Illini Central Coach John Giesler leaves lasting legacy on and off the court

[April 24, 2018] 

Lincoln Daily News would like to offer condolences to the family, friends and students of the Illini Central community on the passing of teacher and Coach John Giesler.

John Giesler, an Illini Central boys basketball coach from 2000-2014, passed away in the early morning hours of Friday, April 13, 2018 after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 65 years old.

Giesler served as an assistant coach his first two years at Illini Central before taking over as the head coach. Giesler guided the Illini Central Cougars basketball team to a Class 1A 3rd place state finish in 2012 and a Class 1A State Championship in 2013. Under his coaching, the Illini Central boys basketball teams had a record of 208 wins and 139 losses. He retired in 2014 from teaching and coaching at Illini Central High School.

Giesler also served as an assistant basketball coach for Lincoln College in 2015 and 2016. On April 5, 2018 he was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in a ceremony that took place at his home.

A funeral service was held for John Giesler on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Illini Central High School Gymnasium. He was laid to rest at the Mason City Cemetery.

While the basketball accolades the coach attained are very impressive, the legacy he leaves behind is far more impactful.

John Giesler was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last July and was given up to a year to live. He lasted eight months. But in those eight months he chose to “GACA” - “Get After Cancer’s Ass” and fight the battle of his life.

Along the way, instead of backing down and feeling sorry for himself, he chose to stand up and encourage and challenge others to make the world a better place. In his final months on this earth, Giesler focused on making a difference in the lives of others. He organized a golf outing, with the help of family and friends, to raise money for pancreatic cancer research. His efforts also involved collecting food and teddy bears to take to a Peoria hospital to help other cancer patients and their families.

Tony Wherley, the current head coach of the Illini Central Cougars Boys Basketball Team, worked alongside Giesler for 16 years and the impact the coach left on him and others is immeasurable.

Wherley, who hails from the small community of Table Grove, Illinois, recalled the early years of meeting Giesler.

“Obviously he was the varsity coach when I came in and I was the eighth grade coach. He’s was always very welcoming to me. He asked me to come sit on his bench from the time I got here as the eighth grade coach. Of all the schools I coached against and how many games I’ve been to, whether I’m junior high or high school coach, I don’t know how many eighth grade coaches sit on the bench with the varsity coach. And he asked me to (do that) from the moment I got here. He felt like I was a part of the program whether I was a varsity coach or not. Middle school was not any lesser in his eyes. He wanted me to be involved and I really appreciated that. He always made sure you were a part of it. Once you were a part of the program, you were always a part of it.”

Wherley knew that Sunday would be an emotional day, but added, “It’s neat to see all the people come back that he felt like were his family.”

Giesler was from a small community himself and he was a graduate of Stewardson-Strasburg High School. But when he took the job at Illini Central it’s obvious he really poured his heart and soul into the community.

“He really honestly lived and died Illini Central,” said Wherley. “It really meant so much to him. Sometimes when you are a coach and you teach too, people forget that John Giesler loved being a teacher, too. I mean, being Mr. Giesler was just as important to him as being Coach Giesler. I think sometimes that gets lost. You know his students meant as much to him as his players did. I think that’s great because I’ve coached for a long time and not all coaches probably take being a school teacher as seriously as they take being a coach.”

Wherley recalled that Giesler taught World History, Illinois History and at one time a Current Events class with just as much passion as he did coaching. Giesler’s coaching credits go beyond basketball to also include baseball, softball and golf throughout his career. Wherley felt the teaching impact early on from Giesler.

Wherley, who began coaching at age 20 while he was actually farming with his dad, went back to school to finish his degree before he started teaching at Illini Central.

“My dad would always say, “You can’t be a good coach if you’re not a good teacher, because they are basically the same thing,” said Wherley. “You’re doing the same thing as teaching basketball. You are teaching history, but you’re also teaching basketball and expectations. Sometimes we forget that and I know, because he and I talked about it a lot, that it meant just as much to him to be Mr. Giesler as it did to be Coach Giesler.”

Recalling last July when Giesler was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Wherley reflected on how the retired coach handled the situation and chose to stay positive.

“I just remember in the moment I didn’t know how he would react to it,” said Wherley. “I had coached with him and I had known him really well and who knows how you’re going to react in that situation. When you are told that you have a year left to live, I’d like to think that I’d live my last eight months the way he did, but I don’t know that. He absolutely positively made the last eight months of his life trying to make other people’s lives better. He pushed the people that he was close to, his former players, his former students, his friends, to try to make a difference in other people’s lives. It’s inspiring. I don’t even know if there is any other word for it. Even towards the end he was as positive as he could be. He got bad over the last couple of weeks I know. But up until the last two weeks of fighting cancer, he did everything he possibly could to make other people’s lives better, the days brighter and inspire people. That to me will be his legacy.”

A grand legacy indeed that is greater than his accomplishments in the gym. Wherley added, “I think when you win a state championship as a coach, it will always be Coach John Giesler - State Championship Coach. But I will be absolutely floored if that gym isn’t standing room only and that will be the measuring stick of his life. How did he treat people? I read a quote from Barbara Bush this week after her passing and one of the quotes was, and I am paraphrasing, the true measuring stick of your life is how you treat people. It’s not what your accomplishments are. Those state championships are great but he impacted so many people’s lives that that’s how he will be remembered. That’s what you want.”

"Not many people have to have their funeral at the school so that we can hope to get everybody in there who wants to pay respects to somebody,” said Wherley. “People will not show up at his funeral because he won a state championship. They are going to show up because he made a difference in their lives. The fact that he lived those last eight months with that being his goal, to get people to understand, not just that it’s not about basketball, it’s not about history, it’s not about this and that, it’s about you have a chance to make a difference in someone else’s life. And it doesn’t have to be that big of a deal. When you’re gone and if your funeral isn’t in a gym that’s fine, but you might have helped one or two people that their life is better because you lived. That’s a positive and that’s what you need to do. That’s what your focus is.”

Wherley mentioned that the family asked him a couple weeks ago before the coach’s passing if he would talk at his funeral. “I don’t really know how I could have told them no. I knew it would be very tough.”

Wherley said the coach gave him the game plan on the board these last eight months and he feels it is his job to carry it out. But he certainly does not feel alone in this effort. It’s up to others to carry out the coach’s legacy.

“Like I said, his legacy is not just a state championship or a third place finish, or whatever wins or an IBCA Hall of Fame,” said Wherley, “It is the lives of the people that he’s made a difference in, and now it’s their job to go out and do that for somebody else.”

Coming up with a few final thoughts on the man who truly defined the school’s motto “We are IC” Wherley said, “One thing I really love is how transparent he became at the end.” Wherley admitted that Coach Giesler might look like a pretty gruff guy on the outside but he recalled a memory from immediately after the state championship game in 2013 when the elder coach put his arm around him and grabbed him by the neck and said, “Coach, I know I yell at you a lot, but I appreciate everything you do for me.”

Wherley managed to laugh at the memory, while he remembered how he used to pester Coach Giesler with questions about plays.

Nonetheless the two men got along great on and off the court. “We had such a great working relationship,” said Wherley. “I would have stayed his JV coach for the rest of my career. I wasn’t waiting for my chance. I would be his JV right now if that would have been the opportunity. We worked so well together. Our personalities matched so perfectly. He really became transparent the last eight months and he kind of let some of that guard down. He talked about his faith on Facebook and he talked about a number things that were always there but maybe he didn’t always verbalize them the same way he did in the past eight months.”

 

Coach Giesler was even texting encouraging words to Illini Central players this past season, said Wherley. He also would tell the boys, win or lose, he was still proud of them. “Those were things he might not have done eight months ago or prior to that,” said Wherley. “It was always there, but in the last eight months he didn’t pull in tighter, he let out. He told people how much he cared about them. He shared things and that is great. To me that’s part of his legacy. I thought he might pull back in but he did the exact opposite and it was perfect. Absolutely perfect.”

Jay Genseal, the Physical Education teacher at Illini Central, was a friend and a fan of the teacher and coach and he also weighed in with his thoughts that summed up John Giesler perfectly. “Coach Giesler had passion for his family, the game of basketball and his players,” said Genseal. “You combine that with a toughness and that was him coaching, and then in the last year he took those things and fought the battle against cancer.”

For a great glimpse into some of the events of the last eight months of John Giesler’s life, former Cougar Levi Kirby made a video that captured some priceless memories. Wherley was interviewed for the video and he didn’t hesitate to say, “That video is unreal. I am so glad we did it.”

Coach Giesler was also interviewed and his words will leave a lasting impression. The scenes were shot last fall around the time Giesler’s doctors were figuring out what chemotherapy he was going to be on, according to Wherley. “He looked like himself and he sounded like himself,” said Wherley of the video. “He was doing pretty good. It was so good. It was just unreal. It captured Coach perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.”

There is also a scholarship fund that was established in Coach Giesler’s name prior to his passing. It will be awarded to a four-year Illini Central basketball player who meets certain academic requirements.

Mr. Giesler is survived by his wife, Mardell, of Mason City. He is also survived by four children (Shane, Chad, Lance and Lindy) and ten grandchildren.

A couple final notes:

In the conversation with Tony Wherley, the current IC coach recalled the first time he walked into the Mount Pulaski Junior High School gymnasium and encountered another beloved basketball coach who has since passed on.

Wherley said, “I came to Illini Central and I didn’t know Bill Rucks from anybody. No one was more kind to me as a junior high coach. I remember the first time I walked into the junior high gym over there at Mount Pulaski and here was this huge man. He didn’t know me from anybody and talked to me as if I was from Mount Pulaski. I never forgot that. Those are the kind of things that I’ll never forget. He was so kind to me.”

Wherley didn’t know Rucks previously and didn’t even know he played at the University of Illinois. He said, “Coach Rucks treated me like he had known me forever.” The year was 2003 and the memory is one Wherley will never forget. Just another reminder how kind words can touch someone, no matter how big or how small.

Personal recollections from Teena Lowery:

Flash forward not quite a decade later and I’m a basketball fan watching the Mount Pulaski Hilltoppers get crushed on their home court by an incredibly talented Illini Central Cougars Team and after the game I just happen to be outside the gym’s back door and the Illini Central bus pulls up to wait for the team.

I incidentally wait, too, for the coach who I think looks like a teddy bear, to come out and board the bus.

As Coach Giesler approaches the bus I stop him to say, “Hey Coach, I just wanted to tell you that you have an amazing team and I think you guys will go far this season.” I believe I told him that his Cougars at the time reminded me of the 1984 Hilltoppers team that could shoot lights out and was very quick on defense.

As I wished him good luck with his team, Coach Giesler nodded at me and said “Thank you, young lady.” He then boarded the bus back home to Mason City. His teams did go on to achieve great success by making consecutive state appearances with a third place trophy and a state championship trophy as evidence of their hard work.

Move up a couple more years and a friend of mine has a father battling cancer. One day at the house I am there visiting my friend’s family and I strike up a conversation with the hospice nurse. She is a woman named Mardell Giesler. Small world. Long story short, we chat and put the pieces together and she said she recalled John coming home that night and telling her the story of me stopping him by the bus. She said it meant a lot to him. I was so flattered he remembered and that he had relayed the story to his wife. That was a memory I will never forget.

Just another reminder how kind words can touch someone, no matter how big or how small.

Thank you, Coach Giesler, for making the world a better place.

[Teena Lowery with photos provided by Tony Wherley]