St. Edward has reason to be proud, and not just of basketball
DeKALB — Before he could retreat into the concrete catacombs of the Northern Illinois University Convocation Center following his final high school athletic contest, senior forward Nick Duffy was asked to put his finger on why sports at St. Edward have flourished during the 2014-15 school year.
After all, despite bowing out with a 46-39 overtime loss to Rockridge in Tuesday's Class 2A NIU supersectional, Duffy and his basketball teammates set a new school record with 26 wins and won their first sectional title in 18 years.
That came on the heels of a successful fall season for the Green Wave football team — of which Duffy and basketball teammates Danny Favela and Joe French were also key cogs — which finished 10-1 and reached the second round of the playoffs for only the second time in school history.
The best football and basketball seasons in the school's 71-year history back to back? How'd that happen exactly?
“They're both kind of the same,” Duffy said. “We have good athletes, but we're small in both sports. But both teams had a ton of heart. We have good athletes, but we're hard workers.”
That hard work was epitomized in one second-quarter sequence in which 5-foot-8 point guard Gino Domel made up for his height disadvantage against Rockridge's bigger guards by diving on the court twice to eventually allow St. Edward to come up with a loose ball.
But it took more than grit and effort to reach historic levels of success at the Elgin Catholic school. It took leadership. That leadership comes from the top in the form of Fr. Edward Seisser, the school's superintendent, who has fostered an atmosphere conducive to athletic success.
Part of that atmosphere is encouraging athletic director PJ White and his talented stable of coaches to work together for the greater good of the athletic program as a whole. A decade ago St. Edward made headlines for the inability of its coaches in high-profile sports to work with one another and share athletes.
Those days are long over under White, who spent most of his teaching and coaching career at Batavia High School before coming to St. Edward. It was at Batavia he learned under longtime athletic director Mike Gaspari that a smaller school — which Batavia was in those days — could only succeed athletically if kids were encouraged to play multiple sports.
“When Batavia was still a school of 700, 800 kids, they were butting heads and fighting for students,” White said. “As soon as they started utilizing all those kids and working together — the basketball team working with the wrestling team, the football team working with the track team — then everything took off.
“Well, it's been the same thing at St. Edward High School. We started using everybody and working together, the football coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, volleyball coaches — everyone works together and it's a great thing. The kids see that and the kids start working hard.”
The programs are not just doing well. They are flourishing. Particularly White's basketball program, which has won 66 games the last three seasons.
More importantly, White's Green Wave won 4 postseason games this year. Not bad considering the Green Wave hadn't won a playoff game since 2009.
“But you've got to give credit to the kids,” White said. “They're the ones that did all the hard work. We're just there to guide them. They're the ones that make it or break it.
“We're super proud of them.”