25th D-C vs. Jacobs game about much more than football

Dundee-Crown and Jacobs crave wins at each other's expense like bears crave honey.

However, the rivalry between these District 300 schools is anything but bitter these days as the Chargers and Golden Eagles' football teams prepare for the 25th renewal of their gridiron rivalry tonight in Algonquin.

In fact, in the last seven months the communities of both schools have demonstrated a level of compassion and humanity toward one another that transcends sports and reminds us we're all in this together.

The first magnanimous gesture took place last March, soon after the boys basketball season ended.

Paul Mallers, a star forward for Dundee-Crown, was an innocent victim in a serious accident at the Subway restaurant on Illinois 31 in West Dundee.

While Mallers and his mother, Linda, were eating lunch, an out-of-control SUV burst through the restaurant's south wall, killing customer John R. Venezia, 56, of Crystal Lake. Eight others, including Paul and Linda Mallers, were injured.

The force of the impact threw Paul Mallers across the room and over the counter. Knocked unconscious from the impact, Paul awoke beneath a pile of bricks and rubble with an injured hand and general soreness. Rehabilitation would take time.

Within days of the accident, a care package was delivered to the Mallers' home in Sleepy Hollow by a representative from Jacobs. It included gift certificates to local stores, food baskets and cards signed by the Jacobs boosters and basketball players.

This despite the fact Mallers and his D-C teammates a week earlier had ended the most remarkable basketball season in Jacobs history with a stunning upset in a regional final.

The Jacobs players, parents and boosters recognized, wisely, that the result of a sporting event didn't matter in the grand scheme of things compared to a local family's well-being.

Hundreds of Jacobs and Dundee-Crown families know each other well because their children grew up attending Dundee Middle School together. Though these kids later split up and funnel into the two high schools, the friendships linger, fostering one of the more natural rivalries in this area.

Those relationships don't end at school district boundary lines, a fact never more evident than last summer when tragedy struck the Jacobs football family. On July 27 Jacobs football coach Dean Schlueter lost his parents, Mel and Berneice, in a car accident.

Everyone who knows the Schlueters rallied to support them during that difficult time, including Dundee-Crown football coach Mike Davis and his Chargers.

"Mike Davis and his staff and their team signed a card and sent it to me and my family. That really touched me," Schlueter said. "That made an impression on me that they would take the time and energy to do that and think of my family and I. It meant a lot."

A month later came more heartbreak, this time within the Dundee-Crown family.

Doug Cutinello, a well-liked man who most everyone in Charger country seemed to know, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 49, hours before his son Matt and the D-C football team were scheduled to play their first game of the season at Geneva.

Matt and his mother, Patty, decided he should play the game that night to honor Doug, who loved to watch his son compete in football and track.

Days later at Doug Cutinello's funeral, the Jacobs community turned out en masse to support the Cutinello family.

"They came to my dad's funeral and wore their jerseys and everything," said Matt after a practice this week at the D-C Bowl. "I'm good friends with (Jacobs running back) Darius Bowers. I hang out with him a lot. A lot of their guys are great guys and they supported me with my dad. It was awesome.

"People talk about the rivalry between us being so big and everything. It's kind of hard for me to think of it as a rivalry because I'm really good friends with the people who go there. Two of my best friends go there and they come to all my football games. We get along with Jacobs so well now. It's kind of weird."

The Cutinellos received a card from the Schlueters.

"He sent his condolences and everything and was really cool about it," Cutinello said. "I'd like to talk to him after the game because he had the same situation. It was so unexpected, especially his. A car accident… It just doesn't happen like that."

Though the pain of his family's loss was still fresh, Schlueter did not hesitate in marshalling support for the Cutinellos.

"When tragedy struck Matt and his family, I know it hit our guys pretty hard," Schlueter said. "Even though I had never met Matt or his dad, it sure was a similar experience. I think we could relate in some way.

"I can only speak for myself. It's made me look at things differently, at what's really important. Because of what happened I just look at things differently."

Tonight, the Golden Eagles and the Chargers will buckle up their chin straps and hit each other with the ferocity the sport of football requires. But no one on that field will hold any illusions as to the game being anything more than that -- just a game, rivalry notwithstanding.

"We make every block for Mr. Cutinello," said D-C fullback," Tommy Newman, a Sleepy Hollow neighbor of Matt's. "It's like you're blocking for him. We basically lost a father to most of us. It really puts things in perspective for you."

In that respect the teams now share yet another common bond.

"Both teams have gone through something you never expect to go through," Davis said. "I think it does bring us together. And the whole thing last year with Mallers almost getting killed at Subway… I mean, those kids from Jacobs didn't have to do that. They sent all that stuff to his house.

"That's not stuff you have to do, but you do it because you respect them."

A team captain, Matt has played every game this season at running back. He also played linebacker before he was switched to free safety later in the season, the position Doug always said Matt was best-suited to play.

"He's a brave young man for continuing to play and play with class and be a team guy," Schlueter said. "That's pretty admirable in my book."

Like the Schlueter family, Matt Cutinello has truly appreciated the support he has received from the entire Fox Valley Conference football community.

"I want to thank all the teams for being supportive because they know what happened and they've been nothing but nice after and before games. I want to thank my family, all the coaches who have been awesome about it, the fans.

"And I thank my dad for letting me get through this. He did it. I don't know how people normally get through this. I don't know how I got through it. But he made it possible."

Tragedies have a way of reminding us what matters and what doesn't. The people at both schools should be proud of the way they've reacted in the face of mutual hardships.

"Both teams, I think, really showed their hearts during this time," Schlueter said. "I think that's a pretty cool thing."

Jacobs vs. Dundee-Crown

(Since Dundee and Crown merged in 1983; D-C leads series 16-8

2006 -- Jacobs 34, Dundee-Crown 6

2005 -- Jacobs 21, Dundee-Crown 20

2004 -- Jacobs 26, Dun-Crown 20 (OT)

2003 -- Jacobs 40, Dundee-Crown 21

2002 -- Dundee-Crown 28, Jacobs 19

2001 -- Dundee-Crown 8, Jacobs 6

2000 -- Jacobs 26, Dundee-Crown 12

1999 -- Jacobs 14, Dundee-Crown 3

1998 -- Dundee-Crown 14, Jacobs 12

1997 -- Dundee-Crown 21, Jacobs 19

1996 -- Dundee-Crown 35, Jacobs 13

1995 -- Dundee-Crown 18, Jacobs 0

1994 -- Dundee-Crown 27, Jacobs 6

1993 -- Dundee-Crown 19, Jacobs 12

1992 -- D-C 25, Jacobs 19 (2 OT)

1991 -- Jacobs 41, Dundee-Crown 6

1990 -- Dundee-Crown 19, Jacobs 7

1989 -- Dundee-Crown 47, Jacobs 6

1988 -- Dundee-Crown 32, Jacobs 0

1987 -- Dundee-Crown 36, Jacobs 0

1986 -- Dundee-Crown 25, Jacobs 0

1985 -- Dundee-Crown 7, Jacobs 6

1984 -- Dundee-Crown 14, Jacobs 6

1983 -- Jacobs 16, Dundee-Crown 0