Coming back home to coach

There might be something to be said for coming home to compete at your old stomping grounds.

Each summer, dozens of Lake County high school athletes return to their respective schools after graduation to help out younger, former classmates at athletic summer camps.

Each year, new teachers – many who become coaches – return to the school districts where they once received their own education.

While it can’t be said that a returning graduate will automatically become the best coach for his or her particular school, one thing is for certain.

There’s a certain sense of pride that comes with coaching at one’s alma mater.

"There's just automatically a little more fire and pride ... a little more enthusiasm to come [to practice] every day," said Jaime Dennis, head coach for the girls basketball program at Wauconda High School, and a 1995 alumna. "The girls can feed off that."

It won't happen again

Dennis, who played volleyball and basketball and ran track as a student at WHS, knows a bit about the history of the school’s athletic programs.

That knowledge has given her even more drive to help her team succeed the last two years she’s been head coach.

“My junior year [of high school], we were 0-25,” Dennis recalled. “So, I want to make sure none of these girls ever have to experience that.”

Not only is Dennis a WHS grad, but her two assistant coaches – Dave Schmitz and Nicole Biskupski – are alumni.

Senior Melanie Prudhomme’s parents also are alumni,  Dennis said, and her father played for the same basketball coach Dennis did.

The common understanding they have of the school and its history does its part when they’re coaching or sitting in the stands.

“Sometimes I think we’re a little harder on the girls, we have a little higher expectations, because we know what we went through and what it takes,” Dennis said.

However, being an alum means you have to be careful, too, said Wayne Bosworth, a 2000 graduate of Grant Community High School and head coach of the boys basketball program.

“You don’t want to revert back to that too much, too many stories of, ‘Back in my day ...’” Bosworth said. “Kids don’t want to hear that too much.”

But having a background in the community is a definite plus, he said.

"It's nice because you have a good sense of the families in the community, and it makes it a lot easier to talk to the kids that come in the building," Bosworth said. "It definitely helps to understand what kind of kids are coming in."

Buying in

Greg Cohen, head coach of the boys tennis program at Warren Township High School, knows that athletic programs can thrive when student-athletes buy into what the program stands for.

For years, Cohen has had Warren tennis graduates come back to help coach his junior excellence program for middle-schoolers learning to play the game.

Most are standout tennis players at Warren who have continued to play collegiately, such as Denis Bogatov, a 2008 state champion who placed third in state in 2007 and 2009. Bogatov currently plays tennis at Michigan State University.

“I think you count on those college kids coming back and giving you credibility with the younger kids with what you’re trying to accomplish,” Cohen said. “When you get lucky enough to have a Denis Bogatov come back, you should see the kids’ eyes when they get the chance to hit with him.”

It’s not just tennis, either, Cohen said.

“Last winter, Brandon Paul came back,” Cohen said, referring to the WTHS star named Illinois’ Mr. Basketball in 2009. Paul now plays for the University of Illinois.

“I’m watching kids that were only like a year younger than him ... having him autograph their shoes. It’s interesting. They really look up to the college players and the guys who have played before who were so talented.”

College athletes have to believe in their high school program, too, in order to commit time to coaching at camps.

Former Warren tennis standouts Konrad Siczek and Igor Fedorov both took part in Warren’s summer camps when they were younger, and said they remember what it was like to have former students come back to coach them.

“I remember when I started out playing, I did all these camps, too,” said Fedorov, now a junior at the University of Illinois where he plays club tennis. “I looked up to the guys that were teaching the camps, and it’s cool to be one of them.”

“There’s a close relationship when you know that they went to the same school, they went through the same coaches,” said Siczek, now a junior at Marquette University who also plays club tennis. “Walking around the school, seeing the all-state pictures on the wall, it’s also motivation to try to be better than they were.”

Fedorov said graduates from other programs have come back to coach at Warren, but it was never quite the same.

“[We had] one guy from Antioch ... I enjoyed having him be my coach, too, but having the Warren [guys] was something to strive for,” Fedorov said.

Siczek, can specifically name Warren graduates that made an impact on his tennis career in high school – Mark Nelson, Jeff Fedor and others.

“They’re like role models in a way,” Siczek said. “I don’t know if I am [a role model] to kids now, but the older guys were role models to me, both on and off the court. I hope I can be like them.”

Cohen has seen the progression of graduates who have impacted his program, and said their presence is invaluable.

“Nick Truck, Erick Seilier – they’ve been influenced by Konrad and Igor, and they were influenced by Fedor and Mark Nelson,” Cohen said. “A couple of yours from now it will be Nick and Erick.”

“I think it’s the most important thing that we do,” Cohen continued. “I believe Konrad and Igor have more to do with the success of Warren tennis than I do. Their impact as players, teachers and coaches – they are vastly more important than anything I’ve done in the last five years, and I think the same could be said for those who came before them.”