Tumilty has simple goal for Willowbrook: compete

New Willowbrook football coach Scott Tumilty said he is not asking a lot.

“We just want them to be involved,” said Tumilty, the 1992 Naperville Central graduate and Villa Park resident who on Feb. 21 was approved as the Warriors’ ninth head varsity football coach in school history. A Maine South physical education teacher, Tumilty will succeed Mark Olson, who resigned after last season following seven years at the helm.

“I’d love to see them have a positive experience, to compete, to work hard, and to get them to believe in themselves and have them understand that success is not just magical, you have to work for it,” Tumilty said. “We tell them (at Maine South), a lot of times big effort equals big results. At Maine South they really work at it. It’s not necessarily that we have better athletes than anybody.”

Tumilty, 36 years old, is from a family of athletes. He was a three-sport star at Naperville Central who in 2009 was inducted into Augustana’s athletic hall of fame. A five-time All-America in football and track, he was Sport Magazine’s 1996 Division III male athlete of the year.

His older sister, Beth, played two years of soccer for Michigan State. Brother Pat was a hockey player at Naperville Central who played baseball at Evansville. Another brother, Jim, was a decorated football player who famously went through the playoffs with a torn ACL, losing to Wheaton Warrenville South in the 1995 Class 6A championship.

Each of the four children Tumilty has with his wife, Katie, a 1993 Willowbrook graduate, play a variety of sports. In Tumilty’s first meeting with Willowbrook’s football players on Tuesday he said his first emphasis is on grades and character. His second is to “go out for other sports.” He played soccer in the fall until his freshman year in high school.

Another emphasis, he said over the phone, was hitting the weights. Tumilty said Maine South’s weight program listed 26 athletes who could bench press at least 250 pounds. He said Willowbrook had three. That’s the hard work he referenced, which improves two other intangibles he mentioned: attitude and spirit.

When thinking of Maine South football one thing that comes to mind is its three straight Class 8A football titles. Another is the spread offense, but Tumilty said he will employ a variety of schemes, including parts of the Wing-T he ran while at Augustana.

“It’ll probably be the culmination of a lot of different offenses, and probably what fits our athletes the best,” he said.

Soon to be coaching in the town where he and his family live, Tumilty will probably hear varied opinions about just that topic. In return, though, he doesn’t ask for much.

“The main thing I want to get out of the kids is I want to compete and I’ll probably ask them for more of a commitment, more dedication to the program,” he said.

Offers coming in

Kyle Bosch, who last fall started at left offensive tackle for St. Francis’ football team as a sophomore, has just received his first three verbal college scholarship offers, according to an e-mail to the Daily Herald.

Listed at 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds on the Spartans’ 2010 roster, Bosch has received offers from Arizona, West Virginia and Indiana. The St. Charles resident also has drawn “a lot of interest” from Oregon and Notre Dame, the e-mail stated.

Kyle’s little brother, Brennan, is not so little. Still in eighth grade, he’s already 6-0, 195 pounds. A linebacker and defensive end, he’ll stay in his hometown and attend St. Charles East.

Going for it

Roselle’s Grant Stueve, Winfield’s Anthony Louis and the rest of Team Illinois’ Midget Minor AAA hockey team are shooting for a 2011 Blackhawk Cup state championship in a best-of-three series that started Thursday against the Chicago Mission.

This pits two of the country’s top under-16 teams against each other. Bringing a record of 45-10-4 into the finals, Team Illinois is ranked second nationally, according to the MYHockey Rankings website. The Chicago Mission, 45-17-4, comes in at No. 9.

Stueve and Louis, both forwards for Team Illinois, get to skate on their home ice at the Leafs Centre in West Dundee. The programs also battle each other for state titles on two other age levels, to be played at both the Leafs Centre and the Mission’s home rinks in Addison and Woodridge.

Still perfect

Wheaton resident and Benet Academy graduate Mike Lee improved to 4-0 in his professional boxing career with a first-round technical knockout of Pablo Gomez on Feb. 26 at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.

Lee enjoyed his usual large following of local fans who made the trip, sporting “Team Lee” T-shirts in Notre Dame green with gold lettering. The 2009 Chicago Golden Gloves champion weathered Gomez’s immediate flurry then floored the Denver native twice in the first round of the scheduled four-round light-heavyweight bout.

Lee, out of Bob Arum’s Top Rank Boxing stable of fighters, took a straight right flush to the head before he settled in to assume control. Video showing a beefier boxer than the lean Gomez despite just a 1-pound difference, Lee delivered a right cross to the jaw that dropped Gomez and sent his mouth guard flying.

Gomez staggered back from the ropes, whereupon Lee tenderized his torso with a series of his renowned body shots. That helped set up another big right hand from the 23-year-old former finance major that caught Gomez on the right side of the head. Shakily, Gomez wobbled off the canvas while the referee stopped the fight at 2:17 of the first round.