Double-duty Kaufman shines
at Naperville North
By Patrick Z. McGavin
The modern athlete has rarely had so many choices to make.
The pandemic year has only underscored the point, if somewhat in reverse order. By March of last year, the severity of health and safety considerations and the necessity of putting high school sports on pause became clear.
Almost a year passed in the young life of Josh Kaufman in between contested games. On March 6, 2020, the Naperville North guard played the final game of his junior year in the Huskies’ Class 4A regional loss at rival Naperville Central.
Jump ahead one year -- the beautiful Saturday morning of March 13 was radiant and pure. Kaufman awoke early that day and got ready for the Huskies’ 10 a.m. showdown with defending Class AA state champion Benet.
On September 7, 2019, Kaufman was a starting defender and key member of the only team to beat the Redwings that season. On March 13, 2021 he started in the back as the Huskies ended the 19-game unbeaten streak the Redwings started after that defeat.
Kaufman didn’t really have any time to celebrate the 2-0 win. He got on the road to play his final basketball game for the Huskies at 1 p.m. at St. Francis.
He started in the hoop Huskies’ 56-38 victory in their season finale.
The overlapping seasons of the two sports was itself a glorious act of connection, binding his two loves in a way that felt pure and deeply satisfying.
“I just wanted to make the most of it,” Kaufman said. “I was having a lot of fun with both of them, having two practices in one day. It was the best of both worlds.
“I didn’t have to wait a month or a couple of weeks in between the two sports.”
In basketball, Kaufman started at guard, showing range on his jump shot and the ability to create off the dribble or work very effectively as a catch-and-shoot threat.
His outside game opened up the floor for the more attacking oriented games of North guards Zeke Williams and point guard Liam Kim.
“It just shows how committed he is, not just to both sports, but to both sets of teammates,” Naperville North basketball coach Gene Nolan said.
“It was not a hard decision for him to make. If you’re looking at a kid, he loves both sports; and he loves his teammates, and he wants to be there for them.”
Of late, there has been a special correlation between the two programs. Tom Welch is the most obvious connection. The Chicagoland Soccer Player of the Year in 2017, Welch led the Huskies to three-consecutive soccer state championships from 2016-2018.
Welch was also a four-year starter in basketball. Now he toils as a reserve on the Loyola basketball team that beat no. 1 seed Illinois on Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Fellow Huskie soccer stars Chris Sullivan and Jack Barry, the two top scorers of the 2016 team that beat Barrington team in the state championship game, also started on the basketball team that reached a Class 4A supersectional in 2017.
Myles Barry, Jack’s younger brother, is another recent example of a top athlete who toggled between the two sports with great success.
“It’s a great connection between the two sports,” Nolan said. “Josh is one of the toughest, most resilient kids I’ve ever been around.
“He was also putting school on top of playing the two sports simultaneously. If there’s anybody who could do that, it’s somebody like Josh Kaufman.”
Kaufman is one of the last links to the Huskies’ soccer dynasty. As a sophomore he made that gilded team—arguably the greatest boys team in state history.
That Naperville North team is the only unbeaten and untied program in the history of the sport. The Huskies defeated a perfect Libertyville team to win their third-straight title.
“The season was a dream,” Kaufman said. “We didn’t lose a game. I was just so happy to be with everyone, with Tom and Colin [Iverson].
“I watched them a lot when I was in elementary school and junior high, so when I was able to make the team as a sophomore I was so happy. I was also stunned.”
His senior year schedule was inverted due to the pandemic. The IHSA, in consultation with the Illinois Department of Health, shifted soccer from its normal fall schedule to the spring.
Basketball was originally supposed to start in early November. A spike in hospitalizations and deaths across Illinois necessitated a state-wide pause on high school sports.
The uncertainty turned into a brutal winter. Until deep in January, the possibility of playing sports again appeared fairly remote.
“There were a lot of times I’d get down, or I had bad thoughts about never playing again. Our coach [Nolan] would do his best to motivate us, with Zoom calls and stuff like about working hard and pushing us,” Kaufman said.
Everything had an air of unreality about it. Even during the IHSA-approved contact days and open gyms, Kaufman said enthusiasm waned, and the players felt squeamish about being there.
“I think everybody asked, what are we really doing here?” he recalled.
The combination of the advent of vaccines, seasonal adjustments in the spread of the virus and the positive results of social distancing and mask wearing finally brought the necessary medical breakthrough.
On January 27, the IHSA announced an abbreviated six-week boys basketball season. They also formally announced the season for boys soccer.
Neither basketball nor boys soccer would have a state tournament.
Kaufman played his first game on February 5 against Wheaton Warrenville South. The last week of basketball overlapped with the first week of soccer.
He started in the 3-1 victory over Neuqua Valley on March 9 and missed the basketball game that same night. He skipped the soccer game against Kaneland the next day to play in a basketball game.
On March 12, he played his final conference basketball game against Waubonsie Valley. The next day Kaufman achieved the idealized “double victory,” in the soccer win over Benet and the basketball victory against St. Francis.
“When I heard the soccer schedule was changed, I was really excited to go out and compete with somebody because I’ve been waiting since last March since we lost to Central in a [basketball] regional championship game,” he said.
He had a much more expanded role in basketball his senior year. As a junior, he saw spot minutes as an energy player and shooting specialist off the bench.
Naperville North always had deep state tournament runs in soccer, cutting very close the separation between the two sports. Jamming them together like this unprecedented year did have one healthy unintended consequence.
He began the soccer season in great shape after playing 16 basketball games in just six weeks.
“I can tell I am in better shape than I normally am to start soccer, but I also had to do more recovery work, with having four hours of practice each day,” he said.
“I can see how my footwork in soccer helps me at the defensive end in basketball, and with basketball, the way you use your body setting screens to avoid people.”
At 5-foot-10, he combines decent soccer size with quickness. He is a physical and disruptive talent who sees the field and has a great feel for the game. Earlier in his career, he started out more of an attacking player.
During his sophomore year, he played some in the midfield.
“I’d say, as far as my style, I am a physical and on-the-ball player, and physically a very capable type of defender,” he said. “My junior season, I started playing more defense.
“Nothing really changed, except I was just more accepting of what the coaches needed of me. After my sophomore year, we graduated so many kids, and we needed somebody to fill the leadership role in the back. I stepped into that role.”
The Huskies survived West Aurora’s upset bid to win their fourth-consecutive sectional championship.
Their bid for a fourth-consecutive supersectional win and state berth ended with a shootout loss against Morton.
In the past two seasons and the start of this year, Kaufman and the soccer program have compiled a 47-7-2 record.
“Josh definitely fits the definition of a Huskie soccer player,” North coach Jim Konrad said.
“He is tenacious, plays with class, is always willing to battle, and puts the team ahead of himself. He has been an incredible leader for us in a year when we desperately needed it.”
In the absence of a state tournament, Kaufman knows when the end is coming. His last game is scheduled against St. Charles North on April 17.
He is not pursuing opportunities to play basketball in college, and he said more than likely, he is not seeking chances of playing soccer at the next level.
At Naperville North now, Kaufman is a bridge of past glory to future success. He will also pass along the Huskies mindset.
“We only have three kids who were part of the last state championship and seven kids who came back from last season,” he said. “It’s a bunch of new faces, a lot of new kids. We have 10 or 11 sophomores.
“If there was a state championship, I think we’d definitely be competing for it again.”
at Naperville North
By Patrick Z. McGavin
The modern athlete has rarely had so many choices to make.
The pandemic year has only underscored the point, if somewhat in reverse order. By March of last year, the severity of health and safety considerations and the necessity of putting high school sports on pause became clear.
Almost a year passed in the young life of Josh Kaufman in between contested games. On March 6, 2020, the Naperville North guard played the final game of his junior year in the Huskies’ Class 4A regional loss at rival Naperville Central.
Jump ahead one year -- the beautiful Saturday morning of March 13 was radiant and pure. Kaufman awoke early that day and got ready for the Huskies’ 10 a.m. showdown with defending Class AA state champion Benet.
On September 7, 2019, Kaufman was a starting defender and key member of the only team to beat the Redwings that season. On March 13, 2021 he started in the back as the Huskies ended the 19-game unbeaten streak the Redwings started after that defeat.
Kaufman didn’t really have any time to celebrate the 2-0 win. He got on the road to play his final basketball game for the Huskies at 1 p.m. at St. Francis.
He started in the hoop Huskies’ 56-38 victory in their season finale.
The overlapping seasons of the two sports was itself a glorious act of connection, binding his two loves in a way that felt pure and deeply satisfying.
“I just wanted to make the most of it,” Kaufman said. “I was having a lot of fun with both of them, having two practices in one day. It was the best of both worlds.
“I didn’t have to wait a month or a couple of weeks in between the two sports.”
In basketball, Kaufman started at guard, showing range on his jump shot and the ability to create off the dribble or work very effectively as a catch-and-shoot threat.
His outside game opened up the floor for the more attacking oriented games of North guards Zeke Williams and point guard Liam Kim.
“It just shows how committed he is, not just to both sports, but to both sets of teammates,” Naperville North basketball coach Gene Nolan said.
“It was not a hard decision for him to make. If you’re looking at a kid, he loves both sports; and he loves his teammates, and he wants to be there for them.”
Of late, there has been a special correlation between the two programs. Tom Welch is the most obvious connection. The Chicagoland Soccer Player of the Year in 2017, Welch led the Huskies to three-consecutive soccer state championships from 2016-2018.
Welch was also a four-year starter in basketball. Now he toils as a reserve on the Loyola basketball team that beat no. 1 seed Illinois on Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Fellow Huskie soccer stars Chris Sullivan and Jack Barry, the two top scorers of the 2016 team that beat Barrington team in the state championship game, also started on the basketball team that reached a Class 4A supersectional in 2017.
Myles Barry, Jack’s younger brother, is another recent example of a top athlete who toggled between the two sports with great success.
“It’s a great connection between the two sports,” Nolan said. “Josh is one of the toughest, most resilient kids I’ve ever been around.
“He was also putting school on top of playing the two sports simultaneously. If there’s anybody who could do that, it’s somebody like Josh Kaufman.”
Kaufman is one of the last links to the Huskies’ soccer dynasty. As a sophomore he made that gilded team—arguably the greatest boys team in state history.
That Naperville North team is the only unbeaten and untied program in the history of the sport. The Huskies defeated a perfect Libertyville team to win their third-straight title.
“The season was a dream,” Kaufman said. “We didn’t lose a game. I was just so happy to be with everyone, with Tom and Colin [Iverson].
“I watched them a lot when I was in elementary school and junior high, so when I was able to make the team as a sophomore I was so happy. I was also stunned.”
His senior year schedule was inverted due to the pandemic. The IHSA, in consultation with the Illinois Department of Health, shifted soccer from its normal fall schedule to the spring.
Basketball was originally supposed to start in early November. A spike in hospitalizations and deaths across Illinois necessitated a state-wide pause on high school sports.
The uncertainty turned into a brutal winter. Until deep in January, the possibility of playing sports again appeared fairly remote.
“There were a lot of times I’d get down, or I had bad thoughts about never playing again. Our coach [Nolan] would do his best to motivate us, with Zoom calls and stuff like about working hard and pushing us,” Kaufman said.
Everything had an air of unreality about it. Even during the IHSA-approved contact days and open gyms, Kaufman said enthusiasm waned, and the players felt squeamish about being there.
“I think everybody asked, what are we really doing here?” he recalled.
The combination of the advent of vaccines, seasonal adjustments in the spread of the virus and the positive results of social distancing and mask wearing finally brought the necessary medical breakthrough.
On January 27, the IHSA announced an abbreviated six-week boys basketball season. They also formally announced the season for boys soccer.
Neither basketball nor boys soccer would have a state tournament.
Kaufman played his first game on February 5 against Wheaton Warrenville South. The last week of basketball overlapped with the first week of soccer.
He started in the 3-1 victory over Neuqua Valley on March 9 and missed the basketball game that same night. He skipped the soccer game against Kaneland the next day to play in a basketball game.
On March 12, he played his final conference basketball game against Waubonsie Valley. The next day Kaufman achieved the idealized “double victory,” in the soccer win over Benet and the basketball victory against St. Francis.
“When I heard the soccer schedule was changed, I was really excited to go out and compete with somebody because I’ve been waiting since last March since we lost to Central in a [basketball] regional championship game,” he said.
He had a much more expanded role in basketball his senior year. As a junior, he saw spot minutes as an energy player and shooting specialist off the bench.
Naperville North always had deep state tournament runs in soccer, cutting very close the separation between the two sports. Jamming them together like this unprecedented year did have one healthy unintended consequence.
He began the soccer season in great shape after playing 16 basketball games in just six weeks.
“I can tell I am in better shape than I normally am to start soccer, but I also had to do more recovery work, with having four hours of practice each day,” he said.
“I can see how my footwork in soccer helps me at the defensive end in basketball, and with basketball, the way you use your body setting screens to avoid people.”
At 5-foot-10, he combines decent soccer size with quickness. He is a physical and disruptive talent who sees the field and has a great feel for the game. Earlier in his career, he started out more of an attacking player.
During his sophomore year, he played some in the midfield.
“I’d say, as far as my style, I am a physical and on-the-ball player, and physically a very capable type of defender,” he said. “My junior season, I started playing more defense.
“Nothing really changed, except I was just more accepting of what the coaches needed of me. After my sophomore year, we graduated so many kids, and we needed somebody to fill the leadership role in the back. I stepped into that role.”
The Huskies survived West Aurora’s upset bid to win their fourth-consecutive sectional championship.
Their bid for a fourth-consecutive supersectional win and state berth ended with a shootout loss against Morton.
In the past two seasons and the start of this year, Kaufman and the soccer program have compiled a 47-7-2 record.
“Josh definitely fits the definition of a Huskie soccer player,” North coach Jim Konrad said.
“He is tenacious, plays with class, is always willing to battle, and puts the team ahead of himself. He has been an incredible leader for us in a year when we desperately needed it.”
In the absence of a state tournament, Kaufman knows when the end is coming. His last game is scheduled against St. Charles North on April 17.
He is not pursuing opportunities to play basketball in college, and he said more than likely, he is not seeking chances of playing soccer at the next level.
At Naperville North now, Kaufman is a bridge of past glory to future success. He will also pass along the Huskies mindset.
“We only have three kids who were part of the last state championship and seven kids who came back from last season,” he said. “It’s a bunch of new faces, a lot of new kids. We have 10 or 11 sophomores.
“If there was a state championship, I think we’d definitely be competing for it again.”