New era starts at Proviso East

Updated: August 12, 2011 4:19PM

Steven Tadlock missed the end of Proviso East’s first practice session Thursday for a job interview.

Tadlock already has one job as the Pirates’ new football coach. The 47-year-old native of New Jersey watched the end of practice briefly from the sidelines while putting on a dress suit for an afternoon interview with an administrator. Tadlock was interviewing for a teaching position at the school after a tumultuous offseason for the football program. Tadlock’s assistant coaches remained to put the Pirates through drills.

Proviso East and West overhauled its athletic programs in the offseason with several coaching changes and even a new athletic director. West football coach Famous Hulbert has returned for his sixth season, but Aaron Peppers was fired from East after the school’s first winless season since the 1960s. The IHSA is missing Proviso East year-by-year records from three seasons that decade.

Peppers went 23-33 in six seasons for the Pirates.

Tadlock was the head coach at Austin from 2000-06 and coached Rich Central for two years after that. At Austin, he led the Public League school to five winning seasons and its only playoff berth in 2004.

Tadlock, a former assistant coach handling defensive backs for two years at Proviso West, was hired June 13, later than many coaches are typically hired. He has scrambled to find a staff and still has three coaching openings available, one with the varsity and two more at the lower levels.

“The first thing I did was look within (the school for coaches),” Tadlock said. “We have great guys within that are hungry to coach.”

Tadlock was the last of five new coaches to be hired in the West Suburban Conference, following Mike Barry at Hinsdale South, Rich Tarka at Hinsdale Central, John Hoerster at Oak Park-River Forest and Nick Hildreth at Willowbrook.

“I wanted to go back to being a head coach,” Tadlock said. “I applied at Willowbrook, Hinsdale Central and Oak Park.”

But staying within District 209 was an opportunity Tadlock could not pass up.

“Famous knew I wanted to go back to being a head coach,” Tadlock said. “He was instrumental in getting me the post here.”

Tadlock has brought in Terry Love Sr. and Jr. as assistant coaches. Senior is the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator while Junior, a 2003 Proviso East grad whose career at Michigan State ended in 2007, will join his alma mater as a receivers coach for the first time. Junior played for Milwaukee in the Arena Football League before suffering an injury. Junior also coached briefly at Proviso West.

“It’s a big opportunity, especially since it’s my ex-high school. A lot of people have seen me play, I’m not that far removed,” Love Jr. said. “I wasn’t around (previously). I don’t know how it was. I know the kids have a great attitude. They want to win. I hope the coaches can show them the way to win.”

Proviso East is rebuilding and had nearly 30 players at Thursday’s practice, but Tadlock hopes to have as many as 45 by the end of preseason practice. The football staff is trying to attract more players at the lower levels. Claude Sullivan was retained as sophomore coach, while Scott Ware has taken over the freshmen.

“I know I have very good kids,” said Tadlock, who graduated and played at Delaware State. “I don’t know what happened last year. I can’t begin to comment. I know this group is desperate to win. They need structure and discipline.”

Two of Proviso East’s top players are senior running back Ryan Jones and senior linebacker Phillip Wells. The starting quarterback will likely be Malcolm Hilliard.

“There has been a lot of organization,” Jones said. “[The coaches] are getting the team to come together as a family.”

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