Coach Lalor, our family and I are beyond humbled by the overwhelming outpouring of love, support and gratitude by so many families, friends, coaches, officials, community members and players who have been our football family for so many decades.
It’s taken us some time to put 32 years of thoughts into words to adequately convey our appreciation. And we apologize as we don’t even know if we can do it justice now. How can we possibly thank 32 years of wonderful people? We will do our best.
The calls, messages, posts and texts have meant the world to us and have also brought back so many incredible memories. Too many to count. We thank you all for reaching out after we were able to tell the current players ourselves that Coach and I, along with Logan and Olivia, had decided it was time to step down.
We decided as we have always done football – together and as a family. Mike and I decided when we first had children that if football was a part of our lives, our family would always be a part of football.
We simply can’t say thank you enough for making Friday nights so special for Stillman Valley, both at our home field and in the remarkable way our fans traveled. Whether it was a home or an away game, our community was always so very well represented in the stands. Our crowds were so large that most opposing concession stands would sell out before halftime, clearly not realizing how well our little Valley would travel!
From the early mornings when parents showed up before dawn to put signs up along Pine Street while others were still asleep, to working the concession stand or as grill masters, to decorating the fences with supportive messages in cups, you all made game day something special and something to be treasured.
It was a team effort in so many diverse and different ways. From our field crew lining the field and showcasing our Cardinal head at the 50-yard line, it was always so special upon arrival every Friday night.
To the Kenyon and Cox families who began and kept the cannon tradition alive in The Valley since 2000. From our cheerleaders and dance team to our fans who got their workout every Friday night ringing their cowbells so vigorously. To our Stillman Valley High School band and chorus who performed beautiful renditions of our national anthem before kickoff. The rowdy crowdy with their themes brought energy and support to our boys on the field. It was an atmosphere in The Valley that was beyond electric. Our loud and passionate fans caused so many offsides and penalties by other teams because of the incredible crowd noise. The 12th Man was always there.
And we’re certain “The Voices of The Valley” Mr. Kuntzelman, Mr. Sudmeier and Mr. Hickerson delivered college game day-like experiences for our fans, especially with the “That’s Another Stillman Valley First Down” cheer and they also got the crowd going with “we need a little more cowbell” as well. A special thank you to Mr. Craig Kunzelman who started this very special first-down cheer back in the 1999 semi-final game versus Fulton that has continued to be a cherished Valley tradition to this day.
To all the Booster Club members who supported the football program financially and also gave countless hours of their time to our football program, we are filled with gratitude. Few probably realize how much our donors have everything to do with our fields, our atmosphere, our bleachers, and more. It’s because of their incredible and selfless generosity over generations that Stillman Valley football field is the very special place it is today.
Special moments in time on our field have been captured for decades by so many special treasured friends and photographers. We’ve all been truly blessed by their talents and can’t thank them enough.
And although as a coach’s wife, having a nickname wasn’t ever anticipated, “Mrs. Coach”, as Donna Arnold so named me, it’s become a term of endearment we’ll forever smile about.
To all the people who helped with the chain gang to those who worked the clock, there are too many to count who donated so many hours to make Stillman Valley football special.
There are few who have made it as special as The Cox Family, allowing our boys to eat team dinners at your place since 2008! Such a selfless gift you didn’t have to give that allowed for special talks over the decades that resulted in open and honest conversations and shared appreciation for one another as teammates and brothers. Through these talks, we had the unbelievable privilege, honor and responsibility to learn more about what our boys were going through.
Through rain, wind, snow or sleet, our Stillman Valley community always showed up.
To all the restaurants and team dinner sponsors, if only we could have kept count of the pounds of food you’ve provided for our boys and football family over the years! To LaRosa’s and Casey’s for the countless pizzas you provided over the years, the Wooden Nickel for our team steak dinners, the former East End for team dinners back in the days, and our Royal Blue/Cardinal Café for providing team breakfasts in past years and staying open late in recent years so our high school kids could have a place to celebrate the big win, or console each other after tough losses, we thank you all along with all the other local restaurants that have helped us over the years.
Thank you to our players’ parents. We know it wasn’t easy running them into the weight room before they could drive, coordinating team dinners or packing lunches for games on the road, or arriving early at playoff destinations to greet the boys with cowbells as they got off the bus. And thank you for being so supportive of your son’s or daughter’s football journey. Words will never be enough as without your support we would have never been able to experience or enjoy the success we’ve all been blessed to over the years. We’ve enjoyed getting to know you and your sons and daughters who played this special game.
There’s a heartbeat behind Stillman Valley football that goes far beyond the scoreboard, and it belongs to the people who pour themselves into this program day after day. Our coaches, managers and trainers are the quiet force that has shaped generations of athletes into fine and successful young men. Not only through playbooks and practices or in diagramming the X’s and O’s, but through the countless unseen hours they’ve given without hesitation. Through a tremendous amount of dedication and time, as well as athletic tape, our trainers have helped keep boys able to play after their injuries. Their dedication has been steady and instrumental, woven through every season, every challenge, every triumph. They’ve shown up early, stayed late, sacrificed weekends, and carried the weight of responsibility with pride, humility and unwavering commitment.
We want you to know — truly know — how deeply we appreciate each and every one of you. Your influence stretches far beyond the field. You’ve helped build character, confidence, and resilience in young men who will carry those lessons for the rest of their lives. You’ve helped build a legacy of integrity and heart that defines Stillman Valley football.
Our gratitude for your service is rooted in years of devotion, mentorship, and belief in something bigger than yourselves. We are better — as athletes, as families, as a community — because of who you all are.
To our coaches’ wives, we beyond appreciate all the sacrifices you made so your husbands could coach. So many have zero clue how challenging it can be as the support system and the other half of a football coach. You carry the torch at work and then at home when they’re not able to be there. It’s not easy at all with the hours your husbands spend away from your own families, and the sacrifices they’ve made in missing your own kids’ activities or athletic events to help other people’s children. You’re not just coaches’ wives; you’re forever our friends and we will love you all forever.
To the media who always covered our boys and Scott Leber - WTVO & FOX 39 Sports, and friends Regan Holgate, Jarrett Dunbar, Emily Aldrich, Jay Taft, Andy Colbert, Matt Trowbridge, WREX, WIFR, Rockford Register Star, Ogle County Life, and so many others, your storytelling was remarkable and appreciated.
To our own families, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our nieces and nephews and all our cousins, as well as lifetime friends and Valley fans from afar, thank you for being there for us in the stands or to digest and talk through the game the night before. We always tried to make you proud, and we hope we have over the years.
Thank you to our Logan and Olivia. As coach’s kids you’ve had to endure more than most probably can imagine or would want to. The way you embraced this game that your Dad and I love is truly remarkable and we can’t thank you enough for being such wonderful and supportive fans and students of the game as well. Your entire lives you have had football be such a big part of your lives as you were born into it. Thank you for all the hours you both spent on the sidelines, in the weight room, on the practice fields, as you grew up in all of those places. Football by its nature took dad away from your lives at times, and you never once complained.
And, finally to our players, our boys. We’re beyond blessed that we got to know each and every one of you. You’ve made us laugh. You’ve made us cry. You’ve made us so proud. Because of you and only you we now know what it feels like to witness firsthand others’ success. Seeing what it looks like when as a team, a band of brothers buys in and put your entire hearts and minds collectively together toward achieving a common goal. It’s a beautiful thing, and an experience that can only be found in team sports as they require you to be selfless versus selfish. These are some of the greatest joys in life. We hope they are in your lives as well.
Football isn’t easy. But with every sprint, every lift, every bear crawl, you gave it your all to become the best football player you could be. We can never say thank you enough for all of the time, effort, hard work and commitment you gave to the program.
Your senior night reflections at our place. You have no idea how those have touched our hearts and also reminded us of why we started this in the first place. It’s always been about our boys and hopefully making a positive impact on who you become as you grow from boys into men. Things are not given in this world; they are earned. And you’ve earned everything you’ve achieved through the sweat, blood and tears you poured into Stillman Valley football.
The memories you gave us and our community on the field, at our special team dinner talks, will forever be etched into our memories as we begin this journey of ours in what is life after Stillman Valley football.
Thank you to the many administrators and teachers we have worked with who were supportive throughout the years. A very special thank you to the administrative team of Dr. Kent Johansen, Bob Prusator, and Rich Jancek, and our school board members who in 1998 took a chance on a 25-year-old teacher to be the next head coach of Stillman Valley. We have been so very blessed to see what began as a dream of a young head coach and his fellow coaches become a program where accountability is still held, character still matters, hard work is expected and appreciated, and the bar of acceptability is not lowered.
We pray that our legacy will live on in our former players as they are amazing husbands, fathers and grandfathers in their own lives and carry on the values they were taught as part of the Stillman Valley version of Friday Night Lights.
We’ve always told our boys to keep a good circle of support in your lives, and clean out that circle, when necessary, over time if some don’t share your values, work ethic, character, or integrity. We’ve been blessed with a circle of some of the best friends we could have ever asked for and will be eternally grateful.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for sharing your lives with us and for making our lives better simply because your paths crossed with ours.
Thank you so very much for helping make Stillman Valley Football what it’s now known as, the winningest program in the Big Northern Conference. Be good. Be kind. Be inclusive. Forever and always TNT 102.
A Coach Lalor Retirement/TNT 102 Stillman Valley Football Reunion is being planned for Sunday, March 22, from 2-5 p.m., at 2285 N. Cox Road, Chana, where everyone is welcome, parents, players, fans and friends.
-Heather Lalor, Stillman Valley