Uscila helps steer
Benet's championship runs
By Matt Le Cren
Martin Uscila had a very good 2019.
In June, his first season as Benet’s assistant girls coach ended with the Redwings winning the Class AA state championship, the first in program history.
Five months later, he got another gold medal hung around his neck when the Benet boys followed suit, winning the program’s third state title and first under head coach Sean Wesley.
“I was pretty lucky to be around a pretty good program at the right time,” Uscila said. “I’ve been doing soccer for a long time myself, but I was very blessed to be at Benet. It’s a really good time to be there.”
Uscila and Wesley have been close friends since they played soccer together at Bolingbrook, where coincidentally they lost to Benet by a goal in a regional final in 1995.
That Benet team included star Manny Aguilar, who now is an assistant coach for the Redwings boys program.
Wesley and Uscila were the best man at each other’s weddings and when Wesley was hired to replace program founder Henry Wind in 2010, he brought Uscila in as an assistant coach.
The story behind Uscila’s joining the girls program is a little more involved.
Gerard Oconer became Benet’s head coach in 2017, swapping places with former boss Bob Gros. When Gros and Wind, who are both in their mid-70s, cut back on their duties, Oconer brought Robert Tomecek on board as an assistant in 2018, figuring he would become his right-hand man.
“He would have been the logical choice,” Oconer said. “He was an unpaid assistant and would have replaced Bob.
“Henry Wind was already retired, babysitting grandkids a lot of the time. Bob had health issues but didn’t want to leave me stuck.”
But Tomecek departed after the 2018 season to take the assistant women’s job at Wartburg College in Iowa. Uscila had been the head girls coach at Bolingbrook, where he teaches, for nine seasons but wasn’t on Oconer’s radar.
“I didn’t even consider him at first because I didn’t think that his wife would let him coach two different seasons,” Oconer said. “But I was in constant communication with Sean and Martin. We talk all the time so he knew that I was looking for somebody.
“I was having a really tough time trying to find someone because it’s tough to find someone who can be at practice right after school, especially people that work at other high schools.
“Bolingbrook is done earlier than we are and he made it work with the boys. He was able to convince his wife to let him do it.”
Uscila is thankful to his wife, Allison, for that. So are the Redwings.
“My life was settled just a little bit (with his kids getting older) when Gerard said he was looking for someone,” Uscila said. “It only worked because she said yes.”
The Redwings had been knocking on the door for several years in their quest for a state title quest. They were primed to win, but Oconer and the players credit Uscila’s guidance for putting them over the top.
“The philosophy that he brought over from the boys side offensively is where I think it made a big difference,” Oconer said. “That really put everything together for us.
“We always had the weapons but they just never clicked together. I think everything meshed last year.”
How did that happen?
“He was able to get the girls to buy into some of the ideas and the way we wanted to play. That can be a little bit harder for a new coach coming into a very established, very successful program,” Oconer said. “But the girls bought in right away because they could obviously see the results. We were more multidimensional.”
And more cohesive. The Redwings had a lot of talented players who were talented, smart and hard-working. But some were set in their ways.
“It was a very special group of kids,” Uscila said. “I think we’re very fortunate in the community at Benet that we have a lot of parent support on a lot of different levels.
“The (kids) are playing for the right clubs. I think their parents are extremely involved and supportive of what they do, so I think there’s a lot of talent here.
“Then it just comes down to what is the missing piece, and for me it really came down to not managing the team so much as it was a lot of private conversations with individuals.
“There were lots of ups and downs because I had a philosophy that I wanted that was a little different than I think Gerard had the year before. There was some pushback so I had to earn their trust, and it took some time.”
Oconer credits Uscila with turning Abby Casmere from more of a winger into a center forward who could hold and distribute. Casmere, who now plays for Miami (Ohio), responded by scoring a team-leading 20 goals.
“Gerard and I asked the players to do some things that were a little different,” Uscila said. “Mia Tommasone was a star the previous few years and was asked to do something different, because we both agreed my decision was to have a target striker. Abby Casmere became that.
“I was pretty hard-headed on that so when I pushed really hard on that, I would say the pushback was pretty strong, but the way to deal with that was not to talk to the team.
“It was a lot of private conversations with individuals about being team-first. Even though it seems like you’re taking a back seat, you’re really not. Here’s how you utilize that role.
“And it was very noticeable on the film that as the season went on, we continued to develop and grow. It was a really cool to see.”
Benet senior forward Cami Picha is a big fan of Uscila. She has seen Uscila’s coaching approach from two different vantage points. In addition to playing under him, Picha was a manager for the boys team.
“I have so much respect for coach Uscila,” Picha said. “He’s a great coach, and he’s helped me, and I know a lot of the girls last year and this year with soccer.
“I think that his biggest positive is his passion for the game that makes everyone else feel that passion with him. He motivates people to try and be the best that they can be, and I think that his expertise in bringing out that passion in us was a huge thing for us last year.”
As many coaches will tell you, coaching boys presents different challenges from coaching girls and sometimes requires a different approach.
“It’s funny, it’s almost like he’s two different types of coaches with the boys and girls, which is understandable,” Picha said. “It was just a different style (with the boys).
“With the girls it was a lot of jokes. Girls can be more easy-going about certain things. I remember with the guys, they were always roughhousing, so he’d have to snap them back into attention.”
Both approaches worked. The girls went 24-3-1 and vanquished Wauconda 2-1 in overtime in the state title game. The boys finished 21-1-2 after they beat Crystal Lake South 2-0 in the state final to complete a season in which they set a state record for fewest goals allowed with four, none of which came in the playoffs.
“I thought it was very entertaining watching both sides of him come out and getting the same results in two different styles,” Picha said. “He knows how to connect with his players, and he knows how to grab everyone’s attention to make sure we’re all still focused and training for the common goal that we all want.”
The girls title was the first state championship Uscila has been a part of and he will always have fond memories of the players.
“It was one of the coolest groups of girls to be around in terms of personalities,” Uscila said. “They were mentally tough and strong-headed.
“The championship game will tell you that – down by a goal with a minute left on the clock and they find a way to win in overtime. They were very receptive to the give-and-take relationship we developed with them.”
Uscila has the same sort of relationship with Oconer, who noted that he had the least amount of head-coaching experience of anybody on his staff.
“Our relationship is almost like co-head coaches,” Oconer said. “I don’t see him as an assistant.
“I think we share a lot of responsibilities and I really value his input on stuff we do during practice. We’re on the same page with everything.”
Benet's championship runs
By Matt Le Cren
Martin Uscila had a very good 2019.
In June, his first season as Benet’s assistant girls coach ended with the Redwings winning the Class AA state championship, the first in program history.
Five months later, he got another gold medal hung around his neck when the Benet boys followed suit, winning the program’s third state title and first under head coach Sean Wesley.
“I was pretty lucky to be around a pretty good program at the right time,” Uscila said. “I’ve been doing soccer for a long time myself, but I was very blessed to be at Benet. It’s a really good time to be there.”
Uscila and Wesley have been close friends since they played soccer together at Bolingbrook, where coincidentally they lost to Benet by a goal in a regional final in 1995.
That Benet team included star Manny Aguilar, who now is an assistant coach for the Redwings boys program.
Wesley and Uscila were the best man at each other’s weddings and when Wesley was hired to replace program founder Henry Wind in 2010, he brought Uscila in as an assistant coach.
The story behind Uscila’s joining the girls program is a little more involved.
Gerard Oconer became Benet’s head coach in 2017, swapping places with former boss Bob Gros. When Gros and Wind, who are both in their mid-70s, cut back on their duties, Oconer brought Robert Tomecek on board as an assistant in 2018, figuring he would become his right-hand man.
“He would have been the logical choice,” Oconer said. “He was an unpaid assistant and would have replaced Bob.
“Henry Wind was already retired, babysitting grandkids a lot of the time. Bob had health issues but didn’t want to leave me stuck.”
But Tomecek departed after the 2018 season to take the assistant women’s job at Wartburg College in Iowa. Uscila had been the head girls coach at Bolingbrook, where he teaches, for nine seasons but wasn’t on Oconer’s radar.
“I didn’t even consider him at first because I didn’t think that his wife would let him coach two different seasons,” Oconer said. “But I was in constant communication with Sean and Martin. We talk all the time so he knew that I was looking for somebody.
“I was having a really tough time trying to find someone because it’s tough to find someone who can be at practice right after school, especially people that work at other high schools.
“Bolingbrook is done earlier than we are and he made it work with the boys. He was able to convince his wife to let him do it.”
Uscila is thankful to his wife, Allison, for that. So are the Redwings.
“My life was settled just a little bit (with his kids getting older) when Gerard said he was looking for someone,” Uscila said. “It only worked because she said yes.”
The Redwings had been knocking on the door for several years in their quest for a state title quest. They were primed to win, but Oconer and the players credit Uscila’s guidance for putting them over the top.
“The philosophy that he brought over from the boys side offensively is where I think it made a big difference,” Oconer said. “That really put everything together for us.
“We always had the weapons but they just never clicked together. I think everything meshed last year.”
How did that happen?
“He was able to get the girls to buy into some of the ideas and the way we wanted to play. That can be a little bit harder for a new coach coming into a very established, very successful program,” Oconer said. “But the girls bought in right away because they could obviously see the results. We were more multidimensional.”
And more cohesive. The Redwings had a lot of talented players who were talented, smart and hard-working. But some were set in their ways.
“It was a very special group of kids,” Uscila said. “I think we’re very fortunate in the community at Benet that we have a lot of parent support on a lot of different levels.
“The (kids) are playing for the right clubs. I think their parents are extremely involved and supportive of what they do, so I think there’s a lot of talent here.
“Then it just comes down to what is the missing piece, and for me it really came down to not managing the team so much as it was a lot of private conversations with individuals.
“There were lots of ups and downs because I had a philosophy that I wanted that was a little different than I think Gerard had the year before. There was some pushback so I had to earn their trust, and it took some time.”
Oconer credits Uscila with turning Abby Casmere from more of a winger into a center forward who could hold and distribute. Casmere, who now plays for Miami (Ohio), responded by scoring a team-leading 20 goals.
“Gerard and I asked the players to do some things that were a little different,” Uscila said. “Mia Tommasone was a star the previous few years and was asked to do something different, because we both agreed my decision was to have a target striker. Abby Casmere became that.
“I was pretty hard-headed on that so when I pushed really hard on that, I would say the pushback was pretty strong, but the way to deal with that was not to talk to the team.
“It was a lot of private conversations with individuals about being team-first. Even though it seems like you’re taking a back seat, you’re really not. Here’s how you utilize that role.
“And it was very noticeable on the film that as the season went on, we continued to develop and grow. It was a really cool to see.”
Benet senior forward Cami Picha is a big fan of Uscila. She has seen Uscila’s coaching approach from two different vantage points. In addition to playing under him, Picha was a manager for the boys team.
“I have so much respect for coach Uscila,” Picha said. “He’s a great coach, and he’s helped me, and I know a lot of the girls last year and this year with soccer.
“I think that his biggest positive is his passion for the game that makes everyone else feel that passion with him. He motivates people to try and be the best that they can be, and I think that his expertise in bringing out that passion in us was a huge thing for us last year.”
As many coaches will tell you, coaching boys presents different challenges from coaching girls and sometimes requires a different approach.
“It’s funny, it’s almost like he’s two different types of coaches with the boys and girls, which is understandable,” Picha said. “It was just a different style (with the boys).
“With the girls it was a lot of jokes. Girls can be more easy-going about certain things. I remember with the guys, they were always roughhousing, so he’d have to snap them back into attention.”
Both approaches worked. The girls went 24-3-1 and vanquished Wauconda 2-1 in overtime in the state title game. The boys finished 21-1-2 after they beat Crystal Lake South 2-0 in the state final to complete a season in which they set a state record for fewest goals allowed with four, none of which came in the playoffs.
“I thought it was very entertaining watching both sides of him come out and getting the same results in two different styles,” Picha said. “He knows how to connect with his players, and he knows how to grab everyone’s attention to make sure we’re all still focused and training for the common goal that we all want.”
The girls title was the first state championship Uscila has been a part of and he will always have fond memories of the players.
“It was one of the coolest groups of girls to be around in terms of personalities,” Uscila said. “They were mentally tough and strong-headed.
“The championship game will tell you that – down by a goal with a minute left on the clock and they find a way to win in overtime. They were very receptive to the give-and-take relationship we developed with them.”
Uscila has the same sort of relationship with Oconer, who noted that he had the least amount of head-coaching experience of anybody on his staff.
“Our relationship is almost like co-head coaches,” Oconer said. “I don’t see him as an assistant.
“I think we share a lot of responsibilities and I really value his input on stuff we do during practice. We’re on the same page with everything.”