GA_070519

glencoeanchor.com sports
the glencoe anchor | July 5, 2019 | 27
New Trier grad Conaghan off for
next challenge at UW-Whitewater
Drew Favakeh, Sports Intern
When Ron Coleman,
University of Illinois basketball
assistant coach,
told his managers they had
“no chance” of winning the
manager’s national championship,
Brian Conaghan
took it to heart.
Out of it, he helped forge
a motto: Let’s shut up Chin
(Ron Coleman).
The morning after they
won, Conaghan placed the
trophy on Coleman’s desk.
But now, Conaghan is
transferring to the University
of Wisconsin-Whitewater
to play NCAA Division
III basketball.
“Don’t get me wrong,
winning the manager national
championship was
awesome and being on
Minneapolis on the floor
was a great experience,”
Brian Conaghan said,
“But I feel like winning an
NCAA national championship
would be a lot more
sweet. That’s the goal.”
Although he admitted
that being a manager
yielded payoffs (“great
for connections”), playing
college basketball is what
he believes he should have
been done out of New Trier
High School.
“I’ve loved the opportunity
to be a manager at a
Big Ten program, but I feel
like I won’t have regrets
to transfer and go play,”
Conaghan said. “In 15
years, I don’t want to wonder:
‘what if I transferred to
go and play somewhere?’
That helped my decision.
I regret I didn’t play this
year. I didn’t want any regrets
down the line.”
As Illinois’ basketball
season progressed,
he played basketball less
and less — maybe once a
New Trier graduate Brian Conaghan drives to the basket against the University of
Michigan in a basketball manager’s game. photo SUBMITTED
week. More likely, he was
waking up at 6:15 a.m. to
wash towels, place cones
for drills, or rebound shots.
But now, he’s set to join a
D-III program that won
the national championship
in 2014.
With four starters graduating,
Conaghan has a
chance to earn the starting
point guard position. Having
started at point guard at
New Trier in 2016-17 and
2017-18, Conaghan could
return to a familiar role.
Back then, the former
varsity captain embodied
the Trevian spirit with his
gutsy, defensive-minded
play style. He played a
major part in New Trier
advancing to the Elite
Eight his senior year, their
furthest appearance since
2012-13.
“Brian knows he can
score if he needs to, but
that’s not his game, not
what he’s built for,” Kevin
Conaghan, Brian’s brother,
said. “He’s more of a defensive
lockdown guy,
the guy that will dive on
the floor and save the ball
from going out-of-bounds,
the guy who will get 10
rebounds, 6 assists, and
4 points. He’s that guy,
doesn’t need to be the focal
point, doesn’t need all
the glamour of the media
and all that, and the fans.”
With the manager’s
team, Brian Conaghan
played hard even though
“no one was there watching,
no one cheering
him on,” recalled Kevin
Conaghan, who attended
all games from the elite
eight to championship,
a trip originally funded
through GoFundMe.
Despite being benched
in the second-half of the
manager’s national championship,
he bear-hugged
his best friend, Patrick
Bittle, as the final buzzer
sounded.
“He was really proud,”
Kevin Conaghan said.
“The last game, they won
by a blowout. They won
by 30, so they knew they
were going to win. He was
cheering them on for the
second-half, talking some
trash to Marquette, too.”
Before Illinois, before
Wisconsin-Whitewater,
entering the fray meant
walking into the backyard,
where Brian would dare
Kevin and another friend
to play him 2-on-1. The
metaphorical ring where
he dropped his gloves
more than a few times.
“If someone called a
foul or thought someone
was going too hard, he’d
start fighting,” Kevin
Conaghan said.
Growing up, he was
smaller than Kevin. But it
only made him stronger.
“I got my competitive
spirit all those years
growing up with Kevin,”
Brian Conaghan said.
“He used to be a lot bigger
than me and better
than me at sports. I hated
losing to him especially.
That changed my attitude
and helped in the long run.
Kevin filled out before the
rest of us.”
Nowadays, he is quick
to point out that he’s catching
up: “He hasn’t grown.
I think I’m still growing,
I’m only an inch shorter
than him now.”
Whereas playing with
the managers was like
“playing at the local rec”
Please see conaghan, 25
New Trier tabs
Wysocki as new
softball coach
Michael Wojtychiw
Sports Editor
R o s e
Wysocki
knew she
had always
wanted to be
a coach.
Even during
her playing
days at
Wysocki
Lincoln-Way East High
School and Elmhurst College,
she was almost like
another coach in the dugout.
“When I was playing I
was much more of a coach
than I was a player,” she
said. “My dad was a coach
and I grew up driving home
from softball games with
him and getting debriefed
about how the game went
from a coach’s perspective.
So the strategy and
technique has been something
that I’ve just always
naturally been drawn to.
“So, I definitely, even
when I was playing I was
coaching in that sense.
Even when I was a kid,
in high school I volunteer
coached for a local junior
high team and so it’s always
been something I’ve
done and wanted to do.”
Wysocki, originally
from the south suburbs,
played her high school
softball at Lincoln-Way
East High School in
Frankfort and followed it
up with a stellar collegiate
career at Elmhurst College.
While at Elmhurst,
she helped revive the
school’s softball program
and earned First Team All-
Conference honors her junior
year.
After graduating from
Elmhurst, she coached for
a year at her alma mater as
an assistant and then got
a job at Loyola Academy.
She coached for a couple
of years there, then took
a couple of years off to
pursue her master’s before
being the head JV coach at
Niles West for the past two
seasons.
Now she’ll be entrusted
to turn around a New Trier
program that’s fallen on
hard times the last couple
years after being hired by
the Winnetka school earlier
this month.
Wysocki, who had been
teaching social studies
at Loyola for the past six
years, will also teach social
studies at New Trier
starting in the fall.
“I obviously know the
tradition, and what New
Trier softball, and what
New Trier, as a whole, has
been for a lot of years,”
Wysocki said. “And I’ve
been coaching and been
teaching in the area. I’ve
been wanting to take
on a role as a head softball
coach within the last
couple of years. They had
a social studies position
opening, and the coaching
opening at the same time,
so it just seemed kind of
like a good fit, so I figured
I’d throw my name in the
hat, see if anything came
up from it.”
Despite New Trier going
14-40 over the past two
years, including 4-23 in
2019, that didn’t discourage
Wysocki from pursuing
the position.
Please see wysocki, 25