Dobrich takes a timeout from basketball
Comments (...)Luke Dobrich grew up around the game of basketball with his dad's (Tom) Little Giants basketball teams at DePue High School and shooting baskets every chance he had. He became a Little Giants star himself, earning a Division I scholarship to Niagara University and a post-career job on the Niagara coaching staff.
After eight years of coaching, working his way up to become the associate head coach at Niagara, Dobrich walked away from the game after the 2010-11 season. He was at a crossroads in his career, wanting to become a head coach at the Division I level, but not finding any opportunities, and decided it was the right time to walk away.
"The dream and the goal was to get a job as a Division I head coach. Obviously, there's only 340 of those jobs in the world. So I started seeing my window as I was getting older starting to close. I decided to make this career change," he said.
"It was a great ride. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world, but kind of at the point of your life where like, "OK, you've got to make some kind of life decisions, sacrifices and those type of things.' I felt like it was the best move for me at the time," he said.
Dobrich served under Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich, who took over at Niagara at the start of Dobrich's junior season. Had Mihalich been be able to parlay Niagara's two NCAA appearances to land another job, Dobrich was hopeful to either go with him or take over at Niagara. Neither happened.
"He's not one of the young, sexy, up and coming coaches anymore. He's kind of like he old-school guy. He's an unbelievable coach. People should hire him. He should be at the highest level at Division I," Dobrich said of his former boss. "But sometimes, ADs and people want to win the press conferences. That's just the way it is, and I understand that.
"We had two NCAA and two NIT appearances and averaged 20 wins. I thought that success and the respect our program had would open some doors for me, and it really didn't happen."
Instead of waiting another eight years at Niagara and having a chance once Mihalich retired to take over, Dobrich decided to call a timeout. But it wasn't an easy decision.
"It was a scary change. A lot of sleepless nights trying to decide if it's the right thing to do. Your heart is tugging at you deciding to pull the plug on that dream," said Dobrich, who is now selling commercial insurance for a property casualty company in the Chicago area.
The 1996 BCR Basketball Player and Athlete of the Year admits he misses the game already, but certainly not that grueling schedule and the stress that comes with the territory.
"Having your job and livelihood depending on the decisions of an 18- or 19-year-old whether or not they go to class, get into trouble at night, break up with their girlfriend and have a bad game and you lose, and all of a sudden you're going to get fired. That type of stress I don't miss," he said.
I asked Dobrich about the possibilities of going to the Division III level to become a head coach. For now, that's not something he wants to entertain. He said you won't find any Division III coaches moving up to become a Division I head coach.
"It's a whole different world. The only place I've been is Division I," he said. "When you're at Division III, you're doing it all, driving the bus and it depends what school you're at, you don't have any assistants, and I'd probably be happy at that, too. That's just for the pure love of the game ... coaching. I respect those guys. It's a great life. I'm still young. There could be chances to do those kind of things in the future."
For now, he's enjoying life away from the game, particularly just having a life period. He said outside of two weeks off in August, you're living basketball every minute of the day, either coaching, scouting or recruiting at the Division I level.
"I was telling my mom and dad, this is the first time in eight years I knew what a Saturday is and not have to work on Saturdays, because we'd go seven days a week, 365," he said.
If he never gets back into coaching, Dobrich believes he is well prepared for whatever lies ahead because of the tools and skills he's learned coaching.
"When you're trying to coach guys and trying to pull things out of them, everything you do you have to do to the best and have an attention to detail. Otherwise, you're kind of living a lie if you're not giving 110 percent at everything that you're trying to get the same thing from others.
• Big Northern opens its doors: Apparently the Big Northern Conference is not done expanding after taking in Mendota and Rock Falls in the past two years. The conference released a statement at the principals meeting held Jan. 19 stating: "the league members voted to pursue the possibility of expanding the conference to 16 schools. Schools that are interested should send a letter of interest to Conference President Tom DuBois at Richmond-Burton High School. All inquiries will be kept confidential."
The BNC consists of 14 teams right now: Byron, Burlington Central, Genoa-Kingston, Harvard, Marengo, Mendota, North Boone, Oregon, Richmond-Burton, Rock Falls, Rockford Christian, Rockford Lutheran, Stillman Valley and Winnebago.
Kevin Hieronymus is the BCR Sports Editor. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com
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