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There are many reasons behind Cary-Grove's winning attitude

There's no secret to the fact that high school athletics have changed considerably over the past several years.

Three-sport athletes are a rarity rather than the norm.

Coaches come and go, seemingly with the frequency of oil changes.

Attendance is down at many events and school spirit is harder and harder to find - heck, students don't even attend athletic events with the enthusiasm they once did.

Maintaining success across the board is more difficult now than ever.

While the above may not be true everywhere, it is very much the case at many schools, especially schools with larger enrollments.

So it would be fair, based on the above, to call Cary-Grove an abnormal high school athletic program - by today's standards at least - especially for a school with an enrollment of 1,800.

What they do at Cary-Grove is churn out winning team after winning team, and it matters little the sport. The sustained success the Trojans have enjoyed in the large majority of their programs over the past 10-12 years is a testament to many things, both inside and outside the walls of the high school building on Three Oaks Road.

This weekend, two more Trojan teams will vie for further state success as the girls volleyball team plays in the Class 4A Final Four at Redbird Arena in Normal, and the 10-1 football team travels to Batavia for a Class 7A quarterfinal battle.

It starts with the kids

Brad Seaburg has been coaching in the Cary-Grove football program for 15 years, the past five as head coach. His team was second in Class 7A last year and he was a C-G assistant for a state championship in 2009 and a runner-up finish in 2004.

"It has to start with the kids," Seaburg said Tuesday while preparing his practice plan for this weekend's game in Batavia. "The kids here put in the time in the offseason. They're buying in, they're taking ownership and they accept hard coaching.

"The kids here train with us in the offseason. We don't outsource our training and the kids are buying into it. Some kids do training on their own but they know that we do here takes precedence. Our kids expect to win and they expect to win state championships. We have a lot of kids who play multiple sports - there's a lot of overlap between football and baseball - and it goes side-to-side."

"In all sports I think we work harder than anyone else," says senior split end/defensive back Jimmy Fresko. "The kids here have bought into the program. When you get a taste of winning you keep coming back for more and that builds the winning attitude."

Girls volleyball coach Patty Langanis has been at the helm of her program for 21 years, amassing 597 wins including a Class 4A state championship in 2009 and runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2011.

"There's a harder work ethic here and it builds team chemistry," Langanis said Tuesday prior to her team preparing for its state semifinal on Friday night against St. Francis. "The environment is so different. There's an expectation of success.

"Our kids come from one junior high and many of them have been going to school together since kindergarten. You don't see that at a lot of bigger schools. We really appreciate our district keeping our school small and not having a big mega school."

Then there's the coaches

Coaching high school sports is no easy task these days. It requires more and more time, and the pay will never buy you a beachfront condo. We see many coaches leaving the ranks after 5-6 years to focus more on their families or other interests.

Not at Cary-Grove. If data were kept on the average number of years a coach - head or assistant - has been at a school, I have to believe Cary-Grove would be one of the state's leaders.

"We've been fortunate to have tremendous leadership," says Trojans' athletic director Jim Altendorf, a former coach at the school who has been AD since Bruce Kay retired in 2011. "Bruce Kay, (longtime football assistant and head baseball coach) Don Sutherland, (retired girls soccer coach) Chris Phillips - guys like that. Not only great coaches but great mentors and teachers. They knew it was about hard work and commitment. If you have those types of guys then you have success consistently and those are the types of guys the community rallies around. And there's so many third and fourth generation families here. So many kids want to come back and teach and coach here."

"We've had great leadership with our ADs," said Seaburg. "Bruce really set the tone. Jim and I worked closely with Bruce for many years and we've just tried to continue what he started."

Seaburg and Langanis certainly recognize the value of not having to interview for new assistants every year.

"We have such dedicated coaches who know what it takes to win," Seaburg said. Most of our coaching staff was around in '09 and some of them in '04. When you taste (success) you know what it takes to win and we try to instill that in the kids and they recognize as coaches we've been there and we know what it takes."

"We have a lot of coaches who have dedicated many years of their lives to this program and it's hard to find lifelong coaches these days," said Langanis, noting that 15-year assistant Matt Rogers is one of many coaches at Cary-Grove who graduated from the school.

The value of their coaches isn't lost on Fresko and senior volleyball player Delaney Bayer, either.

"All the coaches are on the same page," said Fresko. "They work hard and we're able to form a relationship with the coaches."

Said Bayer: "We have such a top-notch coaching staff here and all of our athletes work really hard because of that. It's about the legacy here at Cary-Grove."

And, of course, the community

Cary-Grove is a throwback of sorts, a school that has deep roots in the community and, in turn, a community that supports it unconditionally.

"The leaders of the community are so into Cary-Grove athletics," Altendorf said. "It's a community in which parents are very supportive and that's a strength. They are very passionate about Cary-Grove and they want their kids to compete in a way that aligns with what we want, and that's across all channels."

"It's such a small-knit community," said Langanis, who lives in the community and has kids at Cary-Grove. "I go to the grocery store and I know all the checkout people. There's a real sense of community around athletics."

Fresko says he sees the sense of community pride beyond the football program.

"A lot of people I talk to not in football just love sports here," he said. "They've built up a winning attitude and they want us to win as much as we want to win. It's big that you know the community is behind you and wants you to win."

"It's a huge thing," Bayer agreed. "Putting on that Cary-Grove jersey you know you're playing for your community and the support they give us is amazing."

The result of all of this? The Trojans, across the board, are winners - plain and simple.

jradtke@dailyherald.com

  Cary-Grove girls volleyball coach Patty Langanis takes her team to the state final tournament this weekend for the fourth time since 2009. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
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