FOX LAKE – Stanton Middle School’s Jeff Sefcik might have won Assistant Principal of the Year for Lake County, but he couldn’t do it without some help from his co-workers.
“When the staff found out that I had been nominated for this award, they actually put together a campaign for me,” Sefcik said. “They sent e-mails out to every school in Lake County. This is a team award. We have a great team here, and I’d like to give them credit.”
Sefcik, 41, made the transition from being a high school baseball coach to a high school teacher and administrator. He’s won several awards in both positions, including local and state Coach of the Year awards.
He said it’s an honor to be named Assistant Principal of the Year.
“When I got out of the coaching ranks, I didn’t really know of or expect awards to be given for your work as an administrator,” Sefcik said. “It was really a surprise and an honor and I owe Bill (Lomas, Stanton ‘s principal) a lot of gratitude because he got me involved and introduced me to the right people.”
Sefcik, who will take over as Stanton ‘s principal after the 2008-09 school year, also won a Good to Great award during the 2006-07 school year for some charitable work he helped out with. Good to Great is an award given out every year to representatives of Stanton and Lotus schools.
He got involved with collecting pop tabs, helping out Delores Vaughn, a retired Stanton teacher who was in charge of the collection
“Our goal was to raise $1,000,” Sefcik said. “If we raised $350, Mr. Lomas would kiss a pig on its mouth, and if we got to $500, I’d kiss the pig on its backside.”
They raised $1,000, and they both had to kiss the pig – with lipstick on. The $1,000 was sent as a check to Ronald McDonald House of Cincinnati, where a little girl from Island Lake had spent months there undergoing cancer treatment.
Sefcik, of Wauconda, said he has always enjoyed helping out with charitable organizations.
“When I was the head baseball coach at Driscoll Catholic High School, I always made it a point to get my players involved in two or three charitable events,” he said. “One of the best things I got involved in was with Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. My daughter fractured her skull when she was six weeks old and we were in the pediatric intensive care unit. I got to see the pain some of these kids were going through.”
Sefcik got his coaching staff and players to raise money at the high school. The campus minister at the school then took the money raised to Toys R’ Us and buy toys.
“My team – the coaching staff and players would pack up two vans and drive up to the hospital and visit with 2-18 year olds, give them age appropriate toys and restock their toy room every year,” Sefcik said. “Some of the greatest memories of my coaching career were spent at that hospital.”
Sefcik said Lomas has been a mentor to him, and Lomas was happy to see his co-worker receive the award.
“It reflects not only his leadership, but it’s also about his hard work,” Lomas said. “He has been a really positive asset to our curriculum. It’s been fun working with him.”
