Ted Juske makes ‘bittersweet’ decision, leaves Burlington Central for Crystal Lake Central

Throughout his life, Ted Juske has always valued building strong relationships wherever he’s gone. It’s a belief that created countless bonds. But it’s also one that has made some decisions very difficult to make.

Juske experienced both ends of that spectrum since he became the athletic director at Burlington Central in 2022. Over his three years at Burlington, Juske built many strong relationships with people at the school and others in the McHenry County area.

So when Juske had to make the decision to leave Burlington to become the athletic director at Crystal Lake Central this summer, it wasn’t easy.

“There’s a part of it too that was bittersweet just because of the relationships and everything that were formed at Burlington,” said Juske, who was the AD at Johnsburg for five years before taking the job at Burlington Central. “There’s a lot of good people there as well. You get to know some of them, and you’re working with them every day.”

But it felt like a decision he had to make.

Juske, who lives in McHenry with his family, had been commuting roughly 50 minutes each way to Burlington every day. An athletic director job already called for late nights and weekends. But the commute added more time away from his 20-month-old daughter.

When Juske heard there was an opening for the Crystal Lake Central job, he knew he had to apply. He’d turn his commute from 50 minutes to 15 and get to spend more time with his family. While it might be tough to say goodbye his relationships in Burlington, he knew the change would be worth it for his family.

Juske applied and earned the role in February and officially started July 1. The District 155 board approved his hiring during its February meeting.

“It benefited the family, first and foremost,” Juske said of the move. “And then just kind of living in the McHenry area, even though I was working in Burlington, I’ve got a lot of good relationships and there’s a lot of good people working at [District] 155. So when that opportunity presented itself, you started talking and going through the process and meeting a few more people. For as positive of an experience it was at Burlington, this was a tough opportunity to pass up.”

That opportunity presented itself when former Crystal Lake Central athletic director Dave Shutters told the school’s principal Carson Sterchi at the end of January that he wanted to move into a different role at the school. Shutters had served as athletic director since January 2024 after longtime Jeff Aldridge retired at the end of 2023.

“I’m hoping we can recreate that similar situation here, where we can empower coaches and kids to really exceed and go above and beyond."

—  Ted Juske, Crystal Lake Central athletic director

Sterchi created a search committee right away that included some of the school’s coaches and staff members. The committee interviewed five different candidates and were impressed with Juske.

The group liked Juske’s innovative ideas he brought to his interview, the familiarity he with the position and the success he had. Burlington brought home three state trophies during his time as athletic director.

“What stood out about Ted was ... really his ability to connect with coaches, his ability to focus on relationships and support of coaches and how he’s done that successfully in his previous two schools,” Sterchi said. “So we were really excited to have somebody with that experience coming in that was able to hit the ground running from day one.”

He’ll inherit an athletic program that’s enjoyed recent success. Baseball and girls soccer each won state championships two years ago. The girls lacrosse and cheerleading programs also brought home state trophies recently.

Juske plans on having a balanced approach as he takes over. While he’s not going to overstep and tell coaches how they need to coach, he will offer support to make sure their consistency amongst all the programs.

“Just having that consistency across the board,” Juske said. “Each coach is going to be unique in their own right. But having a set of core values and principles that align with the district, what they want to do, and really just trying to help support these coaches already with what they’re doing and just seeing how we can help in that regard.”

But Juske plans on going back to his principle values that helped him get to this moment. He’ll rely on building relationships over the next few months to help his new program succeed.

“I’m hoping we can recreate that similar situation here, where we can empower coaches and kids to really exceed and go above and beyond,” Juske said. “Whether they win a state title or not, we want them to come out of high school with experience that they’re gonna remember for the rest of their life.”