(Sugar Grove, IL.) — Former Waubonsee Community College Baseball Coach Dave Randall was inducted into Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference (ISCC) Hall of Fame at the league’s annual summer luncheon, held in Waubonsee’s Academic and Professional Center Event Room recently. In addition, the Chiefs’ Head Volleyball Coach Steve Kish was named the ISCC’s Female Sports Coach of the Year after leading his squad to Waubonsee’s first ever conference title, Region IV title and berth in the NJCAA Division II National Tournament last fall. An unprecedented five Waubonsee student-athletes were also honored as co-winners of the ISCC’s Dick Durrant Award for academic excellence. Softball player Abby Foulk, tennis players Joseph Runkle and Cara Lenhardt, volleyball player Shayna Tucek, and basketball player Payton Klaas were all recognized for their outstanding work in the classroom.
Randall guided Waubonsee’s baseball team to 895 career wins over 37 years before stepping aside after the 2014 season. He is second all-time among NJCAA Division III baseball coaches in career wins, and had the second longest active tenure in all of the NJCAA when he put down his clipboard. Despite being the only non-scholarship baseball program in the conference, Randall’s squads won six ISCC championships. He was named the ISCC Coach of the Year six times, while his teams also won six Region titles. Waubonsee was ranked in the top-15 nationally 20 times, and finished second (1996), seventh (2010), third (2013) and fourth (2014) at the NJCAA Division III World Series under Randall’s direction. He has served as the ISCC’s Baseball Chairman, the Region IV Code of Conduct Chairman, as an NJCAA Baseball Coaches Association Committee member, the Region IV Baseball Chairman, and Director of the Region IV Junior College All-Star game over the last three decades. A Kaneland High School alumnus, Randall has worked as Waubonsee’s Athletic Manager since 1984, and was previously inducted into the Illinois Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2002) and the Region IV Hall of Fame (2005).
Kish, a graduate of Aurora East High School, led Waubonsee’s volleyball squad to an historic season. The Lady Chiefs captured the regular season ISCC title and the ISCC Tournament crown for the first time ever, going undefeated in the process. Kish’s crew then clinched the Region IV Division II District B title for the first time in school history to advance to the National Tournament for the first time ever. Kish was subsequently tabbed the Region IV Division II District B Volleyball Coach of the Year. Waubonsee finished the season 35-16 overall, tying the school mark for wins in a season set in 1994 and equaled in 2013. Along the way they received votes in the NJCAA Division II poll, placing in the nation’s top-25 for the first time in school history. In three seasons at the helm, Kish has led Waubonsee to 80 wins.
Since 1979 the ISCC’s Dick Durrant Award has been given annually to the male and female student-athletes in the conference who attain the highest grade point average after completing four semesters of college work, and at least 48 semester hours of credit. Waubonsee’s unprecedented group of five honorees brings the college’s tally of student-athlete to earn this award to 25 overall, with 20 having been female student/athletes. All five recipients, along with three other student-athletes in the conference, tied for the award by each earning a perfect 4.0 grade-point-average.
Foulk, a sophomore from Sycamore, was selected the ISCC’s Pitcher of the Year after helping lead the Lady Chiefs’ softball team to a fifth consecutive ISCC title, a Region IV runner-up finish and a 41-25 overall record. A Yorkville High School graduate, Runkle was the ISCC’s number six singles champion this past spring. Lenhardt, a Kaneland High School graduate, played at number three singles for the Lady Chiefs’ last two fall seasons. Also a graduate of Kaneland, Tucek was one of six sophomores who helped lead Waubonsee’s volleyball team to an unprecedented 70 wins the last two seasons. A Yorkville native, Klaas was a key reserve for both the volleyball and basketball team, which advanced to the NJCAA Division II Women’s Basketball National Tournament for the first time ever and finished 11th in the nation.
