There is a wide selection of sports available for students to join at LHS. Across all seasons, everyone can find a sport that is intriguing to them. Although student athletes are the focus of sports at LHS, their success wouldn’t be possible without the effort put in by their coaches.

Putting in the work both inside the classroom and on the field, coaches are essential to both the success of the team and the development of individual athletes.

Coach Brian Zyrkowski

Basketball wrapped up their 2025-2026 regular season on Feb. 8 with a win over the Mundelein Mustangs. Head Coach Brian Zyrkowski has been coaching the boys varsity basketball team at LHS for nearly nine years. Prior to that, he was coaching at the sophomore level since 2011 and has seen the growth and development of his teams along the way.

Coach Zyrkowski has given a lot of credit to assistant coaches for the development of his players. He truly believes that if he is able to be close with his assistant coaches, then he’s able to not only improve as an individual but as a team as well.

“We have strong relationships, and we build off each other,” Coach Zyrkowski said. “And I think… you learn throughout the years, through experience [and] through your players. And I think I’ve been very fortunate where I’ve got a very good coaching staff that I think our players notice that we all get along very well.”

The players and other coaches have played a crucial role in Coach Zyrkowski’s growth and helping him to improve.

Basketball is a long season, and with that, teams experience both wins and losses. Due to this, unity as a team during the season is important. When faced with moments of adversity, turning to the team captains to make sure everyone else perseveres is key to getting through those tough times.

“You turn to your team,” Coach Zyrkowski said. “You turn to your leaders on your team. And I’ve been fortunate where we have captains, but everybody on the team is a leader. Everybody has a voice. And it takes everybody to get through those tough times.“

In sports, the goal is to secure a victory over your opponent. While on the score card that does determine success in a season, success can also mean something different than just the final score. Coach Zyrkowski feels that it’s about the players more than anything else.

“Most importantly, when our players leave here… did they get some value from being part of the team, whether they play a lot, a little or none?” Coach Zyrkowski said. “That’s the most important thing to me. I look at success as what our players are doing when they leave here and when their last game is.”

Coach Tim Budge

Just as basketball is one of the biggest winter sports here at LHS, football is one of the biggest fall sports. Leading the way this past season was first-year Head Coach Tim Budge. Previously the defensive coordinator, Coach Budge had to make his way through the season working through some of the growing pains that come with being in charge of both sides of the football team.

Coach Budge always knew that being a head coach would be a big change from defensive coordinator; however he didn’t truly understand what that would look like for him until the season started. There were highs and lows at the start of the season for Coach Budge, like starting off with a win on the road but then losing three straight.

The captains nominated were great leaders and were one of the main reasons they were still able to find success this season. To ensure that prior to the season that there would be strong leaders on the team, Coach Budge started a leadership council.

“My core values are to build great young men,” Coach Budge said. “That’s really the number one thing is just make them into champions, we always say to them. Before you can win championships, you have to be a champion as a person.”

To Coach Budge, the team being player-led was key to establishing a positive culture and representing the school and community well.

“One of the one things I ran into before I was head coach for years is that some years we’d have great leaders, some years we wouldn’t,” Coach Budge said. “So that’s why I was intentional. Last year… [with] a Leadership Council in the spring, we talked about leadership principles.”

Despite the emphasis on leadership from captains and upperclassmen, Coach Budge made it clear from the beginning of the season that no one was above anyone else just because they were older or that they have a higher position.

Having that leadership and support makes differences for the better in the little things like body language, effort in practice and the player’s mentality in the game. Along with this, Coach Budge wanted to make sure that there was a successful student-coach
relationship.

“I always tell the players that I really care about what they think,” Coach Budge said.

For the players, they only get one time in their life to play high school sports, so establishing that close and collaborative relationship between coaches and players is essential. By having that relationship in place, it sets the team up in the best position to win by allowing the players to do everything properly and execute to the best of their ability.

Despite Coach Zyrkowski and Coach Budge having differences in how long they’ve been head coach of their respective sport, the one thing that remains the same between the two of them is emphasizing that the character of their athletes is of utmost importance.

Their dedication helps high school sports drive forward and keeps games competitive and fun for athletes. Whether it’s supporting and motivating their athletes or just drawing up the right play call late in a game, coaching is fundamental to making sports
happen, and they should be appreciated.