Boys basketball notes: Former CL Central coach Rick Czeslawski is back coaching at CL South

With his love for basketball, his experience as a head coach and his connections around the McHenry County area, it was a good bet Rich Czeslawski would not be out of coaching for long.

The former Crystal Lake Central boys basketball coach, who is chief organizing officer for Pure Sweat Basketball’s Crystal Lake facility, is back on the bench this high school season. Czeslawski has moved across town to join Crystal Lake South coach Matt LePage’s staff as an assistant.

Czeslawski was head coach at Central from 2007-19, and LePage was the girls basketball coach there from 2009-12, when he took over as the fifth boys coach in South’s history.

“Matt and I have been friends forever,” Czeslawski said. “He called me, and I gave it a lot of thought. I wasn’t sure if I was ready yet.”

In fact, LePage said it was Molly Czeslawski who suggested he give her husband a call.

“Molly is super-supportive, and she was on board with it right away,” Rich Czeslawski said. “She saw I was missing it.”

In 2019, LePage’s Gators tied for the Fox Valley Conference title with Czeslawski’s Tigers, and Central knocked South out in a Class 4A regional. That turned out to be Czeslawski’s last season at his alma mater.

“The last couple years I always hinted we’d like to have him,” LePage said. “Molly actually was kind of giving us a little, ‘Hey, he’s ready to get back in.’ She gave us a little nudge. It might have taken a 10-minute conversation on the phone. He was ready to go. He was ready to get back and coaching.”

There was the matter of switching from orange and black, all Czeslawski had ever known, to green and yellow. Jimmy Czeslawski, Rich’s son, had grown up in the Central Fieldhouse, and the family lives across the street from Central’s Owen Metcalf Field.

Czeslawski spoke with former South coach Gary Collins, who later coached on his staff at Central, and former Central players Carson Sterchi and Mark Mucha, who now teach at South. Mucha is the girls varsity basketball coach.

Then, he talked with his son, a seventh grader at Bernotas Middle School.

“I thought if I asked him about coaching at South, he’d be ‘Oh, no way, I’m a Tiger,’ " Czeslawski said. “His eyes got real big and he said, ‘That would be awesome!’ He said, ‘I miss going to high school basketball games, and you would be coaching again.’ "

That sealed the deal.

LePage’s son Cooper, a junior guard, and other Gators work out at Pure Sweat, so the players already were acquainted with Czeslawski.

“He’s always been somebody I admired,” said Matt LePage, whose team is 8-3. “It’s been great. He’s always been an outstanding coach, and his offensive vision has always been his M.O. We have a pretty good offensive team, so I thought it was a good fit from Day 1.

“It’s been awesome to bounce things off him with the knowledge and things he’s seen over the years. We bounce things off each other all the time.”

Hinkle webcasts: South Elgin’s Beacon Academy is doing games from Jacobs’ Hinkle Holiday Classic as it has for the past several years. If someone cannot attend, they can watch games on YouTube by searching for Hinkle Holiday Classic.

The webcasts are produced mainly by high school students, with help from their advisers. The on-air talent is usually done by adults, with announcer Jeff Myers and former Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle, for whom the tournament is named, often working the featured games.

There are about 10 students working on each game with three cameras, a producer, a board operator to switch views and personnel in the production truck outside the gym.

Viewers can watch live or go on later and watch the games on replay.

The tournament continues Thursday and finishes after Christmas on Monday and Tuesday.

Lining up: With a handful of the FVC’s games completed before the holiday break, it looks like the top three contenders are defending champion Burlington Central (7-2, 5-0 FVC), Huntley (8-2, 4-1) and Crystal Lake South (8-3, 4-0).

Burlington Central defeated Huntley, 60-52, on Friday in the only matchup between those teams so far. The Red Raiders played well in the loss while missing guard Aiden Wieczorek, a 13-points-a-game scorer and one of their top defenders.

Rockets forward Gavin Sarvis returned from two weeks off with a cracked bone in his left wrist to score 36 points and lead Burlington Central back from a double-digit halftime deficit.

“We were down two or three with four minutes left, but it was just too much Sarvis,” Huntley coach Will Benson said. “He’s probably the best athlete in the league in both basketball and football.”

The next matchup involving two of those three will be Jan. 7, when Huntley plays at South. The Gators play Jan. 18 at Burlington.

Short streaks: Burlington Central recently had a four-game winning streak stopped by Rolling Meadows, and South had a five-game streak halted by Waubonsie Valley on Saturday.

That leaves Cary-Grove, with four consecutive wins after beating Grant, 42-35, Wednesday at the Hinkle Holiday Classic, with the longest current streak among FVC teams. The Trojans take on Loyola on Thursday.

D-C, which starts play at DeKalb’s Chuck Dayton Holiday Tournament next week, has a three-game streak.

Having some fun: Johnsburg enjoyed the pregame warmups Wednesday against South, as it was Pajama Day. The Skyhawks wore flannel pajama pants to warmup. Johnsburg coach Mike Toussaint said Thursday will be Ugly Sweater Day, but they will not be worn during warmups.