Wrestling: Dundee-Crown icon Al Zinke dies after strokes at age 73

Tim Hayes set out last week to share the dire news from Florida regarding Dundee-Crown coaching icon Al Zinke.

Zinke was recovering after suffering a stroke, but then was hit with two more, at which point he was put in hospice care at his home in The Villages in central Florida.

“It’s been tough,” said Hayes, D-C’s current wrestling coach. “Before he even passed, I talked to 76 wrestlers in one day. It was awesome and terrible and exhausting at the same time. But it was really cool reaching out to a lot of people.”

Zinke, 73, died Sunday, leaving a legacy few can ever match at D-C, where he coached wrestling for 32 years, racking up a dual-meet record of 559-127, an .814 winning percentage.

Zinke was married to his wife, Maryanne, for 55 years. They were high school sweethearts at Crown High School.

Hayes, a 2004 D-C graduate, was greatly affected by Zinke.

“He is Dundee-Crown wrestling,” Hayes said. “I had the privilege of wrestling for him, coaching alongside him for five years, then being mentored by him when I got the head position.

“We were both on the [D-C Athletic] Hall of Fame committee, and we get to see each other every month or so. He’s been a big part of my life.”

Zinke also coached football and track at D-C. He worked several years as athletic director while coaching wrestling at the same time. He was inducted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame in 2005.

Even more than the wins, his wrestlers remember how he brought out their best.

“He was one of those guys who would work with you mentally and made you believe in yourself,” said David Silva, a 2002 D-C graduate. “Even when you didn’t believe in yourself, he brought it out of you. He would help you through those phases of doubt.

“Just an overall selfless guy, someone who, I, personally looked up to and felt like he always had my best interests in mind. I never questioned it. I would run through a wall for him. That’s the kind of effect he had on me. He always instilled that positive mental attitude.”

Steven Glasder coached with Zinke at Crown, then at D-C when the two schools merged in the 1983-84 school year. They coached together for 10 years and became great friends.

“He was a great motivator,” said Glasder, who is an assistant coach at Crystal Lake Central. “He could get the best out of every athlete he ever coached. That’s the best way to explain it.

“He’s my best friend, without a doubt. I’m heartbroken. He’s been sick a long time. He’s had a lot of surgeries. You name it, he’s had it. There are a lot of heavy hearts right not. He’s in a better place right now, for sure. Not many people knew how sick he’s been for the last several years.”

Zinke called Glasder after his first stroke and was upbeat, telling him he was on the road to recovery. But the last two strokes were debilitating.

Maryanne Zinke joined her children David, Carin and Barry back in the West Dundee area this week to plan the visitation and funeral. Visitation will be Saturday and Sunday at Miller Funeral Home in West Dundee, and the funeral mass will be at 11:30 a.m. Monday at St. Catherine’s in West Dundee.

“People say, ‘Why aren’t you more upset?’ ” Maryanne said. “To me, the second one, his soul was in heaven. He was no longer a person, to me. He was gone. The third one took what was left of his brain.

“When my son walked in and saw him and said, ‘That’s not my father in there.’ I said, ‘I know.’ Strokes are brutal.”

Even near the end, Silva held out hope because he knew Zinke was as tough as they come.

“He’s definitely had his scares with health issues throughout the years, and he was always resilient enough and, frankly, tough enough to fight it off and battle through it,” Silva said. “When I heard he had back-to-back strokes and he possibly wasn’t going to make it, I still had my doubts. It’s definitely sad to hear. It’s hit me a little harder than I even anticipated.”

Zinke attended Crown and was a standout wrestler. He was a four-year varsity wrestler at Wisconsin-Whitewater, then eventually made his way back to his alma mater as teacher and coach.

Hayes and Silva were part of a seven-year run of Zinke’s D-C teams winning Fox Valley Conference Tournaments in the 2000s. His 2004 team, on which Hayes was a senior, finished fourth in the Class AA Dual Team State Tournament. He was Northwest Herald Coach of the Year four years straight from 2001 to 2004.

Zinke coached two state champions, Larry Kaifesh (1985, AA, 167 pounds) and Mike Lukowski (2008, 3A, 189). His final year as coach was in 2011.

Silva and Hayes lean on a lot of what they learned daily as coaches themselves now.

“He was such a great man, a selfless guy, I attribute a lot of my success in high school and college to his leadership,” said Silva, who coached Marian Central for five seasons and now coaches in Brentwood, Tennessee. “Now that I’m a coach, I’d love to say that I came up with those things myself, but I didn’t, I stole a lot from Zinke. He was a great mentor to me.”

Hayes initially planned on going to college and becoming an accountant. He considers Zinke’s effect on him life-changing.

“Zinke got me into coaching and got me to get into teaching,” said Hayes, who teaches U.S. History at D-C. “I would have not met Katie and have my kids if it wasn’t for him.”

Maryanne Zinke maintained her sense of humor this week despite the circumstances. Miller Funeral Home director Tom Mullen thought it was going to take a few days to transport Zinke’s body from Florida. Instead, the body arrived at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at O’Hare International Airport.

“There are no such things as direct flights from Tampa to Chicago for normal people,” Maryanne said. “He got a direct flight. I said, ‘Even in death, he beat the system.’ ”