WEST CHICAGO – One thing that Ted Monken has never shied away from is a challenge.
So it should come as no surprise that Monken was hired on Jan. 21 to take over a West Chicago football team that has won three football games over the past five years.
"I've always enjoyed the challenge of building something," said Monken, who will teach physical education at the school starting in the fall. "In 1999, when I got the defensive coordinator job at St. Norbert College, they had gone something like 0-9 or 0-10 the year before. We ended up winning 27 straight games.
"I enjoy taking a group of young men who are hungry for success and see if I can light a fire and get the ship pointed in the right direction."
In Monken, who was the offensive coordinator at the College of DuPage last fall, the Wildcats get a coach with an extensive football background, with previous head coaching stints at Metea Valley and St. Charles East. He also comes from a big football family – brother Tony was a head coach at Vernon Hills and brother Todd is the current head coach at Southern Mississippi. His dad, Bob, is in the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
"The No. 1 thing is it's a tremendous opportunity," Monken said. "Switching over to the Upstate Eight Conference [last year], and now switching to the River [division], it's more of a level playing field with teams with similar strengths and hurdles to overcome.
"I'm hoping that gives us the opportunity to be successful and get people to be fired up about West Chicago football. And hopefully that would mean that more young men will come out for the team who previously might not have been interested."
As for what he will ask out of his future players, Monken said it boils down to one thing.
"The only thing you can really ask out of your players is to play good, sound football," he said. "It doesn't matter what offense you run or what defense you run. Football has always been a game of mistakes. The team that makes the fewest mistakes or forces the other team to make more mistakes gives themselves a better chance to win. Our No. 1 goal is to try do and do everything we can to play good, sound football."
With the football team having had five head coaches since the 2006 season, West Chicago athletic director Doug Mullaney wanted to bring some consistency to the program.
"My goal and our new coach's goal is to put together a staff that is consistently together and on the same page," Mullaney said. "I look at the coaching staffs at Geneva and Batavia and other programs in our conference, and I see coaches that come in and stay in [the program]. We are trying to do that as well."
A whole host of attributes made Monken standout from a wealth of quality candidates.
"You look at the football knowledge that [Ted has]," Mullaney said, "and then his organization, his vision, his experience and his variety of experience. And it's his contacts too. When you are looking for somebody to come in and make a difference, you look at all the opportunities we have for staff development with all the people he knows."
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Ted Monken coaching history
2013 College of DuPage offensive coordinator
2012 East Aurora High School offensive consultant
2009-11 Metea Valley High School head coach
2004-08 St. Charles East High School head coach
2002-03 Wheaton Warrenville South High School defensive coordinator and special teams coach