Niles West puts football coach on leave; athletes make emotional appeal for his return

A large group of Niles West High School football team players and their parents asked  Niles Township High School District 219 Board of Education members at their Oct. 8 meeting to quickly reinstate head football coach Nick Torresso after he was placed on mandatory leave.

Torresso was placed on leave on Oct. 2, according to the district’s director of communications, Takumi Iseda.

Naema Abraham, a District 219 Board of Education member, said the board was not given information on why Torresso was placed on leave and was notified of the situation shortly before the Tuesday evening Board of Education meeting. She said the investigation will likely take one more week to conclude.

At the Sept. 10 board meeting, Tammy Caballero, the mother of a Niles West athlete, said during public comment that her son had had ankle surgery and Torresso subsequently made him perform excessive exercises, causing him excruciating pain and a re-injury.

At the Oct. 8 board meeting, Akari Marshall, who played football in District 219 and was coached by Torresso, and who has since graduated, said the temporary removal of Torresso as coach in the middle of the season was not fair to the football team’s current athletes.

“This isn’t fair to Leon, a senior, (a student athlete who also spoke at the meeting), or any other seniors that have the chance to play college football. Before Nick Torresso came a lot of these kids didn’t have a future with football,” Marshall said.

“My junior year, I was suspended for four games, I couldn’t play,” Marshall said. “He (Torresso) still had faith on me, he never gave up on me. He made sure my grades were right. He made sure I spent the right time on film that I needed to. He talked to colleges and he stuck his neck out for me even though I was getting in trouble in school. He did these things. This isn’t fair.”

At the September board meeting, Caballero said her son was given a particular exercise as punishment for not having his protective gear, which Caballero said he did not need to have on him because he should not been cleared to train in order to prevent an ankle injury. The injury her son sustained led to him experiencing excruciating pain and vomiting, and his teammates tried to convince their coaches to have her son do a different exercise, she said.

Caballero said her son was “told…to stop feeling sorry for himself.”

At the Oct. 8 meeting, other team parents also weighed in on the impact that Torresso had on their children.

“Nick Torresso is all that they have for some of these students, and he has been a parent, a school parent, a mentor, a father figure, a brother,” said Alexandra Garcia, a mother of a senior who was on the football team for four years. “What many don’t know here is that the majority of these 120 football players belong to a football family, and they stick together, and they all know this.”

“As a parent volunteer for four years I have witnessed his leadership. I entrusted Coach T’s process and with a full heart confirm an outcome as a partnership in instilling values of a young man on and off the field,” Garcia said.

A current football player told the school board that when he was  young he lost a parent. “This team is like my family, and the dad is gone and we have no idea why,” he said.

The player said Terresso would frequently talk with him in a supportive way when the player’s family members were going through health problems.

“I’ve never met a coach who’s cared more about his players than him and he’s taught us all to be more hardworking, to be more disciplined, to never use anything as an excuse,” he said. “You have your responsibilities as a man, and you have to do it.”

Darcel Retreage, a guardian of two students who have played for Torresso, said Torresso has become a father figure and mentor to both of them both on and off the field. “I can’t thank him (Torresso) enough for the man that (he) helped my first kid become, and he is currently now a junior in college thriving, playing college football, all thanks to Coach Torresso.”

“I’ll admit that coach is tough, but he balances his toughness with love, and he speaks life into these boys. And I know that he speaks from genuine experience, and that’s why it’s received so well,” Retreage said.

Board of Education President Ken Durr said the board could not speak on the investigation.

Torresso is also a special education teacher at Niles West, and has been on leave from that role as well, according to Iseda.

Iseda said the district could not further speak on personnel matters publicly. In a letter from the district’s administrators to the football players and their families the district announced Head Freshman Coach Kyriako Anastasiadis and Head Sophomore Coach Billy Oline will serve as interim coaches in Torresso’s stead.

According to the Illinois High School Association, Niles West had a record of 3-2 when Torresso was still the team’s coach. Niles West won its first game without Torresso against Vernon Hills on Oct. 4. There are three more games left in the regular season on Oct. 10, Oct. 18 and Oct. 25.

Torresso did not immediately respond to a request for comment.