Kane County notes: ‘A man of great integrity,’ Dan Thorpe becomes Marmion’s winningest coach with 89th victory

Dan Thorpe didn’t know he was on the doorstep of history.

But the Marmion head football coach, in his 17th season with the Cadets, can now add yet another accolade to his storied impact on high school football in Kane County. Last Friday’s victory over Bishop McNamara was Thorpe’s 89th coaching victory, making him the winningest coach in Marmion program history.

“This is my 40th year [of coaching], so you’re going to accomplish things earn you’ve been around that long,” Thorpe said with a laugh.

Thorpe, with the win, surpassed former coach Paul Murphy’s 88 victories during a tenure from 1987 through 2002. Neal Fichtel won 49 games from 1957-68.

“We’ve had great kids in these 16 [and counting] years,” Thorpe said. “And tremendous assistant coaches [who are] knowledgeable about the game but also bottom line cared about the kids molding them into being the best version of ourselves.”

“[We] embraced the philosophy that ‘yeah, we want to win’. But, there’s a bigger game that we’re preparing these boys for,” Thorpe continued. “It’s fortunate that we’ve been able to hopefully mold them…assist them in their growth and then also win some football games.”

Marmion Athletic Director Paul Chabura is “very proud” too have Thorpe leading their program.

“[He’s a] man of great integrity, a man who truly does it for the kids,” Chabura said. " A lot of guys talk about that, but he works his butt off for his kids.”

Thorpe, who is also the school’s collegiate counselor advisor, “is a tireless worker.”

“He’s very old-school in that regard,” Chabura said. “He doesn’t ask any of his staff to do anything he doesn’t do himself…he’s in there doing all the grunt work just as much as anyone else, which is a great model for our kids.”

“…He models [service leadership] very well,” Chabura continued. “And, just the faith piece to it as well. He’s just a good, genuine man. Again, I can’t say enough about him. He’s a good man. We’re lucky to have him.”

Drew Bartels doing his part for Batavia defense

One hallmark of being a member of the Batavia defense is “doing your one/11th.”

Bulldogs senior outside linebacker Drew Bartels is certainly off to a favorable start in doing so after his three-sack performance against Phillips last Friday to open the season.

“[One/11th is about] just trusting the guy next to you, trusting your end is going to fill that gap,” Batavia junior middle linebacker Tyler Jansey said. “Trusting your middle linebacker is going to fill that gap…Knowing you’re going to have the outside in his case.”

“I think a lot of it is just he’s gained a lot of confidence and we’ve all gained trust in each other as a team,” Jansey continued. “That is what allows all of us to make plays. That’s just how it is.”

Bartels had 10 tackles during the six-game spring slate, and is well on his way to passing that total – perhaps as early as next week.

The 6-foot-2 linebacker has five tackles, including four for loss entering Friday’s game at Oswego.

“I never want to let [my teammates or my coaches] down,” Bartels said. “So it’s kind of what fueled me to work hard and go out there and perform for them.”

Bartels, who has offers from Eastern Illinois and Ball State, primarily sticks at outside linebacker next to Jansey in most packages.

“[My success on Friday] was really [about] my coaches putting me in the right place with the play calls…when everything falls into place, I think our defense is up there at the top of the state,” Bartels said. “That’s what we did Friday night. We all did our job and the coaches put us in the right places to do it.”

“[Jansey] is a great player and a great leader. He demands attention, obviously, on the field, so playing with somebody like that, it helps [me]. He not only gets more blocks thrown at him, so it gives me more space to work. But he also cleans up when people mess up.”