Coaches leave the game on own terms
Paul Darling and Al Scheive beat the odds right down to the very end.
Few basketball coaches in the state can boast of being at their current school for at least 20 years. Darling and Schieve were in that select company. With 31 years under his belt with the Slinger boys, Schieve was the dean of area coaches. Darling, a baby in comparison, was head coach of the Waukesha South girls for 20 seasons.
What would be the chances that they would leave the profession at essentially the same time and do so on their own terms?
We all know those chances are slim. Coaching for the long term is as hard as it’s ever been. If a coach isn’t getting burned out by growing demands of the job, he or she is getting pushed out before they’re ready to go.
Both men should take a bow for lasting so long.
But how do you know when the time is right? You just do.
“It’s something that I think every coach with children struggles with because you want to be around as much as you can and watch your children grow,” Darling said. “I’m five years away from having a daughter go off to college. That
kind of gets to be breathtaking.”
Darling has 12- and 7-year-old daughters to think about. Schieve’s children are grown, so that wasn’t an issue. Why now? Being able to call the shot on his departure was definitely attractive to him, but it wasn’t like anyone was pushing him out the door.
“I retired from teaching five years ago and thought I was going to go out then and decided to hang in there a little bit longer,” he said. “Every year it was a year-to-year thing. I really didn’t put a time stamp on it.
“I enjoyed coaching the kids. Derek Sabin came along and I hadn’t gotten an opportunity to coach a Division I player before, so I looked forward to doing that. I’m not sure why this was the right time, it just seemed like the right time.”
Schieve’s tenure marked an era of growth in Slinger. The school went from the Parkland Conference to the Wisconsin Little Ten to the North Shore during that time, growing in enrollment from about 650 to the 1,048 it is listed at today.
He led the Owls to Parkland titles in 1996-'97 and 2002-'03. The '02-'03 team had a school-record 19-game winning streak. During their 11 years in the Little Ten, the Owls finished second three times and third three times. Only Wisconsin Lutheran and Oconomowoc won more games during that span.
“As they come through the program, we worry about them leaving as good people,” Schieve said. “That is always what we really wanted to try to accomplish. We’ve always had kids who competed hard. We always had kids who worked hard and we always had kids who were really coachable. That’s part of the success that we had.”
Darling won Classic 8 Conference titles in 2004 and ’05, a handful of regional crowns and led the Blackshirts to Division 1 state runner-up finishes in 2002 and ’05.
The 2002 team was a Cinderella story. It avenged two regular-season losses to Kettle Moraine with a sectional final win and beat Mukwonago, which beat it also twice during the regular season, in the state quarterfinals. Next, South scored one of the more memorable upsets of the tournament when it snapped two-time defending champion Janesville Parker’s 55-game winning streak in the semifinals.
Darling, who also coached at Racine St. Catherine's, had more than his share of great players. Eight went to Division I schools, including seven during his time at South. Former Marquette University player Erin Monfre was the 2005 Miss Basketball.
What touched him last week, however, was a text message from a player who wasn’t one of the program’s stars. She thanked the coach for helping mold her into a team player and someone who always looked to improve.
“That was heartwarming,” Darling said. “To know that was the message we talked to the kids about over the years and probably the most glaring theme we’ve had. Schools sometimes have a motto from season to season. For us, it’s just be greater than yesterday.”
That is now the challenge for the Waukesha South girls and Slinger boys programs. Build on the foundations Darling and Scheive leave behind.
Darling and Schieve, meanwhile, will be free during the winter for the first time in decades. Darling, 50, will spend some of that time attending his daughter’s basketball games and savoring his daughters' childhoods. Schieve isn’t sure, though he suspects he’ll travel with his wife, Sue, or watch his sons coach – Kegan is an assistant at UWPlatteville; Tanner coaches freshmen at Waupaca.
Life goes on. Schieve and Darling are ready to start a new chapter.