Before the Bears: Libertyville assistant called plays for high school Caleb Williams

The coaching opportunity of a lifetime was right in front of him. But first, Danny Schaechter had to convince an eighth-grade Caleb Williams to attend upstart Gonzaga College High School instead of powerhouse DeMatha.

Yes, it seems a bit far-fetched that Schaechter, now Libertyville's offensive coordinator, was also calling plays when the Bears' rookie sensation was in high school. But it's a true story.

Schaechter is a suburban native who played football at Glenbrook North. The desire to become a football coach led him on a circuitous path from Illinois State to Washington, D.C., with stops in four other states along the way.

That crazy Hail Mary touchdown Williams threw in high school to beat DeMatha, the one that's shown on every other Bears broadcast these days? Schaechter called the play.

“It was the easiest play call I ever made, because there was only one call to make,” Schaechter said. “It was the most stressful one too. Superman has been Caleb's nickname for a while. Superman always has his cape — that's a little catchphrase I picked up.”

The first time Schaechter met Williams, it was during a meeting with the QB and his father, Carl. The topic was simple: Why should he attend Gonzaga?

Known for its academic reputation, there are several other private schools in the Washington-Baltimore area with better football traditions, such as DeMatha, St. John's, Good Counsel and St. Frances. The list of Power 5 college players that came from those schools likely wouldn't fit on this page.

Schaechter had watched Williams' eighth-grade highlights, so he had a pretty good idea of the stakes. Head coach Randy Trivers and the school's recruiting director were also in the room.

“Coach T talked about the school, the academics, the football culture we were building,” Schaechter said. “My job was to talk about how I'd coach him up as a quarterback.

“So I put up our film, talked about, 'We're going to do this with formations, these are the pass concepts.' We were a lot closer to being a college system than what he would get elsewhere.”

Team Gonzaga hoped Williams would choose to take on the challenge of carrying a team in a pass-heavy offense, rather than be another piece on a roster loaded with big-time recruits.

“When I started talking to them, at first you could tell they were trying to figure me out and wondering if this is what they want for their son, because taking Caleb from DeMatha was a pretty big deal,” Schaechter said. “The thing about Caleb, he always wants the challenge.”

The sales pitch worked. Williams' family moved from suburban Bowie, Maryland, to an apartment near Gonzaga, which sits about a mile north of the U.S. Capitol Building.

“Coach Shack did a fantastic job with our players and with Caleb,” Trivers said. “He was always high energy, had great enthusiasm, intelligent and hardworking. He was really committed to his players.”

Coaching in circles

Schaechter actually got to Gonzaga by following Trivers from Leesburg High School in central Florida.

When Schaechter was a freshman at Illinois State, he wanted to stay involved with football so he got a job as an assistant equipment manager. A few years later, he switched to unpaid student coaching assistant.

His first paid coaching job was at a high school in North Carolina, then he tried a couple of colleges, working at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, then Division II Arkansas Tech. Deciding college football wasn't his best fit, Schaechter interviewed for roles at three high schools in Florida and accepted a position working for Trivers at Leesburg.

After three successful seasons, Trivers was interested in moving back to his home state of Maryland, got the job at Gonzaga and invited his offensive coordinator to follow. Even though he had to take a teaching job at a nearby middle school, Schaechter made it work.

“Meeting Coach T was a huge blessing,” he said. “Right time, right place with the right person.”

Superman on the beach

Williams started at Gonzaga as a freshman, won a league championship as a sophomore and probably would have done his best work as a senior. But the pandemic hit, Williams early enrolled at Oklahoma and Gonzaga played a spring schedule without him.

During the stress of COVID, Schaechter felt it would be better to bring his young family back home to Chicago and landed the job at Libertyville. Now instead of an hour commute into D.C., he can walk to the high school.

During the past seven years, he's coached two three-year starting quarterbacks — Williams at Gonzaga and Libertyville's Quinn Schambow.

“Both of them were special dudes, great guys to coach,” Schaechter said. “The thing that I learned was to highlight their strengths and let them be them.”

These days, Schaechter says he communicates with Williams a couple times per week. He likes to text before Bears games and remind Williams to “Stay on the Beach,” which means remain calm when surrounded by chaos. Solid advice with this year's Bears squad.

“I've been really lucky to have a lot of Caleb Williams in my life,” Schaechter said. “I was a huge fan of him as a high football coach and I'm a huge fan of him now as a Bears fan.

“Watching the Bears, it feels a lot like it did when I was wearing the headset. The beauty of having Superman is it doesn't matter what the play call is, he can always save the day and make it right.”