Starting a New School: Roncalli of Aurora

Starting and being a part of a new situation has been nothing new to me. After my sophomore year at Lewis, I was introduced in 1960 to new sponsorship of Lewis College whereby the Christian Brothers assumed control over the college. For my first two years, Lewis was a diocesan institution with lay leadership and control. 

From my perspective, the transition, although dramatic in some respects, was fairly seamless and smooth. Up to that time, Lewis had been a co-educational college with a former military president, General Paul English. His successor was a Christian Brother, Leander Paul FSC. Consistent with the Christian Brothers education model, only men would be recruited and enrolled. The remaining female students at Lewis would continue until they graduated.

Unknown to me at the time, transitions to new situations would continue to be a trademark of my existence. 

Starting a New High School…and Soccer

Upon graduation, I was offered a teaching/coaching position at Roncalli High School in Aurora, Illinois. The fall of 1962 would be the school’s first year in existence although the new building wouldn’t be finished until the following year. For the 1962-63 school year, classes would be taught at a vacant grade school building on Aurora’s near west side. The all-boys school would start with a freshman class that would incrementally produce a 4-year high school. 

Personnel and facilities ranged from spartan to non-existent. The entire teaching/administrative staff consisted of three men; two Christian Brothers (Brother Steven and Brother Lawrence) and one lay person (me). Our first class was comprised of about 40 boys divided into two sections. My duties were to: teach English, history, and general business; coach basketball and baseball; conduct intramurals at noon; and, serve as athletic director.

  “The test of a teacher is simple. Look at his/her students.”

The old grade school building was scheduled to be demolished the following year when we moved into the new facility on the east side of town. In addition to the building, there were no athletic fields or gym which meant that we would use a neighboring grade school gym and a city park baseball field. We didn’t win a basketball game until the following year.

The next school year, 1963-64, we moved into our new building with our now sophomore class and incoming freshmen. Our campus included a field and a tile-floored gym with a locker room. The one-story brick building had plenty of classrooms, administrative offices, and a residence area for housing future Christian Brother faculty. New faculty members were also added which meant that my teaching load focused entirely on teaching English.

Teaching English was a passion for me. During my four years at Roncalli, I learned how to become better at the profession. The students, for the most part, demonstrated patience with a rookie instructor although I remain convinced that I probably learned more than they did. Absent a library in the building, I brought loads of paperback books about sports, cars, fiction and placed them by the one window and invited students to read at their desks during the last ten minutes of class. Reading anything was still reading, a worthwhile habit for their entire lives.

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” 

Frederick Douglas

In addition to coaching baseball and basketball, I became coach of the newly formed soccer team. Why soccer? It was a relatively inexpensive sport and many boys could participate. I had played baseball and basketball but knew very little about soccer. But the kids knew even less about the world’s most popular sport, so I was briefly ahead of them. My expertise would be in organizing and coaching while I recruited two area German soccer players who would be our teachers and help conduct the practices.

After four years at Roncalli, I decided to teach and coach at Providence High School in New Lenox. My duties were to teach English, coach the varsity soccer team, and assist in basketball. In the spring of 1967, I was hired at Lewis as the JV baseball coach and assistant to Coach Gillespie on the varsity level.

“Never be afraid to try something new.  Remember amateurs built the ark, but professionals built the Titanic.“

Author unknown