Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Stilling, Monjaras are new coaches at WRHS

Football and boys’ soccer positions


By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Wood River High School athletic director John Rade announced two new head coaches on Friday, Nov. 14.

Kevin Stilling, 34, has replaced Mike Glenn as the head varsity football coach and Luis Monjaras has moved up from his junior varsity coaching position to replace Matt Phillips as the boys' soccer coach.

Stilling accepts first head coaching job

Stilling, a full-time secondary school substitute teacher in the Blaine County School District, has been busy coaching at Wood River since he and Mendy Benson married in July at her Alaska childhood home.

Benson is Wood River's new girls' basketball head coach and Stilling is working alongside his new wife this winter as the Wolverine girls' junior varsity basketball coach.

Jumping right into the fray, Stilling was an assistant coach for Glenn at Wood River this fall, handling responsibilities for linebackers and running backs. The new coach played high school football (wide receiver and defensive back) for Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock, Ill.

Graduating from Illinois State in 1997 in physical education, Stilling took his first football coaching job at Marian Central from 1997-99. There he was varsity assistant and head JV coach, helping with the offense, defense and special teams. He then earned his Masters degree in 2004 from the University of North Dakota.

The Wood River job is his first head coaching job. Stilling said, "I've been working to become a head coach for the past 12 years. I certainly didn't anticipate becoming head coach here after only one year. I thought I'd have a lot more time to work with Mike (Glenn) and to learn from him.

'We'll try to build upon the things Mike has accomplished here and I'll incorporate some new ideas into the program. I am definitely going to call the offense, and I'm hoping to have my coaching staff filled out in the next few weeks."

Stilling's other football coaching assignments have been at Lake Zurich (Ill.) High School as varsity defensive coordinator from 2000-01; at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colo. as assistant varsity coach in 2004; and at McHenry (Ill.) High School as varsity assistant and defensive coordinator from 2006-07.

His administrative background includes a stint as athletic director at Marian Central High School in 2005-06.

Stilling said, "I'm not going to put a lot of emphasis on winning. We'll spend time on fundamentals and technique. We'll work on things you can control, like hard work, discipline and conditioning. If you concentrate on those things, the winning takes care of itself."

Monjaras takes over boys' soccer

Wood River also has a new boys' varsity soccer coach, Luis Monjaras. He is the sixth head coach since the Wolverine program began in 1986. Monjaras replaces Matt Phillips (11-18-3 in 2 Hailey seasons), who resigned his coaching job to spend more time with family.

Monjaras, Wood River's junior varsity coach and varsity assistant in 2007 and 2008, has a long background in the sport of soccer dating back to his playing days at Watsonville (Ca.) High School in northern California from 1991-95.

He played college soccer for two years at Hartnell Junior College in Salinas, Ca. from 1995-98 and also for two years at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Ca. Monjaras sampled semi-pro soccer for the Monterey Jaquars in 1999-2000.

Monjaras' coaching experience at the club soccer level from 2000-08 includes U-10, U-16 and U-17 boys' levels in Rohnert Park and Watsonville, plus four years for the local Sawtooth United F.C. starting in 2004 with the U-13 and U-14 boys, and U-16 and U-18 girls.

He has been a high school assistant coach at Watsonville, for the Wood River girls in 2003, and for the Jerome High School girls for two years from 2004-07. Monjaras' responsibilities in those jobs included strength, conditioning, fundamentals and strategies of play.

For the Wood River boys the past two years, Monjaras assisted in the development of younger players with skills, strategies, conditioning and readiness for the varsity level.




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