Coaching News Includes Big Addition of Otto to North Central Baseball Staff
Basketball Notes on Maine South, Stevenson, Libertyville, Warren and Barrington-Palatine Connection to WashU's Big Division III Upset
A notebook with lots of coaching news and other info:
Otto Joins North Central: Two ex-Cub pitchers will now be working with the Cardinals of North Central College.
North Central coach Ed Mathey announced the addition of 1982 Elk Grove graduate Dave Otto to his coaching staff last week. Tim Stoddard has been on the Cardinals’ staff since 2016.
Otto spent the last of his eight seasons in the big leagues with the 1994 Cubs. He was taken in the second round of the 1985 draft out of the University of Missouri by the Oakland A’s and pitched with them, the Cleveland Indians and the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was also a minor-league pitching coach in Canada in Lethbridge, Alberta and worked as a broadcaster and studio analyst for the Cubs.
Otto was also a second-round pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 1982 when he led Elk Grove to the Class AA Elite Eight in Springfield. His father Al was one of the Mid-Suburban League’s most successful baseball coaches at Rolling Meadows and was a long-time White Sox scout.
Stoddard was a key member of the Cubs bullpen during the magical 1984 season when they won the National League East title. He started his 13-year big-league career with the White Sox in 1975 and also pitched for the Orioles, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees and Indians. He also spent 22 years as the pitching coach at Northwestern, appeared in and was a technical consultant in the movie “Rookie of the Year” and his daughters Ellen, Anne and Laura played varsity softball at Fremd.
The 6-foot-7 duo of Otto and Stoddard would have also been formidable on the basketball court. Otto was the Daily Herald’s All-Area basketball captain and athlete of the year after averaging 24 points a game as a senior. Stoddard starred for one of Indiana’s greatest high school teams at East Chicago Washington in 1971 and started on the 1974 North Carolina State team that won the NCAA championship and ended UCLA’s run of seven consecutive titles in the semifinals.
Osei Returns to the Suburbs: Former Prospect star quarterback and Elk Grove coach Miles Osei was named the new head coach at Evanston after going 21-3 the past two seasons at Kankakee. Osei was 14-38 in seven years as Elk Grove’s head coach but his last team in 2022 went 7-3 and ended a seven-season playoff drought (not counting the COVID-shortened 2021 spring season).
Osei inherits a Wildkits’ program coming off consecutive 3-6 finishes under MIke Burzawa, who stepped down after going 77-82 in 17 seasons. Their last playoff victory was in 2003 and their greatest success was under Murney Lazier from 1958-74 (117-16-4) and John Riehle from 1988-99 (10 playoff trips).
Osei was a two-time Daily Herald All-Area pick at Prospect and he passed and rushed for 3,491 yards and 37 TDs as a senior in 2009 before going to play at Illinois.
Zbikowski introduced at St. Pat’s: Tommy Zbikowski was formally introduced as St. Patrick’s new head football coach during its home basketball game Friday against Marian Catholic. Zbikowski, who led Buffalo Grove to quarterfinal trips in 2001 and 2002, was an All-American at Notre Dame and played in the NFL, was an assistant coach the last two seasons at Brown in the Ivy League.
Tolzien’s Cowboys Tenure Ends: Former Fremd star quarterback Scott Tolzien is not expected to remain on the Dallas Cowboys staff of new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com and NFL Network. Tolzien had been on Mike McCarthy’s staff since 2000 and was the quarterbacks coach the past two seasons.
Tolzien was the Daily Herald All-Area co-captain in 2005, led Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl in 2010 and played in 10 NFL games with the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts.
Schaumburg Gave Randle El a Rare L in Basketball: New Bears wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El was one of the state’s biggest multi-sport stars in football, basketball and baseball at Thornton. Randle El had a nine-year NFL career as a wide receiver after starring at Indiana, played 11 games for legendary Hoosiers coach Bobby Knight in basketball and was taken by the Cubs in the 14th round of the 1997 Major League Baseball draft.
Randle El was one of the primary players during Thornton’s three-year basketball run where it lost only 4 games. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, 3 of them came to Peoria Manual during its historic run of four consecutive Class AA state titles - the 1995 and 1996 championship games and the 1997 semifinals.
Thornton’s only regular-season loss in that span was 49-37 to Schaumburg in the title game of its John E. Paul Thanksgiving Tournament in 1994 when Randle El was a sophomore reserve guard. Bob Williams’ Saxons got 16 points from Jeff Reichardt, 15 from Jack Michaels and 7 from current Fremd head coach Mike Brown. Thornton, in its first year under coach Rocky Hill, would shock the state in the quarterfinals when it upset Farragut with Kevin Garnett and Ronnie Fields.
Thornton had no intention of coming to Schaumburg and losing again to the hosts the following Thanksgiving as it rolled to a 55-31 victory in the title game.
Army Getting True Gritt: Former Hersey star Claire Gritt joined the coaching staff at Army this summer as an assistant and director of basketball operations. She’s helping lead the program at West Point to one of its best seasons in nearly a decade as it improved to 14-4 overall and 6-2 in the Patriot League with a nationally televised 59-49 win over Navy on CBS Sports Network on Sunday.
Army is chasing its first 20-win season since it had five in succession from 2012-13 to 2016-17. Gritt had been on the Utah State staff in various roles the past three years and played at the University of Denver from 2017-21. She was a four-year starter and all-around guard who scored more than 1,000 career points for Mary Fendley at Hersey.
Rico Makes Mark at Maine South
Rico D’Alessandro wouldn’t have much familiarity with Maine South’s basketball history since the 6-foot-4 junior transferred in this season from Whitney Young.
D’Alessandro knows more about it now after scoring 40 points against Buffalo Grove to match the Hawks’ single-game record set by Roy Johnson in the 1990-91 season. He followed it up one night later with 27 points as the Hawks nearly upset Warren and standout sophomore Jaxson Davis before falling 68-67 in Gurnee last Wednesday.
“I think it is a turning point in my season,” D’Alessandro said after the Warren loss. “In our last game (against BG) I decided to buy in on everything defensively and offensively and my defense led to offense.
“I was a bit surprised at halftime that I had 21 (against BG). In the second halt went out and wanted to keep playing. That’s pretty crazy and pretty cool (to tie the record).”
And D’Alessandro didn’t put up the points on a high volume of shots against BG and Warren.
“He was incredibly efficient and powerful around the basket,” said Maine South coach Colin Wehman. “Guys are finding him in the right spots. To tie the record of 40 points is a big deal and I’m happy for him and his teammates are happy for him.”
Tyler Sierra showed the Hawks have multiple weapons. The senior guard had 22 points to fuel the big rally from an 11-point deficit with 5:30 to play to a 67-66 lead with 17 seconds left on his sixth 3 of the game and fourth of the fourth quarter. Junior guard Panayiotis Sotos had 11 assists and 8 points and 6-6 Jack Sladky had 8 points and 10 rebounds.
Maine South fell to 10-12 overall with a Friday loss to New Trier but Wehman hopes a rugged schedule and having its starting lineup back for the first time since early December bodes well for the postseason.
“This group is still coming together,” Wehman said. “It speaks to our collective belief and developing that confidence and I don’t know if we’d be in this spot two years ago when i started.
“We didn’t quit. We stayed together and a lot of different guys contributed. Sierra was great, the Sotos kid guarded Davis well all game and Rico is continuing to get better.”
Johnson played at Maine South for Dave Scott, who was head coach from 1990-2003. Jeff Baker is the scoring leader for a career (1,956 from 1976-79) and single-season (896 for the 1979 AA state champions), according to the school’s record book.
Stevenson’s Curtin Call
Stevenson 6-6 senior Liam Curtin didn’t get much of an opportunity to guard Libertyville 6-8 junior Bryce Wegrzyn when he scored 24 and 28 points in their first two meetings of the season.
But Curtin was front and center in Friday’s 63-44 North Suburban Conference win at Libertyville as he contained Wegrzyn to 13 points on 6-for-11 shooting. Stevenson coach Will Benson said his team started fronting Wegrzyn in the second half of their third-day matchup in Wheeling’s Wildcat Hardwood Classic.
“Liam’s D on (Wegrzyn) was absolutely terrific,” Benson said. “He killed us for 3½ quarters so we decided to stick with and see how it went. The defensive effort was really, really good.”
Curtin was draped on Wegrzyn inside and out to limit his touches and hold him to 7 points through three-plus quarters.
“Obviously he’s a lot bigger than me, but I knew it was the right thing to do and the only sensible thing to try after last time,” Curtin said of fronting Wegrzyn. “It worked out pretty well.”
Curtin also provided a big spark with Libertyville leading 16-11. Junior Donny Williams grabbed a defensive rebound and got the ball ahead to Curtin for a two-hand slam to spark a 12-point run that put the Patriots ahead to stay.
“Liam played great and I’ve said all year he’s one of, if not the most consistent guys on the team,” senior Aidan Bardic said after becoming the seventh player in program history to reach 1,000 points in a varsity career. “He shoots a great percentage and his dunk was a huge momentum shift for us.
“All the little things he does tend to get overlooked for us but he does so much.”
Stevenson moved into sole possession of second place in the NSC and then improved to 14-8 overall with a Saturday win at Prospect. It has a trip to Mundelein tonight before a big visit from Waukegan on Friday. The Patriots also look like a dangerous postseason team after last year’s run to the sectional final.
“We’re absolutely putting the pieces together,” Curtin said. “Our offense is one thing but our defense especially makes a difference. We have a lot more tough games like this against tough teams but it sets the stage for what’s to come.”
Bardic also joined New York Knicks’ NBA all-star Jalen Brunson (2,682), Connor Cashaw (1,736), Chris Coleman (1,617), Justin Smith (1,572), Kenyon Catchings (1,280) and Eric Roth (1,195) in the Stevenson boys 1,000-point club. Thanks to Hall of Fame assistant coach Paul Swan for the big assist on the details.
Libertyville Looking to Get Back on Track
Libertyville has hit a rough stretch after winning its first five games in an 8-1 start.
Now the Wildcats are 10-9 overall after consecutive 63-44 losses to Stevenson and Rolling Meadows last weekend and take a five-game losing streak into tonight’s NSC matchup at Lake Zurich.
“It comes down to tempo and the tempo of the game,” said Libertyville coach Brian Zyrkowski. “You can’t give a team like Stevenson momentum because they have too many good players to take advantage of that. They’re a good basketball team.
“I thought they brought some good physicality the entire game. It comes down to communication and they did a nice job of communicating on the defensive end what their game plan was.”
Zyrkowski liked what he saw in an early stretch to build a 16-11 lead on Stevenson on consecutive 3s from Stevan Gavric, freshman Terrence Davis and 6-8 junior Bryce Wegrzyn. Senior Liam Hanson got rolling in the second half with 13 of his 16 points.
“Like a lot of struggles you face in life, you’ve got to fight through them,” Zyrkowski said. “We were in the game at points and had the lead and controlled it, which was a good sign compared to Warren (73-47 loss on Jan. 18) where they controlled the entire game.
“There’s no better test than the game of basketball to get through adversity. That’s why I love this game.”
Saturday’s matchup at Rolling Meadows was also a meeting of former Conant alums and Tom McCormack coaching proteges in Zyrkowski and Kevin Katovich.
Wild Ride for Warren
January has been bumpy at times for Warren after it won the Proviso West Holiday Tournament.
The Blue Devils gave up 80 points in a loss to Joliet West and fell in the final seconds by a point at home to Lake Zurich. They needed 2 free throws in the final seconds by Jaxson Davis to avoid a home upset last Wednesday against Maine South and lost by 3 points Friday at Lake Forest.
Then they came back and beat Bolingbrook and sophomore star Davion Thompson 82-71 at When Sides Collide on Saturday at Benet.
“I think we need to gain more consistency,” Davis said after the Maine South win where he was honored in a pregame ceremony for passing 1,000 career points. “I know what I’m capable of and what we’re capable of as a team. As long as we get rolling in the playoffs we’ll be fine and we can beat any team in the state.
“Think we’re learning from it and respecting all our opponents. Every team we’ve played has shot the ball amazing and we’re not shooting the ball amazing.”
But Warren is starting to get everyone back healthy as it tries to avenge an early-December loss to North Suburban Conference leader Waukegan at the Dog Pound on Tuesday night. Guard Braylon Walker missed significant time with illness and Javerion Banks was back from injury in the win over Bolingbrook.
“It’s gonna help us tremendously and it shows how much depth we have as a team,” Banks said of expanded roles for other players with Walker and Banks out. “We might need them in the playoffs and going to next year so that will be big for us.”
Barrington-Palatine Rivals Team Up for Big Upset
Connor May and Will Grudzinski may be looking for some friendly bragging rights when century-old rivals meet Friday with Palatine’s MSL West trip to Barrington.
May, a freshman from Palatine, and Grudzinski, a junior from Barrington, teamed up to lead 11th-ranked Washington University in St. Louis to one of the biggest victories in Division III basketball Sunday. May had career-highs of 21 points and 13 rebounds and Grudzinski had 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists in an 81-63 win at second-ranked Emory in Atlanta, Georgia.
Niles North’s Yogi Oliff (10 points, 3 rebounds) and Glenbrook North’s Ryan Cohen (8 points) were also instrumental in the win that put WashU at 14-2 overall and 4-1 in the University Athletic Association.
May, who led the Pirates to fourth place in the state in Class 4A last year and passed NBA player Kevin McKenna as their career scoring leader, is third on WashU in scoring at 11.1 ppg and second in rebounding at 6.6 a game. Grudzinski, who led Barrington to third in the state in 4A in 2022, is fourth in scoring at 8.1 ppg and tied for second in assists at 40.
Oliff is averaging 5.8 points and 4.9 rebounds and has 29 assists in 10 games and Cohen is averaging 6.1 points. Yusuf Cisse, a freshman from Conant, has appeared in 8 games and is averaging 1.5 points.