Pearlman leaving Wheeling
- Thread starter Quags57
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What was the effect at Wheeling?
I think that championship game win vs MC was the 1st time I was ever absolutely shocked by a Championship game outcome.
I think that championship game win vs MC was the 1st time I was ever absolutely shocked by a Championship game outcome.
He took wheeling to the playoffs... completely agree on that win over MC, I thought the caravan would roll but we're out coached.
So, as a Palatine fan I don't like this for a couple of reasons... If he was gonna be available I wish he would have come to Palatine as the head coach. I think Olsen will do a good job, but a guy with Pearlman's resume doesn't come along very often. Having been one game away from playing for the Class 8A championship the last two years, he might have been that guy to get them the next step and it is a solid program base to start with, which I don't think he ever had at Wheeling.
He could have come to Palatine as DC too, since Splitt had run the defense for years and now we need a replacement on that side of the ball too(We got Donnelly back as OC, maybe we can get Petricca to come back for DC???
)Secondly, Fremd's been a "meh" program under Sponsel while (their crosstown rival) Palatine has won 5 out of the last 6 MSL West titles. I can only wonder if this DC is a "biding time" thing and eventually Pearlman becomes the head coach at Fremd.
What he did at Prospect in taking a dead program and making them to 3 7A titles and a decade of highly consistent play is one of the great coaching jobs in Illinois history. Especially with not having many kids playing at FCS/FBS. Even making Wheeling relatively competitive in a district not known for strong sporting pipelines is quite an accomplishment.
Absolutely. Prospect was a consistently sub-.500 program before him and has returned to that since he left; his time there was an anomaly for the program.
That said, it seems hard to recapture whatever that was it seems. Stortz did not have the same level of success at Rock Island that he did at Lake Zurich(and now he's at Conant). Pearlman was only able to get Wheeling to one 5-4 season, and Donatucci was only able to manage one 6-3 season at Hoffman Estates.
I would say Donatucci did a better job. Hoffman Estates was close to beating a semifinalist in that first round game against Benet. They were a very good team last year. Your Pirates beat up on them but had a tough go early. That OC (Heyse, also their new HC) is outstanding. I would bet he learned a ton under donatucci and keeps Hoffman rolling.
Wheeling is a tough place to win. Prospect had a LOT of talented kids. Some of those offensive lines were tough! A lot of solid d1aa players and a few that went to big time schools.
I was watching Edgy's MSL West Conference Call video and I'm wondering just how Pearlman will work out at Fremd the more I think about it.
It seems both he and Sponsel have very strong personalities, which may sometimes tend to clash. After HCing for 15 years will he be able to be a subordinate with his personality?
It seems he was at his best at Prospect challenging kids to have courage and be more than they ever realized they could be. Does he just do that with the Fremd defense? What if he tries to instill his ideas on the team and clashes with the HC? I guess we'll see.
My gut...and I have nothing to base this on but my gut..is that he's there to eventually replace Sponsel.
Frankly, if Palatine had known at the time that Splitt was gonna step down, I wish they'd gone for him. Olsen may be a great coach, but as of yet is an unknown..as Splitt was when he replaced Donnelly.. so I guess we'll see on our side of town too.
It seems both he and Sponsel have very strong personalities, which may sometimes tend to clash. After HCing for 15 years will he be able to be a subordinate with his personality?
It seems he was at his best at Prospect challenging kids to have courage and be more than they ever realized they could be. Does he just do that with the Fremd defense? What if he tries to instill his ideas on the team and clashes with the HC? I guess we'll see.
My gut...and I have nothing to base this on but my gut..is that he's there to eventually replace Sponsel.
Frankly, if Palatine had known at the time that Splitt was gonna step down, I wish they'd gone for him. Olsen may be a great coach, but as of yet is an unknown..as Splitt was when he replaced Donnelly.. so I guess we'll see on our side of town too.
Offense got shut out the week before by DLS, and they barely squeaked by JCA in the 1st Rd. I was definitely disappointed, but not shocked.
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