I first met Dale Donner in college at ISU when I recruited him for our intramural softball team. He was good friends with one of my roommates, and our team was in need of some players, so I signed him up.

Dale must have been a solid addition as we made off with the campus championship. Truth is, it had more to do with the fact that I also recruited three ISU varsity friends on campus to play, than either Dale or me. As the student newspaper’s sports editor, I ran a picture of him in our paper, the Daily Vidette, and made him famous around campus.

Fast forward just a few years later, I moved to Princeton to take this job at the BCR that I’m writing this column for. I walked into the old Pizza Hut and found a face who looked familiar and took a double take, and it was none other than Dale.

We renewed acquaintances and struck up a friendship and working relationship for many years.

This week, Donner announced that he is retiring after 35 years as a local girls track coach, the past 24 at Bureau Valley (the program’s only coach) and the 11 previous at Buda Western.

He retired from full-time teaching and cross country coaching last year, and said it was just time to move on to the next chapter in his life.

“I’ve enjoyed my time and met a lot of great people,” Donner said.

Donner told me his best memory he had coaching came in 2008 when BV’s Alisa Baron set the state record in the 400 meters while his daughter, Alyssa, placed fourth for Princeton in the pole vault.

“It may be the neatest coaching/parent moment I could have,” he said.

His proudest parent-moment came the next year when Alyssa soared to the state championship.

Donner’s track teams won 11 conference championships, including the Three Rivers (the last five in a row) and Tri-County conferences. The Storm also won five sectionals.

Donner coached an incredible 49 state medalists at Bureau Valley, shut out just three years without sending an athlete to the awards stand. That’s amazing in itself.

The Bureau Valley girls hold eight Bureau County records during his tenure.

He is quick to say the Storm could not have done it without longtime assistant and trusty sidekick Don Guier, who used to entertain the girls by dressing up as a leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day to see if they could catch him. They seldom did.

Donner was inducted into the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame in 2015, named as the 2018 Track Coach of the Year and the 2004 Cross Country Coach of the Year.

The funny thing is, when Donner went for his interview at Western in December of 1984, he wanted to be a basketball coach, and track was the farthest thing from his mind.

“Guy Parr (the superintendent) asked me what I knew about track, and I told him I used to go watch my brother’s track meets. He made me track coach and I knew absolutely nothing about it,” he said.

Bureau Valley renamed its cross country invitational in Donner’s honor in his last year. His legacy will be remembered in many ways at Bureau Valley beyond his name on the schedule.

Fellow staff members and coaches will always remember the affable Donner for his witty ways.

My favorite Donner moment perhaps came years ago when he was doing the P.A. for a Western football game against visiting Atwood-Hammond, a school that is also long closed.

He gave Western’s guest a new nickname, referring to them as the “Atwood-Ham(and) Eggs.”

Needless to say, the folks from Atwood were not too happy, but we all got a good laugh about it.

There are way too many Donner moments to share here in this space. I just know he’s going to be missed.

He’s a Pistole: While Bureau Valley loses one coach, they gained another that Storm fans are going to love with the return of alum Mat Pistole as the new head football coach. Pistole is passionate about football, especially Bureau Valley football. See my story on his hire in today’s BCR.

Another plus is Pistole is bringing back former longtime assistant Craig Johnson, who was inexplicably let go last year.

Welcome back, guys.

Kevin Hieronymus is the BCR Sports Editor. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com.