Mandella a Hall of Famer in ‘other sport’

During much of Dick Mandella’s 18-year tenure as head boys basketball coach at Providence, which ended in 2000, the Celtics were on top of the world when it came to football and wrestling.

They also were highly competitive in baseball, sometimes ranked among the best in the state.

Regardless of how much success Mandella’s basketball teams enjoyed, it was only natural they would be somewhat overlooked.

Somebody noticed, however. Mandella will be inducted in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Saturday night at the Bone Center on the Illinois State University campus in Normal.

“I met a lot of good people through my basketball career, and Providence was a great place to work,” said Mandella, who played football, basketball and baseball for the Celtics and most recently has been varsity assistant in softball and boys basketball at Lincoln-Way West. “But the basketball job was different there.

“Football and wrestling were at the height of success when I was there, yet our team won 16 to 21 games just about every year, and we didn’t back away from playing anyone. I don’t know if people realize how difficult that was.”

Mandella said part of the issue was, because of the football team’s success, “most of those years we didn’t have our full team until Christmas. We went from Class A to AA the year after I took the job, and we either beat them or were highly competitive against the top teams and programs in Illinois.

“You hear of so many football schools that never have success in basketball. We had two losing seasons in 18 years, and one I don’t count because we had a kid transfer in and he was ruled ineligible in February. We were 15-3 at the time and had to forfeit all those wins.

“In 18 years to have one losing season at a school noted for football and wrestling, that says a lot. If we had four classes then like we have now, I think we would had teams that could have gotten downstate.”

Mandella got the opportunity to nurture his coaching urge firsthand. He played for Matt Senffner in football at Providence, Pat Sullivan in basketball and Tom Dedin in baseball. At Saint Xavier, future major league manager John Boles was his baseball coach.

Mandella was the softball head coach at Providence for eight years. He had been Butch Markelz’s assistant in baseball. When Markelz left for Lockport, Mandella took a year off from the diamond, then stepped in when the softball team needed a coach.

When he left Providence in 2000, he became head softball coach at Lincoln-Way Central, where he also was assistant boys basketball coach. The Knights won the state softball title in 2008 under his guidance, and he was inducted into the Illinois Softball Coaches Hall of Fame shortly after that.

“When I left Providence, I said I never would be a head basketball coach again, and I have stuck to that,” said Mandella, 60 and a counselor at Lincoln-Way West. “I like what I am doing. I know I’m slowing down some. I don’t have the energy I had in the past, but I really like the people I’ve been working with. They give me a lot of responsibility.”

Mandella recalled some of the coaches who worked under him. Two of them, Mark Porter and Eric Long, will receive district coach of the year honors at the Hall of Fame banquet.

“This award I am getting is a credit to the kids and the others I have been affiliated with through the years,” Mandella said. “It’s more of a program award than anything.”

The “kids” from Providence basketball include such names as Tavaras Hardy, Charles Jones, Kenny Miller and Eric Dantzler.

“Tavaras had a great career at Providence and in my opinion will be a head coach on the Division I level within three years,” Mandella said of the current Georgetown and former Northwestern assistant.

“Charles Jones had a good career at Pacific. Kenny Miller went to Kentucky and played pro baseball. Eric Dantzler was freshman of the year in basketball at Creighton, then gave it up to concentrate on baseball, and he played pro ball.”

Mandella said looking back on everything, “I have been blessed. My wife, Jean, has been phenomenal. She allowed me to do this. We have three kids, and I think about all the things she had to do on her own. This doesn’t happen if I don’t marry someone special. I can’t repay her enough.”