect from 2002 to 2005. “All the hard work and dedication he gave. He didn’t just coach gymnasts, he shaped kids.”
“When people think of Prospect gymnasts, they think of Kivvy,” Smith said. “I am only the third coach here. I hope that I make gymnasts as good as he did.”
Prospect athletic director Tom Martindale, who emceed the presentations before the meet, told the crowd to “put on a blue shirt.”
“He lived Prospect,” said Martindale, who has been at Prospect for 11 years, the last nine as athletic director. “Pat dedicated his life to Prospect high school. He was dedicated and commited to his students and his athletes. I was blessed to spend time with him.”
Svet Slavkov, who was a state champion on the floor in 2006 and would later go on to be a national floor champion, credits Kivland with teaching him the important things in life.
“He was a great coach and mentor,” said Slavkov, who coaches gymnastics at Elk Grove Gymnastics and is the freshman coach at Hersey. “Not just for gymnastics, but for life as well. I can see myself doing the things with my students that he taught me. The most important thing is to see something special in everybody.”
Kivland’s son Rhett, who along with brother Tyler and sister Brea, also attended the ceremony.
“Even with all the time he spent coaching, our dad still had time for us,” said Rhett, who is the oldest. “He would coach us in baseball, soccer, golf or whatever. He was a great dad.”
Kivland’s spirit was evident as Prospect donned the uniforms from Kivland’s early coaching years as the Knights beat Rolling Meadows 123.60 to 105.20.
“We showed some emotion out there tonight, “ Smith said. “We are headed into a tough stretch now. We have nine meets in the next few weeks, so we should see some results from our hard work.”
Chris Klein won three of the events for the Knights. He had a 7.90 on the pommel horse, a 6.50 on the still rings and a 7.50 on the pommel horse. Tim Pappas had the top score for the Knights on the floor with an 8.50, while Matt Muniz won the vault with an 8.70. Ringo Larock also came up big for the Knights, placing in the top three in four events.
Rolling Meadows’ Matt Crigler won the high bar with a 7.20. The Mustangs also got strong performances from Sam Friedman, Joe Caprio, Sean Fitzpatrick, Jorynn Meahan and Jacob Grab-Lucki
“There were some flashes of greatness tonight,” Rolling Meadows coach Mike Costa said. “We worked over the spring break and it is nice to see the kids working on skills and implementing them in their routines.”