‘Wayne was one of the finest men I have ever known’: Remembering former St. Charles AD DeMaar

This column covers all sorts of aspects of high school sports, but the bottom line is you want to win.

Few did that with greater consistency than Wayne DeMaar, the former St. Charles High School baseball coach and athletic director, who died March 26 at 82.

On his watch the Saints won 35 team state sports titles, including six during the 1998-99 academic year, Illinois’ top mark until Hinsdale Central won seven in 2014-15.

Earning a Jodie Harrison Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995, DeMaar joined the third induction class of the St. Charles High School Hall of Fame while still on the job.

An Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer, DeMaar won 350 games in 24 seasons and set the stage for even greater success under coach Len Asquini.

“He was a giver,” said another Saints stalwart of the era, retired football coach Roger “Buck” Drach.

“He was kind, he gave his effort, he gave his energy to the kids and the athletes and the sports, helping out with the coaches. He always tried to make your job easier as athletic director and was extremely supportive of everything we were trying to do. He was a great friend,” Drach said.

DeMaar was Drach’s defensive coordinator. In their first practice together Drach’s offense ran up and down on DeMaar’s defense. Then they took a break.

“He made some adjustments, and I don’t think we gained another yard,” Drach said.

Born in DeKalb but raised in Wheaton, DeMaar was married 59 years to his wife, Norma. They had two children who gave the happy couple four grandchildren.

In July, according to Yurs Funeral Home, the Congregational United Church of Christ in St. Charles will host a celebration of DeMaar.

“Wayne was one of the finest men I have ever known,” said Tim Dailey, who won three state titles coaching Saints girls soccer and had great success with the boys team.

Dailey said DeMaar was “universally loved.”

“He was respected for his humility and hard work, and his entire career was based on the values of integrity and selflessness,” Dailey said.

“Wayne impacted literally thousands of students, players and coaches during his lifetime, and their achievements are his ultimate legacy. We are all better individuals for his life.”

Here’s the pitch

At its March 14 board meeting in Champaign, the Illinois High School Association announced that Rockford Guilford will host boys state soccer finals the next three years beginning this fall.

That follows the two longest tenures hosting boys soccer finals since the state series began in 1972. Hoffman Estates has hosted since 2014, and the prior 14 seasons they were at North Central College in Naperville.

Guilford’s Swanson Stadium, built in 1969, seats 4,000 people. Renovations in 2025 included an overhaul of the home grandstand, including new aluminum bleachers.

Oh so close

Following last week’s item on Aurora University men’s hockey, the Spartans lost 6-3 to Hamilton College in the NCAA Division III semifinals March 27 in Utica, N.Y.

The loss came despite some controversy when an apparent tying goal by Aurora late in the third period was denied by officials on the ice and in a video review.

Aurora finished at 25-6-1, its most victories ever, in its first trip to the Division III Frozen Four.

Visionary

When he taught English at Hoffman Estates High School, Kirk Macnider initiated a hybrid class on automotive technology. He called it “Autos English.”

“They don’t want to read ‘Julius Caesar,’” Macnider said of students in the class. “They want to read Motor Trend.”

He met them where they were and it was a big success. Macnider said those students now are running departments in various automobile dealerships.

“It was a highlight of my career,” he said.

Now in his fourth year as Elk Grove High School athletic director, another highlight of Macnider’s visionary thinking came March 23 when High School District 214 announced that he won the district’s Dr. Elizabeth A. Ennis Innovator Award.

“I was almost embarrassed. It really is the coaches and the kids,” Macnider said.

True, but they are executing his vision.

Supported by Elk Grove Principal Paul Kelly and the person who nominated him for the award, Jackie Randall, Elk Grove’s associate principal for activities and operations, Macnider has implemented systems Grenadiers coaches and athletes use to gauge progress.

Using John Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success” as a basis, Macnider has established a Coaches Committee whose monthly meetings create a unified philosophy shared with athletes through another startup group, the Student-Athlete Leadership Team.

Individual standards are maintained through the new Gren Champions Club, which checks athletes’ accomplishments in sports and the classroom, even in areas such as community service.

Armed with spreadsheets and Excel files Macnider’s able to assign data measuring gains on everything from conditioning and attendance to intangibles such as attitude.

“We can leverage athletics to shape academics,” said Macnider, who cited improvements in established sports and a blossoming girls flag football team.

Student-athlete is not a mutually exclusive term. Like the Autos English gear heads who excelled in grammar, Macnider’s ultimate goal is to create “committed, coachable, focused, young adults,” he said, ready for the future.

“Nothing makes me happier than seeing people reach their potential,” Macnider said.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com