Crystal Lake Central QB Jason Penza follows family legacy

CRYSTAL LAKE – Crystal Lake Central junior Jason Penza was born 17 years after his grandfather died, but he is well aware of his legacy.

Don Penza is a coaching legend at Marian Central, a man about whom former players and acquaintances still speak glowingly. Someone who was almost larger than life after leading the Hurricanes to three Class 2A football state championships in the 1980s.

“He was a winner. He won a lot, at every level,” said Penza, who plays quarterback for the Tigers. “He just won a lot.”

Don Penza took over Marian’s relatively little-known program in 1981 and drove the Hurricanes to state prominence. He died April 8, 1989, working in the yard of his Woodstock home.

Marian won another state title eight months later under coach Steve Patton, Penza’s offensive coordinator who took over as head coach. Patton and his staff always considered that championship belonging to Penza as well.

Now, more than three decades later, the Penza name is again prominent in McHenry County-area football. Jason is a dual-threat quarterback being recruited by NCAA schools at all levels. Tigers coach Dirk Stanger feels Penza can play at the FCS level and possibly higher.

Penza’s recruitment has been slow because he played only 2 1/2 games last season (1 1/2 at quarterback) after suffering a broken ulna bone in his right (throwing) arm. In Week 9, not having played quarterback since the season opener, Penza threw for 303 yards and four touchdowns. He ran for 62 yards and two more scores as 2-7 Central lost to Prairie Ridge 55-49. The Wolves went on to become Class 6A state runners-up.

In an effort to get something positive out of the season while Penza was out, Stanger had him call plays for the junior varsity games and help coach George Dimopoulos, who shifted from receiver to quarterback on the varsity level.

Penza could not get physical repetitions, but he got a mental workout.

“It helped a lot,” Penza said. “I could sit there and listen to what they’re looking at. I could see what George was looking at, and I could see what Dirk was looking at. And I could see what the coaches in the box are looking at. From up there it was easy to see when the middle of the field was open.”

THE LEGACY

Don Penza played on the offensive line at Notre Dame for coach Frank Leahy, who played for the Fighting Irish when Knute Rockne was coach.

Around Marian, Penza was revered in a similar manner of the Irish legends.

“There was a philosophy there with my dad’s coaching that seemed to trickle through the ages,” Greg Penza said. “The philosophy was he taught the athletes to make decisions. My dad let us call our own plays. He wanted to let the kids have ownership of the game.”

The quarterbacks called the offensive plays; the middle linebackers called the defensive sets. Under his leadership and discipline, the Hurricanes flourished, going 79-17 in eight seasons with state titles in 1983, 1986 and 1987. They were runners-up in 1985.

Four Hartlieb brothers – Chuck, Andy, Jim and John – were some of Penza’s best leaders. Chuck and Jim were quarterbacks; Andy and John were fullback-linebackers. Chuck, Andy and Jim played at Iowa; Andy played at Wisconsin.

The program had not experienced much success before Penza’s arrival. He had one losing season (4-5 in 1982), but Marian went 59-8 in the next five seasons. The Hurricanes went 14-0 in 1989 to win the state title after his death.

Don Penza was in ROTC at Notre Dame and spent two years in the Marine Corps after graduating, then was taken by Pittsburgh in the NFL draft. But he injured a knee in the second preseason game, which ended his career.

Don and Joanne Penza lived in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, with their seven children. Don coached football and was athletic director for several years.

“We always had a dairy farm,” Greg Penza said. “That was something the kids always did.”

Don Penza got out of teaching and coaching and was elected Wisconsin Rapids’ mayor. Greg Penza remembers his father as the mayor while he was younger, but that changed in 1981.

Don Penza found out from his priest that a Catholic school in Woodstock was looking for a football coach. Penza and the priest drove to Woodstock for the interview with a nun who was Marian’s principal, and he was hired.

“He turned it around and won a state title in three years,” Greg Penza said. “It’s a philosophy he had. Even though he wasn’t outspoken. You felt that presence. The success followed him. It’s helpful when you’ve had success all your life. He was hard-nosed.”

TRUE COMPETITORS

While Don Penza played football at the highest level, Joanne was a great athlete as well. She played with the Racine Belles in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which gained fame later from the movie “A League of Their Own.”

Don and Joanne, who died in 2013, were homecoming king and queen at Notre Dame. Their competitiveness definitely rubbed off on their children.

Every year, the Penza children and their families have a reunion with various competitions, such as bags, Kan Jam, volleyball, marksmanship and fishing. The winning family gets to keep the traveling trophy, which is a football signed by the 1953 Notre Dame team in a plexiglass case. Don Penza was a captain on that team that finished 9-0-1.

In last season’s opener, Jason Penza and the Tigers’ offense had nearly 300 total yards in the first half before he suffered the injury. Penza ran for a nice gain and slid as a Huntley defender also slid at the same time. The defender’s helmet hit Penza in the elbow.

The competitor in Greg Penza came out as he listened to Jason’s surgeon and started counting weeks, in hopes Jason could return in time to help the Tigers to five wins and a playoff berth.

“Brandi was tapping the brakes at the doctor’s appointment,” Greg Penza said of his wife. “I’m figuring out if we get him back here, how can we get to the playoffs?”

Jason Penza played in a Week 8 loss to McHenry at wide receiver, then went back to quarterback in Week 9.

FULL CIRCLE

Brandi Penza wonders if the father-in-law, about whom she has heard so much but who she never met, had some hand in Stanger joining Central coach Jon McLaughlin’s staff seven years ago.

Stanger, a 1993 Marian alumnus and longtime Hurricanes assistant coach, came on as McLaughlin’s offensive coordinator, then took over as head coach last season when McLaughlin stepped down.

Greg and Brandi Penza’s children – Michael (26), Katy (24), Lily (21) and Jason (17) – had no connection to the school their grandfather put on the football map. They grew up in Crystal Lake attending public schools.

Now, Stanger, whose father, Terry, was an assistant with Don Penza during their glorious run of the 1980s, would be coaching Jason.

“[Don Penza was] an unbelievable man,” Dirk Stanger said. “Just a human being, a disciplinarian. He used to come over to watch film with my dad, and my dad always had pretzels there for him.

“Not too many people know that he taught at Marian (social studies) and then went to Jewel at night and stocked shelves. He had to support his kids. But the thing I love about him – and this is coming more from my dad and Steve Patton, having coached with him – is the stories about being hands off and letting the kids figure things out for themselves.”

Greg Penza played receiver and safety on his father’s teams. In 1988, Greg was supposed to be a Hurricanes receiver but was forced to play quarterback when Jimmy Parsley went down with an injury.

The ballboy on that team as an eighth grader was Dirk Stanger, who went on to start at quarterback for three seasons at Marian and then played at Wisconsin.

“I knew he was going to be good,” Greg Penza said.

The Marian/Penza/Stanger saga now has come full circle. Stanger happened to cross paths with the Penzas on spring break in Destin, Florida, a few years ago and met Jason, then a seventh grader, for the first time. A year later, Stanger was Jason’s quarterbacks coach, and two years later, they were together with the Tigers’ varsity team.

“It’s really awesome. Greg was in my sister Jennifer’s class. I was always around,” Stanger said. “That whole dynamic of seeing Greg there and coaching Jason. He didn’t have the chance to meet his grandfather and know what a phenomenal person and coach that he was.

“For me, it’s a chance to tell some stories here and there about what he did. He loved the aspect of calling your own plays. It’s pretty cool.”