Coaches-
 

Anthony Donatucci

Head Coach, Offensive and Defensive Line Coach

Current Job: Wellness Teacher

College/major: Quincy University Exercise Science

High School/College Athletics: Played at Buffalo Grove High School and Quincy University

Hobbies: Enjoying time with Family

Family: Married to Brittany Donatucci and has two sons Rocco (4) and Leo (2)

Coaching belief: If one wants to be a great coach they must first be a great educator.   His personal focus is to make connections that extend building wide and try to serve others at the same time. In order to do so, trusting relationships must be built on a personal level with all students, staff, and people in the community.  Conant High School is a special place, special to the alumni and wants nothing more than to continue to make former students and teachers proud of Conant High School.

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Kevin Clark

Assistant Coach

Current Job: ESL/Wellness Teacher

College/major: Physical Education, Monmouth College

High School/College Athletics: Played at Palatine High School and Monmouth College

Hobbies: I enjoy watching football, golfing, and riding motocross

Family: Son to Jim and Jen Clark

Coaching belief: I believe coaching is all about molding teens into successful young adults. I think one of the best ways to do this is to teach kids to love the process. I think it is really important for kids to know that failing is a part of life and if you do not enjoy the process, then those failures really stick out. If you love the process, then you can find small victories along the journey of a season and failing is not this huge weight on the kid's shoulders. Loving the process also brings the fun back to sports which sometimes get lost at the higher levels, and I believe that translates to success on the field. 

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Javi Espinosa

Assistant Coach

Current Job: Wellness teacher

College/major: Concordia University Chicago / Physical Education (K-12)

High School/College Athletics: Played at Niles West High School and Concordia University Chicago 

Hobbies: Fishing and playing in Adult Sports Leagues across Chicago

Family: Son to Javier and Miriam Espinosa

Coaching belief: I believe that football is the greatest team sport. It takes 11 selfless players to succeed on the field and it takes an entire team of selfless players to have a successful program. But in order to get to that level, ALL coaches need to be selfless and bought-in as well. We need to set the utmost example for our players to follow and be there for them all the time. Coaches need to build relationships with their players and show that they truly care for them on and off the field. It takes all of us!!

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Aaron Essex

Assistant Coach

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Jeremey Gentry

Assistant Coach

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Ed Gosche

Assistant Coach

Current Job:  Mathematics and Special Education Teacher at Conant

College/major:  Upper Iowa University Mathematics Education

High School/College Athletics:  Football, Wrestling, Track & Field at Conant High School and NCAA DII Football at Upper Iowa University

Hobbies:  Spending time with friends and family, exercising, hiking, and catching fish

Family:  Son of Tom and Mary Gosche

Coaching belief:  There are three things that people have complete control over in life: their attitude, their effort, and their actions. Student-athletes with consistent, quality performance in all three of these categorizes are destined for success.

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Eric Jacobsen

Assistant Coach
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John Jonen

Assistant Coach

Current Job: Special Education Department Chair - CHS

College/major:  Eastern Ill Univ – BA Sociology.   National-Louis Univ. – Masters of Arts in Teaching – Spec Ed.  National-Louis Univ. – Certificate of Advanced  Study – Educational Administration and Organizational Change. 

High School/College Athletics: HEHS – Football and Track/Field.  EIU - Rugby

Hobbies:  Hiking, Biking, Camping

Family: Wife Alisa, Daughter Emma, Son Thomas. 

Coaching belief:  Work hard and compete, but have fun.  Be invested in the success of your teammates as much as your own personal progress.  There are lessons in our successes and failures.  Discovering how we learn from lessons in sport, make us better people later in life. 

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Chris Knoll

Assistant Coach

Current Job:  Sr. Technical Writer (Shure, Inc.)

College/major:  Univ. Of Illinois-English

High School/College Athletics: Played at Marian Catholic High School

Hobbies: Hiking, mountain biking, building stuff

Family:  Wendy (wife); Conant grad daughters: Jess (29) and Paige (24) 

Coaching belief:  Coaching at this level is all about helping kids to grow up and become better versions of themselves by providing challenges where they can succeed and fail in a trusted environment. How they react in these situations is also a great learning experience. Their successes are to be celebrated and their missteps used to help them improve for the next time. Focus on all the little things and the big things will take care of themselves.

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Bill Modelski

Program Coach

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Jimmy Rogers

Assistant Coach

Current Job:  Science Teacher

College/major: University of Illinois/Chemistry

High School/College Athletics: Played football at Fremd High School

Hobbies: Traveling, spending time with family, watching sports

Family: Married to Danielle with two daughters – Brooke and Quinn

Coaching belief: I believe that playing team sports teaches kids countless lessons that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives, and that a coach’s job is to facilitate that learning process.  Coaching also provides an avenue to develop long-lasting relationships with students outside the classroom, and an opportunity to be a positive role model during a crucial time in our students’ lives.

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David Spizzirri

Assistant Coach

Current Job: Special Education Teacher

College/major: Illinois State University/Social Work & Northern Illinois University/Special Education

High School/College Athletics:  Played football and James B. Conant High School

Hobbies:  Spending time with my family and traveling

Family:  Married to Wendy Spizzirri and has two sons Matthew (16) and Alex (13)

Coaching belief:   In order to be a successful coach, one needs to make a connection with individual players and the team.  The coach is responsible to not only make the student a good player but also a good and humble human being.  Encourage players to focus on the things they can control: attitude, effort and discipline. 

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Tony Spizzirri

Assistant Coach

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Adam Strauch

Assistant Coach

Current Job:   Math Teacher/Dean of Students 

College/major:  Illinois State University/ Mathematics

High School/College Athletics:  Played at Conant High School

Hobbies:  Spending time with family, watching/playing any and all sports

Family:  Married to Jacq Strauch and has 2 daughters, Reese(5) and insert baby name here(0) and 2 sons, Zach(4) and Peyton(2)

Coaching belief:  The job of a coach is to use sports to prepare student-athletes to be successful for the rest of their life. Every opportunity is a teachable moment- whether it be time management, role on a team, success/failure, winning/losing, practice, effort, and many more- the chances to teach young adults to be better people, students, and athletes are everywhere. A successful coach must mix these learning opportunities with the joy and passion of being in the moment and competing as hard as possible each day to make every member of the Conant High School community proud of our team and the student-athletes that wear the Cougar jersey!

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Todd Strauch

Assistant Coach

Current Job:   Special Education Teacher, Head Girls Basketball Coach 

College/major:  Illinois State University- Special Education-LBS 1, Concordia University- Masters in English as a Second Language

High School/College Athletics:  Played football, basketball and ran track at Conant High School

Hobbies:  Spending time with the family, basketball, golf, learning new things

Family:  Married to Kelsey Strauch. We have two daughters, Mackenzie and Collins 

Coaching belief:  I believe that coaching is an extension of the classroom. As a coach, I want my players to learn new skills that are going to help them both on and off the playing field. I believe that athletics is a great way to learn to listen, deal with adversity, be flexible, work well with others and push past your comfort zone. In order to get to this point, you must build a foundation through meaningful and effective relationships. Finally, I believe sports are made to be fun. There’s nothing like competing as hard as you can with people in your school community to work towards a common goal.

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