Marty Dello back working with Illinois Magic basketball

Marty Dello remained close to what the Illinois Magic basketball program was doing in the four years since Eric Samuelson took it over.

Dello, who sold the business to Samuelson in 2012, will be even closer now. The former head coach at Crystal Lake South and Barrington is returning to Illinois Magic as its director of basketball operations.

Samuelson, Magic’s owner and president, announced the move over the weekend with a Facebook posting and emails to the program’s parents and players. Dello, who is head coach at Chicagoland Jewish, returns to a program he originally started around 2000 as Midwest School of Basketball.

After that, Dello and Joe Parys ran Northern Illinois Basketball Academy for a couple year, before Dello went with Illinois Magic. Dello graduated from Woodstock in 1987, where he played point guard and eventually named the program after former Los Angeles Lakers’ star Magic Johnson, his favorite player.

“Eric’s done a great job of continuing to build (the program),” said Dello, who will enter his sixth season as boys head coach at Rochelle Zell High School (formerly Chicagoland Jewish). “I have a huge sense of appreciation for how he’s built it and feel good about jumping back on board so that we can continue to develop it even bigger and better.”

Samuelson had coached at a competitive travel program, but also worked with Dello’s feeder program in Barrington before he bought the business from Dello.

Illinois Magic is based in McHenry County and has teams for boys and girls from third through 11th grades. Samuelson also announced the coaching additions of Nick Gould as director of boys basketball, Kelly Love, Dan Trueblood and Zoe Smallwood. Love is an assistant coach at McHenry County College with coach Dave Pettit and the son of former Bulls great Bob Love.

“We want to make sure we continue to have a strong high school program and that our kids get placed at the next level,” Samuelson said. “We want our youth programs to teach a lot of the fundamentals at a higher pace for the kids. When they go back to their school teams or feeder teams, I want their coach to say, ‘Hey, you guys have really gotten better in the offseason.’ ”

When former Magic director of basketball operations Conrad Krutwig recently left for a coaching position with Man Up Basketball, Samuelson knew exactly who he wanted to take over.

The timing proved ideal, as Dello’s son Tory was finished with junior hockey in Nebraska and starts as a freshman at Notre Dame this fall.

“I can watch him play and still do the work for the Magic,” Dello said.

Dello, who coached at two NAIA schools in Nebraska before coming to South in 2002. He coached two seasons at South and the next five at Barrington. Dello reiterated what Samuelson said about fundamental skills.

“Our program is totally based on individual player development, with an emphasis on a businesslike approach,” Dello said. “I’m looking forward to getting in the gym with kids in our program and showing them that the things we teach are things they can use in a game. We want to bring our training to a whole other level.”

The Magic program will have about 25 teams playing in the spring and also hosts a fall in-house league. Samuelson saw Dello as a natural fit to return.

“We’ve always stayed in touch,” he said. “With Marty’s connections and him growing up in the area, he’s a great asset with coaches and players. A lot of players have it in their head they have to go somewhere else to play with top competition. We’d like to have those players stay and play with the best players in our area.”