Randy Wolken dominates Illinois softball with state-record 859 wins

For a person who was forced to coach softball, Randy Wolken has been a pretty successful guy.

After coaching at two schools during his first six years out of Eastern Illinois University, Wolken returned to his alma mater, St. Joseph-Ogden (St. Joseph, Ill.), where he earned 11 letters in three sports during his playing days.

Having decided to coach as an eighth-grader, Woken applied for his dream job — head boys basketball coach. However, there was one catch.

"They tied girls softball with that job," Wolken told MaxPreps. "I really was not interested. I finally said I guess I'd do it, but I didn't want to do it."



Thirty-three years later, the 62-year-old Wolken has won 82 percent of his games and holds the Illinois record with 859 softball victories against 208 losses.
Though just a Class 2A school (494 students in grades 9-12), St. Joseph-Ogden has established many state records during Wolken's tenure. For example, the Spartans hold single-season state records for most runs scored (507), runs batted in (424), hits (540), doubles (121), stolen bases (243) and are tied for most wins (41).

Outfielder Stephanie Canfield, now at the University of Arkansas, established career state records with 277 hits and 233 runs.

Veteran Champaign News-Gazette sportswriter Fred Kroner hasn't been surprised by Wolken's success.

"He was a former softball player himself," said Kroner. "Basketball was his passion and I think today he would say it's the other way around. He went to camps and clinics. He built a program and tradition. He has a good feeder program and teaches strong fundamentals. He's also very good at developing pitchers. They don't really rebuild, just kind of reload."

Longtime assistants Bob Biehl and Leonard Winchester have also made major contributions to the team's success. Both came from opposing schools and both say they are in their current positions because of Wolken's influence, even though they don't always agree with their head coach.

"If people didn't know us, they'd think we hated each other, because we argue a lot," said Winchester. "We hash it out and then we're on the same page. He's a great person to work for and delegates responsibility.



"I coached against Randy before. A lot of times I thought we had a better team, but he beat us anyway. He was a better coach. I started with him in 2000 and never have regretted it."

Biehl added, "I play a lot of the devil's advocate role off the field. On the field, we're on the same page. We're just human. We agree to disagree. He never quits learning about changes in the game. He constantly goes to clinics and talks to coaches. If there's a change, he wants to try it out. We try to face the toughest teams and pitchers each year. We're like David and Goliath — we don't back down from anybody."

Coming from a program that had never won a regional, Biehl said, "The first year I was with him, I probably was just as giddy (as the players)."{PAGEBREAK} In the long haul, Wolken was able to have his cake and eat it, too.

He also had a very successful basketball career, winning 443 games (against 236 losses) and four regional titles in 27 years and making the Illinois Coaches Association Hall of Fame in both basketball and softball.

Under Wolken, the Spartans played a crowd-pleasing, fast-break pressing style, just the opposite of what he had played in high school.

"We shot quick and crashed the boards," he said. "We scored a lot of points — 75 in a half, 50 in a quarter, 120 a couple times (in a full game). We averaged 90 points (quite often). We never had much size, but we were quick (often forcing 25 turnovers). We packed the place and they loved it. (When he played) it was just the opposite, 30-28 games. I didn't like it and it just wasn't fun."



Wolken credits Richmond, Ind., shooting guru Dick Baumgartner for much of his offensive success.

He noted, "I spent a lot of time on shooting. I spent 11 years at the Dick Baumgartner Camp. I loved what he did. He broke it down a lot."

One of Wolken's most satisfying experiences in basketball was coaching his son, Brad, a 6-footer who led the Spartans in scoring twice and also earned MVP honors both years.

Coaching girls for the first time, Wolken noticed that they really listened and accepted things.

"They cried a little more, but they really were eager and wanted to learn," he said. "We do a lot of bunting, a lot of slapping and stealing. That was my style. I give the green light to a lot of girls. We've been 90 percent on steals."

His first softball team, playing only in the fall, posted a 7-5 record in 1980. The Spartans were 4-3 the following fall when a teachers' strike ended the season.

The third year, however, the Spartans moved their season to the spring so they could compete in the state tournament and they posted a 16-6 record.



"It gave us something to shoot for - an incentive," Wolken said.

That was the beginning of big things, because the No. 9-seeded Spartans knocked off the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 seeds to win the regional in what at that time still was a one-class state tournament. That tradition is still intact since the Spartans have lost just one regional in 31 years. During one stretch they won 67 straight regional games.

The Spartans' only state championship (then Class A in a two-class system) came in 2006 when they posted a 31-6 record. They had to beat Beecher — then ranked No. 10 in the nation — to win the super sectional. Beecher had lost just once in the previous three years.

It was probably the biggest game in school history as they eked out a 1-0 victory with just one ball getting hit out of the infield. With a runner on second base (infield hit and sacrifice bunt), Sara Ferguson hit a bloop single to right field to produce the game's only run in the seventh inning.

Wolken conceded, "If we'd played them 10 times, they probably would have beaten us eight or nine of them."

The Spartans' defense and pitching were so stifling during their title march that they yielded just one run while winning eight times.



Still, Wolken believes last year's 41-1 team probably was his best. It entered the Class 2A Final Four with a 40-game winning streak only to be upset in the semifinals by eventual champion Nashville, 5-2. They rebounded to win the third-place game.

"It was very disappointing," he said. "We had our hearts set on winning the state."

Five 2012 graduates from that team are playing college softball. Record-setting Stephanie Canfield is an outfielder at the University of Arkansas, while Elizabeth Everingham is a third baseman at St. Louis University. Three others are playing at junior colleges.{PAGEBREAK} This spring will be much less hectic for the Wolken family, because they have moved back home after living in College Station, Texas, for five years. It was a very unusual situation. His wife, Lana, had taken a job as director of transportation at Texas A&M University and they lived there together for eight months. However, each February he would return to St. Joseph, Ill., to coach softball.

"It was a long commute," he understated. "Some weekends she would fly here. It was not an easy situation. I loved softball."

Randy and Lana were high school sweethearts. They started dating after they were crowned king and queen, respectively, at St. Joseph-Ogden. You might say it was "love at first crowning."

Anyways, they have two children and five grandchildren and have been married for more than 41 years.



Wolken had given up his basketball coaching after 25 years with the Spartans and retired as a math teacher seven years ago.

He explained that he dropped basketball because it was such a long season.

"I had to compete in the whole summer and it was a huge time commitment," he said. "It overlapped a little bit and I'd have pitchers working on the side while basketball practice was going on."

Though he's obviously a great coach, Wolken was also an outstanding math teacher for 34 years and he always went the extra mile for his students.

"Randy didn't take a lunch break," said Winchester. "He would take a sack lunch and sit in his room surrounded by students. They'd come in and he'd help them with their math. He was a good teacher and had good rapport with the kids. Kids also would come up to him on the bus for away games and he'd help them."

How much does he love his students?

Just ask Brooke Earl, a former right-handed pitcher. She had a serious brain injury from a freak accident. While she was in a coma, he made a special promise to her: If she would get well, he would fulfill one of her goals that year and give up one of his favorite coaching antics.



His girls always knew when he was really mad, because he would take off his hat, throw it on the ground and kick it. Well, she did recover, and Winchester said that though Wolken sometimes doffs his hat, he has never kicked it since then.

Wolken recalled, "I had to get a new hat every year, because it got pretty messed up. I was just letting off steam. It's a little bit tough not to throw it. I'm getting milder. In basketball, it was my sports coat. I threw it a couple times in the stands."

When he's not coaching, he's probably attending St. Louis Cardinals baseball games or growing tomatoes in his garden. Presently, however, he's got four solid returning starters for 2013. And don't expect him to retire soon, because softball has obviously gained a powerful grip on him over the years.