Bumbales, Dahlman excited about opportunity at Elgin

Elgin High School completed the hiring of a second new girls varsity head coach on Thursday, and both hires are a clear indication the Maroons, under the leadership of first-year athletic director Gwen Poore, are moving forward in a positive direction.

One thing will be for sure - Dr. Nick Bumbales and Chad Dahlman will bring renewed enthusiasm to, respectively, the girls basketball and softball programs, both of which have struggled for success the past few years despite being led by fine people and good coaches in Angie Hudson and Peg Corcoran.

The more immediate season first - girls basketball. When Hudson had to step down for what Poore termed medical reasons recently after four years at the helm, Poore turned to Bumbales, who has spent more than a decade serving Elgin High in a variety of ways, including being the Maroons' team physician.

"I've always been connected with basketball," said Bumbales. "The past few years I've worked with girls at Jim Harrington's camps. It should be an easy transition."

Bumbales' Elgin High basketball roots go back to the hay day of the boys' program in the late 1990s when he did everything including keeping meticulous records on the team and Sean Harrington's assault on the record books, to helping Jim Harrington on the bench, to being the team doctor. "Dr. Nick", as he's known in most circles, became a student of Jim Harrington's coaching methods and one can rest assured he will work the Elgin girls as hard as ever on the basics of the game. Time will tell if that translates to success on the court, where the Maroons are 17-66 over the last four years.

"I like the girls because they have a little more of a team concept these days," said Bumbales, now in his third year as a science teacher at Elgin High. "The girls are easily motivated and I'm looking forward to it. We will stress fundamentals. This is a long-term commitment for me, to build this program. We're going to be positive and play hard. We will play with intensity from the opening tip."

Bumbales, who said he had 50 girls come to an informational meeting this week, truly believes the Maroons can win again, like they did throughout the late 1980s and into the mid '90s under Lee Turek, who before retiring coached Elgin to 359 wins, 8 regional titles, 3 sectional championships, and a Class AA state runner-up finish in 1996.

"Even though we haven't had success the past few years, it's one of the most successful programs around the last 10 years or so," said Bumbales, who coached at York High School for one year under current Chicago Bulls assistant Bob Ociepka before coming to Elgin High. "There's no reason in my mind we can't return to that success. Lee Turek took it to a level of state runner-up and that's where I want to be. You can talk all you want about the new schools taking the talent away but when Elgin won back then it was with east side Elgin girls. I believe we can do that again. I've told the girls I want this program back on The Wall, and not in five years, but this year. We need to get the numbers up again and work hard, and we will."

Bumbales said his coaching staff is in place and ready to go, including Scott Stewart (varsity assistant), Mike Stanton (head sophomore coach), former Maroon player Michelle Rodriguez (sophomore assistant), Jason Fisher (head freshman coach) and Ryan Sieckman (freshman assistant).

Bumbales, who ran the Junior Maroons boys feeder program for 15 years, is a perfect fit for the job, Poore said.

"It's wonderful for us and great for the program," she said. "It should be a seamless transition. Nick knows our program and he knows the girls. He had a meeting with them (Thursday) morning and everyone's excited."

Poore and the Maroons hope that excitement carries over to spring when Dahlman, a lifelong Larkin guy, takes over the softball program.

"A goal of mine has always been to build my own program and this seemed like the perfect opportunity," said Dahlman, a 2000 Larkin graduate who played baseball for the Royals and then Lewis University before going to NIU for his physical education degree. "When Peg told me she resigned, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to build my own program and get it going."

Corcoran coached at Elgin for six years and St. Edward 13 seasons prior to that, but the last few years at Elgin have been as tough on the softball field as they have been on the basketball court in terms of wins and losses. But the Maroons' softball team, which was 9-23 last season, has seven returning starters, including two fine pitchers in Kelly Patchett and Hannah Perryman, but lack of numbers have hurt the program as much as anything recently.

"That's one of my challenges, to get the interest back up," said Dahlman, whose half-sister Kiley Holtz (also a Larkin grad) now plays softball at Eastern Illinois. "Peg did a great job but we really need to get the numbers up. I plan to be out at the local Little Leagues to see what's coming up."

Dahlman, who just finished coaching the Abbott Middle School eighth grade girls volleyball team to a 13-1 record and the District U-46 championship, coached for four years at Larkin, last year as Larry Hight's varsity assistant, and while Poore doesn't know Dahlman as well as she does Bumbales, she's equally excited to have him in place.

"Chad comes highly recommended," said Poore. "He's very enthusiastic. We're very happy to have Chad and his enthusiasm and knowledge. He's coached several years and he'll be a great asset to our program."

Poore is on the right track with both of these hires. Hudson and Corcoran are fine people and they were good coaches. But sometimes change is needed, and the hiring of Bumbales and Dahlman to lead these two programs should bring some new energy to both.

How that translates to wins and losses remains to be seen but one thing is for sure - both programs remain in very capable hands.

jradtke@dailyherald.com