Former Barrington Football Standout, Viator Coach Kelly Heads to Clemson
Christie's Numbers Climb; Craft's Historic Effort at Miami; MSL Girls and Boys Hoop Title Tidbits; Ex-MSL Stars Strike it Big; Two MSL Alums Get Football Jobs
Former Barrington football standout and St. Viator head coach Kevin Kelly is going back to school.
Kelly, who has worked in the NFL since 2001 after his five-year stint at Viator, was named by Clemson as its Director of Player Evaluation & Acquisition on Friday, February 6. Kelly had been with the Chargers in San Diego and Los Angeles the last 12 years and became their Senior Scouting Executive in 2024.
Kelly’s addition is part of a major philosophical shift by Clemson coach Dabo Swinney to embrace use of the NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) and the transfer portal. Swinney’s teams won national titles in 2016 and 2018 and made the 12-team college football playoff this past season.
“I’m super excited to have Kevin Kelly joining our staff,” Swinney said in a statement on the Clemson athletics website. “To be able to add someone with his experience is a great benefit to Clemson. He’s got over 20 years of front office experience in scouting and evaluation of player personnel, so he will bring a wealth of experience and be able to work alongside General Manager Jordan Sorrells, Director of Recruiting Ty Clements and the rest of our staff on player acquisition, evaluation and retention.”
Kelly was the Senior Director of College Scouting for the Chargers from 2013-23. He left Viator in mid-June 2001 to take a position as an area scout with the Cleveland Browns that he held until 2008. He also worked as an area scout for the Indianapolis Colts from 2009-11 and with the New York Jets in 2012.
Kelly went 26-24 as Viator’s head coach and his goal to “Restore the Roar” led to ending conference title and playoff appearance and victory droughts. His third team in 1998 led by future NFL player and quarterback Jarrett Payton, the son of Kelly’s longtime friend and Bears legend Walter Payton, won the title in the old Catholic Metro Red for the program’s first league crown and playoff berth in 10 years.
Two years later, Kelly’s final team led by future NFL quarterback Brett Basanez and future pro Brian Hare went 8-4 and won the program’s first playoff game since 1988 with a 41-0 victory at Mount Zion.
Kelly also coached collegiately at Indiana, Lake Forest, John Carroll and Case Western Reserve before coming to Viator. He was a three-year letterman at Indiana under the legendary Bill Mallory and was on the University of Miami’s 1983 team that won its first national championship.
Kelly was a Daily Herald All-Area and all-conference defensive tackle as a senior in 1982 as Barrington went 6-4, won the MSL North title and made the playoffs under first-year coach Tony Rasmussen. It was in high school where Kelly became a training partner and friend of Payton after a late-night workout at an area health club.
Christie Moving On Up in Dallas
The very early returns for Rolling Meadows’ grad Max Christie in Dallas are very good after he and Anthony Davis were sent there by the Los Angeles Lakers in the blockbuster deal for Luka Doncic.
It’s a small sample size, but the per-game numbers for Christie in 4 games with the Mavericks compared to 46 with the Lakers show significant changes for the third-year pro who just turned 22 Monday night:
Per Game Avg. Lakers Mavericks
Minutes 25.1 32.3
Shots 6.3 10.3
3-point attempts 3.5 4.8
FT attempts 1.9 4.8
Rebounds 2.7 5.3
Assists 1.4 3.0
Points 8.5 17.0
Christie had 23 points in a 116-105 win over Houston and nearly had a double-double with 15 points and 9 rebounds in a 118-116 loss at Philadelphia in his Mavericks’ debut. He was a combined 8-for-3 on 3s in those two games.
“He’s been great since we’ve gotten him,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said to Dwain Price of mavs.com. “Understanding, (we’re) putting him in different roles. He was playing well before the trade for the Lakers, so I think it’s just carried over.”
And coming off the bench in all 3 games in Dallas has clearly been fine for Christie.
“I just think the offense is a little bit different (than the Lakers’ offense), obviously,” Christie said to mavs.com. “It’s very free-flowing. Guys are kind of just playing, and we’re playing off of each other really well.
“Everybody is kind of just playing to their game and using their game to their advantage. So, for me I’m just staying ready whenever I’m open – (shooting) threes or being able to attack the basket and get to the free throw line and finish layups.”
The Art of Craft On Display at Miami
It was arguably the greatest individual scoring duel in MSL history in 2020 when Buffalo Grove’s Kam Craft scored 46 and Rolling Meadows’ Max Christie scored 42 in a double-overtime win by the Mustangs.
Just as Christie is thriving in his new NBA home, Craft is doing the same at his new collegiate home of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. And Craft put himself among the program’s legends Tuesday night when he dropped 40 points in a 92-80 Mid-American Conference win over Toledo.
Ron Harper, who was a big part of the second half of the Bulls’ title dynasty, holds the school record with 45 against Ball State in 1985 and he also scored 41. Wally Szczerbiak, an NBA All-Star, had games of 43 and 41 and Hall of Fame big man Wayne Embry scored 42 and 40 twice in the 1950s.
Craft was just one shy of the single-game record for 3-pointers as he shot 9-for-14 beyond the arc, 13-for-22 from the field and 5-for-5 on free throws. Craft, who played his freshman year at Xavier, scored 34 earlier this year but it was against Division III Bethany (West Virginia) College. Teammate Peter Suder also scored 42 points this season against Air Force.
Craft leads the Redhawks in scoring at 14.9 points a game and has 73 3s at a 43 percent clip. This is their best season in 26 years at 19-5 overall and at 10-1 in the MAC they are in second place and a game behind Akron. The last time they won 20 games was the 1999 NCAA Sweet 16 team that went 24-8 and their last NCAA trip was 2007 when they won the MAC tournament.
MSL Girls Basketball Title Game Tidbits
It may be a few years before the Mid-Suburban League has a girls title matchup quite like Thursday’s weather-rescheduled matchup with West champion Fremd (23-5, 10-0) at Prospect (24-6, 10-0) in the Jean Walker Field House. Next year the MSL undergoes radical realignment as it starts its two-year trial program of divisions based on previous results in each sport.
Here’s a look at some tidbits ahead of this year’s MSL girls title matchup followed by the history of each game since its inception in 1974 and some other historical facts and figures.
Two-time defending champion Fremd is looking to add to its record 21 MSL titles in its record 26th appearance. Buffalo Grove is second with 10 titles and 17 appearances.
Prospect is going for its first title and is making its seventh appearance. Matt Weber was head coach in its last appearance - a 51-28 loss to Barrington in 2022.
The two teams have met five times for the MSL title with Fremd winning in 1984 (69-43), 1990 (51-49), 2001 (60-44), 2004 (59-44) and 2015 (52-32).
Fremd won four MSL titles in a row three times (1974-77, 2001-04 and 2013-16). Wheeling (2008-10) and Buffalo Grove (1996-98) have won three in a row.
Fremd’s Ella Todd scored 21 points in last year’s title game and can join program alums Connie Bruns (twice) and Haley Gorecki (four times) as the only players with multiple 20-point MSL girls title games.
First-year Fremd coach James Han is the third player from the Schaumburg boys program to coach in the MSL girls title game along with Todd Hatfield (Rolling Meadows, 2012) and Steve Kolodziej (Buffalo Grove, 2016).
The West has won three consecutive title games to lead the East 15-11.
Image credit Prospect Girls Basketball Twitter/X
MSL Boys Basketball Division Title Tidbits
Rolling Meadows became the third team and Kevin Katovich the second coach to win five consecutive MSL boys basketball division titles when it wrapped up the East with a win over Hersey. Schaumburg and Bob Williams won five West crowns in a row from 1999-2003 and Meadows and Schaumburg won all five of their titles outright.
Prospect won five consecutive South titles from 1982-86 but shared the second one with Forest View. Ron Ashley coached the first four with Bud Bornman finishing off the five-peat. Prospect did appear in the title game all five years.
Fremd’s victory over Barrington to clinch the West crown made Mike Brown the sixth coach to win an MSL division title in his first year as a head coach. The others:
Rich Roberts (1985 Buffalo Grove)
Fred Bryant (1988 Hoffman Estates)
Dave Brown (1990 Rolling Meadows)
Dominic Cannon (2001 Prospect)
John Camardella (2008 Prospect)
Roger Dorio (1980 Hoffman Estates) and Bud Bornman (1986 Prospect) won division titles in their first and ironically only year in charge at their schools, but they had previous head coaching experience. Dorio was at Leland for two seasons (1977-79) and Bornman had coached at Carthage, Mt. Vernon and Greenville.
Brown also played in the 1995 MSL championship game for Schaumburg to become the fifth to play and coach in the boys title game. The others (played/coached):
Ryan O’Connor (1989 Rolling Meadows/2003, 07-08 Buffalo Grove)
Eric Millstone (1990 Buffalo Grove/2023-24 Palatine)
Matt Walsh (1993 Conant/2012 Schaumburg)
Keith Peterson (1996 Palatine/2020 Buffalo Grove)
Former MSL Multi-Sport Standouts Having a Bowl
Hersey and Addison Trail won their third consecutive girls bowling regional titles with coaches who are Mid-Suburban League products accustomed to big athletic success.
Hersey coach Mark Gunther was a starting linebacker for the school’s 1987 Class 6A football state champion. Gunther also played basketball and baseball and was a longtime assistant and head coach in the football program.
Addison Trail coach Rob Schader graduated from Conant in 1995 and played on the Class AA Elite Eight basketball qualifier in 1994. Schader was also a baseball standout for the Cougars and coached girls basketball at AT.
Amos, Gronwick Latest MSL Football Player-Coach Combinations
The recent hirings of Ryan Gronwick at Wheeling and Devonte Amos at Rolling Meadows brings the total of MSL football coaches who are alums of a school in the league to 18. Gronwick was a wide receiver-quarterback when Palatine went 19-4 and won consecutive MSL West titles under Tyler Donnelley in 2011-12.
Amos will be the sixth MSL head coach at his alma mater as he was a Daily Herald All-Area defensive back-running back in 2016 when Meadows went 11-1 and reached the Class 7A quarterfinals. Matt Mishler coached Amos and will now be his athletic director as he was named to the position starting next year.
Logan Dowling will also take over as the athletic director at St. Viator in June. Retired Barrington athletic director Mike Obsuszt had filled the position on an interim basis since last summer.
MSL Football Alums/Head Coaches
Name Played At Coached At
Brent Pearlman Buffalo Grove Prospect/Wheeling
Fred Lussow Prospect* Forest View/Rolling Meadows
Brian Hauck Wheeling Wheeling
Tom Whalen Wheeling Elk Grove
Miles Osei Prospect Elk Grove
Lou Sponsel Fremd Fremd
Joe Sanchez Wheeling Barrington
Mark Gunther Hersey Hersey
Joe Pardun Fremd Hersey
Matt Mishler Hoffman Estates Rolling Meadows
Jim Farrell Fremd Buffalo Grove
Bill Helzer Prospect Hoffman Estates
Tim Heyse Conant Hoffman Estates
Tom Nelson Hersey Hersey
Danny O’Donnell Elk Grove Elk Grove
Anthony Donatucci Buffalo Grove Conant
Devonte Amos Rolling Meadows Rolling Meadows
Ryan Gronwick Palatine Wheeling
*Lussow played at Prospect before the MSL was formed.
Hersey ‘95 Elite Eight Reunion Friday
Hersey’s 1995 Class AA Elite Eight boys basketball team will be recognized at Friday’s 7:30 p.m. home game against Wheeling at Ken Carter Gymnasium. The third Elite Eight qualifier in program history, coached by Don Rowley and led by all-MSL players Brad Bowsher, Paul Wolf and Michael White, won the MSL title and finished with a school-record 26 victories in 31 games.