Select few coaches triple up

St. Charles North special teams coordinator Tom Poulin absorbed four jarring blows during the North Stars’ visit to Elgin last Oct. 1.

The trio of return touchdowns the North Stars allowed were cake compared to the sideline collision that tore his right MCL. It’s 5½ months later, and Poulin still hasn’t had time for an operation.

When football season ended, Poulin grabbed the reins of the boys basketball team. When North lost to Bartlett in a regional semifinal earlier this month, he awoke for 5:30 a.m. softball practice the next morning.

Such a schedule requires an abundance of energy, something Poulin draws simply from being a year-round, three-sport coach.

“He’s definitely walking around and hitting balls as hard as he can,” North catcher Annie Korth says. “I’ve seen him jog, too, so it can’t be all that bad.”

Three-sport coaches naturally share that final sentiment. Poulin calls the practice “a labor of love,” while Geneva twentysomethings Scott Hennig and Susie Logsdon figure what they do is easier at this early stage of their careers and family lives.

Coaching veterans Kevin Bell (Geneva) and Joe Thorgesen (Kaneland) also triple up, but between them, none assumes the kind of varsity head coaching responsibility that Poulin does.

“Sports pretty much take up most of my time, and that’s the way I like it,” Poulin said. “It does dominate things, but it’s enjoyable. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself without it.”

Poulin grew up in St. Charles playing baseball, basketball and football, embracing sports in an athletic family that also includes younger sister Ruth Vostal, North’s girls soccer coach.

He first encountered competitive basketball as a Thompson Middle School sixth-grader, an introduction that would later cloud his judgment. Upon entering St. Charles High School, he regrettably pigeonholed himself into playing only roundball despite overtures from other coaches to be a young man for all seasons. Michael Jordan’s emergence made them easier to overlook.

Sport specialization has only grown since then, but Poulin is up-front with student-athletes about spreading themselves thick during the school year. Senior Josh Mikes follows him from the gridiron to the hardwood, while softballers Sydney Russell, Taylor Russell, Amanda Ciran and Natalie Capone played girls basketball in the winter.

“You only get these opportunities once in your life. The more teammates you have, the more coaches you have, the better,” Poulin said. “These multiple different relationships can only help these kids socially as they become more well-rounded people.”

At Geneva, Hennig branched out to his fall coaching assignment – girls golf assistant – when athletic director Jim Kafer approached him about the vacancy. Far from an avid golfer himself, Hennig consulted family members who were more active in the sport and clung to head coach Eric Hatczel’s every word.

Also the Vikings’ sophomore boys basketball coach and freshman baseball assistant, Hennig earned four letters apiece in basketball and volleyball at Hoffman Estates.

Logsdon lettered in volleyball and track for four seasons at Maine South while also competing in basketball and gymnastics. Years earlier, as a sixth-grader, she remembers dreaming of one day becoming a physical education teacher and three-sport coach.

She’s not too busy – with athletics and an engagement to Oswego teacher/Metea Valley boys basketball assistant Andrew Brown – to realize that’s precisely what happened.

“It just kind of fell into my lap,” Logsdon said. “It was pretty awesome.”

For Poulin, sports have remained the constant as he works to gain his certificate in special education. An aspiring ESPN personality and/or sportswriter while studying communications and playing basketball in college, he started to reverse course in the late 1990s.

From 1997-99, Poulin worked at Larkin as a dean’s assistant and three-sport coach before coming to North in the same capacity for his first three years at the school. He quickly developed relationships with special education students, ultimately deciding to pursue his certificate a few years ago.

Insisting he rarely battles burnout, Poulin uses Sundays to unwind from sports and keeps an interest in Westerns and music. His older brother, a sound engineer, once operated a studio in Chicago.

Former coach April Stary’s decision to leave the softball program after last season afforded Poulin the opportunity to ascend from assistant to head coach. He didn’t hesitate. Already deeply reflective about his other sports, immersing himself more fully in a third helps channel his focus on the season ahead.

A run-in on the Memorial Field sideline gave him temporary pause, but Poulin was back on his feet soon enough.

“Which is good,” Ciran says, “because we need him to coach third base.”