WWS celebrates 50 years as a program
Greats Fajkus, Tomek join festivities at Tigers golden anniversary
By Matt Le Cren
When Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari took over the program in 1991, he knew nothing about the program’s history, nor, he claims, how to coach.
And now? He's as close as there is to an expert at both.
Callipari, now in his 29th year at the helm, is the dean of DuPage County coaches and one of the longest-tenured in Illinois. He also has become known as the steward of the Tigers’ rich soccer history, which debuted in 1970, two years before the IHSA state playoffs began, when the school was known as Wheaton Central.
To that end, Callipari organized a reunion Saturday to celebrate the 50th season of the program. It drew about 100 alumni, including former Chicago Sting star Charlie Fajkus, and Christine Tomek, a pioneering player and coach who is arguably the greatest female athlete in school history.
“I had to learn a lot,” Callipari said of the early days of his tenure. “I came from out of the area and I had to learn about the program.
“I didn’t know anything about the DVC, what were the rivalries or that we had a sister school in Wheaton North. Guys like (Hall of Fame football coach) John Thorne had been here and established ideas and a good foundation, and I just kind of built from that.
“I’d listen to coaches around me, like (Hall of Famer) Dave Bucher at Naperville North. He gave me a heads-up on the DVC and how things were going to work politically at meetings, so as a young gun I was like, “OK, I will sit back and watch.’”
Following Saturday’s 0-0 tie with Hoffman Estates at Red Grange Field, the Tigers have an all-time record of 612-345-131, which includes six trips to the state finals and four state trophies under six coaches: James Pettigrew (1970-1973); Al Duhm (1974-1979); Scott Brady (1980-1982); Frank Bucciferro (1983-1989); Gary Luckey (1990) and Callipari.
The Tigers have won eight regional titles under Callipari. In 2003, he guided his club to a third place finish in the state and a program record 23 wins. He has a career mark of 315-243-85.
“I apologize to the players of the first 10 years (of his tenure). I was just trying to get my feet wet, and I was still a player,” Callipari said. “So I was looking at the game through a different lens, and I didn’t do them a good service by any stretch of the imagination.
“I don’t know if I coached that well at that time. I inspired and motivated and got on them.
“I did a lot of things wrong, and I’ve learned over the course of those 29 years that I feel like I’m in a better place and providing them with the information and skill-set to be them, to play to their level and hopefully become successful.”
History shows that the Tigers had a winning record in their inaugural campaign, going 10-6-1 in 1970. The school was then located near downtown Wheaton at the corner of Roosevelt Road and Naper Boulevard.
A couple of years later, Fajkus and his family moved from Cicero to Wheaton, where his father, Jerry, soon started the youth soccer program at the Wheaton Park District.
“The first thing he made me and my brother do, almost every Saturday we were going to Naperville Park District, Wheaton Park District, Carol Stream Park District, you name them, we were doing camps,” Fajkus said. “So a lot of those park districts started their programs that way.
“He was the pioneer of all that. He practiced at 9 in the morning. Fifteen-year-old old kid (practicing at) 9 in the morning, come on, but you had no choice.”
Fajkus, a midfielder, soon became the star at Wheaton Central, which fielded a powerhouse team his junior year in 1973. The Tigers won their first district (as regionals were called then) that year.
That same year, Wheaton-Warrenville High School, which existed from 1973-1983, opened on the current site of Wheaton Warrenville South, which moved into the building in 1992. That depleted Wheaton Central’s talent as all the younger players went to the new school, as did Pettigrew.
“That ‘73 team was a lights-out team,” Fajkus recalled. “That was a very dynamic team. A lot of those guys went on to play in college.
“The ‘74 team I was on as a senior, the school split, that’s when (Wheaton-Warrenville) opened up, so all the juniors started moving over and we were pretty depleted for my senior year. I think there were three returning lettermen.
“Our coach, Pettigrew, left and coach Al Duhm raised his hand. He was a basketball guy. Here we were with no one with any experience. We were more of a grind-it-out team, but we were pretty tough.”
Indeed, the Tigers went 16-4-3 and advanced to the state championship game, where they lost 1-0 in quadruple overtime to New Trier West, which featured Fajkus’ future Indiana and Sting teammate Mark Simanton. Fajkus finished his high school career with 56 goals in 43 games.
It was the beginning of a golden age for the Tigers, who returned to the state finals three times before the decade was out. They finished second again in 1976 and lost in the state quarterfinals in 1977 and 1979.
The success continued for Fajkus, too. He led Indiana to runner-up finishes at the NCAA finals in 1976 and 1978, scoring 38 goals and 38 assists during his four-year career.
Fajkus was drafted by the Chicago Sting upon graduation in 1979. He soon became a fan favorite on the team, which also included Chicago-area products Simanton, Bret Hall and Wheaton College graduate Steve Long.
In April 1981, Fajkus and the Sting played an exhibition game at Wheaton College, taking on Indiana in the first half and Wheaton College in the second half. Later that year, they beat the vaunted New York Cosmos in the NASL Soccer Bowl in Toronto, becoming the first Chicago pro sports team to win a championship since the Bears in 1963.
Fajkus played parts of six seasons for the Sting, who traded him to the Golden State Earthquakes in 1984, two months before the Sting won their second NASL championship.
The NASL folded after that season, but the Sting played indoors for four more seasons as part of the MISL. Fajkus went indoors, too, playing two seasons for the Kansas City Comets before returning to the Sting, where he scored 16 goals in 45 games in their final season of 1987-88.
Fajkus retired when the Sting folded, having scored 19 goals in 151 outdoor games and another 117 goals in 246 indoor games. He also played three games – all victories – for the U.S. national team between 1982 and 1985.
“I got lucky,” Fajkus said. “I had the NASL, then it went away.
“Then the MLS came after the (1994) World Cup. There was a gap of six or eight years, and I happened to hit a good window and got to run with something I loved doing.”
Fajkus, 62, has lived in Kansas City, where he is sales manager for a wine and liquor distributor, since his playing career ended. He coached youth soccer teams for many years.
“We were lucky; we had several mentors that helped us,” Fajkus said. “A lot of us are still coaching. I’m not but a lot of fellas from my era are still coaching.”
The efforts of Fajkus and his father set the groundwork for thousands of Wheaton kids to be exposed to soccer and that laid the foundation for the Tigers program.
Among the beneficiaries was Tomek, who came of age in an era before most schools offered girls soccer. The Tigers’ girls program did not start until 1987, with Luckey as its first coach.
So Tomek played on the boys team. Several other girls followed suit, including Tomek’s sister Anne-Marie, who is two years younger.
“How I got started was, I was watching a game and coach Fajkus was coaching a game,” Tomek said. “I was sitting there with my mother, and they needed an extra player.
“My brother David was playing. He was in sixth grade at the time and he said, ‘Come on, we need an extra player.’
“I was kind of shy at the time and my mom said, ‘You go.’ She literally pushed me onto the soccer field and that was the first time that I ever played the game.
“I don’t know how well I played, but I stuck with it. I think I held my own.”
That is an understatement. Tomek started for the Tigers and became the first girl in IHSA history to score a goal in a boys game.
Tomek was a terrific multi-sport athlete in high school. She was a three-time all-state selection in softball and two-time all-conference pick in basketball.
After graduating in 1982, Tomek attended Iowa, where she was All-Big Ten in softball in 1984. She transferred to George Mason, where she captained the women’s soccer team to the 1986 national championship.
“I loved playing for the boys program,” Tomek said. “It was really my only opportunity (to play soccer), and I never regretted it.
“I never looked back. I have no regrets, because I played with and against great competition; and it made me tougher.
“That experience helped me gain confidence to improve my game, and I ended up playing for George Mason University and won a national championship and then moving on to represent the country with the national team. It’s really cool.”
Tomek was a member of the nascent U.S. women’s national team in 1986 and 1987, where she was a teammate of Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers. There was no glory and little pay for the women at the time as the first FIFA Women’s World Cup wasn’t held until 1991, but Tomek enjoyed it.
“Things were very new, and we didn’t have a lot of resources,” Tomek said. “But it was an honor to be picked to represent our country.”
Tomek went into teaching after her playing career ended. In 1994, she became one of the few women to coach a high school boys team when she took over the program at Downers Grove North.
Tomek guided the Trojans to the state quarterfinals in 2000 and 2001, their only appearances at the state finals. She also coached the Downers Grove North girls team and is currently varsity girls assistant to Brian Papa.
Callipari, too, has coached the girls soccer team, having taken over from Luckey in 1995, and helmed the Tigers to second place at the 2002 state finals and third the following year. He has a 376-139-53 record in 25 seasons on the girls side.
As dedicated as he is to teaching and coaching the players, Callipari is equally determined to tout and preserve the program’s history. All of the current players attended Saturday’s celebration, which included a meet-and-great, presentations, dinner and then a reception at Arrowhead Golf Club.
“It’s really cool to be a part of it,” Wheaton Warrenville South senior defender Sean Tully said. “Coach is definitely letting us know how big of a deal this is.
“I mean, he likes to make a big deal out of things, but this is like to the next level. So it’s really fun to be a part of it and to see how much it means to everyone else.
“He’s really proud of this program and everything that we’ve done and he wants to keep it going.”
The school’s cafeteria was decorated with photo displays listing the accomplishments from the various eras. Special programs, which included vintage programs as well as photos and bios of all of the current seniors, were handed out.
“It doesn’t happen without a lot of help,” Callipari said. “I was almost in tears when I walked into the building, and the moms had been there since 8 a.m. and the place looked like I had never seen it.
“People walking through the school were marveling at it. They take pride in what they do.”
Fajkus and Tomek were inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009, part of a blockbuster class that also included Thorne, Red Grange, Katie Meier and former Northwestern wide receiver Jon Schweighardt.
They both had high praise for the program in general and Callipari in particular.
“It’s become a big family,” Fajkus said. “What coach Callipari has done is incredible.
“He’s taken it up several notches and raised the bar. We thought we had a pretty high bar when we were doing it, but he’s certainly developing a lot of great players and also mentoring them. That’s big.”
Tomek, who attended the reunion along with her sister, was awed by the work that went into it.
“This is such a great thing that Guy Callipari has done,” Tomek said. “The hours of research.
“He’s dedicated and passionate. He’s bringing all of us together.
“You think of when the program started in 1970 to the present and if you look around, it’s just amazing the work he’s done to put this evening together and give us a chance to reminisce about how things were and how things are and where things are going, so all the credit goes to Guy Callipari.
“I don’t think there’s a coach in the state that has done anything like this. I’m truly honored to be a Tiger and be a part of this evening.”
Greats Fajkus, Tomek join festivities at Tigers golden anniversary
By Matt Le Cren
When Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari took over the program in 1991, he knew nothing about the program’s history, nor, he claims, how to coach.
And now? He's as close as there is to an expert at both.
Callipari, now in his 29th year at the helm, is the dean of DuPage County coaches and one of the longest-tenured in Illinois. He also has become known as the steward of the Tigers’ rich soccer history, which debuted in 1970, two years before the IHSA state playoffs began, when the school was known as Wheaton Central.
To that end, Callipari organized a reunion Saturday to celebrate the 50th season of the program. It drew about 100 alumni, including former Chicago Sting star Charlie Fajkus, and Christine Tomek, a pioneering player and coach who is arguably the greatest female athlete in school history.
“I had to learn a lot,” Callipari said of the early days of his tenure. “I came from out of the area and I had to learn about the program.
“I didn’t know anything about the DVC, what were the rivalries or that we had a sister school in Wheaton North. Guys like (Hall of Fame football coach) John Thorne had been here and established ideas and a good foundation, and I just kind of built from that.
“I’d listen to coaches around me, like (Hall of Famer) Dave Bucher at Naperville North. He gave me a heads-up on the DVC and how things were going to work politically at meetings, so as a young gun I was like, “OK, I will sit back and watch.’”
Following Saturday’s 0-0 tie with Hoffman Estates at Red Grange Field, the Tigers have an all-time record of 612-345-131, which includes six trips to the state finals and four state trophies under six coaches: James Pettigrew (1970-1973); Al Duhm (1974-1979); Scott Brady (1980-1982); Frank Bucciferro (1983-1989); Gary Luckey (1990) and Callipari.
The Tigers have won eight regional titles under Callipari. In 2003, he guided his club to a third place finish in the state and a program record 23 wins. He has a career mark of 315-243-85.
“I apologize to the players of the first 10 years (of his tenure). I was just trying to get my feet wet, and I was still a player,” Callipari said. “So I was looking at the game through a different lens, and I didn’t do them a good service by any stretch of the imagination.
“I don’t know if I coached that well at that time. I inspired and motivated and got on them.
“I did a lot of things wrong, and I’ve learned over the course of those 29 years that I feel like I’m in a better place and providing them with the information and skill-set to be them, to play to their level and hopefully become successful.”
History shows that the Tigers had a winning record in their inaugural campaign, going 10-6-1 in 1970. The school was then located near downtown Wheaton at the corner of Roosevelt Road and Naper Boulevard.
A couple of years later, Fajkus and his family moved from Cicero to Wheaton, where his father, Jerry, soon started the youth soccer program at the Wheaton Park District.
“The first thing he made me and my brother do, almost every Saturday we were going to Naperville Park District, Wheaton Park District, Carol Stream Park District, you name them, we were doing camps,” Fajkus said. “So a lot of those park districts started their programs that way.
“He was the pioneer of all that. He practiced at 9 in the morning. Fifteen-year-old old kid (practicing at) 9 in the morning, come on, but you had no choice.”
Fajkus, a midfielder, soon became the star at Wheaton Central, which fielded a powerhouse team his junior year in 1973. The Tigers won their first district (as regionals were called then) that year.
That same year, Wheaton-Warrenville High School, which existed from 1973-1983, opened on the current site of Wheaton Warrenville South, which moved into the building in 1992. That depleted Wheaton Central’s talent as all the younger players went to the new school, as did Pettigrew.
“That ‘73 team was a lights-out team,” Fajkus recalled. “That was a very dynamic team. A lot of those guys went on to play in college.
“The ‘74 team I was on as a senior, the school split, that’s when (Wheaton-Warrenville) opened up, so all the juniors started moving over and we were pretty depleted for my senior year. I think there were three returning lettermen.
“Our coach, Pettigrew, left and coach Al Duhm raised his hand. He was a basketball guy. Here we were with no one with any experience. We were more of a grind-it-out team, but we were pretty tough.”
Indeed, the Tigers went 16-4-3 and advanced to the state championship game, where they lost 1-0 in quadruple overtime to New Trier West, which featured Fajkus’ future Indiana and Sting teammate Mark Simanton. Fajkus finished his high school career with 56 goals in 43 games.
It was the beginning of a golden age for the Tigers, who returned to the state finals three times before the decade was out. They finished second again in 1976 and lost in the state quarterfinals in 1977 and 1979.
The success continued for Fajkus, too. He led Indiana to runner-up finishes at the NCAA finals in 1976 and 1978, scoring 38 goals and 38 assists during his four-year career.
Fajkus was drafted by the Chicago Sting upon graduation in 1979. He soon became a fan favorite on the team, which also included Chicago-area products Simanton, Bret Hall and Wheaton College graduate Steve Long.
In April 1981, Fajkus and the Sting played an exhibition game at Wheaton College, taking on Indiana in the first half and Wheaton College in the second half. Later that year, they beat the vaunted New York Cosmos in the NASL Soccer Bowl in Toronto, becoming the first Chicago pro sports team to win a championship since the Bears in 1963.
Fajkus played parts of six seasons for the Sting, who traded him to the Golden State Earthquakes in 1984, two months before the Sting won their second NASL championship.
The NASL folded after that season, but the Sting played indoors for four more seasons as part of the MISL. Fajkus went indoors, too, playing two seasons for the Kansas City Comets before returning to the Sting, where he scored 16 goals in 45 games in their final season of 1987-88.
Fajkus retired when the Sting folded, having scored 19 goals in 151 outdoor games and another 117 goals in 246 indoor games. He also played three games – all victories – for the U.S. national team between 1982 and 1985.
“I got lucky,” Fajkus said. “I had the NASL, then it went away.
“Then the MLS came after the (1994) World Cup. There was a gap of six or eight years, and I happened to hit a good window and got to run with something I loved doing.”
Fajkus, 62, has lived in Kansas City, where he is sales manager for a wine and liquor distributor, since his playing career ended. He coached youth soccer teams for many years.
“We were lucky; we had several mentors that helped us,” Fajkus said. “A lot of us are still coaching. I’m not but a lot of fellas from my era are still coaching.”
The efforts of Fajkus and his father set the groundwork for thousands of Wheaton kids to be exposed to soccer and that laid the foundation for the Tigers program.
Among the beneficiaries was Tomek, who came of age in an era before most schools offered girls soccer. The Tigers’ girls program did not start until 1987, with Luckey as its first coach.
So Tomek played on the boys team. Several other girls followed suit, including Tomek’s sister Anne-Marie, who is two years younger.
“How I got started was, I was watching a game and coach Fajkus was coaching a game,” Tomek said. “I was sitting there with my mother, and they needed an extra player.
“My brother David was playing. He was in sixth grade at the time and he said, ‘Come on, we need an extra player.’
“I was kind of shy at the time and my mom said, ‘You go.’ She literally pushed me onto the soccer field and that was the first time that I ever played the game.
“I don’t know how well I played, but I stuck with it. I think I held my own.”
That is an understatement. Tomek started for the Tigers and became the first girl in IHSA history to score a goal in a boys game.
Tomek was a terrific multi-sport athlete in high school. She was a three-time all-state selection in softball and two-time all-conference pick in basketball.
After graduating in 1982, Tomek attended Iowa, where she was All-Big Ten in softball in 1984. She transferred to George Mason, where she captained the women’s soccer team to the 1986 national championship.
“I loved playing for the boys program,” Tomek said. “It was really my only opportunity (to play soccer), and I never regretted it.
“I never looked back. I have no regrets, because I played with and against great competition; and it made me tougher.
“That experience helped me gain confidence to improve my game, and I ended up playing for George Mason University and won a national championship and then moving on to represent the country with the national team. It’s really cool.”
Tomek was a member of the nascent U.S. women’s national team in 1986 and 1987, where she was a teammate of Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers. There was no glory and little pay for the women at the time as the first FIFA Women’s World Cup wasn’t held until 1991, but Tomek enjoyed it.
“Things were very new, and we didn’t have a lot of resources,” Tomek said. “But it was an honor to be picked to represent our country.”
Tomek went into teaching after her playing career ended. In 1994, she became one of the few women to coach a high school boys team when she took over the program at Downers Grove North.
Tomek guided the Trojans to the state quarterfinals in 2000 and 2001, their only appearances at the state finals. She also coached the Downers Grove North girls team and is currently varsity girls assistant to Brian Papa.
Callipari, too, has coached the girls soccer team, having taken over from Luckey in 1995, and helmed the Tigers to second place at the 2002 state finals and third the following year. He has a 376-139-53 record in 25 seasons on the girls side.
As dedicated as he is to teaching and coaching the players, Callipari is equally determined to tout and preserve the program’s history. All of the current players attended Saturday’s celebration, which included a meet-and-great, presentations, dinner and then a reception at Arrowhead Golf Club.
“It’s really cool to be a part of it,” Wheaton Warrenville South senior defender Sean Tully said. “Coach is definitely letting us know how big of a deal this is.
“I mean, he likes to make a big deal out of things, but this is like to the next level. So it’s really fun to be a part of it and to see how much it means to everyone else.
“He’s really proud of this program and everything that we’ve done and he wants to keep it going.”
The school’s cafeteria was decorated with photo displays listing the accomplishments from the various eras. Special programs, which included vintage programs as well as photos and bios of all of the current seniors, were handed out.
“It doesn’t happen without a lot of help,” Callipari said. “I was almost in tears when I walked into the building, and the moms had been there since 8 a.m. and the place looked like I had never seen it.
“People walking through the school were marveling at it. They take pride in what they do.”
Fajkus and Tomek were inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009, part of a blockbuster class that also included Thorne, Red Grange, Katie Meier and former Northwestern wide receiver Jon Schweighardt.
They both had high praise for the program in general and Callipari in particular.
“It’s become a big family,” Fajkus said. “What coach Callipari has done is incredible.
“He’s taken it up several notches and raised the bar. We thought we had a pretty high bar when we were doing it, but he’s certainly developing a lot of great players and also mentoring them. That’s big.”
Tomek, who attended the reunion along with her sister, was awed by the work that went into it.
“This is such a great thing that Guy Callipari has done,” Tomek said. “The hours of research.
“He’s dedicated and passionate. He’s bringing all of us together.
“You think of when the program started in 1970 to the present and if you look around, it’s just amazing the work he’s done to put this evening together and give us a chance to reminisce about how things were and how things are and where things are going, so all the credit goes to Guy Callipari.
“I don’t think there’s a coach in the state that has done anything like this. I’m truly honored to be a Tiger and be a part of this evening.”