Super Sunday Slam: Palatine's Mariani Hits Football Coaching Jackpot in Las Vegas
Special Nights for Two Injured Senior Basketball Players; Tauchman Tries to Become Latest Cub from MSL; West Suburban Walk-Ons Have Big Day for Bradley
Bubba Mariani can see the glow from the bright lights of Las Vegas from the backyard of his home in nearby Boulder City.
But that isn’t a big attraction for the former Palatine football star who was the Daily Herald’s All-Area captain in 1996. What is exciting are the Friday Night Lights that Mariani will be leading a team under in his new job as the head football coach at Boulder City High School.
Mariani, who has lived in the Vegas area for 21 of the last 23 years, was hired last month at Boulder City. His first head coaching job isn’t some roll of the dice considering he was part of two state championship staffs at Desert Pines, played for two highly successful coaches in Joe Petricca at Palatine and John Eliasik at Harper College and has deep family roots in coaching with his father Frank Jr. and grandfather Frank Sr.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Bubba Mariani, who rushed for more than 3,000 yards at Palatine. “When I was younger, the NFL or pro baseball wasn’t my thing. I understood I was a little guy. I always wanted to be coach Petricca or my grandpa and hear those stories.
“It happened suddenly. It’s what I’ve been dreaming of and then all of a sudden I’m like, ‘Oh, crap, should I?’”
Mariani laughed and said when he texted Petricca about getting the job, the response was, “are you sure you want to do this?” Mariani, who starred for Petricca’s final Palatine team that went to the state semifinals in 1996 and played on the 1994 Class 5A state runner-up, responded with a resounding yes.
“He texted, ‘You’ll be fine. It’s a lot of time commitment but you’ve been around the game, you’ve seen it, you know it,’” said Mariani, who inherits a team that went 8-3 last fall and also expects a visit or two from Petricca and his wife Jan in the fall.
After Mariani’s playing days ended at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, he came out to Vegas to finish his education and met his wife Shannon. They moved to Arlington Heights for a couple of years, and he was an assistant at Palatine, but they returned to Vegas when Shannon got a great opportunity as a spa director.
He was hired to teach special education and started on the coaching staff at Desert Pines High School on the defensive side of the ball. One year his dad, who was a longtime assistant coach and teacher at Palatine, would spend the week in Vegas to help him with the defense and fly back to Chicago on the weekends. After a head coaching change at Desert Pines, Bubba transitioned to offense and was the co-coordinator and coordinator for state championship teams in 2016 and 2017. He also coached standout tight end Darnell Washington of two-time national champion Georgia.
But he and his wife also had three involved kids in his sons Asa and Zae, who are 12 and 6 respectively, and their 10-year-old daughter Drew. Just before COVID hit in 2020, he stepped away from high school coaching to devote more time to Asa’s football and baseball teams.
It wasn’t long before the coaching bug bit again.
“The next three years was just all about their stuff,” Mariani said. “I knew I was missing it but I wouldn’t let myself get into it. I shut off all the high school sports stuff because I missed it. I started getting the edge back since Asa is getting close to high school (sixth grade). I knew I wanted to be involved, but I’m definitely not a daddy-ball kind of guy.
“What wore at me is I loved that experience in high school of going down and eating lunch with my dad in the special ed classroom. When the coaches would meet at our house on weekends, I’d pretend like I was paying attention to the TV so I knew the game plan before the week started.”
A long-planned move to Boulder City, a town of about 15,000 created to house the workers building the Hoover Dam, helped make it possible. Mariani likes the small-town, smaller-school feel of approximately 650 students in Class 3A of Nevada’s five football classes. Kids are encouraged to participate in multiple sports, the way he did in football, baseball, basketball and indoor track at Palatine, and he is coaching JV baseball with the varsity head coach who was in charge of Asa’s club team for a couple of years.
Mariani is thrilled that Zae will have a similar experience to the one had at age 6 when he was at practices and in the locker room around the first Palatine team to make the playoffs in 1986 with all-area players Paul Claps, Mike Cheatham and Ken Rapp. And there was no other place Mariani wanted to be as Petricca’s teams never missed the postseason again en route to a 103-40 record in 13 years.
“I have a strong base in everything I learned from coach Petricca and not a day goes by where things that man said to me don’t pop in my head,” Mariani said. “My style of program is going to be one of the things he preached forever - you win with winners. There’s a ton of stuff involved with that model and method I want to use. Playing for him, I didn’t just play for coach Petricca, I grew up there. That was my world and all I wanted to do was do good in that guy’s eyes.”
Ultimately landing at Harper, leading NJCAA football in touchdowns in 1999 and playing for the program’s founder in Eliasik, was another important experience.
“He had a very different style,” Mariani said, “but both of those guys were very, very unique. They left a long-lasting impression on how I thought about coaching, and how I loved what I want to be and what I want to do.”
Then there were the coaches in his immediate family. He is excited that his dad Frank Jr., should be able to come out to help for more extended periods of time.
“Dad’s demeanor is completely different but he worked so well with Petricca,” Bubba said. “He’s more analytical. Keep it simple. During one game Asa asked, ‘Why aren’t we running these (other) plays? Why are we running the same play 5 times in a row?’ My dad told a story of how we ran only two plays in high school because they were working.”
And in spirit will be Bubba’s grandfather, Frank Sr., who was St. Viator’s first athletic director and a successful coach there, as well as at St. Rita, Notre Dame and Holy Cross. He was helping coach a Palatine freshman game in September 1993 when he suffered a heart attack and passed away at 64.
“With all the stories I’ve heard from everybody who was ever around him - they had nothing but amazing things to say about my grandfather,” Bubba said. “The thing most important to me is hopefully someday people will talk about me in that same vein, the way 50 to 60 years later they talk about him. When I was back home at Christmas, I ran into a guy who played for him and he remembered all these things about my grandfather.”
Not long after Mariani got the job at Boulder City, he said people he ran into at the grocery store were asking, “Are you the new coach? Are you Bubba?”
He is and he can’t wait to get started with his dream job.
Two Magical High School Sports Moments
Two memorable moments that epitomize what high school sports should be about took place this week for players whose senior seasons were derailed by serious injuries.
McHenry’s Lynette Alsot suffered a severe knee injury in early December that ended her season until last Wednesday on her senior night against Burlington Central.
Alsot started the game for first-year coach John Lunkenheimer and with the blessing of BC coach Collin Kalamatas, McHenry won the tip and passed the ball to Alsot, wearing a heavy knee brace, for a layup. The story was showcased by WGN-TV’s Larry Hawley, with an assist from my better half Amy, who is in charge of communications at the school.
Grant Dersnah was Palatine’s starting quarterback when his football season ended in Week 4 with a leg injury. As a result, what was expected to be a big basketball season for Dersnah with the Mid-Suburban West champions never got started until head coach Eric Millstone inserted him into Friday night’s victory over visiting crosstown rival Fremd in the closing seconds.
Palatine worked the ball to Dersnah on the baseline and he scored on a layup as the big crowd erupted. Fremd coach Bob Widlowski, whose son Bobby just graduated from Palatine last year, displayed his typical class in making Dersnah’s return memorable.
Tauchman Gets Shot With Cubs
Fremd product Mike Tauchman is trying to return to the big leagues as a non-roster invitee with the Cubs. The lefty-hitting outfielder has played with the Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants and spent all of last season with the Hanwha Eagles in Korea.
If the 32-year-old Tauchman can make the team he would join Fremd’s Todd Hundley, Elk Grove’s Dave Otto and Prospect’s Dave Kingman and Tom Lundstedt as Mid-Suburban League products to play for the Cubs. Scott Sanderson and Jason Kipnis (Glenbrook North) and Tyler Ladendorf (Maine West) also played for the Cubs well after those schools left the MSL.
Tauchman was a Daily Herald All-Area football and baseball player who graduated from Fremd in 2009 and had a big three-year career at Bradley. He made his MLB debut with the Rockies in 2017 and was having a breakout year in 2019 with the Yankees with a slash line of .277/.361/.504 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) and 13 homers and 47 RBI in 260 at-bats when he suffered a season-ending calf injury in September.
He was traded by the Yankees to the Giants early in 2021 and last year in Korea had a slash line of .289/.366/.430 with 12 homers and 43 RBI in 144 games. He has hit .231 with 17 homers and 78 RBI in 257 big-league games.
Three local pitchers - lefties Ryan Borucki (Mundelein) and Eric Stout (St. Francis) and righty Nick Burdi (Downers Grove South) - were also invited to Cubs’ training camp. Borucki is 10-9 with a 4.45 ERA in 96 games with Toronto and Seattle (2018-22) but missed the last two months of last season with an injured forearm. Stout made his MLB debut with the Royals in 2018 and last year made 2 appearances with the Cubs and 18 with the Pirates (25 strikeouts overall in 25 1-3 innings). Burdi was 2-2 with a save in 16 games with the Pirates (2018-20) but hasn’t pitched professionally since undergoing Tommy John surgery in October 2020.
West Suburban Walk-Ons Big Day at Bradley
Sophomores Cade Hardtke (Glenbard South) and Sam Hennessy (Benet) would be playing a lot at smaller schools after excellent high school basketball careers. But they chose to go to Bradley as walk-ons and their efforts are typically out of the limelight for a team tied with Drake atop a tight Missouri Valley Conference race with 4 games to play.
On Saturday, Hardtke and Hennessy were rewarded for their work and in the spotlight by scoring their first collegiate points in an 83-48 rout of Murray State before 6,213 at the Peoria Civic Center. Hennessy nailed a 3-pointer from the right corner on his first collegiate shot and Hardtke followed shortly thereafter by banking in a fallaway jumper.
In a stroke of great timing, Hardtke and Hennessy were featured in a story in the Bradley Scout student newspaper this week. They also received a lot of postgame newspaper and TV attention in Peoria for their exploits.
Hardtke was a three-sport standout at Glenbard South and played for his dad Wade in basketball. Hennessy was an all-East Suburban Catholic Conference pick in one of the state’s best programs at Benet. Full disclosure - I also went to Bradley with Hennessy’s parents John and Wendy so it was a cool moment for those of us who have been friends with them for nearly 40 years.
Send It In Ocean!
Elmhurst University senior and Leyden product Ocean Johnson was a smash hit in Saturday night’s CCIW game with visiting North Park. At the start of the second overtime, the 6-foot-3 Johnson took a pass in the post, the proverbial Red Sea parted and Johnson went in for a two-hand slam that ripped off the rim and shattered the backboard.
The game was delayed for nearly 90 minutes after Johnson’s Darryl Dawkins/Jerome Lane impression while a new backboard could be brought in and installed. Unfortunately for Johnson and the Bluejays they couldn’t send in a victory and fell 93-90 in double overtime. Johnson finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals in 45 minutes and is averaging 14.1 points and 6.7 rebounds a game.
Johnson, a two-time Daily Herald All-Area pick, is in his third year as a starter at Elmhurst after beginning his college career at Loras. He averaged 9.5 points and 4.7 rebounds a game last year when he helped the school finish second in the country in the NCAA Division III tournament. It’s unlikely he learned his rim-wrecking prowess from Leyden coach Bill Heisler, one of the 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament best-known for his long-range shooting prowess that led Warsaw to the 1997 Class A state title.
Triton College Men’s Basketball, Clancy Moving On Up
Triton College men’s basketball has been red hot with a 7-game winning streak and 11 wins in its last 12 games and it jumped four spots to 10th in last week’s NJCAA Division I national rankings. A 95-88 double-overtime win over Kankakee improved the Trojans’ record to 20-5 and made second-year head coach and Buffalo Grove graduate John Clancy the fastest coach in program history to reach 50 victories.
Kimahri Wilson had 25 points and Devon Barnes scored 20 in the win at Kankakee. Triton has two regular-season games left and will get a chance to avenge its only loss since December 10 when it travels to third-ranked Indian Hills on Feb. 25.
Hersey’s Roberts Blazing Away for Army
Ethan Roberts, a Daily Herald All-Area pick at Hersey, continues his smooth transition to Division I basketball. The 6-foot-5 Roberts earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors after he scored a career-high 32 points on 11-for-19 shooting and 6-for-8 from 3-point range in a loss to Bucknell.
Roberts is averaging 13.1 points and 4.3 rebounds a game for 14-13 Army. He is hitting 44 percent of his 3s (54-for-122) and 49 percent of his shots from the field.
Huxtable’s Long Road Leads to NFL
In the dinosaur days of land-line phones, the joke would be that a college football coach like Dave Huxtable had a moving company on speed dial. The 1975 Larkin graduate and Elgin Sports Hall of Famer has a long resume with 13 college stops.
The 66-year-old Huxtable was hired this week by the Atlanta Falcons as a senior defensive assistant coach. He spent the last two years as a defensive analyst for Nick Saban at Alabama and started his career as a graduate assistant at Iowa State in 1982.
Huxtable was a defensive coordinator at Independence (Kansas) Community College, Western Kentucky, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Central Florida, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State. He also worked at East Carolina, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and Texas. Huxtable, a three-sport athlete at Larkin, was inducted into the Elgin Sports HOF in 2017.
Legendary Lyons Basketball Coach Nikcevich Passes Away
Ron Nikcevich had a perfect debut season as the head basketball coach at Lyons Township and retired with a state trophy in one of the most successful careers in Illinois high school history. Nikcevich, who was also a head coach at Riverside-Brookfield and compiled a 562-288 record in 33 seasons, passed away last week at 88.
Nikcevich went from R-B to Lyons for the 1969-70 season and his team with future college standouts Owen Brown and Marcus Washington capped a 31-0 season with a 71-52 win over East Moline United in the state championship game in Champaign. Washington started for Al McGuire’s 1974 NCAA tournament runner-up at Marquette and Brown started on some of Lefty Driesell’s best Maryland teams before tragically passing during a pickup game in 1976 from a heart problem.
Nikcevich’s final team at Lyons in 1993-94 went 28-5 and took third in Class AA as it beat Conant in the quarterfinals and Rockford Boylan in the third-place game. He also coached 14-year NBA veteran Jeff Hornacek.
Kaye’s Twins Making Impact in Tennessee
Rick Kaye, who starred at on Conant’s 1994 Elite Eight basketball qualifier and had a stellar college career at Eastern Illinois, has junior twin daughters Natalie and McKenzie playing basketball for Grace Christian Academy in Franklin, Tennessee, which is just south of Nashville. Natalie was a recent candidate for the Tennessean newspaper’s girls athlete of the week award after a 25-point game with three 3s. She was third of seven candidates with 12,221 votes (the winner had more than 26,000).
Martinelli Chipping In at Northwestern
Freshman Nick Martinelli (Glenbrook South) has been making a big contribution the last month in Northwestern’s push to make its second NCAA Tournament appearance. The 6-7 Martinelli hit a 3-pointer in 10 minutes in Sunday afternoon’s stunning comeback upset of top-ranked Purdue.
Martinelli also had a career-high 9 points in 16 minutes at Iowa and in the Wildcats’ recent wins on the road had 6 points in 15 minutes at Wisconsin and 4 points in 14 minutes at Ohio State. He is averaging 3.2 points in 11 games.
Great Year Continues for Palicki at Resurrection
It’s been a big year for Wheeling grad Jon Palicki as his Resurrection girls basketball team enters play in the Trinity Class 3A sectional with a 21-7 record and No. 2 seed. The Bandits host the regional and will try for their fourth crown in seven years under Palicki. Earlier this year he got his 100th career victory at the school.