Radtke gave her all to Palatine times 3
By Gary Larsen
Chad Radtke had a saying he repeatedly preached to daughters Olivia, Morgan, and Lauren as they grew up playing multiple sports in Palatine.
“He’d always say ‘hard work beats talent.’” Olivia Radtke said. “That was his go-to quote when he was coaching us growing up.”
Hard work is the only reasonable explanation for how the Radtke girls continued to play multiple sports through high school at Palatine.
Oldest sister Lauren played lacrosse and basketball at Palatine before playing college lacrosse at Marquette. Morgan played basketball, soccer, and was a diver on the Pirates’ swim team before walking on at Illinois State and playing basketball there for a year and a half.
Olivia, the youngest Radtke sister, is completing her senior year at Palatine after playing golf, basketball, and soccer there for three and two-thirds years. The University of Kansas beckons in the fall, where she’ll put her athletic career behind her.
Radtke was an all-Mid Suburban League golfer during the fall sports season, and a captain on the basketball team during the winter season. She was ready to lead the midfield for Palatine’s soccer team before the coronavirus reared its ugly head.
There are twelve sports seasons available during a student’s four years of high school, and Radtke utilized eleven of them. And she was always one of the hardest-working, unassuming athletes on the golf course, the basketball court and the soccer field.
Radtke’s father can take pride in knowing that his words didn’t fall on deaf ears.
“Her dad is one of the nicest guys but he always said, ‘Hey, kick her in the (butt); make her work’,” Pirates soccer coach Willie Filian said. “You can just see it in her face — her cheeks start getting red, and we never had to say anything to get her to work even harder.”
Palatine basketball coach Mark Johnson also saw Radtke’s cheeks get red with regularity. And while she wasn’t a rah-rah leader in the gym, Radtke spoke when she needed to.
“She wanted to get the most out of her teammates, and she would just get to work,” Johnson said. “If someone was dogging in practice, she would get next to them and let them know.”
Golf coach Bill LePage simply calls Radtke “one of the hardest working student-athletes in the senior class.”
LePage also coaches basketball at Palatine so he likely had more interaction with Radtke than any other coach or teacher over the past four years.
“I had the luxury of coaching her in two sports,” he said. “The idea of a three-sport athlete is unheard of (today) … but Olivia did things because she knew she could help the team and make the Palatine High School athletic department a much better TEAM.”
Once upon a time, three-sport athletes at large high schools were much more commonplace than they are today. Smaller high schools still rely on athletes to play two or three sports but specialization has nearly eliminated the practice at the larger schools, where year-round training in a single sport has become the norm.
Specialization simply isn’t in the Radtke DNA. As one sports season ended, it was always on to the next sport.
“You get three different groups of friends, different types of people to deal with, different conversations to have at different times of the year,” Olivia Radtke said. “I just love to compete and balancing school work and sports wasn’t really that big of a deal. If you’re working hard during that limited time you have, you’ll get a lot done. And I just kind of got used to it.”
While Radtke entered her freshman year already planning to play basketball and soccer at Palatine, she was in the market for a fall sport.
LePage suggested golf. Radtke didn’t grow up golfing but agreed to give it a try in the fall of 2016. Three years later, in September of 2019, she shot a 90 to finish in the top 20 at the Mid-Suburban League’s conference meet and made the all-conference team as a senior.
“Golf is super-individualized, and it’s all on you,” Radtke said. “That’s what I like most about it.”
When golf season ended, Radtke stuck her clubs in the closet, laced up her gym shoes and headed to the basketball court. For Johnson, Radtke’s two-year varsity career was punctuated by a performance her senior year against eventual Class 4A state champion and heated rival Fremd.
Fremd jumped to a 17-point lead in the first half but 5-foot-11 shooting guard Radtke found the hot hand from behind the arc after halftime.
“She scored something like 13 or 14 points in the third quarter and basically got us back to within eight points,” Johnson said. “We wound up losing but her determination and her will — she got hot, starting calling for the ball, and she was knocking down shots. So that’s a game from her I’ll always remember.”
Radtke made the varsity soccer team her sophomore year. Filian immediately saw promise and began tinkering with Radtke’s place in the lineup based on team need. She played on the outside at midfield and on defense, and also saw time as a forward her sophomore year.
“We knew she had to be on the field but we didn’t have a particular position for her starting off,” Filian said. “It was never that she ever performed bad in any position, it was always about where she could be the most useful.”
Radtke found a home as a defensive mid her junior year, in addition to using her strong right leg to take free kicks and corner kicks for the Pirates.
“She’s tall, she wins balls in the air, she’d get forward, she tackled hard, she got back when she needed to -- we kept her there last year, and that’s where she would have been this year," Filian said.
Radtke’s Palatine summers could get hectic, between basketball Mondays and Wednesdays, golf on Tuesdays and Thursdays, basketball summer league games and soccer with the Palatine Celtics.
Hectic was just the way she liked it.
“I actually enjoyed (summers) more, because I was also spending time with my friends while I was doing it,” Radtke said. “But instead of hanging out at someone’s house we were on the basketball court, or out on the soccer field just playing.”
And competing with and for her friends and teammates was really what it was all about for Radtke.
“Her teammates really liked her,” Filian said. “When she did something on the field, scored or made a good tackle, the kids were always excited for her, because she was never too excited for herself. Kids know who works hard and puts in the time, and who they respect.”
Friend and fellow senior soccer and basketball player Melanie Simon agreed.
“If she saw as a team we weren’t doing well or not giving it our all, she’d tell us we have to pick it up,” Simon said. “She always gave 100 percent and never gave less.”
But on Radtke's way out the door at Palatine, it was Johnson who paid her the ultimate compliment.
“I’d trust her with my own kids, and I hope that says it all,” said her basketball coach. “She’s a leader, someone you want to have around, and she’s going to change things once she gets out there.
“All three (Radtke) kids were just fantastic athletes and great kids from a great family.”
By Gary Larsen
Chad Radtke had a saying he repeatedly preached to daughters Olivia, Morgan, and Lauren as they grew up playing multiple sports in Palatine.
“He’d always say ‘hard work beats talent.’” Olivia Radtke said. “That was his go-to quote when he was coaching us growing up.”
Hard work is the only reasonable explanation for how the Radtke girls continued to play multiple sports through high school at Palatine.
Oldest sister Lauren played lacrosse and basketball at Palatine before playing college lacrosse at Marquette. Morgan played basketball, soccer, and was a diver on the Pirates’ swim team before walking on at Illinois State and playing basketball there for a year and a half.
Olivia, the youngest Radtke sister, is completing her senior year at Palatine after playing golf, basketball, and soccer there for three and two-thirds years. The University of Kansas beckons in the fall, where she’ll put her athletic career behind her.
Radtke was an all-Mid Suburban League golfer during the fall sports season, and a captain on the basketball team during the winter season. She was ready to lead the midfield for Palatine’s soccer team before the coronavirus reared its ugly head.
There are twelve sports seasons available during a student’s four years of high school, and Radtke utilized eleven of them. And she was always one of the hardest-working, unassuming athletes on the golf course, the basketball court and the soccer field.
Radtke’s father can take pride in knowing that his words didn’t fall on deaf ears.
“Her dad is one of the nicest guys but he always said, ‘Hey, kick her in the (butt); make her work’,” Pirates soccer coach Willie Filian said. “You can just see it in her face — her cheeks start getting red, and we never had to say anything to get her to work even harder.”
Palatine basketball coach Mark Johnson also saw Radtke’s cheeks get red with regularity. And while she wasn’t a rah-rah leader in the gym, Radtke spoke when she needed to.
“She wanted to get the most out of her teammates, and she would just get to work,” Johnson said. “If someone was dogging in practice, she would get next to them and let them know.”
Golf coach Bill LePage simply calls Radtke “one of the hardest working student-athletes in the senior class.”
LePage also coaches basketball at Palatine so he likely had more interaction with Radtke than any other coach or teacher over the past four years.
“I had the luxury of coaching her in two sports,” he said. “The idea of a three-sport athlete is unheard of (today) … but Olivia did things because she knew she could help the team and make the Palatine High School athletic department a much better TEAM.”
Once upon a time, three-sport athletes at large high schools were much more commonplace than they are today. Smaller high schools still rely on athletes to play two or three sports but specialization has nearly eliminated the practice at the larger schools, where year-round training in a single sport has become the norm.
Specialization simply isn’t in the Radtke DNA. As one sports season ended, it was always on to the next sport.
“You get three different groups of friends, different types of people to deal with, different conversations to have at different times of the year,” Olivia Radtke said. “I just love to compete and balancing school work and sports wasn’t really that big of a deal. If you’re working hard during that limited time you have, you’ll get a lot done. And I just kind of got used to it.”
While Radtke entered her freshman year already planning to play basketball and soccer at Palatine, she was in the market for a fall sport.
LePage suggested golf. Radtke didn’t grow up golfing but agreed to give it a try in the fall of 2016. Three years later, in September of 2019, she shot a 90 to finish in the top 20 at the Mid-Suburban League’s conference meet and made the all-conference team as a senior.
“Golf is super-individualized, and it’s all on you,” Radtke said. “That’s what I like most about it.”
When golf season ended, Radtke stuck her clubs in the closet, laced up her gym shoes and headed to the basketball court. For Johnson, Radtke’s two-year varsity career was punctuated by a performance her senior year against eventual Class 4A state champion and heated rival Fremd.
Fremd jumped to a 17-point lead in the first half but 5-foot-11 shooting guard Radtke found the hot hand from behind the arc after halftime.
“She scored something like 13 or 14 points in the third quarter and basically got us back to within eight points,” Johnson said. “We wound up losing but her determination and her will — she got hot, starting calling for the ball, and she was knocking down shots. So that’s a game from her I’ll always remember.”
Radtke made the varsity soccer team her sophomore year. Filian immediately saw promise and began tinkering with Radtke’s place in the lineup based on team need. She played on the outside at midfield and on defense, and also saw time as a forward her sophomore year.
“We knew she had to be on the field but we didn’t have a particular position for her starting off,” Filian said. “It was never that she ever performed bad in any position, it was always about where she could be the most useful.”
Radtke found a home as a defensive mid her junior year, in addition to using her strong right leg to take free kicks and corner kicks for the Pirates.
“She’s tall, she wins balls in the air, she’d get forward, she tackled hard, she got back when she needed to -- we kept her there last year, and that’s where she would have been this year," Filian said.
Radtke’s Palatine summers could get hectic, between basketball Mondays and Wednesdays, golf on Tuesdays and Thursdays, basketball summer league games and soccer with the Palatine Celtics.
Hectic was just the way she liked it.
“I actually enjoyed (summers) more, because I was also spending time with my friends while I was doing it,” Radtke said. “But instead of hanging out at someone’s house we were on the basketball court, or out on the soccer field just playing.”
And competing with and for her friends and teammates was really what it was all about for Radtke.
“Her teammates really liked her,” Filian said. “When she did something on the field, scored or made a good tackle, the kids were always excited for her, because she was never too excited for herself. Kids know who works hard and puts in the time, and who they respect.”
Friend and fellow senior soccer and basketball player Melanie Simon agreed.
“If she saw as a team we weren’t doing well or not giving it our all, she’d tell us we have to pick it up,” Simon said. “She always gave 100 percent and never gave less.”
But on Radtke's way out the door at Palatine, it was Johnson who paid her the ultimate compliment.
“I’d trust her with my own kids, and I hope that says it all,” said her basketball coach. “She’s a leader, someone you want to have around, and she’s going to change things once she gets out there.
“All three (Radtke) kids were just fantastic athletes and great kids from a great family.”