Zinke closing in on a milestone

Al Zinke went through some ups and downs as a child.

"I was disadvantaged growing up," said Zinke, now in his 29th season coaching wrestling at either Crown or Dundee-Crown high schools. "My parents weren't together. My sister quit school and got a full-time job to help pay the mortgage on the house so we would have a place to live and have food to eat. There were no such things as food stamps or welfare or unemployment compensation. If your parents didn't work, you didn't eat and you didn't have clothes."

In school, Zinke worked in exchange for lunch.

"As a kid I worked in the lunchroom washing dishes," said Zinke, a Crown High School graduate. "In my day and age if kids had no money there were no free lunches. Those plastic trays needed to be washed. They asked kids to help wash dishes and you got to eat free. It was a way to get lunch in those days."

He also wound up with a well-paying job during his high school days at Crown.

"I played sports and I worked," said Zinke. "I worked at the Fox Valley Rifle Range on Bolz Road there. It was a great place to work. They catered to the athlete. You could work 10-12 hours on a Saturday and 10-12 hours on Sunday. They paid extremely well. This is back in the 60s, I was making 4 dollars an hour on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. It was a nice job to have."

Zinke took plenty of life lessons out of his childhood. And it's those lessons that have been the impetus for his long and successful career as an educator and coach in District 300.

"I came back to give what I got out of it when I left there," said Zinke, who has held myriad educational positions at D-C (he's currently an assistant athletic director and the PE and Health chair. He also did a stint as a dean earlier this school year).

"I think I've been able to do that. I got into this because I had great coaches who led me down the right path and took an interest in me and wouldn't let me fail. I've been able to do the same for kids."

And the well-respected Hall of Famer is quickly closing in on yet another career milestone. To start the week, Zinke was, according to IHSA records, just 8 dual meet wins shy of 500 for his career. He would become only the fourth wrestling coach in documented IHSA history to go over the 500-win barrier. With D-C's remaining schedule, Zinke could still hit the 500-win mark this season.

"It doesn't mean anything," said Zinke, who had no idea he was close to the benchmark when informed earlier this week.

"I've had a lot of great kids to teach and have been fortunate to coach with a lot of great men who have worked hard with these kids. I told you guys this a long time ago, they give the coach the wins and the losses. I've never won a match and I've never lost a match.

"It's all about the kids and what they do. Our goal here is that we want the kids to be successful because of wrestling. We want wrestling to be used as a tool. If you work hard and sacrifice and are persistent and stay committed, good things are going to happen. That's what we want these kids to learn from wrestling."

Zinke also confirmed the 2008-2009 season will be his final one as both an educator and coach at D-C.

"I'm ready to get out," said Zinke, whose wife, Maryann, is an English instructor at Jacobs (they are the parents of sons, David, and Barry, and daughter, Karen. They have 4 grandchildren).

"What I've learned is teaching and coaching is a young man's game. It's kind of sad. I have no idea what these kids like in music anymore. When I was a kid we had a black and white TV with 4 channels and no remote. You had to get up and change the channel. You tell kids that and they don't believe it."

Zinke graduated from Crown in 1969. He lived only 3 houses from the former Kings Road Elementary School (the building that sits behind D-C's current baseball field). Yet he attended Eastview Elementary School in Algonquin.

"I lived 3 houses from Kings Road and we got bused to Eastivew," said Zinke, who has led D-C to 2 state team final appearances. "At the time I didn't know it, but my future wife was right next door attending St. Margaret Mary (in Algonquin)."

Zinke also recalls a time when Algonquin residents went to Crown.

"Algonquin and Carpentersville, for years, we were a school and Dundee was the other school," said Zinke, who mentioned the possibility of working in a parochial school for several years after retirement ("I'd like to see if that environment is that much different.").

"There was no Jacobs. When they opened it, kids weren't necessarily happy to go there. Why would they build a school in the middle of a cornfield? You tell people that now (Jacobs originally sitting in a barren cornfield), they think you are crazy."

In terms of the current day, Zinke said coaching is about much more than just showing up after school.

"Mentally I could go on forever," said Zinke, whose current team will shoot for the program's eighth straight Fox Valley Conference title in 2 weeks (15th since the merger of Crown and Dundee).

"Physically, I'm tired. It's not the coaching part as it is making sure the kids make the grades and the kids get to school. We have to make sure these kids' needs are met. That's the tiring part. If all you had to do was teach and then coach for 3 hours starting at 3 p.m., it would be a breeze. Some years you have 20 kids and the only problem is figuring out which one is going to sit and which one is going to wrestle. Other years it's which kid has the biggest problem that has to be dealt with."

Zinke has also noticed a change in the sport itself.

"Parents spend money for kids to go to these wrestling schools. It's hundreds of dollars," said Zinke. "They go to their high school practice and then go to another place at night. Our kids here can't do that. The only way our kids can do that is to offer them the same opportunities but not charge them for it. I'm afraid it's becoming a sport for those who have as opposed to those who don't. It's almost a country club sport without the country club. A decent pair of wrestling shoes are 60 bucks now. In the situation I was in growing up, there's no way I could afford that. I wore an old pair of Converse shoes taped up. No way could I be an athlete in this day and age.

"And now we charge kids $150 per sport. If you're a 3-sport athlete, that's 450 dollars. That bothers me. We do have the 'adopt an athlete' program here and that helps. But how many kids at these schools are missing out on sporting opportunities because they can't afford it?"

As he has stated many times previously, Zinke cherishes the relationships he has developed with his wrestlers and coaching staff much more than any win-loss mark or championship.

"At the Dvorak this year I was able to spend the evening with Jim Wormsley (former D-C standout and current Hersey coach) and Steve Glasder (former D-C coach and current Hersey assistant). Jim's in his 30s now and is the father of 3 kids. Steve and I have been best friends. We built each other's houses. These are the things that it is all about. This is the fun part of it."

A pair of former students visited Zinke recently.

"We had 2 kids come back, one wrestled and the other never wrestled," said Zinke. "They both played football and I coached them. Neither had a father growing up--they didn't have a dad in their lives. But sports and the camaraderie that was built were very important for them growing up.

"There's the work part of it here, but there is also a rewarding part. They do appreciate what we've done for them. But it's time to pass it on to somebody else who can relate to them. It's harder to relate to the kids now. What's the newest X-Box? I still think Nintendo is top of the line. It took me forever to learn how to use a VCR and now it's outdated. The Walkman was great and the Discman came along. To (heck) with that. Now you've got MP3s and iPods. You hook up your computer and you get music. It all goes by quickly."

While Zinke takes great pride in the interaction he keeps with his many former students and coaches, he also points out another important interpretation.

"It means we've done our job," said Zinke. "This is what we get paid to do. If you are only worried about getting paid as a teacher you are in the wrong business. Go make money someplace else. This is all about how can you influence young people? How can you get them to be better at what they do? How can you make them believe they are better than what they think they are or better than they can be? There are people that teach subject matter and there are people who teach kids. Some people think you teach kids subject matter. It's our job to teach kids, period."

And Zinke is one of the very best at doing that.