A winning combination on the court, a lasting influence in life

Jordan Bakovic certainly is honored to go into the Benet Academy Hall of Honor.

Recruited by colleges both for basketball and volleyball, the former Jordan Wilson is among a stacked group of athletes — Kathleen Doyle, Frank Kaminsky, Dan LeFevour, Brad Webb.

What makes Saturday’s event “100%” more meaningful to Bakovic, she said, is Benet’s second Hall of Honor class also includes her Redwings basketball coach, Peter Paul, who died on Oct. 15.

“He was such a pivotal part of my growth not just as a basketball player, but as a person,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be the person that I am today or the player that I was without having him be a part of my life for, really, five years, because I knew him a whole year before I came in (to Benet).”

“Just to be able to be in the same Hall of Honor class as Mr. Paul is a humbling honor, for sure,” Bakovic said.

She had the opportunity to praise her former coach on Dec. 3 when the Lisle high school held a Mass for the late coach and Bakovic helped one of Paul’s sons, Mike, organize a guest reception.

In Bakovic’s speech that day she recalled Paul’s reminder that “Character is what you do when no one is watching”; and that “Cutting corners was never his way.”

She realized he meant these things in his Spanish class her freshman year.

“I thought that I was going to be lucky,” Bakovic said, “because, I’m like, ‘Oh, hey, I have my coach, he’s my Spanish teacher, he’s probably going to go easy on me.’”

She said that with a laugh, because it was not the case. Paul held everyone accountable.

After Bakovic graduated in 2002 as Benet’s all-time leading scorer in girls basketball and its all-time kills leader in girls volleyball, as a University of Wisconsin basketball player she used the habits Paul helped ingrain to earn three academic all-Big Ten honors and an Athletic Board Scholar award from Wisconsin.

Bakovic said that in her senior year at Benet, Paul told a newspaper reporter that Spanish class might come in handy should she go on to play professionally in Spain.

A prophecy. Bakovic played in Spain two of her four years overseas. Bakovic clipped that article, framed it and gave it to Paul, who displayed it in his classroom.

She also, while playing in Austria, met fellow pro player Igor Bakovic, now director of sports for the DuPage Sports Commission, a branch of the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The two eventually married, started a family and settled in Naperville. Jordan Bakovic works for Marriott International as director of sales and marketing for the Sheraton Chicago Grand Riverwalk hotel.

Neither of these things — the big job, the family — are a cakewalk. Bakovic can reflect back on her mentor for guidance.

“I think what Mr. Paul really did for me in terms of what he taught me is really setting that tone for class,” she said.

“He had a great sense of humor and really made things fun, but he definitely had a sense of expectation and made sure that both on and off the court we were carrying ourselves with composure. It was kind of like being a team player on and off the court.”

House call

On Jan. 16, Montini Catholic football coach Mike Bukovsky and players Isaac Alexander, Nico Castaldo and C.J. Harkins brought more than 100 coats to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in Chicago.

It was the result of a school coat drive, a mission Montini has done the past six years. It was spurred by a request from Dr. Michael Alebich, a Montini graduate and a former linebacker on the football team.

Now a veteran internist at Stroger Hospital, as a high school senior in 2002 Alebich led the Broncos with 108 tackles and 16 tackles for loss.

In 2021 Alebich reached out to Montini about the hospital’s need for coats. The idea came to him after a patient was ready to be discharged out into the cold winter, but his clothes had been discarded in the emergency department and the hospital had to buy new ones.

Bukovsky said that over the years he’s delivered about 600 coats to Alebich, who has a Montini crest embroidered on his medical scrubs.

Other than helping out, the coach believes it’s a learning experience for the boys who deliver the coats. Bukovsky also gets a kick out of seeing the old linebacker.

“I love the connection, I love Dr. Mike,” Bukovsky said. “When he sees the kids he jokes around. He says, ‘Every year these kids get bigger and bigger, and I feel older and older.’”

doberhelman@dailyherald.com