Coming home: 9 of 15 new Rockford coaches this spring take over at alma maters
Madi Hecox has come home.
Hecox played on the greatest East girls basketball team in history. She also played on the softball team, where she has begun her first year as coach this spring.
She is not alone. It's a common theme. Nine of the 15 new head coaches this spring at Rockford-area high schools are taking over as the coach for a school they once played for. And often just a short time ago.
Here is a look at the 13 area first-year head coaches this spring from the NIC-10, Big Northern and NUIC conferences, with coaches listed alphabetically by sport:
More: 6 years later: Madi Hecox finishes one of Rockford's longest college sports careers
Bryson Wallace, Auburn baseball
Wallace, 26, graduated from Auburn in 2016 and Rockford University three years later. He started on Auburn’s baseball team for four years and one year at Rockford University, where he was a reserve the first two years. He has been an assistant coach at Ashton-Franklin Center in the NUIC for three years. “It has always been a dream of mine to coach Auburn baseball and give back to a program that helped me become the person I am today,” Wallace said.
Elizabeth Carville, Auburn girls soccer
Carville, 45, grew up in Springfield, Georgia, in a military family and graduated from Iowa State. She did not play soccer in high school. “I grew up in the South; football was what we all put our hearts and soul into,” she said.
Carville was a staff sergeant in the Marine Corps for 15 years. She was stationed at the Rock Island arsenal before moving to Rockford to be with her fiancé when she left the military in 2013. She has been coaching youth soccer in town for a decade and plays on an adult women’s soccer team. She will have both a varsity and a JV team to work with this year at Auburn.
“We haven’t had a junior varsity team in five years; I was surprised to see how many players came out,” Carville said. “I coach the U.S. soccer style, which I think is a lot more fun. It’s a practice-play method and backed by science. It gets them immediately playing with a small scrimmage, then a core activity, which is always game-like. We push them to critically think on the field. That’s what they say we lack. It’s not boring. It’s not complicated. It’s fun.”
More: Here are the new head football coaches to watch for in the Rockford area
Matthew Wendt, Harlem girls soccer
Wendt, 42, graduated from Harlem in 2000 and played goalie on the Huskies’ soccer team. He also played semi-pro soccer for one year in town. He has coached at two middle schools, for three years with the Rockford Raptors and three years with Harlem’s JV boys team before becoming Harlem’s boys head coach two years ago. Now he also takes over the Harlem girls.
“I am trying to change the culture of the environment and the style of play, bringing it more into the modern era,” Wendt said. “I want more passing and concentrating on possession of the ball rather than constantly going forward and trying to score.”
Mirakel Dedmond, Freeport softball
Dedmond, a 2015 Freeport grad, played second base for the Pretzels and shortstop for Highland Community College. Dedmond, 27, has remained in her hometown and now, like her dad, coaches two sports at Freeport (Anthony Dedmond coaches wrestling and football, Mirakel coaches girls flag football and now softball). Her brother, Major Dedmond, is the only quarterback to ever lead the NIC-10 in rushing and started at safety for a Ferris State team that won two of the last three NCAA Division II national titles.
“I wasn’t expecting to coach (either sport), but then I got the opportunity,” Mirakel Dedmond said. “It was put in my hand. I wasn’t expecting (flag football) to become an IHSA sport. I didn’t realize how big it was until I started coaching it. When the season progressed, I had to turn girls away. We will have two teams next year (JV and varsity).
“I have a good connection with the girls (in softball) because I’m young. I do more explaining than yelling. If they do something wrong, I try to pick them up and help them get the next one. I try to connect with them as much as I can.”
Joel Fonseca, Warren/Stockton softball
Fonseca, 49, played football for four years at NUIC West rival Warren. He has coached youth league softball in Warren for a decade and was the JV coach last year at Stockton. He has also coached hockey for 15 years, including girls high school hockey the last three seasons.
“Coaching at the high school level brings many challenges and many rewards,” Fonseca said. “I am excited to be working with a team with great potential and the willingness to work hard. I am also truly grateful to have a coaching staff that brings a wealth of knowledge of this great sport.”
Madi Hecox, East softball
Hecox, a 2017 East alum, returns to her old school where she was a two-sport star. Hecox started on the best girls basketball team in East history, with the E-Rabs going 25-7 her senior year and reaching the sectional finals. She went on to be a JUCO All-American at RVC and played both basketball and softball at RVC and a pair of four-year colleges. Now she returns at age 24 to coach a softball program that is 0-65 on the field the last three years, with two forfeit wins against Boylan two years ago.
“I’ve always had a passion to coach. Even when I was a player, I was wired that way,” Hecox said. “I am excited to be back at a place that contributed so much to me as a person and an athlete. We have 14 players including six players who just played their first game. That can be very discouraging, but our emphasis is on victory within a game, where we can grow.”
Zoie Sellers, Forreston softball
Sellers, 23, played volleyball and softball for NUIC South rival Polo and graduated from Clarke University.
“It’s challenging, but incredible at the same time,” Sellers said of taking over a team that has gone 29-1 in the NUIC South the last three years. “There is so much talent on my team. I am so lucky to be coaching them, but it has definitely challenged my skills as a new coach, being able to develop and plan for their level of talent.”
Jason Yakey, Belvidere North softball
Yakey, 48, played baseball and football for Kirkland Hiawatha and then played fast-pitch softball until he was 30. He began coaching as an assistant at age 18. Jason and his wife, JoAnn, helped start Midwest Aftershock Softball, where their kids have played. That program has grown into a 14-strand travel ball program with teams from ages 8-under to to 18-under. “Stepping into the high school realm seemed like a great fit and when the opportunity arose to apply to coach at Belvidere North, I honestly jumped at it,” Yakey said.
Matthew Davis, Jefferson boys and girls track
Davis, 31, was a three-sport athlete at Jefferson, competing in football, wrestling and track. He graduated from Rockford University, where he played on the football team. He has been an assistant football coach since 2018 and coached track at South Beloit in 2019 and was an assistant track coach at Jefferson last year. “We are a young program that is working toward establishing an environment of competition every day,” Davis said.
Olivia Ferguson, Auburn boys and girls track
Ferguson, 28, graduated from Auburn in 2014. She played basketball for the Knights for four years and was talked into joining the track team by her dad as a sophomore. She continued track in college, in the shot put and hammer throw. She graduated from Briar Cliff in Sioux City, Iowa, in 2019 with a degree in Kinesiology. She has been an assistant coach for five years, including last year with Auburn. “As a head coach,” Ferguson said, “we can never stop learning new things. Don't be afraid to change your perspective when it comes to the culture of your team.”
Matt Melloch, Boylan girls track
Melloch, 31, is a new coach who is not so new. Melloch ran cross country and track for four years at Boylan and coached both cross country and girls track as a volunteer assistant for several years, before becoming a formal assistant with the girls track team and now the head coach. He graduated from Purdue, where he was on the club running team.
“The head coaching role has definitely given me a more holistic view of the team,” Melloch said. “I’ve always been the distance coach, so that group has more naturally been my focus. I tried to support the other groups as well but I didn't have as good of an idea of what all the sprinters' PRs were, or what our throwers' PRs were, but now I do. As the head coach I am looking at the bigger picture. I am trying to optimize the strengths on our team, identifying how we can improve our weaker areas, and making sure we recognize everyone on the team for their efforts whether they are the fastest or the slowest.”
Drew Pivoras, Belvidere North girls track
Pivoras, 43, went to high school in Murray, Kentucky, and to college at Western Illinois and Rockford University. He’s coached track and cross country for 11 years and been North’s head girls cross country coach the last four years. "I'm grateful for this opportunity, and I'm excited for the rest of the season,” Pivoras said.
Derek Moore, Harlem boys volleyball
Moore played volleyball at East and graduated in 2019. He has been coaching several years and coached three club teams, two girls and one boys, at VC United last year.
“We’re pushing hard to make Harlem a good volleyball program, not just an OK program,” Moore said. “I believe me being younger is an advantage for the program. I get out there and serve at them and hit at them and play with them when we have some down time to mess around. That builds mutual respect. If I am willing to do it, you should be willing to do it. Everything has translated really well. The boys have known me from club. The puzzle pieces for Harlem are falling into place.”
Holly Klever, Freeport boys volleyball
Klever, 38, graduated from Freeport in 2003. She never played sports for the Pretzels but became passionate about volleyball when her daughter, now a sophomore at Freeport, started playing volleyball in sixth grade and joined a club team, NW Illini out of Dakota. During COVID, she became a parent coach and the next year took over as the coach.
“That’s where the fire sparked and my love of coaching started,” Klever said. “Coaching volleyball to me is a way to help grow the love of volleyball and become a spark for someone else’s love of volleyball.”
Jaci Olejniczak, Belvidere North boys volleyball
Olejniczak, a 2012 Hononegah grad, takes over at Belvidere North in the first year North isn’t part of a co-op with Belvidere in boys volleyball. The former Jaci Krizka was an all-NIC-10 libero in high school and her three older sisters also played for Hononegah. She is excited about leading a first-year team.
“It’s cool to be able to grow the boys volleyball program and have the boys see it’s a fun sport to play,” she said. “We have only two kids who have played volleyball before. Everyone else is new to the game. We are learning a lot. We have a lot of basketball players out and are trying to use their athleticism. I am excited to see where the season is going to take us. We have a lot of growth before us.”
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Here's a look at the new Rockford-area head coaches this spring
