Last month, Morgan Kasperek returned to Wheaton North’s Bill Neibch Falcon Holiday Classic for the second time as a head coach.
The Hinsdale Central graduate and one-time coach of the Red Devils girls basketball team is in her first season as Glenbard South head girls basketball coach.
One of the first things she did after accepting the job was get her former Red Devils coach, Steve Gross, to come out of retirement and become her assistant..
The two former Hinsdale Central coaches now are directing a young Raiders team with only one senior starter. Glenbard South (8-7) placed eighth at Wheaton North after losing to Hinsdale Central in a consolation game, 43-39.
Coincidently, that contest featured the last three girls basketball coaches at Hinsdale Central: Gross, Kasperek and current coach Tom McKenna, who is in his sixth season after replacing Kasperek. Also, Red Devils assistant coach Lindsey (Kabat) Montgomery’s younger sister, Allie, played with Kasperek on the 2002 state championship team.
As a player, Kasperek led Hinsdale Central to three titles at Wheaton North and was named all-tournament three times. When she graduated in 2002, after playing on the Red Devils’ team that beat Marian Central, 43-38, in the AA final, Kasperek was the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,566 points.
Since then, she’s been passed by Toni Kokenis and Gabrielle Rush, who set the school record last season.
Gross, the winningest coach in Red Devils history with a 343-85 record over 16 seasons, has returned to the bench as an assistant coach for the first time since being on the staff of his predecessor at Hinsdale Central, Jeff Hill, in the mid-1990s.
“Morgan called and said, “I just got the head job and I want you to be my assistant,'” Gross said. “‘Don’t answer now. Think about it.’
“The only person I would come out of retirement for is Morgan Kasperek.”
Kasperek was Gross’ assistant coach when Gross resigned as Hinsdale Central coach six games into the 2008-09 season. Kasperek and fellow assistant Kelly Maley were named co-coaches as the Red Devils finished 31-3.
Kasperek had graduated from Iowa in 2006 with a degree in communications after the 6-foot-2 forward completed a four-year basketball careeer with the Hawkeyes. She was on Gross’ bench at Hinsdale Central, but her one-year stint as head coach made the Hinsdale native re-consider her career. She returned to college and now is a special education teacher at Glenbard South and an assistant girls soccer coach at Glenbard West in the spring.
Kasperek, 32, was Glenbard South’s assistant coach last season and the sophomore coach two years ago. Julie Fonda, a 1996 graduate of Glenbard South, resigned in 2015 after 10 years as girls basketball coach and remains the Raiders’ softball coach.
Gross, who teaches social studies at Hinsdale Central, helped Kasperek at the Glen Ellyn school with summer camps and shooting clinics. With his oldest daughter, Ellie, playing basketball in the eighth grade and entering Downers Grove North next year, Gross said he is undecided about remaining at Glenbard South after this season.
“It’s fun coaching with Steve,” Kasperek said. “It’s fun watching these kids grow and get better.”
Kasperek and Gross have brought the same principles to Glenbard South that produced four 30-win seasons at Hinsdale Central, including a 34-1 record in the state championship season.
“Our first practice was all-defense. We established right away the whole program,” said Kasperek, who is following Gross’ philosophy of strictly man-to-man defense. “In the first week, we got everyone together and showed them what we want on defense, and how to play man defense. Not a lot of our girls know man-to-man defense. I know offense is not our thing, but everyone should be able to play man-to-man.”
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Guard Payton Carli, Glenbard South’s only senior starter, said Kasperek has kept some of Fonda’s offensive plays while adding a few new ones of her own.
“They are both wonderful coaches,” Carli said. “They have both been huge role models.”
Kasperk is rebuilding Glenbard South after inheriting last year’s senior-dominated group. She wants to build a Class 3A basketball power similar to what Fonda has done with the Raiders’ softball program.
“(Kasperek) is a great motivator and knows what it takes to get to the next level,” Fonda, one of the best female athletes in Glenbard South history before graduating in 1996, said. “I had planned on last year being my last season about three years ago. I enjoyed every second of coaching basketball and trust me, I miss it, but it was time for someone to come in and give a new perspective to the program. I am so glad it was Morgan.”
Kasperek dismissed any immediate thoughts of returning to Hinsdale Central as a basketball coach.
“I love where I am and the administration is awesome,” Kasperek said. “I love teaching there (at Glenbard South) because it’s a smaller school.”
Twitter @geomwilcox