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Geneva's Marten makes IBCA Hall of Fame

It was the last thing on Bill Marten's mind.

The Geneva man was at Crystal Lake Central to start the boys basketball season, his 24th as Geneva's official scorer. He's kept the book for Geneva's girls for 27 years.

Marten was lost in thought - how would 6-foot-10 Chandler Fuzak and 6-7 brother Bennett Fuzak, two transfers, fit on an already tall squad? Basketball junkie contemplation, and that's when Vikings coach Phil Ralston caught him off guard.

The coach came up, patted Marten on the shoulder and said: "How's it going, Hall of Famer?"

Marten didn't quite know what to say.

"I told my wife, when you make your first hole-in-one, if you're fortunate enough to do that, you don't know how to react," Marten said. "I still don't really know what to say."

He has time to figure it out. The 73-year-old retired beverage distributor will be inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on May 2 in Bloomington.

Marten and his wife of 40 years, Mary, daughter Chris and her family will see Bill go in as a "Friend of Basketball," nominated by Ralston. Son Craig lives out of state and won't be able to attend.

"I love every minute of it," Bill Marten said of his role as Geneva basketball's official scorer. "It's like, what else would I be doing?"

What else?

For starters Marten works four days a week in season as a players' assistant and starter and in the cart barn at Randall Oaks Golf Club in West Dundee.

He assigns soccer officials for the Upstate Eight, Northeastern Athletic, West Suburban, DuPage Valley, Southwest Prairie, Northern Illinois Big XII, Fox Valley and Metro Suburban conferences, plus some independents.

A Wisconsin transplant who moved first to Libertyville then to Geneva in 1975, Marten schedules the soccer officials for 108 teams. Twenty-five years ago he started doing that, for 12 high schools and three middle schools.

For 22 years - until 1988 when "I started having knee surgeries," he said - he was a basketball referee.

Marten began scoring Geneva girls basketball games after initially filling a need as team statistician.

"It's a great service for our program because he does such a great job," said Geneva athletic director Jim Kafer. "He's not employed by the high school per se, but he's one of us. At least we view him that way. Our coaches just have appreciated the work he does."

Kafer said Marten knows the rules of basketball inside and out and takes pride in his work.

"He's the consummate professional," Kafer said. "He's well-liked and respected certainly by the Geneva people but also by our opponents. They recognize the work he does and that says a lot when opponents think highly of an individual."

An Air Force veteran who also played one year of basketball at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater then became its team manager, Marten enjoys watching the players play and coaches coach while sticking to his job.

"It's intense, because you can't afford to make a mistake, you have to be right on all the time," he said. "You come in ready to work."

He's seen coaches, players and parents come and go, and the basketball programs get stronger. Early in his tenure at the table, when the girls went from 11-win seasons to 13 he said, "we thought we found heaven."

For Marten, this might be close. He sees no reason to slow down at the scorers table, assigning soccer officials or working at the golf course.

"I don't ever think about retiring," he said. "My doctor tells me, 'You've got to keep doing this. You get up and you've got something to do rather than just sit around and watch ESPN all day.'"

How refreshing

Wheaton Academy draws from a wide area, so the following note may ring a bell: Warriors' junior Ty Seager has been named the 2014-15 Gatorade Illinois boys soccer player of the year.

The West Chicago resident scored 39 goals with 15 assists in 27 games last fall, leading the Warriors to the Class 2A state championship in dominating fashion, 5-1 over St. Joseph.

Seager, who also earned 2A all-state finishes in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the 2014 boys state track meet, has a 3.42 grade-point average and is a member of Wheaton Academy's J. Kyle Braid Leadership Foundation.

The honorary captain of the Daily Herald's DuPage Boys All-Area Soccer Team, Seager is eligible for the Gatorade national player of the year award, which will be announced in May.

Welcome to the club

In his first year of eligibility, 1999 Marmion graduate Tom Koutsos was inducted into the school's Alumni Association Athletic Hall of Fame during halftime of the Cadets' basketball victory over Sandwich on Feb. 7.

Koutsos already had been inducted into his college hall of fame, in 2010 at Southern Illinois University. A 5-foot-11, 220-pound running back, among several other statistical categories the Salukis' two-time team MVP still holds the program career rushing record of 4,715 yards, second all-time in the Missouri Valley Conference.

A member of SIU's All-Century Team, in 2003 Koutsos paced the Salukis' first NCAA playoff appearance in 20 years.

Koutsos gave SIU a glimpse into the future at Marmion by earning Suburban Catholic Conference honors three seasons and all-state as a senior. That season, 1998, he helped coach Paul Murphy's Cadets reach the Class 4A quarterfinals by upsetting both St. Viator and Joliet Catholic.

Koutsos is Marmion's all-time leading rusher with 3,731 yards including 2,274 in a single season. He scored the most career points, the most rushing touchdowns and ran for more than 200 yards in seven games.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

Follow Dave on Twitter @doberhelman1

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