Glory Days With Former Coach Jim Condill

It was clear for Fox Valley boys basketball teams that Crystal Lake Central was not the place to visit in the winter of 1996-97. The home-standing Tigers, coached by Jim Condill, were the class of the league and entering their den was not a good idea.

“We had a 36-game winning streak at home,” Condill said. “Those last three years, we didn’t lose a game at home. I was awfully fortunate. We had some great crowds.”

It’s been 13 years since Condill coached the Tigers and, until this past winter, Crystal Lake Central had not put together a 20-win season. In Condill’s day 20-win seasons were the norm.

Condill’s coaching career at Cary-Grove opened in the 1976 season and his first team notched 15 wins. That would be his only winning season in an eight-year stint. Sprinkled in there were a pair of two-win seasons.

“That was kind of a rough job then,” he said.

And then a health teaching job opened at Central. And it wasn’t exactly like Condill was handed a powerful team — the 1992-93 Tigers went 2-23.

“We would like to fast break,” he said. “We had a Kentucky passing game. We would play man-to-man and some zone.”

Condill was quick to point out that his coaching staff chipped in with plenty of help. Along for the ride were coaches Mike Smalley, Tom Mueller, Jay Sergeant, Craig Kingston and Dave Leary.

There was a 12-game improvement that first season at Central in 1993-94. In the next four seasons, the Tigers didn’t win less than 21 games.

Along for those great runs was the coach’s son, Luke Condill. He would go on to play at Weber State and professionally in Europe.

“I had a pretty tough schedule,” he said. “We had a lot of good players. They were learning a new system. Luke was the player of the year in the area.”

In that four-year sprint, the Tigers won 95 games. There were three conference championships and four regional titles.

Some of the players in that great era of hoops were Bob Carmody, Ben Pucci, Jai Lozan, Ryan Riebe, Tom Mosolino, Andy Watson, Luke Mueller, Dan Matlock and Eric Anderson.

By 1996, the Tigers were one of the top teams in the state. And fans came out to see this team.

“The bleachers at both ends of the gym were full,” he said. “We were winning our league games by an average of 23 points. We really should have won state.”

This club was ranked as high as 15th in the state. Condill’s team won tournaments in Hoffman Estates and Jacobs. The Tigers broke the school record for victories.

Central took that 28-2 mark to the playoffs. On March 14, 1997, Rockford Boylan nipped the Tigers 72-68 to win the Belvidere Sectional.

“We were within three points with a minute to go,” Condill recalled.

Condill’s last club at Central still won 23 games, giving him a memorable 109-32 mark in five seasons.

And then the new school, Prairie Ridge, opened. Condill had seen a split in schools before and it was time for him to move on.

And it wasn’t like he just faded away. Condill took his coaching skills to minor league basketball in Elgin and the Quad Cities. He followed a trail to Buffalo, N.Y., and even to Kuwait and Mexico.

“Those semi-pro players were really good,” he said. “And overseas, they paid pretty well.”

For an athlete who had played football, baseball and basketball at Barrington High School, he’s invested plenty of time in the indoor game of basketball.

“After 45 years of coaching, I’m still trying to get a job,” he said. “I volunteered at Prairie Ridge. I’ve been awfully fortunate.”