Streamwood's Rosner will return for all the right reasons

This has been a reflective week.

I've spent the better portion of my career covering girls basketball in the Fox Valley area and with that has come the privilege of getting to know some fine coaches.

Some have stayed around longer than others, some retired when they felt it was time, some didn't leave the game or this life of their own free will.

I've had the honor of following the coaching careers of such girls basketball greats as Lee Turek at Elgin, Ken Mattini at St. Edward, Joe Komaromy at Dundee-Crown, Bill Butkus at Crystal Lake South, Ralph Hix at Burlington Central and Marengo, Milt Awe at Hampshire and the late Gary Wadlington at Cary-Grove, just to name a few. Komaromy's retirement and Hix's recent passing give cause for the reflective mood of the week. Watching Komaromy's last seconds at Prairie Ridge Tuesday night reminded me of what a special guy the coaching ranks is losing.

But one of the guys I admire the most is George Rosner at Streamwood.

Why? Well, it's simple. Because Rosner keeps coaching for all the right reasons.

Sure, he'd like to win more. It just hasn't happened lately. Rosner's last three teams have gone a combined 13-73 on the court.

But now, at the end of his 36th year of coaching overall, Rosner isn't even thinking about hanging it up.

"We hope better days are ahead," Rosner said after his team's first-round exit at the Class 4A Larkin regional earlier this week. "I'm not going to work any less. I'm going to work harder. My commitment level to this program is as high as it's ever been. I'm going to push myself and push my coaches. I want some success before I'm done."

At 58, Rosner is at that age where many public school teachers, many of them his longtime coaching friends, are retiring. He began his career in the parochial school system thus, he has four years to go before reaching retirement age.

And at this point he intends to coach all four years and -- who knows -- maybe even beyond. He's taken one Streamwood team (1988) to a Sweet Sixteen and never coached downstate. While he doesn't have visions of grandeur for the Sabres' future teams, he does see some light at the end of the tunnel.

"I knew during the summer one of the key things for us this year would be guard play," he said. "We're just so young. But we had kids get better. Take (sophomore) Caitlin Marchant. She got much better as our point guard. She still makes mistakes but they're hustle mistakes.

"We had some success on the lower levels this year. Our freshmen won 15 games and the sophomore team was very competitive. You hope the best players on those teams will come back and continue playing."

Rosner, whose first win of 2008-09 will mark his 300th at Streamwood, has never been any less active. In addition to coaching the girls basketball team, he's also the varsity boys golf coach, and he continues to be the Voice of Sabres for football, boys basketball and track as his schedule allows. Even after a tough loss on a doubleheader night, he'll talk to his team and get to his perch at the scorer's table in time for the boys basketball game.

"I love the kids," said Rosner, who continues to get great support from his wife, Kathy, and sons George Jr. and Joey. "Most of the time, the kids make my day a positive day. My family supports me and wants to see me win. I love the game and I want to win. I think I have a lot more still to give. I'm not going to do it less than 100 percent. I still watch tape and I still do most of my own scouting."

Don't expect Rosner, who is also on the board of the IBCA and this area's girls basketball representative to the IBCA, to be seen wearing anything but the Sabres' black and gold, as long as he's still a full-time teacher anyway.

"As long as I'm still in education I'll be at Streamwood High School," said Rosner, who did a four-year coaching stint at Palatine in the mid 1990s before returning to Streamwood, which he continued to teach at while coaching at Palatine.

"There's no place else I want to be. I love the kids and we have a lot of good times despite the losses."

See, having fun and doing things the right way doesn't always have to include winning every game.

Congrats Hux: Speaking of coaches, we throw out kudos today to former Larkin standout Dave Huxtable, who was recently named defensive coordinator for George O'Leary and the University of Central Florida football program. It's Huxtable's second stint as a d-coordinator, the first coming under O'Leary when they were both at Georgia Tech.