Poulin guided Stars to new heights

Updated: June 24, 2011 1:48PM

While Tom Poulin has a tendency to make his job as St. Charles North softball coaching job sound like caretaker duty, the players on his Class 4A state runner-up team know better.

“Coach Poulin never let us quit on ourselves,” North Stars third baseman Taylor Russell said.

In his first year, Poulin guided the Stars through postseason pitfalls that took them down in 2010, and got them all the way to a state title game. It included comeback wins in the sectional and supersectional, as well as a tight victory in the semifinals, before finally losing the title game by a run after a valiant comeback.

The second-place finish matched the best ever by an Upstate Eight Conference softball team and was the best ever by a Courier-News area softball team. As a result, Poulin is The Courier-News Coach of the Year.

“I inherited an all-state squad,” he said. “I inherited pretty much a college softball squad. I’m the lucky one to have been able to work with them.”

When April Stary stepped down to spend more time with her young son after the Stars suffered a one-and-done against York in last year’s regional, Poulin seemed a natural replacement. He’d been with the program as an assistant since this season’s seniors were freshmen.

“I wasn’t a first-year coach to this group of kids,” Poulin said.

Even with the talent that includes four first-team All-Area players and Player of the Year Amanda Ciran, Poulin had a difficult situation because of his own coaching duties. As head coach of the boys basketball team, he’s handling basically a year-round job. He started coaching basketball after serving as an assistant with the varsity football team.

So it’s non-stop coaching for Poulin.

“Basketball is my passion,” Poulin said. “It’s been my favorite sport since sixth grade. Football is addicting because of Friday nights and the intensity and camaraderie that comes with physical play and the commitment you make.

“This softball is just genuine fun for me. I can come out here, hit grounders and flies, work with the kids. I did not want to not be around for this group’s run. I was confident that they would go on one so it was real intriguing to take this job.”

As first-time head softball coach, Poulin admits he had a lot to learn.

“I really tried to be a sponge,” he said. “I learned an awful lot about the sport, about strategy of the game. I’ve talked with Jim Wolfsmith (Bartlett head coach), coach (Jason) Schaal (South Elgin), with Tom Mazzie at Lake Park and Cray Allen (Burlington Central). I’ve talked with many a travel team coach — a lot of the girls’ parents are travel coaches. I tried to pick a lot of peoples’ brains and make sure I was able to put these kids into a position to succeed. They had the skill and the will — I wanted to make sure I didn’t hold them back.”

Poulin applied some of his own basketball coaching experience from other sports to the softball job.

“One thing we really liked was when he started giving us packets on our upcoming opponent,” Ciran said. “Packets with stories, statistics and scouting reports on the other team. It was a big help getting us to focus on the next team at hand.”

The Stars had lost their first game in the postseason tournament in 2010, so maintaining focus became a theme all year. Poulin’s coaching had a lot to do with using that bad experience as a motivational factor rather without getting them to dwell too much upon it.

The second-place finish — one marred by a blown call at first base in the sixth inning of the title game against Moline — speaks to the extent to which Poulin was successful.

“This is really a collective award,” he said. “It’s representative of talent level, the work ethic and character of our players.

“A lot of credit for what we achieved goes to the kids, the booster club, my assistants and even the travel coaches these players have and their personal coaches. It’s really a team thing.”

After the 9-8 loss to Moline, Poulin had a few moments to reflect. That call at first base which prevented the tying run couldn’t diminish the fun from the 2011 run.

“They’ve had memories they’ll take with them forever,” he said. “Really, they’ve given me a season I’ll never forget. It’s the most fun I’ve had coaching athletics in my life, in 12 years of coaching sports.

“It’s not just because of the success but it’s because of the kids involved.”

Then he turned his attention to coaching again.

Poulin left East Peoria and the state tournament, came home and had Sunday to rest.

“We have our summer basketball camp starting up on Monday already,” he said.

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