Masoncup steps down as St. Charles North coach
One night during this past basketball season Sean Masoncup missed one of his grade school son's musical concerts and his other son's basketball game.
It was at that point the St. Charles North girls basketball coach knew something had to change.
Masoncup has decided to step down after three years as the North Stars varsity girls basketball coach, and there was only one reason why.
"It's time for me to be a dad," Masoncup said. "Coming home and talking to them (my sons) about it isn't like seeing it. I'm not there to support them.
"I told the team for once I had to make a selfish decision and put my family first. You can't get back the time."
Masoncup, who also coaches the North Stars' boys and girls tennis teams and will continue to do that, has two boys ages 9 and 7.
The North Stars went 20-9 this year, losing 50-41 to Geneva last Thursday in the Class 4A Glenbard West regional championship game.
That turned out to be Masoncup's final game as coach.
"I don't want to do it but I feel like it's the right decision," Masoncup said. "It's become too much. I figured the program is in a great spot now. It's a bittersweet thing. Basketball has really turned into a 10-month job and a lot of people outside the coaching community don't realize that."
Masoncup told his team Monday. He said he plans to get back into coaching once his sons get through school.
Masoncup is a 1997 Geneva graduate who played tennis at Western Illinois University. Before taking over the North Stars' girls program he spent the previous 8 seasons as a boys sophomore basketball coach - 3 years at St. Charles East and 5 years at St. Charles North.
After going 10-19 the year before he became the varsity girls coach with an extremely young team, the North Stars finished 14-13 in his first year. They improved to 19-9 in his second season and the 20-win campaign this year brings his 3-year record to 53-31.
"We had three straight winning seasons," Masoncup said. "Obviously we would have loved to have won a regional but the last few years we've run into some very tough teams and we competed and that's all you can ever ask for. To be able to accomplish what we did in three years I'm proud of the girls. I'm going to miss it a lot."