St. Charles North is on the verge of hiring an athletic director who should fully appreciate the school’s sizzling success in spring sports.
Dan Dolney will be recommended to the school board as North’s new athletic director. Dolney, 34, has taught for 11 years, including stints at all three Chicago area Maine schools – Maine East, Maine South and Maine West. He currently teaches physical education at Maine East, where he has coached varsity baseball for seven years.
Dolney was a standout catcher at New Trier before being drafted by the Houston Astros out of high school in 1993. He spent three years in the Astros’ minor league system.
Dolney said he will miss coaching baseball but is eager to fulfill North’s “high expectations.”
“I’d like to be there to support the coaches,” Dolney said. “Once I get into the position, I’ll have a chance to sit down with everybody and find out different things they’d like to accomplish as an athletic department and what initiatives (principal) Kim Zupec would like to accomplish in the athletic department. We can sit down, make a plan and carry those out, and accomplish those as soon as we can.”
Dolney will take over for North co-interim ADs Wayne DeMaar and Jim Bloch, who filled in this year after former AD John Rutter left for York last summer. He is expected to officially start on July 1, though Dolney plans to pop in several times before then – especially once Maine East’s baseball season concludes.
“I’ve heard from some people that know him that he’s really a great guy – very organized,” DeMaar said.
Dolney, who lives in Wheeling, is the son of a pair of gymnastics coaches. He said he “grew up in a gym,” and looks forward to immersing himself in North sports.
“You get to see the passion of the coaches come out,” Dolney said. “I’m a passionate coach. I get to see that out of all the coaches and see how much they love to do what they do, and that’s a real fun thing.”
Dolney said he had to “grow up very quickly” after being drafted at age 17. Shoulder surgery accelerated the close of his baseball career, and he wound up receiving his bachelor’s degree from North Park University before adding a pair of master’s degrees.
He said he intends to broaden his outreach efforts to the entire community, not just coaches and athletes in the building.
“What we want to keep continuing is to build a tradition of kids coming through St. Charles and parents wanting to come back, even when their son or daughter isn’t there anymore, supporting other people in the community and St. Charles North athletics,” Dolney said. “Just make it a real nice place for people to keep coming back to.”
Dolney met with various North groups in what he called a “first-class” interviewing process in early April. North students already were in his ear about the school’s rivalry with St. Charles East, he said.
Speaking of those North Stars: This spring is doing nothing to dampen Dolney's enthusiasm about arriving at North.
Entering play Friday, St. Charles North was a combined 44-5-1 in the three most prominent spring team sports – baseball, softball and girls soccer.
Not only has North been the top team in the Tri-Cities area in each of those sports, the North Stars are earning state recognition. The North girls soccer team commanded the No. 1 seed this week in the 20-team Class 3A Schaumburg Sectional, and North’s baseball and softball teams are likely to be treated quite well themselves when those seeds are unveiled next week.
DeMaar noted that each of those programs have been humming along nicely for several years; it just so happens all are at or near their peak performance this spring.
“I tell you, it’s a lot of fun, and I think it’s catching,” DeMaar said. “The teams don’t get to support themselves so much in the spring because baseball is playing when softball is playing and soccer is playing – we’re all after school, and kids are jumping on the buses.
“But I’m sure when the time comes, they’ll be supporting each other and playing off each other. Every coach wants to see North, whether it’s their sport or another, be as successful as possible.”
Some of North’s smaller sports are thriving, too. North is enjoying strong seasons in boys tennis and boys volleyball, and the boys water polo team set a school record for wins.
Heck, the good times have extended to bass fishing. North qualified for the state meet after winning last week's sectional at Lake Shabbona.
• Jay Schwab is sports editor of The Chronicle. He can be reached at 630-845-5382 or jschwab@kcchronicle.com.