For Brian Rupp, Valentine’s Day, 2019 is one he will never forget.
The Plainfield resident is in his sixth season as head girls basketball coach at Lake Park High School in Roselle.
In the early morning hours of February 14, Rupp’s older sister, Donna, died at just 40 years old with he and other family at her side after a long, courageous battle with cancer.
An emotionally draining day already, Rupp was then on the sideline to coach the No. 7 seed Lancers to a 49-47 win over No. 1 Rolling Meadows in the championship game of the Rolling Meadows Regional.
“It was the coaches, the fans, the parents — it was the other team. We walked into Rolling Meadows, the host school of the regional final and their AD was hugging and crying with me at the end. There are moments of that game I still don’t remember. I remember the moment at the end when we won and I remember that AD in particular. It was one of those days that started with the worst of times and ended with the best of moments. It is what movies are written about. The win was pretty sweet. Our girls had tape on their ankles that said “For Donna” on them. It was a moment that I shared with that group of girls at that moment and that is a moment they will remember forever. We had talked about since March of last year and to have it culminate in that moment is something I will never forget.”
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Plainfield resident Brian Rupp with wife Tammy and children, from left, Brady, Maddie and Benny after he coached Lake Park to a regional title. Rupp was named an IBCA Coach of the Year.
The win was the first regional title in 10 years for Lake Park. The Lancers ended the season 21-9, losing to conference rival Wheaton Warrenville South in the Batavia Sectional semifinal four days later.
The season success earned Rupp recognition as the Illinois Basketball Coaches’ Association Class 4A, District 7 Coach of the Year. He was honored along with the other winners at a ceremony May 4 at Redbird Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal.
“It is humbling,” Rupp said. “I am someone who is always trying to learn. In the league we are in we have some fantastic coaches, Hall of Fame level, and if you get the respect of some of those coaches that validates that you are doing something good.”
Since taking over a Lake Park program that had three wins the year prior, Rupp said he focused first on rebuilding the culture of the team.
“The three things I talk about when I talk about our program — it is about people, about success and then about basketball. I talk to eighth graders about that and I talk about it at parent night, because if people aren’t the No. 1 reason we are doing this, then our priorities are not in the right place,” Rupp said. “I felt like everything we have been preaching came in that moment. To have Wheaton Warrenville South send flowers (to the wake), a scoreboard does not matter at that moment — it is about people.”
Part of the culture Rupp has brought to the program is taking personal interest in the players and their families and letting them understand his.
He does this through a ‘mom’s dinner’ and a ‘dad’s dinner’ each season. He has also started a dedication game where every year the coaching staff and the senior players dedicate a game to someone important in their life.
It is through those games that the Lancer players got to know Donna and why they showed the support they did for their coach.
“They know Donna through that, they know Jackson (Donna’s son, who died of brain cancer in 2009 at age 2) through that. We get to know each other through that. We are into each other’s lives enough that we share stuff like that,” Rupp said. “To have the players drive to McHenry for the wake was wonderful because that was not an easy drive.”
Fixing the culture has resulted in fixing the record as well. In his tenure, Rupp has an 85-88 record, beginning with seven wins his first season and notching double-digit wins every year since then.
This season was only the seventh time since 1980 that a Lake Park girls team eclipsed the 20-win mark and the 21 wins is the third most in the program in that same span.
The atmosphere and success of the team has paid off when it comes to players as well, drawing talented athletes to attend their local public school instead of searching out the likes of Montini Catholic or other private school powers.
Most recently that paid dividends with DePaul University recruit and IBCA and Associated Press First Team All-Stater Darrione Rogers, who hit the winning shot to claim the regional title.
“As coaches, we have reaped the benefits from that. At minimum, we are not pulling against each other. When I took over, the nasty parents ruled everything. That took some grinding and I didn’t care about how many wins or losses we had at that moment, we needed to clean that up. Having Darrione Rogers helps, but the parents appreciate that we talk about people first and all that and now winning a regional — I feel like we are officially on the map.”