In the end, the answer was staring him in the face.
Dan Beebe, Aurora Christian’s athletic director, didn’t have to look far and wide to find a replacement when Pat McNamara stepped down last March as the Eagles’ varsity boys basketball coach.
Beebe simply turned to the man in the mirror.
“Once a coach, always a coach I guess,” said Beebe, who has nine years of head coaching experience at the college level. “The timing was right for me. In college, you’re burning the candle at both ends. It will be nice to get back to it.”
He’ll have a challenge. The Eagles graduated nine seniors from a team that won the Northeastern Athletic Conference title, went 26-5 and reached the Class 2A DeKalb Supersectional.
“We’ll be young, but we could be talented,” Beebe said.
Junior guard Jake Wolfe has been drawing NCAA Division I recruiting interest this summer while playing AAU for the Illinois Wolves. He’s the lone returning starter, but led the Eagles in scoring last season by averaging 16.4 points.
Seniors Brock Harner and Tanner Dissell also played well off the bench.
“We’ve also got a good group coming up,” Beebe said.
The up-and-comers should be led by sophomores Colton Schutt and Michael Cruger and Wolfe’s younger brother Will, a freshman.
“I’m a big believer that defense wins, in any sport, so we’ll focus on that,” Beebe said.
He will be assisted by the Wolfe’s dad Todd, who played in college at Michigan State, and Judson graduate Demetrice Stephens.
“Even Golden State, with that great offense and 73 wins last season, played good defense,” Beebe said. “We’re going to get up and down the floor and, hopefully, have some excitement.”
The Eagles will also drop to Class 1A for the playoffs, thanks to a policy change by the IHSA.
“International students who aren’t eligible to compete will no longer be added to your enrollment for multiplier purposes,” Beebe said. “We have 17, but none of them are involved in athletics.”
Dan Beebe, a Kaneland graduate, played and coached college basketball at NCAA Division III Chadron State in Nebraska, where older brother Don played football before going to the NFL.
Primarily a point guard in high school, Dan Beebe played mostly shooting guard at Chadron State for coach Bob Ward. In his junior year, Beebe was the second leading scorer on the team with a 14.3-point average, but a knee injury cost the two-time captain most of his senior season in 1991-92.
He served as a graduate assistant there while earning his master’s degree and then as a full-time assistant before being named interim head coach when Ward was fired before the 1997-98 season.
Dan Beebe coached Chadron State for nine seasons, posting a 108-130 record highlighted by a 19-8 season in 1999-2000.
He came home in 2006, returning to the area to help brother Don develop his House of Speed franchises that eventually numbered 24. Dan Beebe was hired as athletic director at Aurora Christian in 2010 after Don Davidson retired.
Dan Beebe has doubled as a varsity assistant to both Steve Hanson and McNamara for five seasons, and last year worked with Aurora Christian’s middle school team.
Twitter @RickArmstrong28