Sunday Slam: Buffalo Grove's Potash Ready to Become Fluent in German Football Defense
Lake Zurich's Obsuszt Wins NSC Sportsmanship Award; Another Regional Title for Brettner with Vernon Hills Girls Basketball; MSL Boys Basketball Title Tidbits
Verteidigung is very important to Blake Potash.
After all, there is a possibility Potash might get asked about his verteidigung, or defense in German, starting in a few weeks. The 2011 Buffalo Grove High School graduate heads overseas on Feb. 28 for his new job as a defensive coordinator for the Hildesheim Invaders in the German Football League.
“I’m trying to learn,” laughed Potash, who said he took some German during middle school foreign language classes. “I’m doing Duolingo and trying to do quite a bit every day to at least get by. Everything with football communication is English.”
Potash is most fluent on the side without the football after spending the last seven years on collegiate defensive staffs at Abilene Christian in Texas, Black Hills State in South Dakota and Valdosta State in Georgia. He just finished his first year as an assistant linebackers coach at Valdosta and was going to return to work with the defensive linemen when he saw a post for the Hildesheim defensive coordinator position on a coaches job board. Hildesheim head coach Marcus Herford also coached at Valdosta.
“I thought it might be something interesting,” Potash said. “You see postings all the time for jobs in Germany, Austria and Brazil. I’m single, so if there is ever a time to do something like that, this seemed like a good time. It’s also a good opportunity to coordinate for the first time and I know the defense (4-3) well and can run that defense.
“Getting coordinator experience will be something unique and new and I can teach my defense to people who didn’t grow up playing high school and college football. (Herford) did the same thing when he went to Europe at 30 to coordinate for the first time and ended up being a head coach.”
Football has been Potash’s passion since he started playing flag at age 5 with the Arlington Cowboys. He also quickly realized he wasn’t going to be the next Randy Moss or Tony Gonzalez as he “grew” to a stocky 5-feet-9.
He didn’t play much as a junior at BG but as a senior linebacker was instrumental to a unit that forced 18 turnovers in 9 games and was coordinated by current head coach Jeff Vlk. Potash displayed a grasp and understanding that made it clear football could be a big part of his life well after his playing days.
“I loved Blake and he was a lot of fun to coach,” Vlk said. “As a senior not only did he play but it was like having another coach out on the field. It was one of the best defenses I’ve had at BG and he would see things happening, before access to Hudl and Sidelines, and tell me.
“He played over people he wasn’t as talented as and he was very, very bright. He was always into the finer details and was one of those kids you always said, ‘you should go into coaching.’’
Potash knew he wanted to do something sports-related because it was such a big part of his family. His dad Mark, a long-time Chicago Sun-Times sportswriter who currently works on the Bears beat, would take him to Peoria every year for the boys basketball state tournament. Blake recalled the last one he attended had Derrick Rose winning the title for Simeon at the overtime buzzer in 2006. He would stay with his dad in the Wisconsin-Platteville dorms during Bears training camps and got the autograph of a rookie named Brian Urlacher in 2001.
“I stopped growing and figured out I wasn’t going to be an athlete, but I knew I wanted to be in sports,” Potash said.
Potash considered being a sports agent after seeing the movie Jerry Maguire but realized going to law school wasn’t for him. He also realized how much he missed football after graduating from BG so he returned as a volunteer assistant while going to school at Harper College and Roosevelt University.
“I realized I need to go do this because this is what I love to do,” Potash said of helping on Mike DiMatteo’s staff.
Playing for and coaching with Vlk only reinforced that belief for Potash.
“The way he attacked coaching and watching him coach and being around him and having a lot of fun,” Potash said of what stood out about Vlk. “Being good and detailed about it and building good relationships. It made me realize I want to do this. Knowing this guy is really good and he cares about us.
“At our 10-year reunion we talked about that connection. He fostered that and the culture we had. I saw (Valdosta head coach Tremaine) Jackson do the same thing at the college level. Having that connection is something special there. That’s what’s really cool about it and really attractive about coaching. It’s why football is really unique and the most ‘team’ sport out there. You need all 11 dudes out there working together or it’s not gonna be successful, especially on defense.”
After Potash’s first season at Abilene as a volunteer coach in 2016 the staff was fired but he stayed on with Jackson coming in as the new defensive coordinator. Switching to the 4-3 base defense that hooked Potash also saw Abilene go from the worst defense in NCAA Division I FCS in 2016 to the top 30 in 2018.
When Jackson left Abilene in 2019 a new coordinator had a different scheme that didn’t have the same impact on Potash. He went to Black Hills in Spearfish, S.D., along with a linebackers coach who became the defensive coordinator, and worked with the defensive backs in the 4-3.
“It wasn’t necessarily the scheme but a lot of it is culture-based,” Potash said. “It’s more of a mentality with the way it’s run. It’s really attractive to me, it made sense to me and it was easy for me to grasp. I said, ‘I want to run that for as long as I can.’
“The gist of the defense is we’re trying to take the game back from a defensive perspective. Everything now goes toward the offense and the mindset is we’re going to dictate the game and control of what you can do.”
This will be the fourth time Potash has installed the aggressive 4-3 that also incorporates some of the famed “46 defense” the Bears used to win Super Bowl XX. He has already been busy reviewing Hildesheim games from last season, talking with coaches and having some virtual meetings before he can get to work with the team in person.
Hildesheim is a city of about 102,000 in north central Germany, about a half-hour south of Hanover, with Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg all about 2-3 hours away. Hildesheim is in GFL2 and Potash said it is under the same banner with the GFL, which has a relegation system similar to European soccer. Training camp starts toward the end of April and they have a 10-game season over a 16-week period that starts in late May.
Potash said GFL teams are allowed two players on each side of the ball from America, Mexico, Canada or Japan and every team has an American quarterback. Eight European imports are also allowed with the rest of the roster composed of homegrown German players. He said Hildesheim typically draws more than 1,000 for home games, and is expanding its stadium to hold 2,000, and some of the teams in the top-tier GFL draw up to 4,000.
The job with Hildesheim will be a seven-month appointment and he will return to finish the season at Valdosta. Potash said the GFL coordinator positions typically have a high rate of the turnovers he’ll have his unit trying to create. He’s open to the possibility of other jobs in Europe or a return to college coaching in the US.
“I’ll get some experience and see what happens,” Potash said. “The quarterbacks coach at Black Hills did it and when I talked to him he said it was great. Everyone I’ve talked to knows somebody who has done it and said it’s a great experience.”
One where he figures to return more fluent in not only running a defense but speaking German.
Lake Zurich’s Obsuszt A Real Sportsman
Lake Zurich senior Tyler Obsuszt is the type of player regarded as a coach’s dream. One who plays his role to the best of his ability and does his best work behind the scenes to make his teammates and team better.
As a result he was Lake Zurich’s North Suburban Conference sportsmanship award winner in boys basketball. Head coach Terry Coughlin said the award is essentially for a player who puts the team above themselves, respects opponents and officials, plays the game hard and with integrity and Obsuszt represented all those qualities and more for the 15-13 Bears.
“(Tyler is) always willing to do what is in the best interest of the team, sets the example as far as his work ethic daily,” Coughlin said in an Email, “has a tremendous growth mindset and drive to improve, is always encouraging his teammates and believes in his teammates more than any player I’ve ever coached and has an uncanny ability to bring people together. He’s our energy-giver at all times.”
That energy was given and returned on Lake Zurich’s senior night when Obsuszt, the son of former coach and recently retired Barrington AD Mike Obsuszt, made his first varsity start. In a 72-44 win over Waukegan, he hit all three of his shots for a varsity-high 7 points and had his teammates going berserk and classmates chanting “TO, TO.”
Brettner Gets High Five for Regional Titles at Vernon Hills
Paul Brettner has been the only girls basketball coach since Vernon Hills opened its doors in 2000. On Thursday night, the Rolling Meadows (1985) and Bradley graduate led the program to its fifth regional title as it won its own Class 3A regional 57-48 over St. Viator and improved to 21-10 for the season.
It was the first regional title since the Cougars won four in a row from 2012-15 and took second in the state in 3A in 2012 and 2013. Brettner is now 365-309 with six 20-win seasons.
The fourth-seeded Cougars’ only loss in their last 10 games was 66-57 to Barrington, which was second in 4A last year, and Purdue-bound Sophie Swanson. Now they head to Tuesday’s Deerfield sectional semifinal to face top-seed and defending 3A champion Carmel (24-8).
Mid-Suburban League Boys Hoops Title Trivia
Palatine’s 54-52 victory at Rolling Meadows in Wednesday’s MSL boys basketball title game increased the West’s advantage over the East to 19-6 since division realignment. The West has won 10 of the last 12 showcase matchups. The North and South finished in a 14-14 tie in 1998.
Palatine’s win was the fourth title game decided by 2 points. The others:
2017 - Fremd 57, Prospect 55
2005 - Conant 70, Elk Grove 68 (OT)
1981 - Buffalo Grove 48, Forest View 46 (OT)
1979 - Barrington 53, Elk Grove 51
The only title game decided by 1 point was 1974 as Conant beat Arlington 64-63.
Rolling Meadows is the 12th team to appear in three or more consecutive MSL title games. It also was in three in a row from 1989-91 (all wins):
Five years in a row - Prospect (1982-86) and Schaumburg (1999-2003).
Four years in a row - Fremd (1986-89) and Prospect (2016-19)
Three years in a row - Prospect (1971-73), Arlington (1973-75), Buffalo Grove (1976-78), Arlington (1982-84), Rolling Meadows (1989-91), Conant (1992-94), Prospect (2009-11), Rolling Meadows (2021-23).
Meadows and coach Kevin Katovich are the first team in MSL history to have three consecutive perfect division finishes. It came close in 1989-91 - going 10-0 the first year under Hank Szymanski and 10-0 and 9-1 under Dave Brown.
Fremd went 10-0 in 1988-89 under Mo Tharp
Hersey went 10-0 in 1994-95 under Don Rowley
Schaumburg sandwiched 10-0 division finishes in 1999 and 2001 around a 9-1 season under Bob Williams
Maine West went 10-0 and 14-0 in the first two years of the league (pre-divisions) in 1963-64 under Gaston Freeman.
Palatine also set its single-season victory record at 24 when it beat Highland Park 50-22 on Friday night. It also went 23-9 under Eric Millstone in 2014-15, 23-4 under Dick Kolze in 1961-62 and 23-3 under G.A. McElroy in 1940-41.
Young Getting Job Done at Fenwick
Former Schaumburg star Tony Young is looking to make it 2-for-2 with Class 3A regional titles since he was hired as boys basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Fenwick in May 2021. Young’s team is 18-12 and went 7-6 in the rugged Chicago Catholic League Blue Division with St. Rita, Brother Rice, Mt. Carmel, Loyola, St. Ignatius and DePaul Prep.
Fenwick will host its own regional and is the No. 4 seed in the DeLaSalle sectional. Young was also a head coach at Marmion and East St. Louis and worked as a graduate assistant at Southern Illinois and as an assistant for a year at St. Louis University for late Hall of Fame coach Rick Majerus.
Young was a Daily Herald All-Area Cook County captain in 2002 and an all-area pick in 2001 when Schaumburg beat Thornwood and Eddy Curry for the AA state title. He was a defensive standout at SIU as he played on four NCAA tournament qualifiers and a Sweet 16 team in 2006-07.
Legendary CCIW Coach Djurickovic Headed to Wisconsin Hall of Fame
Bosko Djurickovic, who was part of five NCAA Division III titles at North Park and then led a turnaround at Carthage fueled by a contingent of MSL and suburban stars, will be inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Sept. 24 in Wisconsin Dells. Djurickovic was 567-326 in 34 years as a head coach and his 305 wins in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) is behind only Dennis Bridges of Illinois Wesleyan.
Djurickovic was an assistant during North Park’s national title three-peat in 1978-80, led by future NBA player Michael Harper (1980-82 Portland Trail Blazers), and as head coach won titles in 1985 and 1987. He took over a Carthage program in 1996 that was in such a funk its last CCIW title came in a different state in 1964, which was the last year it was located in western Illinois before it moved all operations to its two-year old second campus in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The Carthage program took off in 2000 as Daily Herald All-Area and MSL stars Jason Wiertel (Buffalo Grove), Rob Garnes (Rolling Meadows) and Antoine McDaniel (Schaumburg) led the way to a CCIW title and NCAA tournament appearance. Greg Ktistou (Downers Grove South), who had played D-I at Eastern Illinois, Bart Fabian (Maine West), Jim Oboikowitch (Libertyville) and Scott Steger (Schaumburg) were also key players in the resurgence. Carmel grad Tim Bernero was an assistant coach and is now in his 20th year as the winningest coach in the Carthage women’s program.
“It’s as enjoyable a team to coach as I’ve ever had,” Djurickovic said in a 2000 Daily Herald story. “It may not be the best but it’s a fun group of kids.”
Wiertel, Garnes and McDaniel - who are all in the school’s top 10 for career scoring - led a trip to the Elite Eight in 2001 and a third-place national finish and 28-2 record in 2002. Wiertel graduated as the career scoring leader (2,113 points) and now is No. 2 behind Djurickovic’s son Steve. Garnes, whose Meadows’ scoring record was broken by LA Lakers rookie Max Christie, is No. 9 and McDaniel, who led Schaumburg to fourth in the state in 1999, is No. 10.
Djurickovic won five CCIW titles and three CCIW Coach of the Year awards with a 371-247 record in 24 years at Carthage before retiring after the 2019-20 season and turning the program over to his son Steve. Djurickovic was 196-79 in 10 years at North Park.
Tough Break for Craft
Xavier freshman Kam Craft, a two-time all-state pick at Buffalo Grove, suffered a knee injury that is expected to keep him out 3-4 weeks, according to published reports. The 6-foot-6 Craft is averaging 2.8 points and 1.6 rebounds in 14 games and is shooting 50 percent from the field and 35.3 percent on 3-pointers (6-for-17).
Although his playing time was limited the last two months he had one of his best games Feb. 4 with 8 points and 4 rebounds in 10 minutes in a 96-71 win over St. John’s. The timetable would project a return either in the Big East or NCAA tournaments.
Craft played three years at BG before playing his senior year at The Skill Factory in Atlanta.
Bullman, Kuzmanic Trying for NCAA Repeat with ISU
Junior Kate Bullman (Grayslake Central) and director of basketball operations Stephanie Kuzmanic (Wheeling) are trying to get Illinois State’s women’s basketball team to the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive year.
Bullman was instrumental in ISU (19-6, 13-2) taking sole possession of first place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 72-70 win at Northern Iowa on Thursday night. The 6-foot-2 junior capped a 13-point night in 37 minutes with 2 tiebreaking free throws with 7.7 seconds to play and then made sure Maya McDermott (17 points) and UNI didn’t get a shot to tie or win.
Bullman is averaging 6.9 points and 6.3 rebounds and has 38 blocked shots in her second year as a starter. She helped ISU end a 14-year NCAA tourney drought last year and the Daily Herald All-Area captain in Lake County played all 24 games as a freshman when it made the WNIT to end an 8-year postseason drought.
Kuzmanic is in her second year on the staff at ISU after spending 7 years as a teacher and girls head coach at Leyden. Kuzmanic was a 2010 Daily Herald All-Area pick, two-time all-MSL pick and four-year starter as Wheeling went 110-18 with three MSL titles and a third-place Class 4A finish in 2009. She went on to Carthage and is in the school’s Hall of Fame.
X Marks the Spot for Cannella
St. Viator graduate Sal Canella had a big start for the Arlington Renegades of the XFL in Saturday’s season opener. The 6-foot-5, 228-pound tight end caught a game-high 7 passes for 70 yards in a 22-20 victory over the Vegas Vipers.
Cannella, who played at Auburn and spent time in NFL training camp with Green Bay, is the top-rated tight end in the XFL by Pro Football Network.