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player ready...On April 11, Mother McAuley athletic director Laurie Jakubczak experienced an emotion she has probably never felt before on the job.
Fear.
Well, comical fear, anyway.
Laurie thought she was being led by school principal Eileen Boyce to look at some recently purchased furniture.
Instead, she was led to a meeting with a golf cart.
Or make that, THE golf cart.
THE golf cart is used for a tradition they have at McAuley.
When a team or an individual has a major achievement like going to state, they or she will be given a ride through the hallways — which are lined with cheering students, teachers and administrators.
This time, The cart was awaiting the 2015-16 Class 3A and 4A Division 1 IHSA Athletic Director of the Year.
Laurie was having none of it. She was looking for the exits.
“I’m not getting on there,” Jakubczak said, shooting playful eye daggers at Boyce. “I’m going home. “
It took plenty of coaxing before Jakubczak gave in and climbed aboard.
“Next time I’ll know to leave the building,” she said later, joking. “When I went to school here, we had pep rallies when teams went downstate. I never knew about the cart ride until the first year I was here as athletic director (2006-07), when we won state in water polo.
“It’s a great tradition. It gets the whole school involved and it’s unique to McAuley.”
Jakubczak will be honored at an awards banquet on April 30 in Peoria.
It’s a milestone in a career guiding kids that started in 1984 when Jakubczak was hired as a basketball and track coach at Seton. In 1990, she became the athletic director.
The highlight of Jakubczak’s coaching career came in 1997-98, when she led the Sting basketball team to the Class A state quarterfinals.
Laurie got a healthy dose of nostalgia — and sadness — walking the halls of her beloved Seton on Feb. 5 before watching the boys basketball team’s final-ever regular season home game.
“I have great memories at Seton,” Jakubczak said. “A lot of people I coached with at Seton still keep in contact. I had great relationships with the faculty and staff. We were like a little family.
“It’s sad to see Seton close, but it didn’t stun me. When I left there, they went coed to stay open. The enrollment was going down, so it wasn’t surprising.”
If Seton was her second home, certainly McAuley is her first.
Jakubczak, a 1978 graduate, played basketball and softball for the Mighty Macs. She returned to her alma mater in 2006, replacing the legendary Nancy Pedersen.
It isn’t lip service I’m paying when I say that Laurie lives and breathes McAuley. I’ve seen her bundled up and freezing at the softball field cheering on the Mighty Macs.
“She’s unbelievable,” Boyce said. “She doesn’t stop moving. I was here for a Notre Dame-DePaul (exhibition) volleyball match. She was entertaining family. She was in the concession stand and running all over getting dinner set up for the teams. She was everywhere.
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“One of her greatest strengths is she realizes girls give their all to different sports. She’s right there with them. She’s on the volleyball court, the basketball court, the soccer field, the golf course, and she’s in the thick of things at a lacrosse game in the middle of a snowstorm. You’d be hard-pressed to go to a McAuley game and not see Laurie there.”
They appreciate it, at every level.
“Gosh, yes,” freshman lacrosse coach Maura Kenny said. “What’s nice is that she cares. She is constantly checking in, asking me how I’m doing, how the kids are doing on the field as well as academically and holistically. She knows her athletes, freshmen to senior.”
Mother McAuley may never lose its reputation as a volleyball school. But to have every athlete in the building feel equally important – that, Laurie maintains, is her most satisfying achievement.
“It’s nice to hear that,” Jakubczak said. “Winning state in water polo and volleyball is awesome. So was seeing our soccer team win a regional a few years ago when it was such a surprise. Briana Driver started as a cheerleader and now she’s running at U of I.
“Seeing our girls succeed is special. Those are the things you remember.”
She can certainly ride with pride.
Twitter @tbaranek