Hastert’s hometown sifting memories
Residents trying to figure out who is making claim
— Before he was U.S. Housespeakerandsecondinline to the president, Dennis Hastert was known around the Illinois town of Yorkville as Denny the coach, a beloved mentor to youths on the high school wrestling team and in local Scouting groups who organized trips to broaden the students’ experiences.
Thursday’s indictment accusing Hastert of manipulating bank accounts and lying to the FBI to allegedlycoveruppast“misconduct” hasleft hometown admirers searching back through fond memories and struggling to understand how alleged sexual abuse and extortion could have emerged from that period.
Many former wrestlers and Yorkville area residents spoke only warmly of Hastert, with some athletes saying Hastert was a father figure as he
Yorkville, Ill. guided them to championships. They couldn’t recall anything suspicious about the trips, including ones to the Bahamas and Canada. None had a clue about who could have made such accusations against the coach.
“Now everybody is guessing who it is,” said Bob Evans, Hastert’s assistant wrestling coach, who joined him in taking Boy Scouts camping and fishing in northern Minnesota. “This puts a cloud over what was a pretty special time for people.”
Evans said there was never a hint of wrongdoing and he was angry that someone would accuse Hastert without coming forward publicly.
Hastert’s legacy is visible in this small Fox River town about 45 miles southwest of Chicago. There is the renovated historic courthouse and a forest preserve that both received money that Hastert helped bring back from Washington.
Former students say he left an intangible imprint on their lives, too. Mindful of that record, residents expressed disbelief and confusion at the claims.
Neal Ament, 66, was a senior at Yorkville High School when Hastert arrived in 1965 from nearby Plano to teach history and economics and coach the wrestling team. Ament said the team won the conference in Hastert’s first season as head coach.
“Our team was just a bunch of floundering farm boys. He came and whipped us into shape,” Ament said Friday. “He taught us moves and the science behind wrestling that we never knew before.”
He was as memorable in the classroom, said Ament, who still lives in the Yorkville area and has occasionally run into Hastert at a local hardware store. “Hopefully this will end upbeingabigmisunderstanding,” he said.
The federal indictment accused Hastertofagreeingtopay$3.5million to keep a person from the suburban Chicagotownsilentabout“priormisconduct,” butthecourtpapersdidnot detail the wrongdoing. A person familiar with the allegations said Friday that the Illinois Republican is accused of sexually molesting someone decades ago. Hastert, 73, who lives in Planoandwithhiswife, Jean, hastwo sons, has not commented.
Hastert taught and coached in Yorkville until 1981 and was a Boy Scouts of America volunteer for 17 years over that period, leading what was then called Explorer Post 540.
Bob Corwin, a close friend, was one of the other adults accompanying Hastert and the teens on some of the Scout trips, including to the Grand Canyon.
He said when they were in the Bahamas, they all stayed in the same cabin. “We were all in there together,” he said Saturday at the judo club where he has taught for decades. “I never knew nothing about anything going on” that was improper.
Daniel Zedan, council commissioner for the St. Charles, Ill.-based Boy Scout Council 127, said national Boy Scout officials have asked the local council to look for records associated with Hastert’s tenure as a volunteer in Yorkville. No complaints have been brought to their attention, he said.