Some of NNHS’ coaches once represented the Huskies on the field
By Staff Writer John Conway
Coaches make the team and call the shots. But how do they decide what actions to take when it counts? Where did they gain their knowledge of the sport?
For many coaches at Naperville North, the experiences they gained on the field at NNHS helped transform them in to the coaches they are today.
Sean Drendel, the head coach of the football team, was one such athlete. As an NNHS alumni and and athletic hall-of-fame inductee, Drendel is all too familiar with the experience of playing on a Huskie sports team. The hardest challenge he had to face as a Huskie, Drendel said, was finding a way to unify his peers.
“There are cliques within teams,” says Drendel. “On the varsity level, there are two grade levels competing [so] making those cliques as small as possible was always the real challenge.”
Another athlete-turned-coach is Steve Goletz, Head Coach for the girls soccer team. Goletz started playing a number of sports around age five, including soccer. Despite his experience on the soccer field, Goletz did not start on varsity until his junior year. Goletz said that this troubled him as an underclassmen.
“Playing goalkeeper, I was somebody that played on freshman soccer, then sophomore soccer,” Goletz said. “I didn’t get a chance to make the jump to varsity until junior year, because I was playing behind an all-state [goalie] that was two years older than I was. As a kid, it’s hard to remove yourself from that, but there are going to be times you will be disappointed in your life.”
Coaching was always the desired destination for Goletz; after realizing that his playing career would probably not go further than Northern Illinois University, he returned to the high school scene to restart the cycle for the next generations.
“I always knew I really wanted to coach,” said Goletz. “My biggest role models in life, outside my parents, were my coaches. They are still people I always go to for advice, whether it is in coaching or in life. They are people that I trust.”
Drendel’s coaching career was, in large part, a result of his father’s influence. Although playing football for ten years made Drendel love the sport, it was his father that inspired him to educate and train other athletes.
“My father was an educator,” Drendel said. “He always said that as long as you’re doing something good for the kids, it’s worth coaching. So as long as I am still reaching them and still feel like a valuable part of their lives, then I hope I will still continue to coach.”
