Nick Kocsis was born and bred in South Bend, Ind., earned a degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and found a teaching and coaching job an hour away in Zeeland, a half-hour from the shores of Lake Michigan.
Kocsis coached football at Zeeland West for six years. The first three seasons were a nightmare — 1-26 record. He turned the program around the next three, culminating in an 11-1 record in 2010, the lone loss a last-second heartbreaker — “by a quarter-inch,” Kocsis says — to East Grand Rapids in a Division 2 regional.
“Even replays made it difficult to tell if the receiver was in or out of bounds. The refs called him out.”
At about the same time, prospects for a teaching career for his wife, Kim, looked dim — and Kocsis spied an ad for the vacant athletic director’s position at Detroit U-D Jesuit. Packing up and moving three hours east was a win-win decision: Kim, a native of Milford, would be returning to be near her family in the Metro Detroit area, and for Nick, “I always wanted to be an AD.”
The gregarious 35-year-old Kocsis, coming from a public school to a private one, found his biggest challenge was earning the trust of faculty, coaches, students and players. In turn, he proposed a challenge to one and all to revitalize the Cubs’ athletic program: “Have you done the things you need to do to deserve victory?”
“I know that everyone wanted to be good, but there was no plan. A goal without a plan is a wish,” he said.
The first step in Kocsis’ plan was a major overhaul of the weight room, an element in the conditioning and development of athletes largely ignored at U-D. Within six months, with the support of the boosters club and other interested parties (“not a penny came from the school’s budget”), U-D Jesuit president, Fr. Karl Kiser, dedicated a renovated weight room.
“This was the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” Kocsis said, watching the in-season teams make use of the facility — dubbed “Iron Cubs” — and daily after school by up to a hundred out-of-season athletes who show up voluntarily to stretch, lift, squat and jump.
“It’s been a game-changer,” Kocsis said, “in the attitude and culture around U-D.”
Cubs alumni and fans have much to boast about U-D athletics: the basketball team’s CHSL championship last spring, the first in 22 years; the soccer team’s CHSL championship this fall, the first since 2000; a wide range of success in lacrosse, tennis, swimming, track and golf.
However, the state of the football program overshadows the laudable achievements of the other sports and has alumni and Cubs fans in a sour mood. U-D Jesuit — a member of the powerful Central Division with Catholic Central, Brother Rice, De La Salle and St. Mary’s Prep — hasn’t played in a CHSL Prep Bowl for the past 24 years.
U-D hasn’t been in the state playoffs since 2001 — until this fall. The Cubs lost their four league games by an average score of 42-4, and had to win their five non-league contests to qualify for the state tournament.
The good news: Last weekend, a scrappy U-D Jesuit squad, coached by Oscar Olejniczak, a 1991 U-D Jesuit grad and third coach in the past five years, beat Oak Park 14-8 for the Division 2 district title. The bad news: This weekend, the Cubs will be up against the No. 1-ranked Brother Rice Warriors for the regional title.
“It’s a process,” said Kocsis.
By the way, Kim is director of an alternative education program for the Oakland Schools, and the couple welcomed their daughter, Isabelle, a year ago.
The roots are beginning to take hold.
Don Horkey is a freelance writer residing in Shelby Township. He may be reached at [email protected].
