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Lake Zurich Middle School South coach leads undefeated season
Lake Zurich Middle School South girls basketball team recently finished an undefeated 17-0 season. | Photos courtesy of Henry Zobel
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Updated: November 20, 2012 7:52AM
LAKE ZURICH — Brian Brown, Lake Zurich Middle School South’s girls basketball coach, knows that going 17-0 isn’t easy, so he was overjoyed when his sixth and seventh grade team accomplished exactly that last month.
“I just kind of went back to the basics,” he said. “With these girls, they’re all hard workers and talented — so it was easy with them.”
Brown said the season’s best moments came down the stretch, with the team’s victories against Hawthorn North in the first round of the conference tournament, then against Barrington Station in overtime, and finally over Matthews Middle School in the championship game.
Insisting that the team’s success was more so a result of the girls’ talent than his coaching skills, he listed the members that made the victory possible:
Seventh grade: McKenna Zobel, Eleni Papastratakos, Claire Jones, Alison and Lauren O’Hara, Erin MacDonald and Rachel Bauman.
Sixth grade: Becca Steines, Haley Gajewski, Nikki Skoby, Anna Biergans and Hanna Davis.
Q: Where do you live?
A: Crystal Lake, but prior to that I lived in Lakemoor, Schaumburg and Elgin — So I’ve kind of been all around.
Q: Where are you originally from?
A: I’m from Springfield — well, Griggsville, Ill. It’s a real small town
Q: What’s your favorite thing about the Lake Zurich area and its community?
A: Overall, it’s a caring community; not a huge population, but it’s a very nice, wholesome community to be around.
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in town?
A: Giordano’s. Pizza’s one of my favorite foods.
Q: What is your favorite entertainment venue in town?
A: I’ve been to the bowling alley (Brunswick Zone) quite a bit!
Q: How did you arrive at the position you hold now at Middle School South?
A: I was a student teacher at LZHS, and kind of fell into this job. I student taught P.E., and later coached basketball at Middle School North before I moved to Middle School South in 2008. Now I’m in my 11th year as a P.E. teacher and coach.
Q: What inspired you to coach basketball?
A: I’ve always played basketball, and wanted to be a coach.
Q: What are your future career/volunteering goals?
A: I’m happy where I’m at now!
Q: What is your proudest moment or greatest achievement?
A: I’d say getting my master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at Concordia University was pretty cool. It took me a year to get it. That and having my team be undefeated are definitely my greatest achievements.
Q: What are you reading?
A: I just started reading “Moby Dick” — figured I start reading the classics.
Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: “Field of Dreams.”
Q: What’s on your iPod?
A: listen to country, so artists like Eric Church are on there.
Q: What’s your favorite vacation destination?
A: Colorado.
Q: Are you a summer or winter person?
A: I’m more summer
Q: What is your favorite Chicago sports team?
A: The Bulls
