Former UIC Flames coach Luke Yaklich returns to roots at coaching high school basketball
Luke Yaklich has returned to his roots.
The former UIC Flames coach is back leading young men at the high school level, this time at Lincoln-Way East in the south Chicago suburb of Frankfort.
"I want to make an impact, and leave a legacy, and really help young people grow and get where they want to go — both in the U.S. history and AP human geography classroom, as well as on the basketball court," Yaklich said.
Before Yaklich was making an impact at college programs, he spent 14 seasons coaching high school basketball in Illinois. He was an assistant at Illinois State, Texas and Michigan before becoming a Division I head coach.
When an opportunity came along at Lincoln Way East this season, Yaklich didn't hesitate to get back on the sidelines.
"That passion like never left me. Like once like you got involved in just the first summer league game, and then you see some of my old colleagues and friends that I've coached against and have been mentors for me, that it was like that juice got going right away," Yaklich said. "It's the bus rides. It's the pregame meals. It's the going over to a teammate's house."
Illinois is home for the LaSalle native, who came back to the high school level one year after spending four seasons as UIC's head coach, before getting let go.
"I love the state. If I was going to coach high school basketball, it was going to be here for sure," said Yaklich. "I love teaching here."
Yaklich is teaching his first Lincoln-Way Griffins team what it takes to succeed, by getting "1% better each day."
"Our guys have bought into it, and they're fun," Yaklich said. "They want to learn, and they want to grow, and that's been really, really rewarding and fun, and motivating for me every single day."
The players appreciate Yaklich's work ethic.
"Culture is everything to coach. Being on time, getting to the trainers, like working out your body, recovering like 30 minutes before practice," said Lincoln-Way East senior center/forward Jonathan Aluyi. "He knows how to break down a defense, how to break down an offense, what we should do against it. It's just insane."
But Yaklich's knowledge and experience at the Division I level is just one thing these players appreciate about their head coach.
"Work ethic, but also his like excitement and such has like really invigorated me to work harder," said Aluyi. "I'm really blossoming, and it's all to coach."
"We're never going to put a ceiling on anybody's dreams, so if you have something, like, here are my experiences that I've been around, this is what it takes to do that, and let's lay out a plan to do it, and let me hold you accountable to it," Yaklich said.
Yaklich plans to be holding players accountable at Lincoln-Way East for years to come.
"Want to take roots here, build a program from, you know, kind of grassroots with fourth and fifth graders like we did in Joliet, and just keep building this thing over the years until we get that state championship trophy in the case," Yaklich said.