Schaumburg’s not done yet
Tom Gallagher’s coaching swan song will have an encore performance.
The veteran Schaumburg swimming and boys water polo coach, who will be retiring from coaching and teaching following the school year, made his final visit to the Barrington pool a wet one Saturday evening. His Saxons edged Conant 11-9 in a tense sectional final.
Schaumburg meets St. Ignatius at 4:30 p.m. Friday in a boys water polo state quarterfinal game at Stevenson High School. The winner advances to a semifinal at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, with the state title game slated for 8 p.m. Saturday.
A celebratory dunk in the pool following the win put Gallagher in an appreciative state of mind — especially on the heels of last season, when the Saxons did not appear in the sectional title game.
“We sat in the corner last year,” he said, pointing to a spot on the pool deck at Barrington, “and talked about what it would take to get to state. It’s about hard work, and our guys did it. We had people playing summer ball, in the fall, and it paid off for them. I couldn’t be happier.”
The Saxons (24-8) were clearly prepared for the task at hand, jumping to a 4-1 lead after the first quarter and 7-2 at the half behind 3 goals from Mike Gergen and Randy Carr. Gergen had 2 goals — one on a penalty shot, another on a breakways — in the final 46 seconds of the first half.
“That’s been the story of our season — for some reason, my guys seem to like playing from behind,” said Conant coach Tim Daniel.
Conant outscored Schaumburg 7-4 in the second half. Brandon Chic scored twice in the third quarter, and entering the fourth the Cougars trailed just 9-7.
Brandon Grzegorek scored twice in the final period for Conant, but Schaumburg was able to manage possessions and got goals from Matt McMullen and Carr to stay in front. Stellar goaltending from senior all-conference pick Mike George throughout the game certainly helped the Saxons.
Gergen and Carr both finished with 4 goals, Mullen had 2 and Marty Kwiatkowski 1 for Schaumburg. Palmer Lynch, Jon Burke and Grzegorek had 2 apiece for Conant.
For Gergen, who was recruited into the sport out of PE class by former Schaumburg assistant Justin Teschner, watching the clock run down on a sectional championship was perhaps a little too much information to quickly process.
“It’s just a huge release of emotion,” said Gergen, a senior, still clutching the championship hardware. “Words can’t really even touch how it feels for me. I think it will take a while for it to sink in.”
Conant (19-13) can reflect on another year of making gains, even though it ended earlier than the Cougars would have liked.
“I think the main difference between us and Schaumburg is that Schaumburg’s here every year,” said Daniel. “We made a lot of progress, and a lot of that’s because of our seniors, Palmer Lynch, Zach Sikat and Brandon Chic. They helped us turn the corner, and now the standard’s been set. I had an absolute blast coaching these guys this year.”