Dan Sappenfield reaches 200 wins: recognizes players, parents and love for the game
By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Dan Sappenfield made his debut in coaching the way many others have gotten their starts.
He was a dutiful dad.
As his children started showing an interest in sports, he volunteered to help with the programs in which they were involved.
“T-ball, Little League and you progress up the line,” Sappenfield said.
He eventually spent a year coaching junior high girls’ basketball in Villa Grove and then served as the high school junior varsity coach for three seasons, starting in the fall of 2003. In Year 2, Sappenfield’s daughter Chelsea was a freshman and a member of the team.
When the former VG girls’ basketball head coach, Todd Shunk, resigned prior to Chelsea Sappenfield’s junior year, dad stepped in again.
“I thought I would stay a couple of years,” Dan Sappenfield said.
His tenure is still continuing. On Monday, the 14th-year head coach earned career win No. 200 when his Villa Grove/Heritage team posted a 70-21 triumph at home over Decatur Lutheran.
“Two hundred is another number,” he said, “but I won’t downplay it. Two hundred is a little different.”
On Saturday, when he had his first shot at the milestone, nearly three dozen former players were in the stands. Two days later, Sappenfield said there was still a “tremendous support group.”
One night after the 200th win was earned, his Blue Devils recorded another victory of significance.
In Tuesday’s 77-9 decision over Georgetown-Ridge Farm, VG/H reached the 20-win mark. Going back 30 years, this is the first time for Villa Grove to have back-to-back 20-win seasons in girls’ basketball. (Heritage girls’ basketball teams enjoyed consecutive 20-win seasons three times prior to the formation of the co-op).
“The wins are awesome, but what I enjoy is watching the kids excel in a way that maybe they didn’t know they had the ability to, and see how 12 to 15 kids can come together as a group,” Dan Sappenfield said.
“You have pieces to a puzzle that you have to use to make a perfect picture by the end of the year.”
Sappenfield is not one to keep track of his individual achievements.
Ask him about his first varsity victory and he said, “I don’t remember.”
Career win No. 100? The response is the same.
That’s not what he’s about.
“We want to make the experience as positive as we can for the kids and teach them to be good women, and strong,” Sappenfield said. “There’s pressure, but it’s good pressure.
“The kids know what they will get when they come into my program. They know we try to keep consistency as we build the program.”
The term “consistency” is not a misnomer.
“My practice plans look pretty similar to when I started,” Sappenfield said. “I have every practice plan and, in fact, our first three practices this year were the same as the first three my first year (2006-07).
“Don’t make it more complicated than you have to.”
The practice days that followed this season were somewhat different out of necessity.
“We’ve made some adjustments because our personnel the last couple of years has been so much more athletic,” he said.
Sappenfield doesn’t spend his days in a school building. He is part of the Boyer & Sappenfield Investment Advisors group, a job he has held for 29 years.
“Every day at 3:30, no matter what goes on during the day helping people with finances and the markets, coaching gives you a respite,” Sappenfield said.
His clients are understanding as the mid-afternoon hours draw near.
“I have amazing clients who know my love of the game,” Sappenfield said. “The first thing they will ask is, ‘How is the season going?’”
During his time on the sidelines, Sappenfield has made adjustments based on personnel, but he doesn’t alter much of his personal philosophy.
“I try to be as consistent and fair with the kids as I can,” he said. “For them, it’s not important how much you know. They want to see that you care.”
Sappenfield has been that person. For his first seven years as the head coach, the program consisted solely of Villa Grove athletes. The past seven have included students from Heritage as the co-op was implemented.
“The co-op brings in different personalities,” Sappenfield said, “and our job is to make it as cohesive as possible.”
Teen-agers who have been rivals previously now find themselves on the same side. Sappenfield knows what is possible based on the early years of the co-op.
Villa Grove’s Alix Ezell and Heritage’s Micaela Childress first got together as teammates.
“And now, they are still good friends,” Sappenfield said. “They never would have been friends without the co-op.”
Sappenfield’s original target of coaching a couple of years has been far exceeded, but the 54-year-old doesn’t see retirement in his near future, he said, “as long as I feel like I’m making an impact in kids’ lives.”
Some of his family members have told him to stay with the coaching. His daughter, Chelsea Williams, has two children, including a daughter who is in third grade.
Son Drew Sappenfield – who works in the family business – has a 4-year-old daughter.
“They’re telling me I have to hang on for them,” Sappenfield said.
Working in the family business includes more for Drew Sappenfield than his day job. He is also known as Coach Sappenfield. He works with the junior high boys’ basketball program in Villa Grove.
One of Dan Sappenfield’s personal highlights has nothing to do with any games that his teams have played.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have had great kids to work with,” Sappenfield said. “I’ve heard coaches talk about parents being an issue.
“My parents have been amazing. This wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have great parents, and the kids go with that.”
There’s one parent in particular that Sappenfield sees on occasion in the stands. None of her children have ever been a part of his VG/H program, but he listens when she speaks.
It’s his sister, Lisa Sappenfield Boyer.
“We talk a lot about basketball and what my team looks like,” Dan Sappenfield said.
There was a time, before the co-op with Heritage was formed, that the siblings couldn’t talk so freely. Boyer is a former Heritage girls’ basketball head coach.
Their teams played against each other, but Dan Sappenfield doesn’t believe either one ended with bragging rights.
“I think we split,” he said.
***
In games this week, the Blue Devils continued a season-long streak on Monday with their 70-21 win at home over Decatur Lutheran.
Every time VG/H has lost a game this season, it has followed up with a victory in the next game.
The team rebounded after suffering a loss on Saturday to Tri-County.
Kyleigh Block scored 19 points in the milestone win vs. Decatur Lutheran. Samantha Campbell and Aliya Holloman each ended with 11 points.
Block hit 10 of her points in the first quarter and Holloman added seven in the first eight minutes as VG/H zoomed into a 32-4 lead.
Decatur Lutheran managed just three first-half field goals as VG/H extended its lead to 53-8.
On Tuesday, in the victory over the Buffaloes, Holloman and Block each reached the 20-point mark together for the second time in a game this season.
Holloman tallied 26 points to sail past the 1,700-point mark for her career, and Block made 21 points as she eclipsed the 1,100-point plateau.
Campbell added 14 points.
Villa Grove/Heritage limited G-RF to two field goals in the game. The Blue Devils created a 36-2 lead after one quarter.
VG/H (20-5) returns to action tonight at Arcola.
