Retiring Monica and his axioms will be greatly missed

By Ed Daniels
ABC26 WGNO Sports Director

Next fall, we likely won’t get a chance to interview Frank Monica.

When he departs, so do his many one- liners. They are all what a certain TV network likes to call instant classics.

“We can’t break the huddle.”

“We can’t make a first down.”

When speaking of the opposing team, Frank Monica would love to embellish.

“They are so fast, even their cheerleaders run 4.4 (in the 40).”

He often joked that other teams always lined up St. Charles Catholic for homecoming games.

It wasn’t entirely true, but it allowed him to spout off one of his favorite axioms.

“We are in so many of other people’s homecoming games, we ought to build our own float.”

He joked that, one game, his team did such a poor job of blocking another player on the opposing team.

“We didn’t block him, so he didn’t have to take a post-game shower.”

The TV interviews won’t be the same, and neither will high school football.

Frank Monica’s teams were known for unwavering excellence. And, it was easy to understand why.

His team’s practices were intense. Why?

“I wanted them, when it came to the games, to do things automatically.”

That toughness spilled over to the field.

In the Division III championship game last month, St. Charles Catholic fell to Lafayette Christian, 12-7. The Knights won their fourth straight state championship, but not before they were challenged for every second of four quarters by a team that refused to give an inch.

Early in the game, Lafayette Christian scored, and, after a turnover, had a chance to break the game wide open.

Many times, facing that caliber of opposition, a team would have buckled.

But, there was no way that was going to happen. Not, to Frank Monica’s team.

At age 72, Monica said he felt it was time to spend more time with his 12 grandchildren. He calls them the “Dirty Dozen.” He noted that “you don’t make their schedule; they make yours.”

He said he wanted to “catch every fish in the ocean and bet every horse at the Fair Grounds.”

The fish better look out. They will be facing one of the most competitive, organized individuals on the planet.

Monica said he looks forward to being home and eating dinner at a regular hour. No more eating later, heating up food in the microwave.

He said he wants to be a better grandfather than he was a father.

But, he will always be a coach.

On a summer visit to the Cometplex, he was admonishing one of his players for not practicing well.

“You were acting out there,” said Monica. “You should be in the Academy Awards.”

The reporter, to this day, still laughs about that one. The young man probably had no idea what the Academy Awards were.

But, he understood this. He was being coached up, by a man who accepted excellence, and nothing else.

Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at [email protected].