Coach: North suburbs' Coach J is a man for all seasons

The hardest part of writing this story was just getting in touch with the man they call "Coach J." It took almost two weeks to track him down; he has a busier schedule than most.

In fact, I got quite familiar with his voice message memo (note: even his voice message has that gravelly note of a long time coach), and also his numerous texts saying "can't talk right now, got two baseball games to coach," or "have two parties to run, can we talk next week?"

But your friendly neighborhood Coach's Corner writer does not give in easily, and I finally reeled him in.

Suffice to say, longtime North suburban resident Danny Jesselson has more irons in the fire than most. A 1998 graduate of Glenbrook South High School, Jesselson has been working with kids and coaching sports in our area since his sophomore year in college.

"It all started back when I decided to be a camp counselor for the Banner Day Camp between my freshman and sophomore years in college," Jesselson said. "At the time, I was a broadcasting major at Western Illinois University, but I found my passion pretty quickly working with these kids at the camp, and right after that changed my major to physical education to become a teacher."

As they say in the writing annals, "this was just the beginning."

Jesselson stayed at Banner Day Camp for nine years, well beyond the counselor norm, and followed that up with 11 summers of camp counseling at Camp Ojibwa in Eagle River, Wisconsin. Both of these camps featured many kids from the North suburbs.

Not to be outdone by his busy summer career, Jesselson secured a teaching job post college at Sherwood Elementary School in Highland Park and found a home there back in 2004. It was the start of a long and prosperous physical education teaching career, all at Sherwood Elementary, but one that included many outside coaching gigs as well.

For many years, Jesselson has coached the boys basketball and volleyball teams at Stanley Field Middle School in Northbrook. He also coached Deerfield feeder basketball and for Full Package Athletics and All In Athletics as part of the Joy Of The Game facility.

That was followed by his current and ongoing position as a feeder basketball coach in the Glenbrook North system.

Just to make sure he wasn't getting bored with nothing to do, Jesselson also spent his summers coaching baseball and running some private parties with sports and recreation themes as well.

At this point, you may begin to see the depth of involvement Coach J has had with numerous North suburban youth over the years.

I personally spent some time coaching with him awhile back.

Watching Jesselson coach, you can see, and even feel, his love of the game and the unique connection he is able to make with the kids he coaches.

"Coach J," as he is affectionately known, is not from the old school, where you have to yell and scream and discipline to get the kids' attention. Instead, his style is more easy and amicable, tough but natural and toned down - and one that definitely connects with the younger age groups.

"I try and teach the process," said Jesselson, "meaning you have to celebrate success, learn how to deal with failure and, either way, continue to grow. It is not just about competing, but learning how to compete," he said, with the emphasis clearly on the "how" part of that sentence.

"I love to win, and I love to compete, but in the long run, and later in life, I tell the kids, and I have learned for myself, that it is not so much the wins and the losses that you will remember, but more so the relationships you have developed."

Meanwhile, with his teaching and coaching career in full swing, Jesselson, like so many others, had some fairly dramatic life changes and moments of reflection when the pandemic hit a couple years ago.

"It kind of gave me time to step back and analyze and decide where I want to go next," he said. "And the teaching remote thing just didn't work for me. My style required hands-on dealing with the kids, so I decided to go in a different direction."

His long-standing teaching career at Sherwood Elementary then came to an end, a wonderful 16-year run where kids and parents alike always appreciated his dedication and enthusiasm in the gymnasium, but it was time for new adventures.

"I got a little bit into life skills coaching and became a certified life coach," said Jesselson. "(Life skills coach) Carol Dweck and her mindset transformation philosophy was a big influence for me, and I saw her passion for life coaching. It was a different avenue for me and gave me a much different perspective."

Never one to sit still, and to further his love of working with kids - but in a slightly different way, Jesselson started a new company, One Shining Moment Sports and Life Coaching.

"I still do my coaching in basketball and baseball, but now I try some new and exciting activities as well. Through One Shining Moment, we do all kinds of life skills coaching for kids, including setting up Ninja type obstacle courses for the kids to go through, kind of representing a metaphor for life - the obstacles that they will meet and overcoming those obstacles."

His new company also has found a home doing small group training and backyard sports classes, where parents will hire him to work after school with kids in a relaxed atmosphere, right in their own backyards.

And that is just the beginning. Jesselson, through One Shining Moment, has set his sights on starting up a floor hockey league in the near future, a fall basketball league, and a girls softball program using the more nonthreatening 14-inch gym ball (softer) as a way of encouraging more girls to try the sport.

We should also mention, Jesselson, at age 42, is still single, making him one of the North Shore's most eligible bachelors (maybe his next new venture?), and that his voice as previously alluded to is already sounding like a 70-year-old coach.

Coach J may be in his early 40s physically, but the voice may be soon ready for assisted living.

No matter how the old vocal cords hold out, it seems the sky is the limit for Jesselson as he continues to make his mark on the sports and recreation scene in Deerfield, Highland Park, Northbrook and Glenview.

A long way no doubt from the young 19-year-old college kid taking his first summer camp job and, in doing so, discovering his life long passion. Needless to say, there are a lot of kids and parents who are certainly glad he did.

And somewhere along the way he became " Coach J."

Jesselson and his company and can be reached at omgsports@gmail.com.

• Jon Cohn of Glenview is a coach, retired PE teacher, sports official and prep sports fan. To contact him with comments or story ideas, email jcsportsandtees@aol.com.