Bartlett's got the Ilich

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Eric Ilich has plenty of good memories involving Neuqua Valley football. Just not too many in recent years.

As an assistant on the Bartlett coaching staff, Ilich had watched Neuqua - his alma mater - rack up wins in each of the past three seasons. Included in the mix was a 42-17 drubbing in 2006, the first time Ilich returned to Neuqua as an opposing coach.

Then came last year's 24-23 loss in Streamwood, where the Hawks play their home games.

That changed Friday night when Ilich left on the winning side, walking off the field where he starred as the Wildcats first quarterback with a thrilling 31-28 victory.

"I've been thinking about coming down here for the past 365 days and playing this game," said Ilich, the Hawks quarterbacks/wide receivers coach.

Much has changed since Ilich guided the Wildcats through a 4-5 season as a senior in 1999. That year he threw for 1,476 yards on 100-of-205 passing with 13 touchdowns. Those marks - yardage, completions, attempts and touchdowns - stood as school records until Alex Lincoln came on the scene last year.

As a junior Lincoln broke Ilich's touchdown record by one. This year he is further obliterating it, having thrown 21 touchdowns in seven games. Lincoln also bumped Ilich from the other three records, going 108-of-208 passing for 1,496 yards so far this season.

"When I played at Neuqua, I never took a shotgun snap," said Ilich, a physical education teacher at Bartlett. "In watching their films this year, I never saw them under center. So things have changed."

The switch to coaching was an easy one for Ilich, who played at Southwest Missouri State and Indiana before spending his senior year at North Central College in 2003. From there he spent the 2004 season as quarterback coach at Naperville Central under Joe Bunge and then-offensive coordinator Mike Stine.

The next year he joined the staff at Bartlett under Tom Meaney, who has led the Hawks into the postseason in each of his six years.

"I've been pretty lucky," Ilich said of his coaching history. "I like to think I've learned from the best."

That includes Bryan Wells, the only coach in Neuqua's 11 seasons. Wells saw that Ilich would some day be a coach even as he was still a player. Back then Ilich helped out at middle school summer camps to get his first taste of coaching, so it came as no surprise to Wells that Ilich has entered the profession.

"It seemed like a pretty natural fit for him," said Wells, who has three former players on his current staff. "He just had an aptitude to be able to see a skill or a body movement in an athlete and then be able to get that athlete to fix (what was wrong)."

While at first it was young athletes benefiting from that kind of tutelage, these days Bartlett senior Josh Hasenberg is the recipient. Hasenberg remembers being a raw freshman and how Ilich has helped him become a dangerous passer.

"Coming in as a freshman, I was just sloppy," Hasenberg said. "He taught me to be fluent with my stuff, my rollouts. And, really, how to stay comfortable in the pocket."

And to the chagrin of the Neuqua nation, that translated into a last-minute scoring drive that put the Hawks up for good Friday night. Ilich finally had for himself something good to remember.