Coach laments the ‘shocking’ loss of former Wheaton North basketball star
His smile lit up a room, his high school coach said. That light has been darkened.
Deng Reng, a Wheaton North High School graduate whose family left war-torn South Sudan and eventually settled in Wheaton, died Nov. 1 after a car accident in Aurora. The Montgomery resident was 26.
“Just heartbroken for the family,” said Dave Brackmann, the former Wheaton North boys basketball coach who had Reng on his varsity team for three seasons before Reng graduated in 2019.
Brackmann had known Reng since “little kid camp,” he said. He’d coached several of Reng’s relatives as well.
“Besides being a very good player, his smile lit up a room,” Brackmann said. “He was a really hard-working, good person. I never talked to anybody, whether an adult or a kid, that didn’t have good things to say about Deng. It’s really a shocking thing.”
A GoFundMe account has been established to remember Reng and support his family.
Reng, who played in 124 games with 100 starts for Ferris State University, in 2020 told The Ferris State Torch that his family left South Sudan in the late 1990s and came to the United States in 2001. He was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 2000.
Reng told the Torch he was inspired to pursue basketball by former NBA players and South Sudan natives Manute Bol and Luol Deng, with whom he had “some relation.”
A 2019 Daily Herald DuPage All-Area selection, the 6-foot-6 forward played professionally for Angeli in the North Macedonia-Super League as recently as the 2025-26 season, according to Eurobasket.com.
Brackmann said Reng had been “figuring out his next steps.”
The Wheaton North math teacher and golf coach said Reng lacked an ego, was quiet but funny, enjoyed helping younger players, and was admired by his teammates.
“He was one of those kinds of kids where regardless of how good he was you wanted a kid like that in the program because he made it better, not just for basketball reasons,” Brackmann said.
Brackmann said once news broke of Reng’s fatal accident, he sent text messages to Reng’s former Falcons teammates. They immediately responded with photos, memories and compassionate messages.
“I think that shows a lot about them and the impact Deng had on them,” Brackmann said.
“It’s hard to even believe it’s real,” Brackmann said. “I haven’t seen Deng in a couple years and obviously now I won’t be able to see him. You can’t really wrap your head around it. We’ll come together and do the best we can to remember him.”
She’s No. 1
Those who follow running sports are probably already aware, but the 15 minutes, 12.99 seconds it took St. Charles North junior Kara Glenn to win the girls Class 3A cross country title at Peoria’s Detweiller Park on Nov. 7 is not only a new state record. It’s a record by 40 seconds.
DyeStat editor Doug Binder reported the North Carolina recruit recorded the fastest girls high school time on a three-mile cross country course in United States history.
Honored Chaparrals
Olympic figure skater Alexa Knierim and College of DuPage football coach Matt Rahn were honored at the 2026 College of DuPage Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony last month in Glen Ellyn.
Knierim, a 2009 Addison Trail High School graduate now living in Des Plaines, was a member of the gold-medal team at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and earned bronze at Pyeongchang in 2018. She also won gold in mixed pairs at the 2022 World Championships, one of her eight world championship appearances.
Rahn, a 2000 Wheaton North graduate now living in Lombard, played offensive line at Hastings (Neb.) College and on the professional indoor football circuit. He returned to COD as an assistant football coach and took over as head coach in 2021. Rahn has since led the Chaparrals to five straight NJCAA Division III national championships.
In addition to Knierim and Rahn, COD honored state Rep. Diane Blair-Sherlock, Kennedy Space Center engineer Reggie Martin, and 18th Circuit Court Chief Judge Bonnie Wheaton.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com