Allan Wills impacting students through his multiple roles at Gardner-South Wilmington

Allan Wills certainly keeps himself busy.

In addition to teaching six different levels of math at Gardner-South Wilmington, Wills is also a coach of the math team, is head coach of both the varsity baseball and boys basketball teams and runs a recently formed chess team.

While all of this keeps his schedule pretty packed throughout the school year, Wills said he enjoys just being able to be a part of the high school experience for his students.

“Just being involved with the kids, I just love doing that,” Wills said. “Just going to some of the other sporting events or other events the school puts on. Whether it’s dances, and I usually help chaperone the prom and homecoming dance, I just like being involved and having fun with the kids.

“Whether they’re an athletic kid or an academic kid, or anything, it doesn’t matter. I just love being involved with the kids and just having a good time trying to make the students’ high school years memorable.”

Wills, a graduate of Coal City High School, always had teaching in the back of his mind while going through high school. In addition to enjoying math throughout his years as a student, sports were also a big part of his life as he went on to play college baseball at Lewis University.

As childhood dreams of perhaps becoming a professional athlete became less realistic, teaching came to the forefront.

“Like any little boy, I was always hoping that I could maybe be a professional athlete,” he said. “That didn’t obviously work out, but I always loved math and loved sports and working with kids. I always liked playing with my little cousins and neighbor kids.”

He started his teaching and coaching careers at Sandwich High School for four years before moving on to work at his alma mater, Coal City, for four years after that. He then spent a year teaching at Lincoln School, an alternative high school in Joliet, before landing at G-SW in the 2014-15 school year.

He was hired by Principal John Engelman, the longtime Herscher teacher and girls basketball coach. Engelman retired in 2023 after 12 years as principal at G-SW, the last four and a half of which he also served as athletic director.

“Allan Wills is in education for the right reasons, and the right reasons mean he wants to help kids,” Engelman said. “...I don’t remember the exact situation, but I remember in an evaluation with him, I was complimenting him on being so active, going to watch games he didn’t have to be a part of. He goes, ‘that’s what you’re supposed to do. We’re in this for the kids.’ He just gets it.”

Wills has found plenty of success with the math team he coaches, along with fellow math teacher Nicole Leigh. The team competed in the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics State Finals at Illinois State on April 26, something that has not been uncommon for the team over Wills’ tenure.

“We have a really successful thing,” he said. “We’ve won our conference meet every year over the last decade. There’s a regional, and I think only one of the 10 or 11 years we didn’t win the regional.”

But in order to be as involved as he is with his various teaching and coaching duties, Wills said there has had to be sacrifices over the years.

While his wife Jill also works at G-SW as a social worker, which Wills said is a “nice added perk,” he has often had to miss time with family and various sporting events for his three sons, Brendon, Drew and Evan, who have all been involved in sports over the years.

With Brendon now out of college, Drew, a freshman on the football team at North Central College, and Evan, a sophomore multi-sport athlete at Joliet Catholic, Wills said that he appreciates the times he has been able to see them play in person.

“I obviously do my best to try to get to some of their things when I don’t have games,” he said. “But with basketball season being a long season from November to February basically, and the late nights and bus rides too, and going right into baseball now, what I do here at G-SW is pretty nonstop when you throw in the math team and the chess team.”

But while his teaching and coaching careers keep him busy, Wills said the rewards of the job make all the time and hard work worth it.

“It’s always great when they ace a test or whatever, but just seeing that they learn throughout the school year is always rewarding for every teacher,” he said. “And they don’t have to be the best basketball player or baseball player, but seeing someone who is usually a bench player scoring a basket at the end of the game, that might make their whole week or their whole school year. It’s some of the little things that are always the coolest part for me.”