Natural progression

Posted: March 24, 2009 |(0) Comments

Corey Wolf does not enter Whitefish Bay athletic director John Gustavson's mind much despite her being a star player – then Corey Bronson – in the mid-1990s when Gustavson was the Nicolet girls basketball coach.

"I'm a Blue Duke through and through," Gustavson says just a touch defensively of the position he has held for six seasons.

But with continued prodding, thoughts of Wolf the player come flooding back and Gustavson realizes it is no surprise that Wolf, who succeeded him at Nicolet when he took the Bay job, led the Nicolet Knights to the North Shore Conference title this winter.

And for her efforts, Wolf has been named the CNI/NOW All-Suburban Girls Basketball Team's Coach of the Year, the first person in CNI/NOW girls basketball history to earn the award after making the All-Suburban team as a player, which she did in 1995.

"She was the best high school passer that I've ever seen," Gustavson said. "She was a point guard who could see the whole court and the whole floor. That, if anything, is the trait of a very good coach."

This season, Wolf led a young (four freshmen, five sophomores) unit to a 15-7 record including a share of the North Shore title with Division 2 state champion Grafton. Her Knights dominated the Blackhawks, 45-29, Feb. 10; it was Grafton's last loss of the season.

Homestead coach Bill Scasny, whose team split with the Knights this season, was not surprised at Wolf's team's accomplishments.

"She gets her kids to play hard and within her system," he said. "They play hard and together as a group. Getting a group that young to do that is not easy to do, but she got it done and she got them to play at a high level."

Wolf gets her start

Wolf, who played four years on scholarship at Marquette University and earned a degree in physical therapy from there in 2001, first considered coaching when she started working at Cardinal Stritch in 1999 where she was an undergraduate assistant to Rich Panella.

"The physical therapy program was very challenging," she said. "It kept you very focused. I initially didn't want to coach, but Rich asked me to help out when I could and it turned to be a great experience. I stayed there four years. He was just a phenomenal coach and I learned so much from him."

After that experience, Wolf's coaching itch grew. When word got out that Gustavson was leaving for Bay, Wolf applied for the Nicolet position.

She inherited good senior and sophomore classes from Gustavson, leading to league titles in 2004 and 2006. But this season, she had to work with a whole new set of parameters. Due to a lack of interest, Nicolet had to combine both its junior varsity and freshmen programs.

Team never quit

The varsity also started the season with only nine players before it gradually increased to 11. Her only senior was two-time state golf champion Tory Bauman, but Bauman had not played competitive basketball in years.

The Knights were in for an uphill climb.

That climb was made more difficult by a brutal nonconference schedule that included losses to state-level teams like Muskego, Brookfield Central and three-time state champion Milwaukee Vincent.

But what she quickly found out was her players were a lot like her and were able to shrug off the tough start and at one point win 11 of 12 games.

"I had a lot of players that didn't have any quit in them," she said. "They would try to outthink you, outhustle you. These kids had a lot of intangibles that are hard to teach. You have to have those kind of players if you're going to succeed."

Wolf's husband, Jeff, is the son of former Nicolet athletic director Frank Wolf and is an assistant coach with the Nicolet baseball team. The pair are raising daughters Samantha (4) and Emma (2) while Wolf continues her coaching and physical therapy careers.

"I'd love to do it forever," Wolf said of coaching. "This is my coaching dream job. I just really like working with the kids. I love meeting them, learning who they are."

 

Steven L. Tietz can be reached at (262) 446-6619.

Coach of the Year

CNI/NOW All-Suburban Coaches of the Year:

2009: Corey Wolf, Nicolet

2008: Dan Wandrey, Brookfield Central

2007: Jack Miller, Greenfield

2006: Todd Frohwirth, Whitefish Bay

2005: Wandrey

2004: Ken Kujawa, Oak Creek

2003: Mike Pietrowiak, Wauwatosa West

2002: Wandrey

2001: Ron Kozlowski, Muskego

2000: Pietrowiak

1999: Ron Kluth, Franklin

1998: Laura Mildebrandt, St. Thomas More

1997: Mike Szydlowski, St. Francis

1996: John Gustavson, Nicolet

1995: Rich Vokoun, South Milwaukee

1994: Linda Kulks, Wauwatosa East

1993: Bob Kaczynski, West Allis Hale

1992: Fred Matson, West Allis Central

1991: Vokoun

1990: Vokoun