Most new coaches lead their old high schools
Madi Hecox has come home. Hecox played on the greatest East girls basketball team in history. She also played on the softball team, where she has begun her first year as coach this spring.
She is not alone. It's a common theme. Nine of the 15 new head coaches this spring at Rockford-area high schools are taking over as the coach for a school they once played for. And often just a short time ago.
Here is a look at the 13 area first-year head coaches this spring from the NIC-10, Big Northern and NUIC conferences, with coaches listed alphabetically by sport:
Bryson Wallace, Auburn baseball
Wallace, 26, graduated from Auburn in 2016 and Rockford University three years later. He started on Auburn's baseball team for four years and one year at Rockford University, where he was a reserve the first two years. He has been an assistant coach at AshtonFranklin Center in the NUIC for three years. “It has always been a dream of mine to coach Auburn baseball and give back to a program that helped me become the person I am today,” Wallace said.
Elizabeth Carville, Auburn girls soccer
Carville, 45, grew up in Springfield, Georgia, in a military family and graduated from Iowa State. She did not play soccer in high school. “I grew up in the South; football was what we all put our hearts and soul into,” she said.
Carville was a staff sergeant in the Marine Corps for 15 years. She was stationed at the Rock Island arsenal before moving to Rockford to be with her fiancé when she left the military in 2013. She has been coaching youth soccer in town for a decade and plays on an adult women's soccer team. She will have both a varsity and a JV team to work with this year at Auburn.
“We haven't had a junior varsity team in five years; I was surprised to see how many players came out,” Carville said. “I coach the U.S. soccer style, which I think is a lot more fun. It's a practice-play method and backed by science. It gets them immediately playing with a small scrimmage, then a core activity, which is always gamelike. We push them to critically think on the field. That's what they say we lack. It's not boring. It's not complicated. It's fun.”
Matthew Wendt, Harlem girls soccer
Wendt, 42, graduated from Harlem in 2000 and played goalie on the Huskies' soccer team. He also played semipro soccer for one year in town. He has coached at two middle schools, for