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Mike Maloney played for one of the state’s most storied football programs at Joliet Catholic, where winning was more of an expectation than a hope, and losing simply was unacceptable.
That was the culture for the Hilltoppers, whose 13 state championships are more than any other school in Illinois history.
“The impact of losing where I come from is much more significant than the impact of winning,” Maloney said. “Winning was expected. It was almost like a relief [to win]. It was a little bit like a weight off my shoulders.”
Maloney played on competitive teams at Illinois, where he was nose tackle for former coach Ron Turner on the Fighting Illini’s 2002 Sugar Bowl team. Maloney now regards winning and losing in a different manner as he heads into his second season as Johnsburg’s head coach.
Maloney, 31, is a large, energetic man with an upbeat attitude. His introductory speech at Johnsburg in April 2012 made a positive impression with players and parents.
Yet his record as a head coach is 0-27 in two seasons at Joliet Central and one with the Skyhawks. He despises losing but realizes as a coach it is part of the process.
“It’s like a father wanting his son or daughter to be successful,” Maloney said. “You want so much for them, but you can’t do it for them. My role now is guidance and mentorship. I’m going to get them to understand what it takes to win, and when they do win, they will win because of their effort and commitment. It will not be because of me.”
Nothing in athletics wears down players and coaches like consistently losing. Winning teams get front-page headlines and capture the imagination of their communities. Losing teams see little glory outside their locker room and occasionally find ridicule, even in their own schools.
Coaches in losing programs have to fight the culture in place to find the recipe for success. If they lose too many games, though, they become ex-coaches or assistants somewhere else.
Marian Central boys basketball coach Curtis Price took his team to back-to-back Class 3A regional championships in 2010 and 2011, the Hurricanes’ first since 1977. But Marian finished 3-27 and 4-27 each of the past two seasons.
“It kills me mentally because after each and every loss, you go home and you play the ‘What If?’ game,” said Price, who played on highly successful DePaul teams in the early 1990s.
“People think you go home and you fall asleep,” he said. “You go home and you just spend another three or four hours watching tape and trying to analyze everything and trying to find ways to improve.”
The grind of losing
Harvard girls basketball coach John Lally resigned this season after three years in which the Hornets were 9-75.
“I’d be lying to say the [losses] didn’t affect you,” Lally said. “You don’t want to go out and get your head handed to you too often. Pretty much every coach out there does it because we love the game and want to try and foster that love with the girls or the boys you happen to be working with.”
Lally, who plans to coach with the Marengo girls program this season, reminded himself as the losses piled up that he was doing it because he loved sharing his interest in basketball and wanted to spark that feeling in the players.
Marengo football coach Matt Lynch, who is 10-44 in six seasons with the Indians, tries not to dwell too much on losses right after games. Still, the lack of success stings.
“If it doesn’t eat at you, you’re in the wrong business,” Lynch said. “I’m a competitor. I competed my whole life. If it doesn’t eat at you, what are you doing? Why are you here?”
Former Dundee-Crown girls basketball coach Michelle Russell saw a high and low in a short span of time. The Chargers were 15-11 and Russell was selected as Northwest Herald Coach of the Year in 2012. They were 4-24 this season and Russell was fired. She joined Huntley girls basketball coach Steve Raethz’s staff this spring.
“It takes a mental toll and it’s really hard to see the girls work so darn hard [and lose],” Russell said. “The fans don’t see the improvement. The administration doesn’t see that improvement, they just see a loss. It was hard for me to watch because I saw it hurt them. They were so frustrated.”
After Russell’s contract was not renewed, she emailed a letter to D-C athletic director Dick Storm, which was obtained by the Northwest Herald via the Freedom of Information Act.
“First of all, I am thankful for you giving me the opportunity to coach at my 2nd home five years ago!” Russell wrote. “I was nervous, but after a few years of getting the hang of it, I finally got my groove and figured things out. I learned a lot about coaching this year. With a limited talented group we did a lot of different things which in turn taught me a lot. Was truly looking forward to the future of DC. It’s sooo promising!
“I am also beyond saddened for this poor decision that was made! Coaching is not all about wins, although they are more fun, coaching is more about the experiences for the kids! You cannot have a winning season every season. It’s a journey and we teach them how to compete; win or lose my kids [came] to every game to compete.”
Small steps
Russell and others try to impress on their players that they are making progress, but that can be difficult as losses mount.
“Even if you lose, maybe your shooting percentage went up 20 to 25 percent for a game,” she said. “You got better, so that’s the hard part. You’re proud of them, even when it doesn’t pan out as a ‘W’.”
At Faith Lutheran, wins have been tough to come by for the boys basketball team. The Saints won seven games last season under coach Aaron Boettjer, which was more than the previous two seasons combined.
Nick Reed, the school’s new boys basketball coach and athletic director, said wins make everything easier. But the true character of a coach and his or her players emerges when the team gets beat by 40 points and returns the next day for another game.
“I’ve always said to players, ‘When you lose, as long as you take something out of it, it’s not a total loss,’ ” said Reed, who was Boettjer’s assistant coach. “I tell these kids, ‘Don’t compare yourself to other people. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday.’ ”
Maloney thinks showing the players they are making progress without winning may be the toughest part about losing.
“I’m not a big moral victory guy, I’m really not,” Maloney said. “But, when you see a team be able to do some significant things on the field that they hadn’t been able to do at the beginning of the year, as a coach, you step back and reflect on that and say you’ve accomplished something.”
The trick is getting 15- to 18-year-olds to believe that when they hear criticism from any number of places. Johnsburg had one of its most successful seasons in 2010 but was winless the year before Maloney arrived.
“I talked to our leaders this spring, the juniors who will be seniors, and said, ‘Look at where we are now,’ ” Maloney said. “ ‘You cannot tell me there’s not a significant difference in not only participation, but attitude, effort, how people carry themselves and just expectations.’ The discipline and training is like night and day from where it was when I first got here. That’s not me, that’s the kids buying into the message that I’m sending.”
Benefits of team
Some athletes’ teams will win more games in one season than others will in their high school career, but coaches believe just competing offers positive experiences.
“The biggest thing you get out of it is you learn how tough you are as a person,” Price said. “Do you give up and say, ‘Forget it, I’m not going to ever win’? Or do you keep going and keep trying to fight? The easiest thing for anyone to do is quit.”
The hardest thing, he said, is to keep trying. That will help them later in life when adversity comes, and they are able to fight through it and have the ability to succeed. Maloney refers to the video-game mentality. “You’re down three scores, game’s over, let’s hit the ‘Reset’ button and start again,’’ he said. ‘’Everybody wants instant success. That’s not how life is.”
Lynch says there is a lot to be learned, regardless of outcomes on the field. Wins and losses aren’t important, he said, but the relationships built and experiences had are. So are learning to deal with adversity, and learning how set – and then accomplish – a goal.
Maloney likes that football can put athletes in new situations – like socially uncomfortable situations – to handle.
“In sports, it’s all about getting young men to go outside their comfort zone and do things they’re not comfortable physically or mentally or emotionally doing for the good of the group,” Maloney said. “Unfortunately, in society, stepping outside your realm is not being pushed on young people today.”
• Meghan Montemurro and Tom Musick contributed to this report.