Evanston Athletic Spotlight: Everette Stephens

by Paul Harris-Hertel

Everette Stephens, right, after winning a second-straight Big Ten title in 1988 with teammates Troy Lewis, left, Todd Mitchell and Coach Gene Keady. Photo Source: http://purduesports.cstv.com

Even after playing professional basketball all over the world, Everette Stephens decided to return to his hometown of Evanston to pass on his knowledge of the game to young people in the area. Today, his North Shore Basketball Camp has spread out to west suburban St. Charles and Geneva, as well as Indiana and Wisconsin.

The former ETHS hoops star is most remembered around Evanston for leading the Wildkits to a 25-0 regular season record and a runner-up finish in the state tournament in the 1983-84 season, his senior year.

"That was a really special time," Stephens said of that season. "I was fortunate enough to play with guys who were unselfish and team-oriented, guys who were leaders like Tony Mason and Lou Wool. They were more concerned with the team's success than [with personal performance]."

Stephens also credited then-coach Herb Williams with getting the team to believe in its abilities.

"We didn't necessarily think we'd go undefeated," said Stephens. "But we had a number of close games where we won by five points or less, and those kinds of wins build your confidence and get a team to start believing."

After being named to the All-State Team and finishing second in the state's Mr. Basketball voting that year, Stephens went on to Purdue, where he played for four years under legendary coach Gene Keady. He was recruited to Purdue by Keady's assistant at that time, Bruce Weber, who is now the head coach at Illinois. Stephens said he is not at all surprised by the success Weber has had as a head coach, which included two conference championships in his first two seasons at Illinois and a trip to last year's national championship game.

"I was a member of two Big Ten championship teams in college, and Coach Weber had a lot to do with [those championships]," explained Stephens. "Illinois has always had talent in their program, but they have sometimes struggled with the winning part of it. Weber just knows how to win."

Stephens not only found success on the basketball court in college, but also grew as a person off of it. He credited his coaches for helping him make that personal growth.

"Coaches Keady, Weber, and [Kevin] Stallings [then an assistant at Purdue, now the head coach at Vanderbilt] had a big influence on me," Stephens said. "College is a pivotal point in your life where you learn a lot about yourself and about manhood in general. Those three coaches taught me a lot."

As a freshman at Purdue, Stephens was present at one of the most infamous scenes in college basketball history: Indiana coach Bob Knight throwing a chair onto the court during a game in a fit of rage.

"I was sitting on the bench and watching [Knight] arguing with the refs, and all of a sudden I saw a chair go flying onto the court," Stephens recalled. "I just remember how loud it was [in Indiana's gym]. It was one of the few times when I was on the bench that I was praying Coach Keady wouldn't put me in because I was so nervous. It just got so loud that you couldn't focus."

Following his college career, Stephens played in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks. He also played professionally in Australia, Spain, France, Germany, Venezuela, and Cyprus. After his playing days ended, he returned home to begin his North Shore Basketball Camp.

In addition to running the camp, Stephens has spent the last six years as physical education teacher and head boys basketball coach at Elgin Academy, a small private school he described as "very good for education, not as good for athletics." While his coaching career there got off to a rough start, with the team winning as few as seven games a year, the last couple of seasons have seen the team make great strides. Last year the team finished with a 16-7 record and two seasons ago it went 25-5.

Last week, Stephens reflected on what he gained from his experiences in the Evanston community that stayed with him throughout a career that took him around the world.

"Growing up in Evanston, you get a good foundation and good perspective, because you're exposed to so many different cultures that you wouldn't be if you went to a mostly white or mostly black school," he stated. "When you move on, you aren't as shocked when you see how people are and how different they are from you."

New Northwestern Footbal Coach Named

By Paul Harris-Hertel

Pat Fitzgerald, the linebackers coach at Northwestern for the past four years, will take over as Wildcats' head coach following the death of former coach Randy Walker.

Fitzgerald, a native of Orland Park and graduate of Sandburg High School, played middle linebacker for the Wildcats in the mid-1990s and was the defensive leader of a team that won back-to-back Big Ten championships in 1995 and 1996. Prior to joining the Northwestern staff, Fitzgerald was an assistant at Maryland, Colorado, and Idaho. Walker hired him in 2001. For his first two years on the Northwestern staff Fitzgerald coached the defensive secondary before becoming linebackers coach in 2003.

Fitzgerald's promotion does not come as much of a surprise because it was rumored he would take over as head coach when Walker's current contract expired following the 2011 season. The move will allow for minimum turmoil within the program after Walker's sudden death of an apparent heart attack last week. At 31, Fitzgerald will be the youngest football coach in Division I. He is expected to sign a long-term contract with the school in the near future, and has said he will retain all the coaches currently on the staff.

Northwestern Football Coach Randy Walker Dies of Heart Attack

By Paul Harris-Hertel

Randy Walker, 52, who had the second- best record in the history of the Northwestern football program, passed away last Thursday evening after having an apparent heart attack.

In 2004, Walker was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. It is not yet clear if that played a role in his death.

A native of Troy, Ohio, Walker was a fullback at Miami of Ohio in the mid-1970s and was the team's MVP his senior season. He later went on to coach football at his alma mater and was inducted into the Miami Hall of Fame in 1992. In nine seasons as head coach at Miami of Ohio, Walker went 59-35-5. In 1995, his team defeated Northwestern 30-28, handing the Wildcats their only regular season loss that year.

Walker took over at Northwestern in 1999. In his seven years in Evanston, he had a 37-45 record. In 2000, Walker led the Wildcats to a co-Big Ten championship and a berth in the Alamo Bowl. That same year he was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Walker was also the only coach in school history to lead the team to three bowl games: the 2000 Alamo Bowl, the 2003 Motor City Bowl, and last year's Sun Bowl. He was the first coach to lead the Wildcats to four seasons with six or more wins since C.M. Hollister did it from 1899-1902. Just two months ago, Walker signed a four-year contract extension that would have kept him at Northwestern through 2011.

Despite his success on the field, Walker's tenure was marred by the death of player Rashidi Wheeler during practice in August 2001. Wheeler's family sued the school soon after, alleging that their son, who had asthma, did not get the necessary medical treatment in time. The family was awarded a $16 million settlement and a judge approved the settlement last August.

Walker is survived by his wife Tamara, his daughter Abbey, and his son Jamie.

Local Team Places in Deerfield Tournament

The Evanston 9A travel baseball team placed second in the Deerfield Wooden Bat Tournament, held June 23-25. Pictured bottom to top, left to right are Row 1, Justin Farrow, Aidan Walsh; Row 2, Sam Evans, Ryan Kleschen, Paul Cushing, Mike Barrett and Justin Durham; Row 3, Ben Osterlund, Ethan Schnoll, Peter de Hueck, Jeffery Otte, Mark Roth, Vincent Surdo and Thomas Smart. Row 4, Coaches Bill Evans, Tom Walsh, Bill Farrow. Photo courtesy of Fred K. Smart.

ETHS Summer Sports

By Paul Harris-Hertel

Just because school's out does not mean that ETHS sports have come to a standstill. The boys and girls basketball teams, along with the baseball team, are playing in offseason tournaments in hopes of improving as much as possible before the 2006-07 school year gets underway.

The baseball team has gotten off to a good start this summer with a 12-3 record so far. While having a winning record is a positive, Coach Ed Toledo maintained improvement is the key during offseason play.

"Basically, we view [summer ball], first and foremost, as a way of developing baseball players," Toledo said. "Secondly, we use it to get an idea of what our roster will look like for 2007. And third, of course we want to win."

With 36 players split among the Blue and Orange squads, Toledo and his staff will have a lot of decisions to make as to who to cut and who to keep. However, those judgments will not have to be finalized until the season begins in the spring. In the meantime, one of the biggest goals of Toledo's has been to improve his team's hitting.

"We're trying to improve our offense by playing about 80-85 percent of our games in wood bat tournaments," explained Toledo. "The kids are seeing that swing mechanics are important, because with wood bats you don't get the cheap hits you sometimes do with aluminum ones. Instead, the bat gets broken."

Toledo added that playing in wood bat tournaments helps pitchers by reinforcing the necessity of locating their pitches well. With aluminum bats, even if a pitcher makes a good inside pitch, the batter can still hit the ball solidly off the thin part of the bat, whereas the same inside pitch might break a wooden bat.

Like the baseball team, the ETHS boys basketball team has gotten off to a good start this summer, going 21-6 and winning the Northwestern Team Championship Tournament. Even more impressive is the fact that many of the team's wins came while they didn't have a full roster, due to the summer baseball, football, and AAU basketball commitments of some players. In the opinion of second-year coach Robert Locke, the winning record is indicative of the strides his young team has made.

"[This summer] we're mostly building on what we did last year," said Locke. "Last season we were very deep but very young. Now we're still deep but the players have had a year to adapt to the system. The goal this summer is to make sure the kids work hard and keep developing as a unit."

Locke noted that returning varsity players Eric Hilbring, Devrece Brown, Deon Thompson, and Dipanjot Singh have led the way this summer, but added many players from last year's sophomore team are getting a chance to play with the varsity this summer and that he's been pleased with their efforts. This suggests the coming season should be a good one for Wildkits boys hoops.

"If we can stay a strong and focused team unit, we have an opportunity to be very successful," said Locke.

The ETHS girls basketball team has struggled this summer, although that is to be expected with a team that lost seven of the top eight players from last year's squad.

"Trying to make progress is the big thing right now," explained head coach Steve Wool. "We're looking to see if the young players can compete at the varsity level. Also, with so many new faces, building team chemistry is big."

It hasn't always been easy building that chemistry, with four of the 16 players on the summer roster traveling in foreign exchanges at one time or another. The team's struggles have been increased by the tough schedule it has played. At the Notre Dame Team Camp earlier this summer, the girls played the defending state champions from Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. They've also played against top in-state programs like Wheeling and Buffalo Grove. Wool hopes these experiences will strengthen what will be a very young team this coming year.

"We have to fill a lot of positions," Wool admitted. "We must find team leaders. [Junior] Kim Davis is the only returning starter. She's the rock we're going to be leaning on. For the first time since I've been [head coach] here, there could be as many as three freshmen or sophomores on varsity."

Watching the World Cup

Soccer fans crowded in to enjoy the World Cup final game at the Celtic Knot, which sometimes opened early and offered a special menu to accommodate showings of all the World Cup matches. Prairie Moon, Tommy Nevin's Pub and Bar Louie also showed the internationally televised game on Sunday. Game results: Italy-6; France-4.
Story and photo by Leah Lavelle

Big Kids' Playground Games

While some Evanstonians spent the morning of the Fourth of July putting the final touches on a parade entry, securing their chairs or enjoying a leisurely brunch, the more athletically inclined joined their children for games at Lincolnwood School.

Nice catch with the egg toss. Participants tossed a raw egg back and forth across an ever-widening space.

The nail-driving contest drew more than a dozen carpenters, who hit the nail on the head, most of the time.

Computer Camp.

Students ages 7-17 take week-long summer classes in video game creation, digital video and robotics among other subjects at an iD Tech Camp at Northwestern University. The program, which has 40 locations internationally, attracts many of Evanston's young technology buffs as well as kids from around the world. Story and photo by Leah Lavelle

Team Evanston is Evanston's Traveling Soccer Team

Each year we have about 400 kids from 9 though high school and have been around for about 30 years.

We have hired a new Director of Coaching for the club. The director of coaching is responsible for all elements of instruction for the club, and is a influential part of Illinois Youth Soccer.

We would be glad to track him down for a phone interview for you. Of interest:

2005-2006 Illinois Youth Soccer Coach of the year Illinois Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program Coach and age group coordinator

I am available at 847 224 7571.

Rick Mihevc President, Team Evanston