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Sports

Rob Wicinski: A Class Act from a Different Perspective

My first time in his 12-year career, seeing Geneva's head football coach up close on the sideline, makes me even prouder that he's "our" guy.

My wife's best buddy and former colleague from the Geneva High School library, Libby Grubaugh, may have perhaps been speaking for others at Burgess Field Friday night when she texted Judy (who was at home) and asked:

"What is Kurt doing on the field taking pictures?"

I hadn't yet been to a Viking football game this season—in what is my first season since 1979 not working the public-address microphone at Burgess Field. I knew that Friday night's contest against visiting South Elgin was crucial, and perhaps Geneva's toughest test so far in the newly realigned Upstate Eight-River Division. So when Rick Nagel was lamenting in a conversation early in the week about having to try to take notes and shoot stills and perhaps some video from the pressbox, I saw my opportunity and asked if he could use my help with a camera and a telephoto lens on the sideline. He said "sure," and quickly made the arrangements with Athletic Director Jim Kafer to get me sideline credentials.

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(Please note that I wasn't "slumming" completely; I do have occasion, in my fulltime position with Moose International, to serve as sideline photographer for Mooseheart football, basketball, volleyball or track, for shots that end up either on www.mooseheart.org or in Moose Magazine, which is mailed to Moose members throughout the U.S. and Canada. And 25 years ago, I shot sports every week for The Republican So I'm not completely clueless when it comes to high school sports photography.)

But I have to admit that at least initially, I certainly did feel like a fish out of water, doing it in the place where the only spot I've been on football Friday nights since the Carter Administration is up in the pressbox with an on-off-switch in front of me.

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I was reminded swiftly enough that there is no tougher sport to shoot than night football. Unlike basketball, track or even baseball, you never know where the action is going, and when you do get it in frame and in focus, it's a challenge having enough light to "freeze" the action.

Fortunately, on the philosophy of "even a blind squirrel finds a nut," I was able to get perhaps ten decent images for Rick to use in his coverage of what turned out to be perhaps one of the ten most thrilling Geneva football games in the 42 years I've been an eyewitness to the Viking program: a come-from-way-behind, last-second, 31-28 victory over South Elgin.

Just as intriguing, though, was the fact that it was my first opportunity, in his 12 seasons running Geneva High's football program, to see Head Coach Rob Wicinski up close on the sideline.

Nearly every man (and they are, of course, all men) who rises to a head football coach position knows the game thoroughly, knows how to formulate and execute a game plan, knows what to do to adjust, knows how to manage a clock in the fourth quarter. Those are all givens, or the man doesn't get (or certainly doesn't keep for very long) a head-coaching position.

But it is the sort of person that a coach is, under game stress and pressure, that makes the difference in whether you're proud to have that coach on the sideline running your team; representing your school and your community. It often—though not always—can make the difference in that coach's long-term success. I have seen coaches who were snarling, profane, frankly despicable human beings on the sideline—who happened to also be effective motivators (after a fashion), who were also great game strategists and who enjoyed significant success. Most often, fortunately, they were from other schools.

Rob Wicinski is a courteous, unselfish, gentlemanly human being. And so that is the way he coaches.  Frankly it's often difficult to locate him on the sideline, as he is generally much more soft-spoken than his assistants.  Most of his conversations with the officials are with a smile on his face—asking clarification, often even apologizing.

Not surprisingly, this builds Wicinski a bank account of goodwill—such that when the time DOES come that he must protest what he sees as a bad call (yes, insistently and loudly, but not once with a single word that you wouldn't use in front of a preschooler), he is given a lot of latitude, a long leash, by the men in stripes.

In short, we can be proud that Rob Wicinski wears blue and white and is on our sideline—and for a reason much more important than seven straight conference titles. It's because of the example he sets for the young men in his program; that this is how you behave under stress and adversity:

As a gentleman. And in control of yourself.  

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