Sunday Slam: Prospect's Rathe a Rarity as Varsity Head Coach for All Seasons
Maine West Grad Dugalic Voted to D-III Basketball All-Star Game; Barrington's Shinhoster Repeats as D-III NCAA Wrestling Champion
As a season ends it’s typical for a coach to quickly start thinking ahead to the next one.
That was the position Prospect boys basketball coach Brad Rathe was in when a wonderful run to the Class 4A sectional championship game and Sweet 16 concluded with a loss to Libertyville. But Rathe wasn’t necessarily thinking about next November.
Rathe’s next season, his eighth as the head coach of the Knights’ boys tennis program, had already started. So much for an easy transition to decompress. That would have to wait until…
Well, not the fall, since Rathe is also in charge of Prospect’s girls golf program. In an era of specialization where athletes competing in three sports is a rarity, one person operating as a head coach in three sports is almost unheard of, especially at a large school.
Oh, and it’s not as if life is all fun and games since Rathe and his wife have three young boys and his primary job at Prospect is teaching Advanced Placement US History and American Studies.
“There is never any downtime for anything,” Rathe said with a laugh. “It’s something I hear all the time when people see my e-mail (signature line) and ask, ‘How are you coaching three sports?”
Staying busy is nothing new for Rathe, who is one of six children in his family and always played multiple sports. The 2002 Lake Zurich grad was an all-Fox Valley Conference and Daily Herald All-Area basketball player on a sectional finalist and he was a standout goalkeeper for a team that won an FVC title as a junior. He also started off playing baseball in high school but finished up playing tennis.
He went to Lake Forest College to play basketball. But his sophomore year, one of the soccer keepers tore an ACL, so he tried out and wound up performing double duty as he started 10 games and the conference championship.
“They said, ‘Hey we could use you,’” Rathe said. “I did it only my sophomore year because it was all I could really handle, but it was awesome playing.”
During his first four years at Prospect, Rathe was all basketball as a varsity assistant to John Camardella. Then he was approached by sophomore basketball coach and head girls tennis coach Mike McColaugh to assist him with that program.
Four years ago the girls golf job opened up as Jim Hamann moved over to replace the retiring Tom Martindale in leading the boys golf program.
“It seemed like a pretty good opportunity,” Rathe said. “I had never coached golf before and it’s been fun. It’s a cool job.”
Another exciting opportunity arose after the 2020 basketball season when Camardella stepped down so he could take a year-long sabbatical and study at Harvard University.
“I figured if it’s not going to be now, it will probably be never and I’d like to give it a shot,” Rathe said of leading a basketball program.
Most coaches would have stepped away from the other two jobs to deal with the year-round demands of basketball. Instead, Rathe decided to be a modern-day equivalent of Gil Thorp, the fictional athletic director and head football, basketball and baseball coach of the Milford Mudlarks in a daily comic strip that appeared for decades in the Chicago Tribune.
“I like that there isn’t any kind of redundancy,” Rathe said. “It feels different when a new season starts.”
One of the biggest differences, on the surface, is golf and tennis are regarded as more individualistic sports compared to basketball.
“It’s much different than basketball, where it’s more hands-on and you’re calling sets and defenses and thinking, ‘We’re going to send so-and-so this way,’” Rathe said.
But there are certain things Rathe preaches across all sports. Playing for the team is one, even though some of his golfers and tennis players don’t have that experience of working as a unit like his basketball players.
The mental game is another.
“So much of my coaching is trying to mentally keep kids in the right place,” Rathe said. “A lot of it is mindset. The important thing with sports today is having control over your mindset. We do it a lot with tennis, basketball and golf.”
Rathe’s approach doesn’t vary much between sports. He’s not going to be racking up technical fouls, snapping putters over his knee or smashing tennis rackets.
“I tend to be pretty laid-back as a coach and my style is not in your face,” he said. “If you need motivation to go out and play hard that has to come internally. The desire to play hard is on you and I think my athletes know that. The desire to win has to come from inside.”
Rathe feels fortunate to have a wide range of influences in his coaching career. He learned a lot about developing personal relationships from the late Bill Probst, an Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Famer who was St. Viator’s boys coach and also coached Rathe at Immanuel Lutheran grade school in Palatine.
Rathe spent a year coaching girls basketball with Probst at Richmond-Burton before coming to Prospect. Camardella had like-minded approaches “and that made our partnership pretty solid.” Assistant basketball coach Gary Judson has also been an important figure.
“He did as much as anybody in teaching me how to be a good teacher,” Rathe said. “A lot of good coaching is just that - it’s good teaching.”
And with this crazy schedule there is no way Rathe could do it flying solo. His basketball staff includes Bobby Reibel, who Rathe said “will get a (head coaching) job somewhere soon.” Jim Willis and Hamann help out a lot with golf and tennis assistant Tom Kujawa, a 2008 Prospect grad, was more important than ever this year because of the overlap with basketball.
It also helps to have a sports-minded family. Rathe’s wife Kendal (Wapotish) was a four-year tennis letter-winner at Lake Forest College and was the 2003 McHenry High School female athlete of the year in tennis, basketball and softball. Their two oldest sons, Harrison (8) and George (5), are not surprisingly competitive and getting very involved in a variety of sports. It probably won’t be long before Arthur, who just turned 1, follows in their footsteps.
“She’s great and with the life we’ve chosen she’s worked some small miracles every day,” Rathe said. “It’s non-stop but we’re kind of busy people who don’t sit around very well. We like to be busy. I couldn’t do it without her.”
Rathe’s parents Bill and Cheryl also pitch in to help. And Harrison and George have become fixtures around their dad’s teams.
“The older two have been pretty invested in basketball and it’s really fun,” Rathe said. “The most emotional thing after the sectional final was seeing an 8-year-old (Harrison) full of tears.
“The girls golfers love having them around. The guys fully embrace this and have made them feel a part of it. When you do three sports like this, with the amount of time it takes, it has to be that way. They know it’s part of the deal. They are at all the JV games and sitting on the bench.”
As Rathe turns his attention to tennis, he still has to wrap up the basketball season with a postseason banquet and awards this week and year-end meetings with players. He also will be setting up summer league schedules and the logistics of open gyms.
And there is also finalizing the plans for a three-day summer trip to Decatur so the girls golf team can get the experience of playing the state tournament course.
“It’s always something,” Rathe said with a laugh.
Maine West’s Dugalic Headed to D-III All-Star Game
Illinois Tech senior Milos Dugalic was involved in a tense and wild race to garner enough votes for the final spot in the Reese’s NCAA Division III College All-Star Game during the Final Four next weekend in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Fortunately, the process didn’t include a lot of attack ads by the seven candidates, but Dugalic had a lot of campaign help from Illinois Tech sports information director and Hoffman Estates grad Eric Willuweit.
The 6-foot-9 Dugalic, a 2018 Daily Herald All-Area pick at Maine West, ended up on top with 243,061 votes in the on-line process that ended Thursday morning. Dugalic edged Isaiah Geathers of Lehman College in the Bronx, New York (218,843). Jeremy Beckler of Carleton College in Minnesota (74,259) was also in the hunt early in the voting that lasted nearly 48 hours.
Dugalic and Geathers will both join 18 other players who will be selected nationally and announced this week. Dugalic and Geathers received more individual votes than had ever been cast in total in a given year since the fan voting started in 2011, according to D3hoops.com.
“I’m super excited and it’s a privilege to be able to play at the All-Star game. Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for me!” Dugalic said on the Illinois Tech website.
“I am just grateful for Milos to be given this opportunity to participate in the DIII All-Star game and represent Illinois Tech and the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) as a whole!,” said Illinois Tech head coach Terrence Gray on the school’s website. “Milos is a wonderful person and player who has worked extremely hard throughout his time here at Illinois Tech. I know it means a lot to him, our team, and our university to be given this opportunity. I want to thank everyone who supported Milos by spreading the word and voting! It’s just remarkable to see the love and support for Milos and our basketball program. I know he will do great and make us all very proud.”
Dugalic was a first-team all-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) selection for the second consecutive season as he averaged 17.2 points a game on 52.5 percent shooting from the field, 12.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. His rebounding average and 18 double-doubles ranked eighth nationally in D-III.
Garrison Carter, a 6-5 freshman swingman from Wauconda, also had a big year for Illinois Tech as he was third in scoring at 13.9 ppg and second in rebounding at 4.8 rpg. He made 44 3-pointers at a 38.6-percent clip.
Dominant Wrestling Repeat for Shinhoster
Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Jaritt Shinhoster authored a dominant defense of his 184-pound title in the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships in Roanoke, Virginia this weekend. The Barrington graduate won a title rematch against Shane Liegel of Loras College 9-2 to become the third back-to-back NCAA champion in program history. Shinhoster and Liegel split their two meetings this season.
Shinhoster went 4-0 at the national championships with a fall and back-to-back major decisions. He finished the season with a career-high 33 victories in 35 matches and his only other loss was to a Division I opponent in the title bout of the prestigious Midlands Championships. Shinhoster went 112-15 with 57 pins, 9 technical falls and 28 major decisions in his Whitewater career.
Roberts Enters Basketball Transfer Portal
Army freshman and Hersey grad Ethan Roberts, who was this season’s Patriot League Rookie of the Year, announced his entrance into the NCAA transfer portal Friday. Seventh-year head coach Jimmy Allen was fired after the Black Knights went 17-16 and finished in fourth place in the Patriot League.
The 6-foot-5 Roberts was the fourth player in school history and first since 2013 to win the Patriot League’s top rookie honor. He started 29 of 31 games and averaged 12.7 points and 4.4 rebounds a game and shot 49 percent from the field and 42 percent from 3-point range (57-for-135). Roberts was a Daily Herald All-Area selection.
Gregory’s Tenure Ends at South Florida
Brian Gregory, who led Hersey to the second of its three Elite Eight appearances in 1985, saw his coaching tenure at South Florida come to an end Friday after he went 79-107 in six seasons. This year’s team finished 14-18 and lost in the first round of the American Athletic Conference.
"Brian has been a true ambassador for the University of South Florida," said Michael Kelly, the USF Vice President and Director of Athletics in a statement on the school’s website. "Ultimately, our head coaches and programs are judged by on-court success, and we have not lived up to our expectations for men's basketball. We thank Brian and his family for all they have done for USF and wish them the very best in their journey."
Gregory is 327-287 in 19 seasons as a head coach at Dayton, Georgia Tech and USF. His second team at USF won a school-record 24 games and the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) championship. He also took two teams to the NCAA tournament at Dayton and was an assistant to Tom Izzo on Michigan State’s 2000 NCAA national champion.
Gregory was the Daily Herald All-Area captain as Hersey lost in the 1985 Class AA state quarterfinals in Champaign to eventual champion Mt. Carmel with Melvin McCants and James Farr. Gregory played with David Robinson on Navy’s 1986 NCAA Elite Eight team and then transferred to Oakland University in Michigan, where he was a three-time all-conference pick and set the school record for assists.
Buffalo Grove Baseball 50-Year Celebration
Buffalo Grove will celebrate 50 years of its baseball program with an Alumni Day at its April 21 home game vs. Hoffman Estates at 4:30 p.m. There will be a ceremonial first pitch before the game. The rain date for the event is May 12.
Barrington Football Picks Up Victory Off the Field
Barrington saw its 2022 football record improve to 5-4 this week when the IHSA ruled Maine South had to forfeit all 9 of its victories after an investigation determined multiple players did not reside in the school’s attendance area and were ineligible to participate.
Maine South, which beat Barrington on the field 38-7 in Week 3, also forfeits regular-season wins to Stevenson, Glenbrook North, Glenbrook South, Niles West, New Trier and Evanston. The Hawks’ Class 8A playoff victories over Bolingbrook and South Elgin are vacated. They lost to Glenbard West 37-34 in the state quarterfinals and also lost to Prospect in Week 4 of the regular season.