The 1994-95 Hersey boys are back in town

Over the 1994-95 boys basketball season Hersey cruised to a 26-5 record, best in school history, an Elite Eight team whose season ended in a quarterfinal loss to eventual Class AA champion Peoria Manual.

Some of those Huskies players, like forward Robert Davis, never saw their teammates after high school despite the bond they forged.

“It was like a brotherhood, a kinship,” said Davis, a barber in East Chicago, Indiana.

It’ll seem like yesterday when on Friday Hersey’s 1994-95 boys basketball team will be honored between sophomore and varsity games against Wheeling.

“I’m excited,” Davis said. “I’m excited to see the guys and get a chance to talk to them and see how they are. It’ll be great.”

Not all his teammates can make it. Some are in faraway states or other countries. Huskies big man Zach Maddox, for example, is a pastor in Israel, said Don Rowley, head coach of the 1994-95 team.

Sadly, Rowley said some have died, including assistant coach Larry Gould and players Rob Brynjelson, Dan Korvas Jr. and John Woltal Jr., whose parents will be there Friday in his memory, Rowley said.

“That’s pretty sobering,” the coach said.

Davis, Chris Jacobs, Mason McKinney, Joe Potocnic, Brent Prorok and Michael White are among those who will attend, Rowley said. The parents of Chris Nowinski — an incredible story, he went from Harvard University football player to pro wrestler to co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation — will represent their son.

Jacobs, the point guard, recalled walking through a tunnel of students and fans after the 1995 pep rally to send the team to Champaign. “A surreal moment,” he said.

He’s thrilled, like Davis, to see his old teammates, but Jacobs also wants to show his children the scene. When he isn’t acting as director of youth basketball for the Atlanta Hawks, Jacobs coaches his two children in their recreational leagues.

“It’s going to be exciting for my kids to walk in that gym and be a part of it, and see where their dad played ball, and see what the team accomplished,” Jacobs said.

“There was no (Division) I player on the team,” said Rowley, a 2007 Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee who went 290-205 in 18 seasons as Hersey’s head coach but put more than 50 years into the game.

“Just a group that played real well together, was real coachable, had a nose for the ball, and were just good. They were very good shooters, and they really bought in to everything we were teaching,” he said.

Jacobs has an idea why they did so well.

“We had a pretty tight-knit group, everyone got along, we liked each other,” he said. “I think that was a huge part of our success on the court, is we all were really good friends off the court.”

St. Viator’s new AD

Nolan Dowling, a Belleville native who serves as athletic director at a public charter school in Indianapolis, has been hired as athletic director at St. Viator High School, effective June 1.

St. Viator President Ryan Aiello and former interim athletic director Mike Obsuszt conducted a national search that attracted more than 100 candidates for the position.

Dowling will succeed current interim athletic director Mark Rychlik.

“I love to create an atmosphere where everyone feels welcomed and excited to attend our events and to participate in our athletic program,” said Dowling, 31.

“My overarching mission as an athletic administrator is to prepare students for a life after high school and to develop them and grow them into future leaders of our community through athletics,” he said.

A three-sport athlete at Belleville East who was a long snapper on the Western Kentucky University football team, Dowling earned a master’s degree in recreation and sports administration, then became certified as a master athletic administrator.

After a year with Special Olympics in Indianapolis, since 2019 Dowling has served as athletic director at Christel House Indianapolis, overseeing about 1,300 students in middle school and high school.

He and his wife, Sarah, sought to move with their two young children to the Chicago suburbs, and Nolan Dowling started looking into school openings.

“I grew up Catholic and that was a part of my motivation to join St. Viator. It is a place where I can grow my faith and help students grow through athletics,” he said.

Dowling found the community atmosphere at St. Viator “amazing,” he said.

“The overall sense of community that I’ve received ever since interviewing there and then accepting the position has been very welcoming and very engaged.”

“Their willingness to help is what drew me there. They have been nothing but welcoming to me and my family,” Dowling said.

Basketball gods

Chris Bode is a 1985 Wheaton North graduate. He’s a basketball lifer in his first year as an assistant men’s coach for Steve Christiansen at Aurora University.

Before that Bode assisted several seasons at Waubonsee Community College. And before that he coached youth levels and at Somonauk High School, where his boys played.

One of them, Addison, coached with his father last season at Waubonsee.

Now, they’re on different sides. Addison Bode is a graduate assistant at William Penn University in Iowa, in charge of its men’s junior varsity team. On Feb. 1 William Penn visited Aurora’s JV — coached by Chris Bode.

The game drew lots of relatives. Wearing William Penn jerseys, they rooted for Addison and against Chris, who razzed each other on the sideline.

“That’s kind of how we roll in our family,” Chris Bode said.

The game came down to one final play with the score tied 105-105. William Penn’s John Bryant Jr. dribbled outside the 3-point line, then swished a 25-footer at the buzzer. Just like Addison Bode drew it up.

“We hugged and laughed and I probably cried little bit,” Chris Bode said.

He believes in “basketball gods” who will intervene positively if you respect the game. He believes this father-and-son moment was proof.

“Basketball will pay you back in the long run, and it’s an example in my life where it’s kind of come to fruition,” Bode said.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com