Mike Kennedy

(Head Coach) Email Coach Kennedy

Coach Kennedy has returned from his Sabbatical with the United States Department of Education to once again take the reigns of the track team.

A National Board Certified Physics Teacher at Neuqua Valley, Coach Mike Kennedy spent 7 years as the Head Track and Field Coach and 11 years with the program. During his tenure, Kennedy has seen the team grow so large that a tryout process had to be instituted. In 2007, he saw his team on the trophy stand with a second place trophy; they returned only a year later with a third place team finish. Coach Kennedy was named as AA Track and Field Coach of the Year in 2005.

During his time with the Neuqua Valley team, Kennedy has coached numerous state qualifiers as well as All-State relays and athletes. In 2005, Kennedy coached Prince Riley to become the first Track and Field State Champion for Neuqua Valley. He has also coached two state champion 4X400m relays.

Kennedy competed in Track and Field for Marist High School and for the University of Chicago mainly as a 400m hurdler. He also coached Track and Field and Cross-Country at Marist High School from 1997-2000 in addition to Cross-Country for Neuqua Valley from 2000-2003.

James Janota

(Assistant Coach – Distance) Email Coach Janota

After filling in for Coach Kennedy last season, where he led the track team to tie our number of state meet qualifiers, Coach Janota returns to lead the distance squad in 2012. Coach Janota has been active in Cross Country and Track and Field since the age of 10. He graduated from Holy Cross High School in 1994 and remains one of the most accomplished runners in that school’s history, earning most valuable honors four out of his eight total seasons. He earned both of his degrees from Dominican University; a Bachelor’s degree in English Education in 1998 and a Master’s degree in Educational Administration in 2002. James was recently awarded National Board Certification by the National Board of Education in November 2008.

James began his professional career at Saint Patrick High School in Chicago where he served as both an Assistant Cross Country Coach for two years and an Assistant Track and Field Coach for four years. In 2000, Dominican University, his alma mater, sanctioned its first Cross Country Team in its over 100 year history, and James was tapped to head up both the men’s and women’s programs. During his tenure for both these schools, he has coached numerous athletes who have become conference champions and state qualifiers.

Now in his fourteenth overall year of coaching, James begins his tenth year at Neuqua Valley as both a member of the Men’s Cross Country and Men’s Track and Field coaching staffs.

Steve Saul

(Assistant Coach – Sprints) Email Coach Saul

Coach Saul is in his sixth year of teaching English and coaching cross country and track at Neuqua Valley High School. Coach Saul graduated from Illinois State University in May of 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in English education. A native of Lisle, Il, Coach Saul attended Benet Academy and graduated in 2001. Initially, he attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with an aspiration to be an architect, but switched majors and schools after an introductory education class evoked a passion for teaching and working with youth.

Coach Saul’s competitive running career spanned from a race he entered “just for fun” in fourth grade to his junior year of college. At Benet, he was a freshman/sophomore captain for his first two years and a varsity captain as a junior and senior. Senior year, Coach Saul led his team to an East Suburban Catholic Conference championship and qualified for the state cross country meet as an individual. His best 3 mile high school time was 14:34. Also an avid track runner, coach Saul was a varsity track captain in high school and qualified for state with his 4x800m relay team and as an individual in the 1600m run (personal best 4:24).

A competitive collegiate running career at UWM provided Coach Saul with a wealth of Division I experience as he participated in meets that featured perennial powerhouses such as Colorado, Wisconsin, Stanford, and Michigan. As team captain during his sophomore cross-country season, Coach Saul earned all-league honors as he led his team to a fourth place finish. After transferring to Illinois State to pursue his degree in education, Coach Saul ended his collegiate running career with personal bests in the Mile (4:17) the 8000m run (25:30) and the 5000m run (14:53). He is a proud husband, and father of a newborn girl.

Coach Ragusa

(Assistant Coach- Jumps/Pole Vault) Email Coach Ragusa

Coach Ragusa is in his third year teaching Chemistry and coaching track and field. Coach Ragusa graduated from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in May of 2009 with a Bachelor in Science, specializing in Chemistry. While at U of I, Coach Ragusa also worked in a research lab working on applications with Nanotechnology.

Growing up in Naperville, Coach Ragusa is a Neuqua Valley Alumni who started his track and field career at Neuqua Valley as a sprinter and  pole vaulter. By the end of his career as a Neuqua Valley athlete, Coach Ragusa held school records in the 4X200m Relay indoor and outdoor, the 4x100m Relay outdoors, and the Outdoor pole vault record.  He qualified down to the Illinois State track meet in both the polevault and 4x200m relay. Coach Ragusa continued his track career at the University of Illinois where he pole vaulted for the Fighting Illini for 4 years, earning Academic-All-Big-Ten awards and jumping a best of 4.91m in the pole vault. Coach Ragusa helped coach his younger brother, Nick, break his pole vault school record, and he now also jumps at the college level for Illinois State University.

Coach Vandersteen

(Assistant Coach – Middle Distance) Email Coach Vandersteen

Coach Paul Vandersteen is the head coach of the NV cross country program and joins the staff for one year to replace Coach Kennedy who is on sabatical in Washington, D.C.  Since the xc program’s inception fourteen years ago, it has grown to 168 men (185 men are part of the summer program, grades 5-12) and is regarded as one of the top programs in the State.  The Wildcats have placed in the top 15 the last nine years at the IHSA State Meet, while winning the state title in the fall of 2007 and 2009 and finishing 3rd in 2010. Under the Naperville Track Club, The 2007, 2009, and 2010 teams also qualified for the Nike Team National competition Portland, Oregon, and were champions in ’07 and placed 12th in ’09 and ’10.

An avid runner since the age of nine, his age-group performances ranked him nationally in all distance events.  As a 6th grader, he ran 4:58 for a mile and he was the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Champion at the age of 14.  In 8th grade, he ran a 4:42 mile and ran 33:00 for a certified 6 mile race.  As a high school sophomore, he was an All-State performer in cross country (12:29 for 2.5 miles) while attending Bloomington South High School in Bloomington, Indiana.  After moving, and graduating from Sterling H.S. in Sterling, Illinois, he went on to compete at Northern Illinois University his freshman year before the program was eliminated due to budget cuts. He went on to compete briefly at The University of Iowa where he received his degree in exercise science with an emphasis in science education.

Coach Vandersteen has twenty three years of coaching experience. His coaching resume includes the head women’s track and field coach and assistant cross country coach at Peoria Notre Dame High School and the assistant women’s track and field coach at Pekin Community High School. After moving to the suburbs of Chicago, he coached the hurdlers and distance runners at Waubonsie Valley High School before transferring to Neuqua Valley. He has had numerous state qualifiers and 24 state placers during his coaching career.

Coach Ricca

(Assistant Coach – Throws) Email Coach Ricca

Coach Ricca is in his fifth year of teaching Physical Education.  He has coached Football all four of those years. He has coached the throws the last two years and is now coaching the high jump this year.  Coach Ricca graduated from Taylor University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education and Health Education.  He coached three years at Taylor University working with the Football team.  Coach Ricca is a graduate from Neuqua Valley, class of 2003.  His class was the only one at Neuqua to ever be present all four years with all four classes in the same building.

He played Football while he was a student at Neuqua for two years before having a massive ski accident that left him unable to play Football again.  Coach Ricca threw for the Track and Field team during his freshman and sophomore year as well.  He finished high school helping coach the varsity Football team.