I agree with Reents from Wilmington has to be Top 10 or very close.
If you compare Wilmington pre-Reents to now the difference is huge. Reents has one title, 2 title games and playoffs every year (I think). He might have missed one year.
Top 10 active IHSA Football coaches in Illinois?
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If you compare Wilmington pre-Reents to now the difference is huge. Reents has one title, 2 title games and playoffs every year (I think). He might have missed one year.
And that includes the year Driscoll was 4A State Champs 4 years in a row, then dropped to 3A for their 5th in a row, barely beating one of Wilmington's best teams in the Semi-finals.
Any list that doesn’t include coach Zvonar can’t be right.
All coach Z has done is make the playoffs every year he has been the coach. I believe 18 years. 2 championship, numerous semi and Quarterfinals.
Tough to find a program that is in the 8A Championship hunt every year. The man deserves the credit for what he has done to make LWE a Illinois powerhouse program.
I must be getting old. I remember watching #3 on your list Denny Diduch in the mid 80’s playing for the Park Ridge Falcons as a pre teen. He was a terrific athlete at QB and in the secondary. He went on to play at Maine South and was an excellent player there as well. It’s nice to see him having such success.
I always wonder how great the legendary coaches would be if they coached at public schools instead of catholic schools. That is not to say they aren't great coaches but I do wonder how many titles they would win. Not to have Chris Schremp from PR on this list is just wrong.
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It goes both ways though. There are some public school coaches who are very successful that would struggle in a setting where they were not gifted talented players with stable home lives every year. Or if they had to recruit to get their players.
There needs to be four categories because they are all very different.
Large and Small Private/Open Enrollment
Large and Small Public.
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No football team can win without talent. How you coach the talent is what separate one coach from the next. All coaches that are able to win with the talent they have is considered great. Talent is talent. Private and public is irrelevant.
Although, it is "tough" to find a program that is in the hunt every year in 8A, I can name 2 additional programs off the top of my head: LA and MS.
Private and Public is the actual issue. If a Catholic school was tied by boundaries would they actually get the top talent? Public schools are tied to who lives in their district.
None of that has anything to do with a coach being successful with the players he have on the team. Regardless of how they got on the team, not every coach can be successful. If/then scenarios are irrelevant because you have to assume that each coach would do exactly what they are doing now which isn't the case. Private to Private and Public to Public will bring about the same issues as Private to Public for any Coach switching programs.
Sometimes you don't realize how good a coach is until he retires. Reents has a very similar coaching history as Dick Duval did at St. Joe Ogden. St. Joes made the playoffs once prior to Duval taking over in 1988 - an 8-3 season in '87. Duval never had a losing record...missed the playoffs twice in his first & third years, sandwiched around a 2A runner up...and then didn't miss the playoffs again, with only 1 5-5 season. Since retiring, St. Joes has gone 5-5, 4-5, 5-5...
The five years before Reents took over, the Wildcats were 2-7, 3-6, 1-8, 6-4, and 0-9. Reents' Cats went 3-6 & 5-4 the first two years, and have now made the playoffs 23 straight years, with only 1 5-5 season...He took over from a coach who had been there since 1965, fresh out of college. He clearly is one of the top ten coaches in the state, being inducted into the Hall of Fame this spring...he probably would have a couple more state titles but for Driscoll and IC...
Cullen Welter, Monticello & Aledo. Coaching two solid programs with history, Welter won 3 titles & 2 runners up at Aledo and finally got a title this year with Monticello. I've only watched them play live once, losing to Wilmington Round 2 in 2014, but the pass first spread is hard to run at smaller schools, and Welter's teams run it well.
Scott Hamilton, Tolono Unity. 5 runners up, broke a 25+ year playoff string under his coaching this year with his first losing record of 4-5. Previous worst record was 6 wins...
Josh Jostes, Maroa-Forsyth. 2 titles, six runners up since 2006...
The stunning thing is, Duvall at St. Joes, Hamilton at Tolono, and Welter at Monticello would have even better records if they weren't in the same conference - and Maroa was in their conference as well for a few years...
Scott Hamilton, Tolono Unity. 5 runners up, broke a 25+ year playoff string under his coaching this year with his first losing record of 4-5. Previous worst record was 6 wins...
Josh Jostes, Maroa-Forsyth. 2 titles, six runners up since 2006...
The stunning thing is, Duvall at St. Joes, Hamilton at Tolono, and Welter at Monticello would have even better records if they weren't in the same conference - and Maroa was in their conference as well for a few years...
Schremp's Prairie Ridge teams won 6A Titles in 2011, 2016 & 2017 while Seaburg won in 2018.
Both run the Triple Option Veer which incidentally was taught to both programs by former Crystal Lake High School ( Central) Football Coach and Illinois High School Hall of Famer Bill Mack.
Mack helped Mt. Carmel win the 2003 State Championship running this offense and a great man, coach and teacher !
Both run the Triple Option Veer which incidentally was taught to both programs by former Crystal Lake High School ( Central) Football Coach and Illinois High School Hall of Famer Bill Mack.
Mack helped Mt. Carmel win the 2003 State Championship running this offense and a great man, coach and teacher !
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one of the most important things we are leaving out of these scenarios is: what a good/great coach does for his kids, not just wins and losses. nowadays it is a little easier for coaches to get information out to next level coaches. but, in years past these coaching staffs had to push hard to get kids looks. and to get these young men to mature and become successful adults.
and to me those are the best coaches. I don't care about the wins and losses. it is what you do for your kids each year to get them to be successful young men. and be productive human being in society.
there are countless examples of kids making it to the next level and beyond but not being productive human beings.
and, there is an enormous amount of kids that don't go and play onto the next level but have learned how to be strong decent men, a hard work ethic, learned how to be a team player, comradery and most importantly learn to provide for their families. that to me is the best coach.
Sustained success (consecutive long runs in the playoffs) and at least a title. He’s a good coach. Not top 10.
Badke during his 7 years at Rice
51-31 record
5 playoff appearances
3 first round losses
1 quarter final appearance
1 title game appearance.
Not the resume of a top 10 active coach.
Up not even a consideration. This is not a slight he is a good coach but in no way in the top 10 of all time.
You missed Chris Schremp's 2011 championship also. Since 2009 6 semi-final trips and 3 state titles. Side note to that - every winner of PR's semi-finals went on to win the State Championship.
Mike Noll
1988/89 to 2003/2004 at McHenry. 142-28. 16 playoff appearances in 16 years. Program 31-59 with 0 playoff appearances 10 previous years.
2004/05 to 2013/14 at Glenbrook South. 72-34 with 9 playoff appearances in 10 years. Program was 19-44 with 0 playoff appearances 7 previous seasons.
2018/2019 to current at Richmond. 11-2 with 1 playoff appearance in 1 year. Program has been a playoff team annually for last decade.
So in 27 seasons Noll has 26 playoff appearances, 225-64 record which is 8.333 wins and 2.37 losses per season. He ignited two scuffling programs.
Career playoff record 20-26.
1988/89 to 2003/2004 at McHenry. 142-28. 16 playoff appearances in 16 years. Program 31-59 with 0 playoff appearances 10 previous years.
2004/05 to 2013/14 at Glenbrook South. 72-34 with 9 playoff appearances in 10 years. Program was 19-44 with 0 playoff appearances 7 previous seasons.
2018/2019 to current at Richmond. 11-2 with 1 playoff appearance in 1 year. Program has been a playoff team annually for last decade.
So in 27 seasons Noll has 26 playoff appearances, 225-64 record which is 8.333 wins and 2.37 losses per season. He ignited two scuffling programs.
Career playoff record 20-26.
ken leonard has to be in the top 10!!!!!!! winningest head coach in il hs history. #44 in the nation as winningest head coach.
jim unruh from carthage has to be mentioned. wait a minute, you said active coaches? he is active. he's been an assistant to a former player turned head coach for the last 4 or 5 years. and they have been very successful during his tenure there.
jim unruh from carthage has to be mentioned. wait a minute, you said active coaches? he is active. he's been an assistant to a former player turned head coach for the last 4 or 5 years. and they have been very successful during his tenure there.
To me that's a top 10 guy.. a guy who comes in and changes the culture, regardless of how many state titles or lack thereof.
He hasn't HCed in a while, but a similar guy is Pearlman. Look at Prospect before he came in and won three 7A titles, and Prospect since he left. They got a good guy from Johnsburg now, but outside of Pearlman they were always an also-ran.
I was laughing at all of the "great" catholic coaches and how Chris Schremp had no mention. Would love to see some of the "great" ones bound by districts.
Then mention him yourself. I agree he’s a terrific coach but I can’t stand when public school guys whine their guys aren’t talked about enough. No one is preventing you, go ahead and pimp Schremp to us, we’d love to hear.
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That was a quarterfinal game.....but probably should have been the state championship game!
And I don't care what anyone from the area or my town says......That team was the best product that Wilmington ever put on the field!
I wasn’t going to say anything but “bound districts have plenty to choose from”. PR and CG seem to be doing quite well in their “boundaries”. I hope this doesn’t start the public, private, recruiting crap dialogue LOL
Sorry this was meant for the thread with Irish LB responding to HSfan48.....
Loyola, Glenbard W, Maine South, Phillips, Prairie Ridge, ESTL, LWE, Phillips, Nazareth, Batavia, IC Catholic, Rochester, Forreston, Gibson City
That's 14, choose 10 from that.
That's 14, choose 10 from that.
I wasn’t even going there. I’m just saying getting mad because the private guys talk too much about their programs is silly. All they need to do is talk about theirs. The more info and talking points here the better!
Jaworski...he has won a state championship in 50% of the seasons he has been head coach!
No, my list has Reents from Wilmington and maybe 7-8 from your list, plus 1-2 more (could be from your list).
