Parker coming home to join Naperville Central celebration decades in the making
Our conversation has continued for an hour, and Andy Nussbaum says with a laugh that he would love to keep talking another two.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind listening to more stories, having covered many of the Naperville Central girls basketball players their former coach is naming, but these newspaper pages don’t put themselves together.
The names of Nussbaum’s former girls basketball players are rolling off his tongue now, as are memories of individual long-ago games. Nussbaum has coached Naperville Central girls basketball for 36 seasons, going 731-363, including 10-15 this season, and some of the players remember when Nussbaum missed a practice for the birth of his now 35-year-old daughter.
They are moms now, many of them. Some have sent their kids to play for Nussbaum at Naperville Central, some to play against him for other suburban schools. They are professionals. They live all over the United States. They have built lives of their own.
They are coming home this weekend, many of them. They will be honored at halftime of Saturday’s game, which tips off at 1:30 p.m.
“It just makes me smile, you know?” Nussbaum says, struggling to find the right words. “… It’s just great to see what they’ve become. … I don’t know how to say it. It’s just really gratifying.”
Yes, Candace will be there too.
You’ll understand if Nussbaum admits that two of his 36 seasons stand out: the state championship teams of 2003 and 2004, which included several players who went on to play in college, none better known than Candace Parker.
The best high school girls basketball player to ever come out of Illinois, the 6-foot-3 Parker was the first girl to dunk in a game. Big crowds followed the Redhawks those seasons. Little girls, now grown themselves, lined up for Parker’s autograph. Media types like me encircled her, asking her thoughts on the game.
She handled it all with grace and aplomb.
“The first (championship) was wonderful,” Nussbaum says. “The second time, I don’t value it any less, but it was hard work the second time. It was so much harder the second time because having tasted the championship and having four of the five starters back … if we had not won the championship, anything else would have been (a letdown). It was a lot of pressure on a 45-year-old man, let alone a bunch of 17- and 18-year-old girls. And they performed so well.”
Parker matriculated to play for the legendary Pat Summitt at Tennessee and is still playing in the WNBA and doing some TV work for TNT. She’s starred in TV commercials, one of which included her old high school coach, Nussbaum.
This reunion idea all started, Nussbaum says, because a player from those championship teams, Erica Carter, is being inducted into the Naperville Central Hall of Fame this weekend. With Carter in town anyway, wouldn’t it be fun to get the rest of the players from those title teams together to celebrate the 20th anniversary? Recently, the idea grew to include all former Redhawks girls basketball players, including those who remember that Naperville Central had girls basketball before Nussbaum became coach.
Even Saturday’s opponent is special: Campbell Hall School of Studio City, California, is flying in Friday for the game. The Vikings (9-14) are led by Laila Williams, Parker’s daughter. Yet another second-generation athlete Nussbaum will coach against.
“Honestly, the original idea for them to come out was probably more Candace’s idea than anybody else’s,” Nussbaum says. “… It’s pretty cool.”
After the game the former players and their families will gather in the school library to eat pizza and reminisce. Nussbaum says he’s expecting 84 people to be there. Not bad considering this idea came together fairly recently, and, as Nussbaum notes, he doesn’t have a publicist in his team budget.
It promises to be a special day. Nussbaum will be talking about it for years. You can just picture the smile on his face.
“It’s all about relationships,” Nussbaum says, “and I’m happy that despite whatever imperfections our coaching staff had, the ladies are still happy to come back.”
Daily Herald Sports Editor Orrin Schwarz can be reached at oschwarz@dailyherald.com.