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Well-traveled Missavage returns to St. Viator

St. Viator officials looked far away for its new girls basketball coach.

In fact, the new person to direct the Lions has been out of the country for more than 20 years.

Paul Missavage, who was the athletic director and co-head varsity boys basketball coach last year at the American Creativity Academy in Hawally, Kuwait, will take over the Lions girls program this season.

The American Creativity Academy is a private IB American School which prepares young Kuwaiti men for college, primarily in the United States.

“The young men that I worked with there are very intelligent,” said Missavage, who has been teaching physical education and health education. “Many of their parents send them on to the Universities in America to get degrees in law, engineering, medicine, etc.”

Missavage coached men's and women's basketball teams while overseas.

In 2006, Missavage's team was champion of the top league of Luxembourg and won the prestigious “Cup of Luxembourg,” a 40-team single-elimination tournament to determine the champion of Luxembourg.

As a head coach, he won the Cup twice and four times as assistant. He was an assistant to Jan Enjebo, who played for Sweden in Moscow in the 1980 Olympics and was head coach of the Sweden National Team for five years.

Now Missavage is ready to work with the St. Viator girls basketball players and prepare them for their futures.

“I love teaching the great game of basketball and especially love developing young talent,” he said. “It is so rewarding to help kids grow and to become successful not only in basketball, but in academics and in their personal lives.”

Dr. Eugene Vincent, the superintendent who hired Missavage in Kuwait, happens to be the brother-in-law of Stevenson Hall of Fame girls basketball coach Tom Dineen.

Vincent is currently the Director of QSI International School in Yerevan, Armenia.

Missavage originally went to Kuwait to be the head coach of a professional men's team called Al Tadhamon in Farwaniya.

“I had free time during the day, so I went around to ask all the schools if they needed a teacher,” Missavage said. “That is when I met Dr. Vincent at ACA.”

At ACA, Missavage gained experience in teaching and coaching students who come from various and diverse backgrounds and cultures. He has coached or taught students from countries such as Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, India, Morocco and Lebanon, to name a few.

Missavage grew up in a western central Illinois farm community. He played high school basketball at Monmouth-Yorkwood High School in Warren County, where he was MVP as a senior and had the best free throw percentage on the team.

He was recruited by Hall of Fame coach Dave Darnall to play at Eureka College where he spent three seasons with the junior varsity.

“The program was so strong when I was there, I had no chance to make the varsity team,” Missavage said. “I was what you call a late bloomer. So, coach Darnall got me involved in the program as a coach.”

Missavage worked summer camps and was assistant to the men's and women's teams his senior year at Eureka (1979-80). He has been coaching basketball every season since.

“I love the game,” he said.

Now he loves the chance he is getting to return to St. Viator, where he coached soccer, basketball and track from 1980 to 1985.

“I got to know a lot of families quite well,” he said. “I was also lucky enough to have coached so many great young men at St. Viator who have been in contact with me ever since those days and are in many ways the reason I have come back.”

Missavage has worked with Lions Hall of Famers Bill Hubly, Thomas Kaufman, Eric Dahlberg, Steven Chudik, Scott Beaugureau, David W. Benoit, Peter Altenberger, Michael Leonard, Tim Phillips, Daniel Martin, Tom O'Hare, Mark Osterhues, David Pettenuzzo and Ted Sharpenter. In his formative years, he also coached with Joe Majkowski, Jim Lyne, and Bill Probst, Ray Bergles, Bill Pirman, Wayne Fielder, Greg Derbak, Bob Rhinehart and Pat Mahoney.

“These exceptional coaches all had a tremendous influence on me,” Missavage said. “And I must mention of course the late, great Robert Artman who gave me my first job as a professional coach back in June of 1980. He was the athletic director who brought me here.”

Now here again, Missavage wants to build up the program to the highest level possible.

To do that, it takes time, patience and lots of hard work,” Missavage said. “The East Suburban Catholic Conference is one of the toughest conferences in the state of Illinois for girls basketball.”

Missavage's goal is to help his players grow and have success in the future as athletes, students and people in life.

“If we get after it and work really hard together, work with the AAU program in the area and the junior high and elementary kids with summer camps and feeder leagues, St. Viator girls basketball has tremendous potential,” Missavage said. “I look forward to being a leader in the community and to make this all happen the way I have it in my vision for the next several years.”

Missavage hopes to coach for about 12 to 15 more years before retiring.

“I think we can accomplish an awful lot in that time span,” he said. “I am excited to get to know my staff and the girls and get right into the St. Viator community as much as possible.”

Missavage plans to involve himself in as many activities that he can in order to get to know the student body, administration and staff.

One major bonus moving back to the area is the family life for Missavage.

“I am really excited to be back in the Chicagoland area because I am now able to work toward having my family all together here in the future,” said Missavage, whose two oldest daughters, Jessica Missavage Lang (a speech pathologist in McHenry) and Kristin Missavage Thomas (an art teacher in Schaumburg) are in the area with their husbands and children.

Missavage and his wife Mireille have a home in the Ardennes of northern Luxembourg. Mireille is an administrator for Luxair Airlines.

They have three daughters all interested in playing basketball — 11-year-old Julianne (already 5-foot-10), 10-year-old Kayla and 6-year-old Kathryn Jo.

“So another goal is to get them over here as soon as possible so we can all be together and I can work with them on their skills,” Paul said. “Actually, this will be the first Christmas that we could possibly spend with all five of my daughters together at the same time.”

And guess where they could all end up around Christmas time?

“Wouldn't that be nice to have them all in attendance at this year's Snowflake Invitational?” Missavage said with a smile.

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