THE YOUTH BASEBALL COACH
‘I just try to be that positive influence for them’
Spring and summer mean baseball has arrived in Vince Perri’s world.
Whether it’s helping coach a First String Little League team in Champaign, like he’s done the last 12 years, or pitching in with Centennial High School’s junior varsity team, like he was slated to do this spring, getting out on an area diamond is Perri’s primary focus in the coming months.
Then, starting in August, he helps out with the Franklin Middle School baseball team in Champaign, too.
“I wear a lot of hats,” Perri said.
But all of that is on hold right now amid the coronavirus pandemic. The earliest Centennial could play a baseball game is May 1. The earliest a local Little League team could play is May 11. If those events even happen because of the global health threat.
“The most uncertainty right now is with the kids at the high school, especially the seniors being that this is their last year,” Perri said. “That’s really got to hurt. When you’re a baseball player, you start with Little League and then you move up, playing summer ball and then fall ball in middle school. As a ballplayer, every year is a progression to get better and learn new things. All these kids are missing that physical knowledge and mental knowledge of the game of baseball.”
Perri isn’t like most youth baseball coaches.
“I’m 59 years old, so I’m a little older than most of the guys coaching Little League,” Perri said, “and I don’t have any irons in the fire with any kids who are playing.”
Perri started helping coach at First String after a co-worker broached the idea.
“I was actually in my first year as an IHSA official and trying to get my foot in the door umpiring,” Perri said. “Over time, it’s evolved, and by the second year, I was coaching with another guy and I’ve been coaching ever since.”
What does Perri enjoy about coaching youth baseball? It’s an easy answer for the Tolono native, who graduated from Unity High School in 1978.
“You get to work with kids who may have never played baseball before,” he said. “You get to see them smile and have fun while doing something positive in their life. I just try to be that positive influence for them. Seeing them succeed makes it all worth it.”
It’s not just the coaching aspect that Perri enjoys. Getting to meet the players’ parents and developing a close rapport with them is high up on his priority list.
“The trust that they put in you to be a part of their kids’ lives is important to me and important to these parents, too,” Perri said. “The parents are always looking not only for good coaches, but coaches that are going to be positive with their kids.”
Perri is positive about one other item, too. When baseball resumes on the local scene, he’s not going to back away from showing how much the sport means to him.
“I’m going to love it,” he said. “As I sit here, I start thinking of things that are different ways to coach. I’m all about teaching something new to someone, and it’s been building up in my mind here the last few weeks. I’m ready to let loose with all that.”
“This season has been a roller coaster,” she said, “and I hope that we just get the chance to play.”
THE RECREATION TENNIS PLAYERS
‘It’s sad to walk by the tennis courts and know you’re not going to play’
Judy Argentieri can credit her late husband for her most recent sports passion.
Ben Watts, who died of cancer on Sept. 19, 2017, encouraged his wife to pick up tennis about 5 1 / 2 years ago.
“I didn’t have time to play golf anymore,” said Argentieri, a Champaign resident and mother of two recent Champaign Central graduates in Olivia Watts and Sam Watts. “He said, ‘Why don’t you get serious about tennis, maybe take some lessons?’”
Done. And done. Argentieri has played roughly 3-4 times a week during past springs and summers before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered area tennis courts in the last three weeks. Her favorite court is at Clark Park in Champaign, where she has played with a group of local women — Patty McElroy, Liz Maloney, Diana Zimmerman and Diana Winder — and grown close with over the last few years. The group also plays at Dodds Tennis Center during the winter and takes lessons at Atkins Tennis Center as well.
“I love playing tennis,” Argentieri said. “I like the social aspects of it, too, and it’s a lot more relaxed atmosphere than golf. I was pleasantly surprised to find a low-key group of women who don’t care what the results are.”
Not that Argentieri and her friends aren’t missing all the aspects tennis can provide. They’re eager to get back on the court. When it is safe to do so, of course.
“We have a tennis group chat where we occasionally text each other and keep us apprised of our schedules,” Argentieri said. “We’ve been talking about how much we miss it, and it’s been weird not having it now, especially when the weather has been nice.”
Whenever the time comes for Argentieri and pals to use their tennis rackets again, well, they’ll have a racket doing so.
“At my age, you don’t take any physical activity for granted,” Argentieri said. “It’s sad to walk by the tennis courts and know you’re not going to play for a while. Just the ability to go out and enjoy it again, we’re all looking forward to that.”
“This season has been a roller coaster,” she said, “and I hope that we just get the chance to play.”
THE FUNDRAISER
‘Our No. 1 concern with our donors is to reach out and really let them know they’re important’
Put Howard Milton in a room full of Illinois fans, and the veteran Illini athletic administrator will likely know everyone’s name by the end of any such event.
The personable lead fundraiser for Illinois athletics isn’t able to do that now because of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent stay-at-home order Gov. J.B. Pritzker has in place through April.
“It’s crazy,” Milton said. “This disallows me and my staff to travel and then, on top of that, we’re being sensitive. Our No. 1 concern with our donors is to reach out and really let them know they’re important to us while they’re going through this and for us to have perspective. We know there’s something bigger than us going on right now.”
Milton, who has been at Illinois since 2001, said he and his staff started to get a handle of how the situation would affect their jobs a few days after the NCAA canceled its basketball tournaments and spring sport championships on March 12.
“We moved pretty quick within four to five days after where we felt we were really well-positioned,” Milton said. “We made some adjustments pretty quick.”
Milton’s top objective: making sure he and his staff don’t overwhelm donors during this trying time.
“We had some people who had some big commitments for our capital facilities and we said, ‘Hey, you do these on your own terms,’” Milton said.
Milton credits Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman for help in navigating this unprecedented situation. Raising funds is what Milton does well — he was named the 2019 National Fundraiser of the Year by the National Association of Athletic Development Directors — and was key in landing sizable donations during the last few years to help fund the new $80 million Smith Center for the Illinois football team that opened in August 2019, among other athletic facility upgrade projects that are still ongoing on the UI campus.
“I think I work with the best AD in the country,” Milton said. “He is such a planner and a level-headed, passionate guy. He’s really competitive and very organized. He got members of us on the exec staff together and said, ‘Hey, this looks like it’s going to be much more serious than us not playing in the NCAA tournament.’ He knew the lights were going to go off for a while.”
Milton is making the most of his time working at home now. An admitted early riser, Milton is usually on the phone by 7:30 a.m. every day, checking in with staff members about what donors they need to touch base with that day.
“I’m typically on a call with Josh one or two times a day, and a lot of that is more related to student-athlete welfare,” Milton said. “I just got off a call about premium seating. Mostly, my day consists of a lot of conference calls.”And video meetings, too, using a software he did not know existed a month ago.
“I had no idea what Zoom was. No idea,” Milton said. “Well, I’m a Zoom expert now.”
Milton offers up a hearty laugh after that last statement. But while he’s adapting to working from home in this new environment, he and his wife, Barclay, are missing out right now on seeing their son, Connor, play baseball at Champaign Central High School. A senior outfielder with the Maroons, Connor is committed to play at Illinois starting with the 2021 season. And then there’s volleyball tournaments in the spring and summer involving the couple’s daughters, Claire and Callie.
“Mom and I are taking it harder probably than he is,” Milton said. “We build our springs and summers around not just him with baseball, but our girls with their volleyball as well. We’re really committed to the rat race, as we like to call it. It’s been tough as a parent not to be active and to be cooped up.”
THE DIVISION I ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
‘I approach the day as if I was going into the office’
Usually at this time of year, Tom Michael gets up early and makes the roughly 20-minute drive from his home in Tuscola to his office tucked inside Lantz Arena on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Michael still gets up early — around 5 or 5:30 a.m., the Eastern Illinois athletic director estimates — but instead of getting ready to hit the road, he stays inside his house.
“I approach the day as if I was going into the office,” Michael said. “I just don’t get in the car and drive to Charleston.”
Michael, EIU’s athletic director since 2014, ventured down to Charleston on Thursday to take care of a few items in his office, but the majority of his time now is spent working out of his Tuscola house because of the coronavirus pandemic.“I’ve set up shop here at home in my office,” Michael said. “I have my laptop and my iPad and my phone. I’ve got cords all over the place it seems like.”
Michael has become a quick study in Zoom, the video conference system sweeping the country in the last month, along with regular conference calls via the phone. He said the EIU athletic staff meets twice a week on conference call to stay updated and then Michael has two calls a week with other Ohio Valley Conference athletic directors. He’s also touching base at least once a week with EIU’s coaches and sets up individual calls when needed with other pertinent staff.
“It’s crazy because you go through the day, look up and it’s 4:30 in the afternoon already,” Michael said. “The difficult part is in some ways trying to stay active. You end up doing everything via phone, so I try to stand up every once in a while because I can get stiff because I’ve been sitting in my chair for four straight hours instead of going to people’s offices, like I normally would, and check in.”
With spring sports canceled at EIU, attention turns to the fall. The first football game for the Panthers is set for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3 against Indiana State at O’Brien Field in Charleston. It’s anyone’s guess right now, though, if that game, much like college football across the country, kicks off as scheduled.
“We’ve all realized over the last month that we have to be flexible and we have to be nimble in our progression in how we go about things,” Michael said. “What I’ve challenged our staff to do is work on parallel paths. If we’re able to have football, volleyball, soccer, cross-country and other athletes on campus this summer, when we do need them here to be able to get some things done and what does that time period look like? There’s so many variables. For our football players who didn’t have that five to six weeks of spring ball that they normally have, May is probably important to keep them active and keep whatever workouts they can in front of them. When we do eventually get them back, we still need to have somewhat of a foundation in place.”
The stay-at-home order is allowing Michael and his wife, Shana, some more quality time with their three children. Their oldest son, Nick, already lives in Tuscola. Nate, who just wrapped up a season as a graduate student manager on Bruce Weber’s Kansas State men’s basketball staff after playing college basketball at McKendree, and daughter Kylie, an upcoming redshirt junior volleyball player at EIU, are both at the family residence in Tuscola. It’s one positive aspect in this whole pandemic for Michael, who played basketball at Illinois under Lou Henson from 1990-94 and then worked as an athletic administrator at Illinois for nearly two decades before taking the EIU job.
“It’s interesting because Nate and Kylie are both home at the same time and that hasn’t happened in about six years,” Michael said. “From a family perspective, to be able to sit down and have dinner together is great because as the kids have gotten older, you’re not sure when those opportunities are going to happen. Now, we sit down and have dinner every night and have different interactions and conversations. I’ve really encouraged our staff to take advantage of that family time, too.”
THE VIDEOGRAPHER
‘It’s important we make sure they stay within the brand that is Illinois’
Derryl Myles planned to make sure his department had at least two workers at every NCAA tournament game involving the Illinois men’s basketball team.
And then three if the Illini advanced past the first weekend of the spectacle that typically consumes sports fans every March.
“We had some motivational videos planned for the team,” Myles said, “as well as an opening trailer in the works for the first game of the tournament.”
Myles, the 41-year-old assistant athletic director for video service at Illinois, never had the chance to see those plans through or see the multimedia work his staff of eight full-time employees could compile on a possible NCAA tournament run by the Illini. The coronavirus pandemic shuttered the college basketball season on March 12. A month later, Myles and his staff at Fighting Illini Productions, which also includes 35-45 student interns, have adapted to circumstances they probably never could have imagined.
“Information was changing so quickly,” Myles said about the initial days after the college basketball season ended and spring sports were canceled as well. “As soon as you composed a plan, you had to scrap it because you had new rules to operate. The shock for my department was, ‘What is our focus now?' Sure, you say social media, but what is that content? How much can you do when you have so many athletes hurting because their seasons had ripped from them. How do we edit from home? We share a server, so we all have to remote into that server. It took us about two weeks to get our feet under us.”
Now, Myles and his team are working on new initiatives to fill the void without live sporting events. In the past, April would usually see the video production staff at Illinois work on a variety of projects for spring sports, spring football, the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon and the OSKEEs, the annual student-athlete awards banquet.
“During late spring, we are typically starting to hash out an outline of what our football intro video may be,” Myles said, “along with graphic themes or technical changes that make our work more efficient.”
Recruiting comprises a big focus of what Myles and his staff are currently engaging in. With in-person and on-campus recruiting prohibited until May 31 by the NCAA, the video work they’re producing is key.
“The only way we can show off Illinois is through social media, which oftentimes means video,” Myles said. “We are trying to be lock and step with our coaches and understand their needs. What Brad Underwood needs is different from Brad Dancer. What Nadalie Walsh is trying to sell to recruits is a slightly different experience from what Tyra Perry is trying to sell. Each team has their own identity, but it’s important we make sure they stay within the brand that is Illinois. Be an individual, but be part of the same team.”
Myles is eagerly awaiting the resumption of college athletics. But being a husband to his wife, Allison, and dad to three sons, all under the age of 8, Myles realizes more is at stake right now than sporting events.
“I have a responsibility to make sure I’m not bringing this disease back to my house,” Myles said. “But I want to get back to normal. I miss the crowds. I miss the buzz before the start of a game or the anticipation of a championship event. I miss my own students putting together broadcasts for BTN and watching them grow. I miss the raw emotion of an athlete breaking through and finding that new level. College athletics is awesome, and I miss it.”
THE RECREATION DIRECTOR
‘April is go-time for us’
If there’s a recreational activity in Rantoul, chances are Luke Humphrey knows about it.
The 39-year-old recreation director for the village in northern Champaign County has held his current position since 2013 and has worked for the department since 2004.
But, it’s safe to say, the former two-sport high school standout in boys’ basketball and baseball with the Eagles — he was inducted into Rantoul Township High School’s Hall of Fame in 2011 — has never gone through a situation like the coronavirus pandemic.
Especially during one of his department’s busiest months.
“April is go-time for us,” Humphrey said. “We are typically prepping all outdoor spaces for spring programming like RTHS baseball and softball, Little League and more and preparing the pool for the season. The most tedious job in April is cleaning up all the sticks, trash, debris and leaves on our village and park properties.”
Along with baseball and softball diamonds to tend for at Wabash Park, Humphrey’s department also oversees facilites like the Hap Parker Family Aquatic Center, the Forum Fitness Center, the Youth Center and Prairie Pines Campground in the village, along with miles of walking and bikings paths, multiple parks and playgrounds.
The department features eight full-time employees and a large chunk of seasonal staff. But Humphrey is seeing his employees in a different way recently.
“We are practicing social distancing within our office areas and some staff are working from home,” Humphrey said. “The majority of our meetings are now held via Skype, Go-To Meeting or Cisco Webex.”
Along with making sure the facilities are taken care of, the department helps conduct summer programming, like youth baseball, softball and soccer leagues, along with the Rantoul Falcons youth football team and the Hurricanes swim team.
“Right now, we are in limbo on all of our summer programming, but we are planning as if the programming will go on after the end of April,” Humphrey said. “If new guidance comes down from the Governor, then we will adjust accordingly.”
While Humphrey works the majority of his days from the office, he gives major credit to his wife, Jennifer, for helping their 9-year-old daughter Avery and 7-year-old son Brody adapt to remote learning from home instead of attending school at St. Malachy Catholic School.
“It has been very neat to watch how they have applied at-home learning,” Humphrey said. “The real all-star so far has been my wife, and she deserves a huge thank you to her for everything she has done.”
Even amid the uncertainty, Humphrey said he is adapting to the changes, both work-wise and at home, that have come via the pandemic.
“I like to think we are just creating a new normal every day,” he said. “Life oftentimes is about adjusting, so just roll with it.”
Then again, Humphrey misses a few aspects of the job he may have taken for granted in the past.
“It might seem small,” he said, “but I wouldn’t mind the sound of the office phone ringing with questions about pool passes or Little League registration.”
THE LOCAL RADIO SPORTS PERSONALITY
‘My strength through years is being goofy — and right now, we need goofy more than anything’
Lon Tay figured he would spend most of his afternoons in March talking about Illinois basketball and its stay in the NCAA tournament.
The 49-year-old veteran local media personality, though, never anticipated he would probably talk to Jack Ingram last month.
But, such is living life and hosting a daily sports radio show on 93.5-FM during the coronavirus pandemic.
“A perfect example was watching the 2005 comeback by Illinois against Arizona while doing the show, and I mentioned out loud, ‘I wonder what Jack Ingram is up to these days?’” Tay said of the former Illini forward who was a key part of that team’s run to the NCAA championship game. “That then led to an FBI-like probe on Twitter to find Jack and get him on the show. It was a fun undertaking and something that I think our listeners really enjoyed.”
Tay, who lives in Philo, has been a familiar voice for area sports fans for almost the last 10 years on 93.5, first with Jeremy Werner on the ‘Tay and J Show,’ then with Mike Carpenter on ‘Tay and Carp,’ and now with Derek Piper on ‘The Drive.’ One constant, however, throughout all those shows is the ability to discuss live sporting events.
Not now.
“We have really challenged ourselves to think outside the box,” Tay said. “We have also decided to do more interviews on the show, since we don’t really have much to talk about. What has been great is the teamwork between our show and Jeremy Werner’s show in the morning. Jeremy, Austin Burklund, Derek, Trevor Vallese and I have really worked together to become imaginative with guests and to make sure we aren’t stepping on each other. It has become somewhat of a friendly competition to pull in guests, and I’m extremely proud of how all five of us have dug in these past few weeks.”
But the father of two sons — 20-year-old Lucas is a sophomore at Arizona State and 13-year-old Andrew is in seventh grade at St. Thomas in Philo — is more than ready for sports to resume.
“As a fan, this is quite simply brutal,” Tay said. “I will never again take for granted a random Tuesday night tilt between the Cardinals and Pirates or a late-night puck drop in San Jose between the Blues and Sharks.”
The pandemic has also affected Tay’s full-time day job working as co-owner of The Hillard Agency, Inc., which has offices in Villa Grove and Tuscola.
“Our agency has been around for more than 50 years, and we sell all lines of insurance, including personal, commercial and life,” Tay said. “Many of my insurance clients are being hurt by this, and it is a sick feeling knowing that this could drag on a few more months.”
An Illini fan for most of his life after having grown up in Camargo, Tay is already counting down the days until he can tailgate again before an Illinois football game at Memorial Stadium. And until sports can get back to how they were before they halted.
“If you take work out of the equation, sports is about 90 percent of my life,” Tay said. “Both of my boys have been active in one sport or another, and I have coached plenty of teams through the years. Jeremy Werner always laughs at me, but I think I’m the one idiot that will DVR a game and do everything I can to avoid seeing a score or knowing details. There were a couple of times this season where I was coaching an eighth-grade basketball game and Illinois was playing. I would literally avoid talking to anyone I thought would spoil it for me, and would not look at my phone or turn on the radio on the way home. I would then watch the game from start to finish, like it was being played live. I have always been like that with any sport.”
Just not in the last month with no sporting events to consume. Tay, though, is eager to see how he and his cohorts on radio can continue to discuss sports for two hours every weekday even amid the disruption of sports.
“We have always stayed in contact during the week, but now we really keep communication open, whether by text, e-mail or phone,” Tay said. “I told the boys that my strength through the years is being goofy — and right now, we need goofy more than anything.”
THE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
‘If we get to play at the beginning of May, they need to have their mind ready’
Ryan Bartley, Lucas Kresin, Logan Tabeling and Max Wyninger all experienced the baseball state tournament back in 2018.
The four Tuscola seniors were sophomores on that memorable Warriors’ team that ended up placing third in state in Class 2A, finishing that spring with a 38-4 record.
Aspirations were even higher going into 2020. After all, Tuscola compiled a 30-3 record last season and advanced to the Elite Eight last season, falling one game shy of a return trip to the state tournament in Peoria. With stalwarts like Tabeling, a Wright State signee, and Kresin, an Illinois-Springfield signee, both back in the fold, second-year coach Adam Carver had reason to feel good.
“We put in two hard weeks at practice to start the year, and our optimism was sky-high about how our season was going to go,” Carver said. “We’ve got all the pitching back that we had last year, so obviously when you have that coming back, the expectations are huge going into the year.”
All of those good vibes have to wait, though. And the only sky-high sensations the Warriors have experienced are watching a video Tuscola golf coach Toby Ring put together on Thursday night by flying a drone above the lights at both the baseball and softball fields at Ervin Park. The lights stayed on for 20 minutes, 20 seconds to recognize the Tuscola senior class that has yet to play a baseball or softball game this spring.
Along with fellow seniors Jacob Kibler and Jonah Pierce, Carver has the look of a veteran-laden team ripe with talent that was going to give the Douglas County community something to latch onto this baseball season.Instead, Tuscola is wondering, just like other high school baseball teams across the state, if they’ll play a game this season. The earliest that could transpire is next month since schools are closed through April because of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“I keep in contact with the boys and send them a text message every day to give them some recommendations and drills that they can work on,” Carver said. “I’m just trying to get them to stay as positive as they can. If we get to play at the beginning of May, they need to have their mind ready and their body ready.”
Leading the way is Tabeling. The 2019 News-Gazette All-Area Player of the Year posted nine wins on the mound and an area-best 126 strikeouts to go along with a 1.27 earned run average last season. But it’s unclear if the right-hander will get to throw his signature fastball, mixed in with a highly effective curveball, to any opposing batters this spring.
Carver appreciates that the Illinois High School Association hasn’t canceled spring sports yet, still offering up a sliver of hope they’ll take place in 2020 while neighboring states like Missouri and Indiana have already made that call.
“Our guys want to play as many games as they possibly can,” Carver said. “You don’t know how much you miss something until it’s gone. For me, it’s not near as big a deal, but for the six seniors we have, I’d really like to see them play their senior seasons out.”
THE DIVISION I COACH
‘We’re definitely being intentional about increasing our softball IQ right now’
Tyra Perry spent Wednesday afternoon this past week working with her outfielders on the Illinois softball team.
It just wasn’t the way the fifth-year Illini coach likely envisioned what an early April workout would look like when the 2020 season started back in February.
“I was just on a Zoom meeting going over outfield plays,” Perry said. “We were checking out some of what Ken Griffey Jr. did during his career, and then I asked, ‘Do you all know who he is?’ Most of them did, but some didn’t. We’re going to fix that.”
The coronavirus pandemic canceled the Illini softball season on March 12, along with every other spring sport at Illinois. Since then, Perry and her staff have adapted and evolved to how the pandemic has disrupted their spring.
“I’m really not all that great with technology, so that was really tough for me at first, but Zoom is a great tool since we have the social distancing going on,” Perry said of the video conference system. “We’re definitely being intentional about increasing our softball IQ right now, but most importantly, it gives me a chance to see their faces and ask how they’re doing.”
Perry said she is busy most days with various meetings via Zoom and conference calls, ranging from those with fellow Big Ten softball coaches to team meetings to meetings with the Illinois sports training staff.
“My first meeting the other day actually started at 9 in the morning and there was one at 7 that night,” Perry said. “It’s pretty busy.”
When she’s not virtually meeting with a variety of people, Perry is finding a chance to enjoy some down time.
“I’ve picked up ping pong and pickle ball here in the last few weeks and walking a lot through my neighborhood,” Perry said. “All using the appropriate social distancing.”
One place she hasn’t seen much of recently is Eichelberger Field. The home venue for Illinois softball has sat empty for roughly the last four weeks.
“The last time I was up there was maybe the Sunday after everything was canceled,” Perry said. “It’s been quite a few weeks, and they’ve asked us to stay out of the buildings because they’ve cleaned and sanitized them. I definitely will follow through on that, but I can’t wait to get back there once we’re allowed to.”
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Sunday Special | Impact of coronavirus on local sports community, Part III - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
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