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Supporting the Students of Niles Township

Meet New Chicago Bears Columnist, Marc Silverman (NN 1989)

By

Daily Herald

By Joe Stevenson
Shaw Local News Network
July 14, 2023

Click here for webpage     

"We had been looking for a columnist to cover the Bears. We wanted a talented writer with a significant social media following," Shaw Media president and CEO John Rung said. "We just weren't coming up with any names. One day I was listening to 'Waddle and Silvy' and Marc mentioned that he started his Chicago media career as a Bears beat reporter. It dawned on me that Marc would be perfect for the role“We had been looking for a columnist to cover the Bears. We wanted a talented writer with a significant social media following,” Shaw Media president and CEO John Rung said. “We just weren’t coming up with any names. One day I was listening to ‘Waddle and Silvy’ and Marc mentioned that he started his Chicago media career as a Bears beat reporter. It dawned on me that Marc would be perfect for the role.  (courtesy of Marc Silverman)

Marc Silverman truly is someone living the dream.

A self-described “newspaper nerd” as a kid, who, as a seventh grader, shadowed NBC Chicago’s Mark Giangreco for a homework assignment, sits behind a microphone most days for four hours and offers his opinions on sports on ESPN-1000 radio.

“I get to do what people do for fun. I get to spew my opinions on Chicago sports for a living,” Silverman said. “This is something people do during their free time. What they do to decompress, talk to their friends about sports. And that’s what I get to do for a living.

“Even though I’ve done it for so many years, it’s never lost upon me that this is how I make a living, getting to talk about our sports teams. Even if they aren’t very good at certain moments in time. Who could beat that?”

Silverman and his radio partner, former Bears receiver Tom Waddle, have 16-plus years together on the Waddle and Silvy show, from 2 to 6 p.m. on ESPN-1000, currently the longest-running sports talk duo on Chicago history.

Silverman will be sharing his opinions on the Bears with subscribers this season. He has been hired as Bears columnist.

WMVP,1000-AM is the new home of Bears’ broadcasts this season. Silverman will host the pregame show with former Bears linebacker Lance Briggs and ABC-7 sportscaster Dionne Miller. He will also do the halftime show.

“I don’t get to be on postgame, so this is kind of my postgame thoughts on everything,” Silverman said. “I’m coming at this from the lens of a fan. That’s how I do the (Waddle and Silvy) show. I’ve always come at this as a fan first. I’m doing this from, ‘Hey, this is what should happen from a fan’s perspective.’ How do we win and get what we deserve as fans?”

Silverman and his wife Allie live in Deerfield with their boys Mason (9) and Braxton (7). Silverman was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma in April 2020. He was treated by doctors from Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital and been in remission since August 2020.

Silverman grew up in Niles and graduated from Niles North in 1989. He attended Southern Illinois University and graduated with a degree in radio/television in 1993. His first broadcasting job was at KILR Radio in northwest Iowa after SIU.

Early in 1985, Silverman took a paid internship at WGN Radio, where he worked his way to part-time and then to full-time reporter, covering a lot of professional sports.

As a seventh-grader, Marc Silverman once shadowed NBC 5 Chicago's Mark Giangreco for a homework assignment. They remain close. As a seventh-grader, Marc Silverman once shadowed NBC 5 Chicago’s Mark Giangreco for a homework assignment.  They remain close. (courtesy of Marc Silverman)
In 1998, ESPN purchased AM-1000 and made it an all-sports station, and Silverman remains as the only original hire from that move.

Silverman fondly remembers watching Cubs games on a black-and-white TV with his mother Barbara at a young age. Whether it is true or not, Silverman said Barbara used to tell people his first words were, “Hey, hey!”, the famous catchphrase of late Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse.

When other children were job shadowing people like doctors or lawyers, Silverman, already leaning toward a career in media, chose Giangreco. While at SIU, Silverman interned with Giangreco at NBC, and Giangreco later was a weekly guest on Waddle and Silvy.

“We had been looking for a columnist to cover the Bears. We wanted a talented writer with a significant social media following,” Shaw Media president and CEO John Rung said. “We just weren’t coming up with any names. One day I was listening to ‘Waddle and Silvy’ and Marc mentioned that he started his Chicago media career as a Bears beat reporter. It dawned on me that Marc would be perfect for the role.”

Silverman has written some columns in the past for ESPN Chicago and now will get that opportunity on a regular basis.

“I’ve always wanted to write a column. I grew up in the city as a newspaper nerd,” Silverman said. “I would grab the papers and want to read what the great columnists in this town had to say. This is a legendary columnist town.

“I would listen to (Chet) Coppock on the air (AM-1000) and I would want to read what the great columnists had to say. I’d get the newspapers on the doorstep and I couldn’t wait to read them.”

Jewell Loyd (NW 2012) Named WNBA All-Star Game Starter for Second Time

By

WGN -9
by: 
June 26, 2023

Click here for webpage.

CHICAGO — A Chicagoland native continues to expand her professional basketball resume after being named a starter at the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game.

Niles West graduate and two-time WNBA Champion Jewell Loyd, 29, of Lincolnwood, has been named a starter for the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game. She also was named a starter in the 2019 WNBA All-Star Game.

The five-time WNBA All-Star currently leads the league in scoring with 25.4 points per game this season as well as four games with 30 points and ranks first in made threes (41).

Loyd is on track to challenge Diana Taurasi’s season scoring record of 25.29 points per game set in 2006.

The two-time All-WNBA Team selection has scored 305 points so far in the 2023 season, as she’s tied with Diana Taurasi for the second-most through a player’s first 12 games of a season in WNBA history (former Chicago Sky player Elena Delle Donne, 323).

After a successful high school and AAU career, Loyd took her talents to South Bend, Indiana, where she spent three seasons playing for the Notre Dame University Fighting Irish.

During her time, Loyd was named epsnW‘s National Player of the Year and the ACC Player of the Year in 2015. She was also named ACC Tournament MVP and helped the Fighting Irish reach the National Championship game in 2014 and 2015, but fell short both years to the University of Connecticut Huskies.

She holds the record at Notre Dame for most made free throws and attempts, as well as holds the third and fourth place spot for most points in a single season at Notre Dame.

Loyd was drafted first overall in the 2015 WNBA Draft and went on to win the WNBA Rookie of the Year. She helped the Seattle Storm win two Championships in her first eight seasons, as well as reaching the postseason seven of the eight years Loyd’s been in the league.

Loyd was also apart of the USA Women’s Basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

For more information on the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game selections, click here.

Daniel Cudzich (NW 2020) Receives Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship

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Click here for complete article

Illinois News Bureau, April 18, 2023

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois students Daniel Cudzich, Max Fan and Aidan Lindsay were awarded Barry M. Goldwater scholarships for their potential to contribute to the advancement of research in the natural sciences, mathematics or engineering.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Goldwater, who served 30 years in the U.S. Senate. The program encourages the continued development of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers by awarding scholarships to sophomores and juniors from the U.S. who intend to pursue doctorates. The scholarship provides recipients $7,500 annually towards undergraduate tuition, fees, books or room and board.

This year’s 413 scholars were selected from among an estimated pool of over 5,000 college sophomores and juniors from across the country who sought to become among the 1,267 students nominated by faculties of colleges and universities nationwide for the award, according to David Schug, director of the National and International Scholarships Program at Illinois.

“With so many amazing STEM students and research opportunities at Illinois, just being nominated by the campus for the Goldwater is quite a feat, as is evidenced by three of our four nominees earning the national award,” Schug said.

Daniel Cudzich

Cudzich, a junior from Niles, Illinois, and a graduate of Niles West High School, is pursuing a degree in materials science and engineering. Cudzich has compiled a 4.0 GPA as a member of both the college James Scholar Honors Program and the Campus Honors Program. He began researching novel battery types in high school. For the past three years, he has been working in the lab of Illinois materials science and engineering professor Paul Braun, under the mentorship of doctoral candidate Carlos Juarez-Yescas, developing solid-state electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries. Cudzich also participated in research experiences with Argonne National Laboratory, Panasonic and Apple Inc. At Illinois, he is active with THRUST, a student group striving to build a rocket that can reach the Karman line (100 km in altitude) with a liquid-fueled engine. Cudzich said he aspires to work at a national laboratory using electrochemical design to improve solid-state battery technologies.

 

Daniel Cudzich
Photo by Della Perrone/University of Illinois

Martin Yousif Zebari (NN 2011) Playwright and Actor in “Layalina”

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Playwright draws on immigrant and Skokie life experience to pen ‘Layalina’ at Goodman Theatre

Pioneer Press/Chicago Tribune

Direct link to article
Martin Yousif Zebari, who wrote the play "Layalina," playing at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, drew on memories of his youth in Baghad, Iraq and Skokie, Illinois. - Original Credit: Goodman Theatre

Martin Yousif Zebari, who wrote the play “Layalina,” playing at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, drew on memories of his youth in Baghad, Iraq and Skokie, Illinois. – Original Credit: Goodman Theatre (Liz Lauren / HANDOUT)

Memories of his childhood in war-torn Baghdad, and later starting as an immigrant fourth-grader in Skokie, had been running through Martin Yousif Zebari’s mind for years, but it wasn’t until the pandemic paused the actor’s stage career that Zebari had free time to shape those thoughts into a play.

The result, “Layalina,” running at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre through April 2, taps into Zebari’s memories of being a young child in an Assyrian family in Iraq and Syria and then living in Skokie’s thriving Assyrian-American community. It also continues the love of theater he honed at Lincoln Junior High and Niles North High School, where he acted in shows and tried his hand at set building and costume design.

The first act of “Layalina” shows how the close-knit Ibrahim family lived in Baghdad, celebrating family joys but enduring the stresses of protests and war, and then making the difficult decision to send the children off to safety in a place they knew only the name of—Skokie, Illinois. Act 2 shows the same family years later, when the children who were kindergarten age in Act 1 are wrestling with challenges of young adulthood, and some are finding their LGBTQ identities to various degrees.

Zebari, who uses they and he pronouns, said that while writing the play, he worked with the fact that his memories of Iraq were from a young child’s perspective.

“I lived in the Middle East until age 9, so many of my memories are more environmental and atmospheric than they are direct memories,” said Zebari, who was born in 1993 and said their family lived in Baghdad until they were six, then they moved to Syria for three years before coming to the United States.

“The play is loosely based on my family’s story of immigration, but it’s definitely not autobiographical,” Zebari said. “It’s based on memories I have and conversations I grew up listening to and relationship dynamics I witnessed, so while not everything is true to my family, it all comes from a firsthand experience of growing up in a torn childhood, because of immigration.”

Even as a young child, Zebari felt the danger in Iraq, and got the sense that their family was wrestling with wanting to stay in the place where their ancestors were born versus leaving to keep their children safe.

The family finally left the summer after Zebari completed third grade, and in the fall, he started fourth grade at Thomas Edison Elementary School. He’s grown up speaking Assyrian, then learned Arabic to go to school in Syria, then had to learn yet another language once he arrived here.

Martin Yousif Zebari drew on memories of his youth in Baghad, Iraq and Skokie, Illinois to write the play "Layalina," playing at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. - Original Credit: Goodman Theatre

Martin Yousif Zebari drew on memories of his youth in Baghad, Iraq and Skokie, Illinois to write the play “Layalina,” playing at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. – Original Credit: Goodman Theatre (Liz Lauren / HANDOUT)

 

Zebari came with his parents and three siblings, because two older brothers had already grown and gone out on their own. The family of six lived in a two-bedroom apartment.

“My dad was a successful business person and had some big deal degrees,” Zebari said. “My family was doing really well financially but then when you have to change your life…sometimes the money goes with it. We moved here and became a working class family.

“That’s another thing the play touches on is–what do you have left, what do you rely on when you don’t have the wealth and status you once had? How does that affect your new home and way you view the world?”

Zebari’s main responsibility at that age, of course, was to go to school. He remembers taking theater classes for his entire time at Niles North and participating in seven to nine shows a year there before going to Illinois State University and majoring in acting and costume design, then working as an actor.

Zebari has lived in several Chicago neighborhoods and moved to Los Angeles about a year ago, but is staying here through the run of “Layalina.”

Thinking back on his time in Skokie, the village’s cultural, religious, ethnic and racial diversity stands out for him. Most of his friends were Jewish, he said, and he remembers going to shabbat dinners and hanging out with their families.

“Because (Skokie) was my first experience in America, I grew up with a spoiled sense of diversity because i thought the rest of the world was that way,” Zebari said. “Then I learned other areas of the city were extremely segregated.

“I had a really beautiful rich childhood in America. I got to experience the country in a way most people don’t.”

If you go: Layalina, at Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, Illinois. https://www.goodmantheatre.org/

James O’Malley (NN 1983) Finalist for Golden Apple Award

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Click here for full article

Earlier this month, District 69′s Thomas Edison Elementary School teacher James O’ Malley was announced as a 2023 Golden Apple nominee. The nonprofit Golden Apple Foundation is committed to encouraging and recognizing great teachers, according to its news release.

James O'Malley.O’ Malley, who has taught at Edison for 29 years, is one of 30 Illinois fourth-through-eighth grade teachers named as a finalist for the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching.

A Skokie native and Niles North High School graduate, O’Malley noted he was always intrigued by the possibility of instructing children.

“I felt school was a positive, happy place, as it should be,” he said. “When I ended up at a school, I wanted to make sure I was a teacher that remained cognizant of the things that allowed me to succeed as a student.”

O’ Malley teaches fifth grade in a science-themed classroom where children are allowed to handle fossils and artifacts, and he presides over the elementary school’s annual Science Fair and Science Olympiad.

“Kids, I have found, are naturally drawn to science, and to me, science is a hook that draws kids into education, whether it is reading or writing. It inspires them and it has really been a tool to help kids succeed,” O’Malley said.

He is also the sponsor of the school’s chess club.

O’ Malley’s efforts extend beyond Morton Grove as the Grayslake resident is an assistant coach on Grayslake Central’s High School football and track teams. He is also a National Board Certified Teacher, an adjunct professor at Southern Illinois University and teaches at a satellite location of College of Lake County.

His Golden Apple nomination follows other previous honors including being one of four teachers, O’ Malley received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching from President Barack Obama.

O’Malley emphasized he loves supporting and interacting with his students.

“I get to know them as individuals and then responding to whatever they need as an individual to continue to succeed is super important but it is also fun to process who they are, what they are interested in and what needs they have and do my best to provide them with those needs, whatever they might be,” he said.

O’Malley’s Golden Apple nomination was enthusiastically greeted at his home school.

“Dr. O’Malley has had an incredible impact on the students of District 69. His ability to build strong and meaningful relationships, engage students in innovative and creative ways in the classroom, and his commitment to supporting community events is truly inspiring,” Edison School Principal Andy Carpenter said in a statement. “We are so proud of this recognition for Dr. O’Malley!”

Niles North NCAA Stars Shine!

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We are very proud to have two Niles North alum competing in the 2023 NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament.
Senior Damaria Franklin (NN Class of 2018) currently plays for Memphis whose team just won its conference tournament, defeating top ranked Houston. 
Sophomore Aquan Smart (NN Class of 2020) currently plays for Southeast Missouri State whose team also won its conference tournament to earn a berth in March Madness. 

Irena Petryk (NW 2020) Named 2023 Rhodes Scholar

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‘Natural diplomat’ Irena Petryk named a 2023 Rhodes Scholar

Northwestern senior is interested in foreign policy and will study economic development at Oxford University in fall 2023

Northwestern Now
November 14, 2022 |
By Stephen Anzaldi
(Link to article)
irena petryk
A Weinberg College senior from Morton Grove, Ill., Irena Petryk majors in economics and international studies. She is interested in U.S. foreign policy and strengthening international commitments on economic development.
Northwestern University student Irena Petryk has been named a 2023 Rhodes Scholar.

A senior in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Petryk is majoring in economics and international studies. She is interested in U.S. foreign policy and strengthening international commitments on economic development.

The Rhodes Scholarships, the oldest and perhaps best-known award for international study, provide all expenses for multiple years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Scholars are chosen not only for exceptional academic achievement but also a demonstrated ambition for social impact.

“I am so proud of Irena, whose amazing scholarship, dedication and hard work represent what Northwestern strives for in all things,” President Michael Schill said. “Being named a Rhodes Scholar is an incredible accomplishment, and I cannot wait to see how Irena uses this opportunity to make an even greater impact on the world.”

The daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, Petryk is lending a hand to help support Ukraine and shine a light on the country’s plight at a time when the Russian invasion has stretched beyond 250 days and the fighting continues.

“My mother was actually in Ukraine at the start of the war,” Petryk recalled. “She told me to focus on school instead of worrying about her. Of course, that lasted one day. At the time, I felt frustrated and useless.”

That’s when she joined fellow Ukrainian Americans, international students and friends to create the Ukrainian Club at Northwestern. Since the invasion began in February, the club has helped raise awareness and money — selling ribbons and baked goods, and hosting movie nights, a campus vigil and a recent concert for Ukraine featuring Northwestern musicians.

“It feels good to help support organizations on the ground there,” Petryk said, “especially considering all the senseless violence. This conflict was not inevitable — it was the product of choices made by people in power.”

The Rhodes Scholarships, the oldest and perhaps best-known award for international study, provide all expenses at the University of Oxford in England. Scholars are chosen for exceptional academic achievement and their ambition for social impact. (Getty Images)

 

Even before she arrived at Northwestern, Petryk had service on her mind. As a high school student in nearby Morton Grove, Ill., only a half-dozen miles from Evanston, she learned to appreciate the value of education and the impact she could have on the world. She volunteered with Expanding Lives, a Chicago non-profit that hosts young women from Benin and Niger, Africa and empowers them to become leaders in their home communities.

“These women are the first in their family to attend high school,” Petryk said. “Getting to know them, I became struck by their stories of how difficult that really is. I’d taken my access to education for granted, but I realized then how special it was to attend school without worrying about financial and cultural barriers.”

This year, Petryk is one of 32 Rhodes Scholars selected from the U.S. With these latest elections, 3,610 Americans now have won Rhodes Scholarships, representing 327 colleges and universities.

“The Rhodes Trust seeks scholars who ‘stand up for the world,’” said Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, director of Northwestern’s Office of Fellowships. “At only twenty years old, Irena has already devoted her remarkable talents to the service of others in West Africa, Southeast Asia, the American Midwest and Ukraine. She’s a natural diplomat with the unflappable intelligence needed to confront and diffuse conflict.”

Through her research at Northwestern, Petryk uses quantitative analysis techniques with detailed data from Thailand as she seeks to understand how poor households in developing countries respond to difficult events like floods and family illness, and how communities come together to help each other out, according to her advisor Lori Beaman, a professor of economics at the Weinberg College.

“We are thrilled to see a Weinberg College student recognized as a Rhodes Scholar,” said Dean Adrian Randolph. “Irena’s service, work and vision for the future embody the mindset at the College — to not only understand the pressing issues our world faces today but to transform them into promising new opportunities for the future.”

This fall, Petryk is serving as an intern with the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which is charged with advising the president on economic policy based on data, research and evidence. She spent the summer of 2022 working at the U.S. Department of State, and she has also interned at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Northwestern students interested in pursuing scholarship and fellowship opportunities can contact the Office of Fellowships.

Coach Jim Sullivan (NN 1976) Celebrated

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Coach: Just don’t call Jim Sullivan ‘the old man on the end of the bench’

By Jon Cohn
Coach’s Corner
Updated11/29/2022 12:04 PM

After coaching for many years at Maine West High School, where he had a tremendous eight-year run -- the best in the school's history -- Jim Sullivan finally stepped away from coaching. Or so he thought.

After coaching for many years at Maine West High School, where he had a tremendous eight-year run — the best in the school’s history — Jim Sullivan finally stepped away from coaching. Or so he thought. (Courtesy of Jim Sullivan

Coach Jim Sullivan has been there and done that in the Chicago suburban high school basketball scene for many years now, winning regional and sectional titles, getting a team downstate and being inducted into the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame.

But just about every time he thinks maybe it’s time to step away and take some time off, something or somebody keeps calling him back.

His latest return to the high school hoops scene? With our very own Glenbrook North Spartans as the lead assistant to third-year head coach Quinn Hayes.

“Just to show you how old I am,” says Sullivan, “I used to coach against Quinn when he was in high school and played for St. Viator. He was a heck of player back then. We scouted all kinds of ways to stop him and he still put up 25 points on us with regularity.”

Better to be with him than coach against him, I guess. Sullivan joined the GBN staff 3 years ago, and now the two work closely together.

The seeds of their relationship were planted all along the way. Hayes kept in touch with Sullivan after high school, and when he finished his college playing career and started coaching, he would constantly tap Sullivan for advice and expertise.

It was just a matter of time before the two connected in a closer way.

“A few years ago, Quinn mentioned to me he may be taking on a new coaching job (Hayes at that point had been the longtime coach at his alma mater, St. Viator), and he asked would I be interested in joining?” Sullivan said.

“I had just left one coaching job and was thinking of taking some time off, but I was intrigued by this new challenge, and always respected Quinn and thought it would be fun to coach with him.”

Actually, the theme of “trying” to take some time away, but continually getting called back into coaching, kind of runs through Sullivan’s illustrious coaching career.

After coaching for many years at Maine West High School, where he had a tremendous eight-year run — the best in the school’s history — winning four regional titles, sectional titles, and bringing a star-studded team led by future college stars Lucas Johnson and Kevin Frey to a fourth-place state finish, Sullivan finally stepped away from coaching.

Or so he thought.

It wasn’t long after his first attempted “step away” before his phone was ringing. Schaumburg coach Bob Williams contacted him and asked him to join his staff, so Sully, who had taken a couple years off, decided to jump back in the game.

Good move. He was on the bench when that Schaumburg team made one of the great underdog runs in IHSA history, eventually winning the state championship over a powerful Thornwood team.

After that great run, Sullivan stepped away from coaching again, finally seeking time to get some rest. The time off was short-lived. When young coach Matt Walsh was named the new coach at Schaumburg, guess who received one of his first calls?

Back to coaching it was for Sullivan, and he had a good three-year run, a second time around, with the Saxons.

Now, finally time for a break? Nah. Nearby Hoffman Estates High School had just hired longtime Schaumburg assistant and good friend Luke Yanulle to be their head coach. Yanulle’s first contact to find an assistant? Bingo. Back to the coaching grind for Coach Sully, this time for the mighty Hawks.

“I thought going to Hoffman Estates would be an interesting challenge. New environment, new program, new coach, and I thought it would be nice to work with Luke in his first head coaching job. I really enjoyed it there, and working with Coach Yanulle was great.”

That lasted a solid seven years, finally ending when Yanulle decided to step down to spend more time with his ailing father.

So, at long last, the hall of fame coaching career was finally going to come to a close.

“That was the plan,” laughs Sullivan. “I was actually thinking of moving to Arizona and made a few contacts down there for potential jobs. I was kind of looking forward to it, but my father passed away and I made the decision to stay here and help out with my mom.”

If we haven’t learned the lesson by now, it is that if Coach Sullivan is not employed, and is anywhere in the general vicinity of a Chicagoland gymnasium, his phone will start to ring.

Sure enough, new Glenbrook North coach Quinn Hayes contacted his good friend and gave coach his best sales pitch … and off to the green and gold he went.

“I got some definite flak from my old Maine West players,” says Sully, laughing. “Back then our number one conference rival was Glenbrook North, so they couldn’t believe I was now going over to ‘the dark side’ to join their program.

“I told Coach Hayes when I took the job, I wanted to be actively involved. I didn’t want to just be the old guy on the end of the bench, and he has been great about it. He allows me to have a voice, both in practice and in games, and I feel like I have an impact with the team and the kids.”

This year, his third with the program, Sullivan runs the Spartan defense. I asked him what keeps bringing him back to the game of basketball? Especially since he was a baseball and hockey athlete while attending Niles North High School, circa 1976.

“I love the activity and the speed of the game most of all. The end-to-end action,” Sullivan said. “I have always been fascinated with the strategy and the chess match that goes on within the game. It was never my plan early in my career to get that heavily involved into basketball coaching, but I kind of just fell in love with the game along the way.”

So, after some 40 years coaching at various ranks, Sullivan will have a seat again this year on the Spartans hoops bench and — rest assured — it won’t be at the end of the bench. Coach Sullivan will be right next to head coach Hayes, and the two will work their coaching magic together.

Will’s Place starts construction for cafe in downtown Skokie; will provide jobs for disabled adults

By

Pioneer Press

(Link to Article)
William Schejbal is all smiles as he and others are about to rip out a wall at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking of Will's Place, 7927 Lincoln Avenue, in downtown Skokie. The cafe and shop will employ adults with developmental disabilities.
William Schejbal is all smiles as he and others are about to rip out a wall at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking of Will’s Place, 7927 Lincoln Avenue, in downtown Skokie. The cafe and shop will employ adults with developmental disabilities. (Elena Ferrarin / Pioneer Press)

William Schejbal can’t wait to make “yummy sandwiches,” and those who know him say they can’t wait to taste them and get a dose of his sunny disposition.

The 22-year-old was all smiles last week at the groundbreaking of Will’s Place, a café and general store expected to open in the spring at 7927 Lincoln Avenue, in downtown Skokie.

Will’s Place will employ adults with developmental disabilities, and Schejbal, who lives in Lincolnwood and has special needs, will work there, too.

The venture is backed by Schejbal’s family, including his mother, Joan Hallagan, and his aunt Cathy Maassen, who plans to retire from the Skokie Public Library when Will’s Place opens.

Joan Hallagan, left, talks about her son, William Schejbal, 22, second from left, who gets a hug from Hallagan's sister Cathy Maassen, at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking for Will's Place in downtown Skokie. William's family joined forces to launch the cafe and shop, which will employ adults with developmental disabilities.
Joan Hallagan, left, talks about her son, William Schejbal, 22, second from left, who gets a hug from Hallagan’s sister Cathy Maassen, at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking for Will’s Place in downtown Skokie. William’s family joined forces to launch the cafe and shop, which will employ adults with developmental disabilities. (Elena Ferrarin / Pioneer Press)

Schejbal’s cousin, Chicago-based chef Michael Pfeiffer, will create the “chef-driven, ingredient-focused breakfast and lunch menu,” and another cousin will run the cafe. The general store will feature pre-packaged food like sauces, fresh pasta and charcuterie boards, as well as baked goods, fresh flowers, and home goods made locally.

The family has created a nonprofit named Will’s Place and is fundraising via a GoFundMe page.

The space on Lincoln Avenue used to hold Mini Man Monkey Brains, a candy store where people on the autism spectrum could develop occupational skills.

The groundbreaking for Will’s Place on Oct. 25 drew a crowd of relatives, friends, elected officials, and representatives and clients of agencies who serve people with disabilities.

“If there is anything that gives a spark of brightness to the downtown in Skokie, it’s this kind of development,” Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen said.

William Schejbal, left, and friend Veronica Grde at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking of Will's Place, 7927 Lincoln Avenue, in downtown Skokie. The new cafe and shop will employ adults with developmental disabilities.
William Schejbal, left, and friend Veronica Grde at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking of Will’s Place, 7927 Lincoln Avenue, in downtown Skokie. The new cafe and shop will employ adults with developmental disabilities. (Elena Ferrarin / Pioneer Press)

The village of Skokie is supporting the new business with a commercial corridor storefront enhancement program grant of up to $41,098 for interior and exterior work. The village board approved the grant Oct. 18.

The groundbreaking was also attended by Lincolnwood Mayor Jesal Patel, who said William “had a presence about him” since he was a little boy.

Schejbal, who loves to cook, turned 22 this year, and there just aren’t enough employment options for adults with disabilities, Hallagan said. Will’s Place hopes to employ up to 30 people once business is in full swing, she said.

A total 41.1 million non-institutionalized adults have a disability, representing 12.7% of the population, but only 7.9 million of those ages 18 to 64 were employed, according to the 2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey.

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky spoke at the event about the need to provide more employment opportunities for adults with special needs, whose public benefits largely end at age 22.

“We need to change the rules of the game. We can’t always rely on not-for-profit organizations,” Schakowsky said. “We have the richest country in the world at the richest point in history, and certainly we can find the funding and the way to make sure that all people can contribute.”

Schejbal, who was homecoming king in 2019 at Niles West High School, was adopted as a baby in Vietnam. Hallagan, his mother, said she later found out that he’d suffered a stroke at birth, caused by malnutrition, that had done neurological damage.

Despite his challenges, Schejbal learned to walk and use alternative means of communication —last week, he used the iPad app TouchChat, which turns typing into spoken words — while making friends wherever he went, his mother said.

“As a parent of a disabled child, I’ve spent years managing my expectations as it became clear that this world isn’t always designed for children like my son,” she wrote on the GoFundMe page. “The joy and love that William has brought into my family and his community is impossible to articulate or measure. My goal is to give back to William the happiness he has given all of us.”

William Schejbal, second from left, and others rip out a wall at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking of Will's Place, 7927 Lincoln Avenue, in downtown Skokie. The new cafe and shop will employ adults with developmental disabilities.

Schejbal never fails to stand out, said Antoinette Cox, a youth mentor/tutor for the nonprofit Marillac St. Vincent Family Services, based in Chicago.

“He’s so sweet and well-mannered,” Cox said. “He’s always helpful, he’s always extending a hand. He is just so jolly and so happy. You’ll never forget him.”

 

William Schejbal, second from left, and others rip out a wall at the Oct. 25 groundbreaking of Will’s Place, 7927 Lincoln Avenue, in downtown Skokie. The new cafe and shop will employ adults with developmental disabilities. (Elena Ferrarin / Pioneer Press)