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Someone needs to make a documentary about Addison Driscoll

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HotBeer

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Jul 31, 2017
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They came up in a convo recently, and it made me recall how dominant they were. 7 straight titles, and then the school was shut down the following spring. Girls hoops won a title the winter before they closed as well.

I obviously don't have this info, but I highly doubt another high school in the United States has ever closed the spring after winning a state football championship, let alone 7.

I think a documentary on the program would be fascinating. Where did all the players and coaches go after the school closed? There had to be kids growing up nearby who dreamed of playing there and then poof, school closes. Lot of interesting stories to be unearthed there.

Would love to hear any reminiscence anyone on the board has about that stretch of Driscoll dominance or the school/closing in general.
 
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HotBeer said:
They came up in a convo recently, and it made me recall how dominant they were. 7 straight titles, and then the school was shut down the following spring. Girls hoops won a title the winter before they closed as well.

I obviously don't have this info, but I highly doubt another high school in the United States has ever closed the spring after winning a state football championship, let alone 7.

I think a documentary on the program would be fascinating. Where did all the players and coaches go after the school closed? There had to be kids growing up nearby who dreamed of playing there and then poof, school closes. Lot of interesting stories to be unearthed there.

Would love to hear any reminiscence anyone on the board has about that stretch of Driscoll dominance or the school/closing in general.
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I believe they won from 01-07 , so 7 in a row. In 2008 they were eliminated prior to the title game and then they announced the closure in April of 2009.

It's a minor detail, but the streak of championships had ended the fall before the spring closure.
 
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Gene Nudo....Fenwick and Arizona
Tim Racki .... Nazareth
Mike Burzawa.....Evanston
Brandon New....St. Viator and last I saw Judson U
 
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Coach Loci RIP passed away during the end of the state title runs from cancer. To me he was another key figure in this run.

I believe his full name was Mike Loconsole.
 
JCHillmen said:
I believe they won from 01-07 , so 7 in a row. In 2008 they were eliminated prior to the title game and then they announced the closure in April of 2009.

It's a minor detail, but the streak of championships had ended the fall before the spring closure.
Click to expand...

I remember JCA came to Driscoll on a very hot summer day for a 7 on 7. It was awesome to see these two teams on the same field. To bad the schools never got to play a real game against each other.
 
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Here is the list of coaches from 2004 to 2005.

Name: Driscoll Catholic High School
City: Addison
City Population: Addison
County: DuPage
Enrollment: 463
Nickname: Highlanders
Colors: Black/Gold
Conference: Suburban Catholic
President: Thomas Geraghty
Principal: Fred Muehleman
Athletic Director: Bob Carlson
Head Coach: Tim Racki
Assistant Coaches: Mike Burzawa, Dan Cepek, Bill Erzig, Nick Gebhart, Mike Loconsole, Brandon New, Dan Paplaczyck, Joe Petro, Brian Wojton, Bob Crowe(stats),Shawn Nykaza (film)
Trainer: Tricia Schank
Last Year's Advancement: Defeated Fairbury (Prairie Central), 37-21, in Class 4A Championship Game

 
Wassup13 said:
Here is the list of coaches from 2004 to 2005.

Name: Driscoll Catholic High School
City: Addison
City Population: Addison
County: DuPage
Enrollment: 463
Nickname: Highlanders
Colors: Black/Gold
Conference: Suburban Catholic
President: Thomas Geraghty
Principal: Fred Muehleman
Athletic Director: Bob Carlson
Head Coach: Tim Racki
Assistant Coaches: Mike Burzawa, Dan Cepek, Bill Erzig, Nick Gebhart, Mike Loconsole, Brandon New, Dan Paplaczyck, Joe Petro, Brian Wojton, Bob Crowe(stats),Shawn Nykaza (film)
Trainer: Tricia Schank
Last Year's Advancement: Defeated Fairbury (Prairie Central), 37-21, in Class 4A Championship Game

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Interesting. Paplaczyck is SF’s O coordinator now and has done a great job. Wojton was also head coach at SF the season before but was not good and was fired by SF and hired by Driscoll (I recall a chant at a basketball game where Driscoll chanted “thanks for Wojton” to which the SF student section responded “you can keep him”.).

Interesting to see all the connections though. Will never forget Racki onside kicking up 40+ against SF that season. Made the win last week that much better (although I thought SF would keep Naz out of playoffs…that obviously didn’t materialize). Thank God for Purnell and now McMillen is all I have to say.

Back on topic…A documentary would be fascinating. I remember the driscoll vs. montini games always being a must see affair during that stretch. Crazy that in a blink of an eye one of the top football powers in the state ceased to exist.
 
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I think there are also a couple of Gebhart's who are Assistant Coaches at Willowbrook. Nick Gebhart (the son) was a good RB at Driscoll. The father was a Assistant Coach. I attended many of the DC games during the run and sometimes would see the Willowbrook HC at the games.

I believe Driscoll's OC was Mike Loconsole from Glen Ellyn. I was told he went to school at Montini.

Driscolls Pregame ritual was fun to see being led out by the bagpipes, then Albreski would be nailing 50+ yard field goals and then Greg Turner diving on top of the team huddle of his teammates.

The cowbell was always going after every good play and the church bells would ring at 3 or 4pm right next door from the game.
 
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2004 Quarterfinals in 3A. Driscoll vs Wilmington at Wilmington. As hard hitting and physical as I've ever seen at a high school level. Driscoll pulled it out, but Wilmington certainly had their chance to win it. Wish Tony Vercelli on Wilmington hadn't gotten injured. May have played out differently. Epic game
 
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A lot of those players are still in the area I’m sure. Tough tough kids they had. Not a ton of d1 kids but just some great high school players.

Only d1 I Can remember were Turner, Jenkins and Tranchitella. Best kid I played against in high school was mike kenders from driscoll. A 240 lb load of a rb.
 
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eagles2k3 said:
A lot of those players are still in the area I’m sure. Tough tough kids they had. Not a ton of d1 kids but just some great high school players.

Only d1 I Can remember were Turner, Jenkins and Tranchitella. Best kid I played against in high school was mike kenders from driscoll. A 240 lb load of a rb.
Click to expand...

Kenders was a runaway truck at RB. He had the John Riggins style of running the football. You needed at least 3 guys to gang tackle him to get him down.

Schwabe was a great player and maybe the best athlete at DC.
 
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eagles2k3 said:
A lot of those players are still in the area I’m sure. Tough tough kids they had. Not a ton of d1 kids but just some great high school players.

Only d1 I Can remember were Turner, Jenkins and Tranchitella. Best kid I played against in high school was mike kenders from driscoll. A 240 lb load of a rb.
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I played against him as well.
Tom Kutos from Marmion was better IMO.

Now that I think about it Kenders might have been a soph when I was a sr so not apples to apples.
 
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SiuCubFan8 said:
I played against him as well.
Tom Kutos from Marmion was better IMO.

Now that I think about it Kenders might have been a soph when I was a sr so not apples to apples.
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Koutsos was a beast. He might’ve been overall better. I played him my junior year in a monsoon so he never had great footing to get going full speed. Kenders was class of 2000. Koutsos was 99. Koutsos went on to a solid career at siu.
 
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I see a lot of WSCC posters here. How many state titles do the WSCC schools have since year 2000? About 20??
 
Wassup13 said:
Kenders was a runaway truck at RB. He had the John Riggins style of running the football. You needed at least 3 guys to gang tackle him to get him down.

Schwabe was a great player and maybe the best athlete at DC.
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I thought Schwabe was a great athlete playing football. The best football player I ever saw at driscoll was Greg Turner. Man that kid could play. Didn’t have the measurable but he was amazing in high school.
 
eagles2k3 said:
I thought Schwabe was a great athlete playing football. The best football player I ever saw at driscoll was Greg Turner. Man that kid could play. Didn’t have the measurable but he was amazing in high school.
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I agree Turner was their best all time football player. I saw him win so many football games in the last two minutes of the game.

He once won a game in the playoffs making a unbelievable play at the end of a game.

There was less than a minute to go in the game and 4th and long with DC on Burlingtons 30 yard line. DC was up two points. DC threw an interception and the Burlington corner who was also their RB was running down the sideline with nobody in front of him for the win. Turner ran all the way across the field and caught the Burlington kid at the 10 yard line. Turner chopped the ball out of his hands and fell on it.

Driscoll won the game by 2 points and the middle of the 35 win playoff streak continued.

Turner would make MJ type plays on the football field. He was a freak athlete.
 
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Wassup13 said:
I agree Turner was their best all time football player. I saw him win so many football games in the last two minutes of the game.

He once won a game in the playoffs making a unbelievable play at the end of a game.

There was less than a minute to go in the game and 4th and long with DC on Burlingtons 30 yard line. DC was up two points. DC threw an interception and the Burlington corner who was also their RB was running down the sideline with nobody in front of him for the win. Turner ran all the way across the field and caught the Burlington kid at the 10 yard line. Turner chopped the ball out of his hands and fell on it.

Driscoll won the game by 2 points and the middle of the 35 win playoff streak continued.

Turner would make MJ type plays on the football field. He was a freak athlete.
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I remember that game. I had a friend who kept talking about how great Dan Sheldon was and there was no way they would lose to driscoll. Lots of laughs that day.
 
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eagles2k3 said:
I remember that game. I had a friend who kept talking about how great Dan Sheldon was and there was no way they would lose to driscoll. Lots of laughs that day.
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The Dan Sheldon game was a different year, that was 2000. DC beat 3 of Burlington's best teams ever from 2000-2003.
 
Didn’t a good amount of the juniors when the school closed end up at Montini. I don’t know why I feel like I remember a stud RB went from Driscoll to Montini for sr year?
 
forlouann said:
2004 Quarterfinals in 3A. Driscoll vs Wilmington at Wilmington. As hard hitting and physical as I've ever seen at a high school level. Driscoll pulled it out, but Wilmington certainly had their chance to win it. Wish Tony Vercelli on Wilmington hadn't gotten injured. May have played out differently. Epic game
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The two best defenses I’ve ever seen at the small school level. Driscoll won despite getting less than 100 yards of offense. A lot of people think that was Wilmington’s best ever team. Wilmington had Vercelli (unfortunately got injured late 2nd Q) who was all state like 5 times in 3 different sports and Tanner Roark, who had a nice MLB career. Driscoll had that kicker/punter (who actually had a kick blocked for a TD in this game), stud DE (Jenkins?) and stud LB Tranchitella (who had a long fumble return for a TD). The only offensive TD was a 1 or 2 yard drive after Driscoll recovered another fumble. Driscoll stopped Wilmo on the goal line and forced a FG early. 14-11 final. Was a great game.
 
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RichieRebel said:
Didn’t a good amount of the juniors when the school closed end up at Montini.
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A small handful. The families from Driscoll were not thrilled with the Christian Brothers of De LaSalle for closing DC after they raised the necessary money to keep it open. Many landed at public schools, Viator, SF and IC. Not so many at Montini.

Driscoll is a cautionary tale of why letting the inmates run the asylum is a recipe for disaster. When the school closed, the football program and all things related to football were flush with cash. Meanwhile, the school was a dump, the teachers were underpaid and the administrators didn’t stop anything related to football from happening.

The CBs of DLS told the families of Driscoll to raise a certain dollar amount to keep it open. It was a bluff. The Driscoll community called the bluff and raised the cash, but it didn’t matter. The CBs knew they had to shut it down because it was a freight train out of control, so they did just that.
 
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doctor_d said:
The two best defenses I’ve ever seen at the small school level. Driscoll won despite getting less than 100 yards of offense. A lot of people think that was Wilmington’s best ever team. Wilmington had Vercelli (unfortunately got injured late 2nd Q) who was all state like 5 times in 3 different sports and Tanner Roark, who had a nice MLB career. Driscoll had that kicker/punter (who actually had a kick blocked for a TD in this game), stud DE (Jenkins?) and stud LB Tranchitella (who had a long fumble return for a TD). The only offensive TD was a 1 or 2 yard drive after Driscoll recovered another fumble. Driscoll stopped Wilmo on the goal line and forced a FG early. 14-11 final. Was a great game.
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Great memory doctor d. As time passed I forgot a lot of the details. ( happens more and more ). Thanks for the refresher !
 
mchsalumni said:
A small handful. The families from Driscoll were not thrilled with the Christian Brothers of De LaSalle for closing DC after they raised the necessary money to keep it open. Many landed at public schools, Viator, SF and IC. Not so many at Montini.

Driscoll is a cautionary tale of why letting the inmates run the asylum is a recipe for disaster. When the school closed, the football program and all things related to football were flush with cash. Meanwhile, the school was a dump, the teachers were underpaid and the administrators didn’t stop anything related to football from happening.

The CBs of DLS told the families of Driscoll to raise a certain dollar amount to keep it open. It was a bluff. The Driscoll community called the bluff and raised the cash, but it didn’t matter. The CBs knew they had to shut it down because it was a freight train out of control, so they did just that.
Click to expand...
I never knew the back story behind the closing. Thank you. This has really been a great thread.
 
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mchsalumni said:
A small handful. The families from Driscoll were not thrilled with the Christian Brothers of De LaSalle for closing DC after they raised the necessary money to keep it open. Many landed at public schools, Viator, SF and IC. Not so many at Montini.

Driscoll is a cautionary tale of why letting the inmates run the asylum is a recipe for disaster. When the school closed, the football program and all things related to football were flush with cash. Meanwhile, the school was a dump, the teachers were underpaid and the administrators didn’t stop anything related to football from happening.

The CBs of DLS told the families of Driscoll to raise a certain dollar amount to keep it open. It was a bluff. The Driscoll community called the bluff and raised the cash, but it didn’t matter. The CBs knew they had to shut it down because it was a freight train out of control, so they did just that.
Click to expand...
Someone asked a great question earlier. A lot of Driscoll players came from Bloomingdale Bears, which used to be an amazing youth program feeding Driscoll and Lake Park. Where do those kids go now? The program is still alive after all these years but not as strong as it used to be.

Also, the demographics of Addison have shifted tremendously. The players they used to get living in Addison are no longer there, families choosing to leave and move to other towns.
 
Plenty of kids from Bloomingdale wind up at SF and MCHS, along with Lake Park and maybe Viator.

The Bloomingdale Bears program has slipped in the last 5-10 years, maybe demographics? Leadership? I really don’t know, I just hear it’s down from where it used to be.
 
mchsalumni said:
Plenty of kids from Bloomingdale wind up at SF and MCHS, along with Lake Park and maybe Viator.

The Bloomingdale Bears program has slipped in the last 5-10 years, maybe demographics? Leadership? I really don’t know, I just hear it’s down from where it used to be.
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Yes it is definitely down. I think it's experienced a slight resurgence in the last few years but still not what it was in the late 90s and early 2000s. They were really, really good.

Another program that is way down from those days is the Hanover Park Hurricanes. Man they were tough back in the day but today they are one of the smaller BGYFL programs in terms of numbers and success.
 
mchsalumni said:
Plenty of kids from Bloomingdale wind up at SF and MCHS, along with Lake Park and maybe Viator.

The Bloomingdale Bears program has slipped in the last 5-10 years, maybe demographics? Leadership? I really don’t know, I just hear it’s down from where it used to be.
Click to expand...
What is MCHS in this context? Surely not Mt Carmel or Marian Catholic...
 
mchsalumni said:
A small handful. The families from Driscoll were not thrilled with the Christian Brothers of De LaSalle for closing DC after they raised the necessary money to keep it open. Many landed at public schools, Viator, SF and IC. Not so many at Montini.

Driscoll is a cautionary tale of why letting the inmates run the asylum is a recipe for disaster. When the school closed, the football program and all things related to football were flush with cash. Meanwhile, the school was a dump, the teachers were underpaid and the administrators didn’t stop anything related to football from happening.

The CBs of DLS told the families of Driscoll to raise a certain dollar amount to keep it open. It was a bluff. The Driscoll community called the bluff and raised the cash, but it didn’t matter. The CBs knew they had to shut it down because it was a freight train out of control, so they did just that.
Click to expand...
Damn, this is super interesting. Who were the "inmates" in this instance? Were the coaches/AD influential enough in the school to basically run it as a football program?
 
HotBeer said:
Damn, this is super interesting. Who were the "inmates" in this instance? Were the coaches/AD influential enough in the school to basically run it as a football program?
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IMO. Parent football boosters and people connected close to the program.
 
HotBeer said:
Damn, this is super interesting. Who were the "inmates" in this instance? Were the coaches/AD influential enough in the school to basically run it as a football program?
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Coaches, boosters, AD, alums, players.

One player who came to Montini was late the first seven days of school. Parents and kid were shocked he was disciplined.

The administration at Driscoll lost control. All inbound donations were earmarked for athletics, nothing to broadening the capability of the actual education part of the school. It was really off the rails.
 
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