Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Yorkville Christian boys basketball coach Aaron Sovern steps down, moving to Arizona ‘The timing is right’

Transcript

Yorkville Christian boys basketball coach Aaron Sovern steps down, moving to Arizona ‘The timing is right’ · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Yorkville Christian boys basketball coach Aaron Sovern steps down moving
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to Arizona. The timing is right. Written by Joshua Wells Or.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: This article is being read by an automated voice brought
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to you by Everlett. Just like he did thirteen years ago,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Aaron Sovern is taking a leap of faith, family, and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the warm sun is calling him west. The Yorkville Christian
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: boys basketball coach and athletic director has announced that he
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: is stepping down. Severn and his wife, Liz, who teaches
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: at the school, will stay on through the school year
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: before moving west to Arizona. Just family, quality of life,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: something my wife and I had talked about doing for
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: a while, probably five years, Soveregn said. A lot of
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: factors played in Brady, youngest of the Sovereign's two sons,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: attends Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. Souveregn doesn't have anything
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: lined up at the moment, but would like to get
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: into scouting at the professional or college level. Our son
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: is out there and is probably going to put roots
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: down there, Sovereign said. Plus, just overall health is a
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: lot better with the dry heat. Winters are difficult here.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: All the signs point to this happening at this time.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: It's not an easy decision. You put so much time
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and energy and sweat equity to get something off the ground.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: We think the timing is right. Sovereign, and Aurora native
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: who graduated from Aurora Christian and played collegiately at Judson First,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: was pitched the idea of being the athletic director at
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: a new Christian school for the twenty thirteen twenty fourteen
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: school year. He previously taught for thirteen years in Indian
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Prairie School District two hundred and four and worked for
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: four years doing community relations with the Milwaukee Bucks. That
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: opportunity with the Bucks fell through Yorkville Christian was presented
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to me. Wasn't sure if I was interested, and my
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: wife came to me and said, I had a dream,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: You'll be working at a Christian school. Sovern said. I said, funny,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you should say that Yorkville Christian, founded in two thousand
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and one, had thirteen students Sovereign's first year the school
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: year started with two hundred and ten high school kids
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and over seventy inches grade school. The first couple of
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: years were very humbling. Sovereign said, we didn't even have
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: a building. When I was hired, Yorkville Christian was just
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: a vision. Souveregn started the boys basketball program the twenty
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: fourteen to twenty fifteen school year, and two years later
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: it became a full member of the Illinois High School Association.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: They were in a temporary location for four years. Fourth
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: year with forty five students in the building, they did
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: athletics at Cross Lutheran, Yorkville Christian's current athletic facility, the Canyon,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: opened in twenty nineteen. It's just been amazing. Every time
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I drive up there, I smile, Sovereign said, knowing the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: energy and effort put into it. Originally hired as athletic
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: director and dean of students, Sovereign for eight years was
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: ad in principal along with the basketball coach. His wife
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: has served as a Biblical studies teacher and school nurse.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: When working at a Christian school, you wear multiple hats
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: that as everybody, Soveregn said, It's been an awesome experience.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: In his twelve seasons playing one of these stronger independent
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: schedules around, so Overn's Mustangs went one hundred and eighty
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: six minus one hundred and fifty three Yorkville Christian has
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: won four regional championships and two sectional titles in the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: IHSA playoffs. In twenty twenty two, the Yorkville Christian team
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: led by Jaden Schutt, who played for two seasons at
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Duke and is now at Virginia Tech, won the Class
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: one A state championship. We have set a bar, set
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a standard, Sovereign said. It makes you proud in that
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: respect that we've been able to grow like that. Sovereign's
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: last team, led by All State guard and CESSI Edwardsville
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: commit Jaden Riley, went twenty three minutes eleven and reached
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: a Class two A sectional final. Even with Riley graduating,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Sovereign believes next year's team could be even better. We
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: always talk about as a team leaving places cleaner than
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: you found it. That's a big thing for me, is
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: leave it better than we found it. Everything is in
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: a good place now, Sovereign said. We told our boys,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the basketball boys, when you're in Champagne next year, you
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: better believe I'll be there with you. Big things are
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: on the horizon. This doesn't stop b