MSL Football: Barrington's Sanchez Reaches Milestone with 150th Victory
Joe Sanchez still views himself as the young kid in the Mid-Suburban League football coaching fraternity even if 21 seasons in charge at Barrington suggest otherwise.
That made it a little tough for Sanchez to grasp that a victory over Fremd last Friday put him at 150 for his career and just three behind Mike Donatucci (Fremd/Hoffman Estates) for most by a football coach at an MSL school or schools. Not to mention leading Sanchez to bring up names like Buffalo Grove’s Grant Blaney and Rich Roberts, Conant’s Dave Pendergast and Hersey’s Bruce Glover and how much it means since he competed against them as a player at Wheeling.
“When I think of ‘Tucc,’ to me he’s one of those figures, when I’m in the room with him, I respect him so much I still feel like the young pup in the room,” Sanchez said. “It’s humbling to be mentioned among those guys. Those guys are legends of the league.”
Sanchez moved into that category after he quickly rose quickly through the ranks at Barrington to join Al Kamradt, Tony Rasmussen, Joe Plaskas and Bill Graham as the fifth consecutive assistant coach to be promoted within the program to the top spot. Then athletic director Bob Carpenter said “we think we’ve got somebody really super with Joe,” which proved to be true with 17 winning seasons, 16 playoff trips and six outright or shared MSL West titles.
A grateful Sanchez thought back to how the legendary Bill Mack, his coach at North Central College, steered him in the right direction.
“If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t even be at Barrington,” said Sanchez, who was an all-conference running back at the Naperville school. “I was graduating and wanted to student-teach and coach for him. I went to our exit interview and he said no. Of course I was upset and disappointed.
“He told me you're going to have an opportunity to have much greater influence teaching and coaching in high school than you will in college.”
That spring, Mack told Sanchez he just finished talking with Kamradt. He gave Kamradt’s phone number to Sanchez and told him to call for an interview. Sanchez started as a sophomore assistant coach and social studies teacher and within a year was bumped up to the varsity. In 1998, he was given the keys to run the defense even though he had no playing or coaching experience on that side of the ball. All that unit did was help the Broncos to 13 consecutive victories and a Class 6A second-place trophy.
“Al Kamradt took a chance on a 22-year-old kid out of North Central and really believed in me,” Sanchez said. “(Assistant coaches) Rick Bremer and Tony Rasmussen - those guys helped me a ton.
“Another was Tim Dunn, the former social studies department chair (and football assistant). Once again he took a chance on me and is highly influential in the fact I’m even here. I can’t begin to list all the wonderful guys I’ve coached with through the years.”
And Barrington became home for Sanchez and his wife Wendy, who also teaches there and was a head gymnastics coach. Their daughter Ellie is a senior soccer standout headed to play at North Dakota State next year and younger daughter Avery is another talented soccer player who will be a freshman next year.
Having more time this week to spend with his family has been unusual for Joe Sanchez. They had an outside shot of making the 256-team playoff field with a 4-5 record but didn’t get enough help around the state on Saturday.
The good news for Sanchez is he already sees a fire and determination to make sure no outside help is necessary next year. He will have an experienced group that includes talented tailback Dillon Fitzpatrick and they will be supplemented by a strong group of underclassmen with some good size.
And Sanchez can’t wait to add to the victory total next year.
“I’ve been pretty spoiled in my time,” Sanchez said. “I’d much rather be practicing and preparing for a week one playoff opponent, but we were young and we’re excited about what’s coming along.
“I’ve been very blessed with a great community, great coaches and great players. When I sit here and reflect back on everything, a lot of people helped me to have this opportunity.”