2025 Northwest Herald Boys Basketball Coach of the Year: McHenry’s Corky Card

Survive and advance. It’s not just for college basketball and March Madness.

McHenry’s boys basketball team prevailed in overtime to beat Cary-Grove and win the season-opening Hoops for Healing at Woodstock North. The Warriors went through a 12-game stretch without injured star Adam Anwar, going 9-3, and then held off a late-season surge by Crystal Lake South to earn a share of their first Fox Valley Conference championship and first conference title since 1976.

Corky Card has helped provide thrills again for McHenry’s program since his return to the area. The 1984 Crystal Lake Central graduate, who enjoyed a successful run as Prairie Ridge’s boys basketball coach not long ago, has coached the Warriors to 26 wins in each of his first two seasons as head coach.

As voted on by the sports staff, Card is the Northwest Herald Boys Basketball Coach of the Year. He won the award in 2004 and 2016 when he was at PR.

He answered several questions from sports writer Joe Aguilar.

You’re finishing up your second year as boys basketball coach at McHenry, where you also teach PE. What’s life been like as a Warrior after a 15-year run at Prairie Ridge and, more recently, Dunlap in Peoria County?

Card: Last year was nice to get back to the area, obviously saw a lot of familiar faces. My father [Ray] also grew up coaching and teaching at Crystal Lake Central [longtime head girls basketball coach], and there are a lot of familiar coaches still in the conference from when I left. People at McHenry have been awesome, from the superintendent Ryan McTague all the way down to Chris Madson, our athletic director. Barry Burmeister, who was the old athletic director, was on our staff this year. So really it’s just a good vibe at McHenry.

When you became head boys coach at Prairie Ridge in 2002, your teams played man-to-man defense the first several years, before switching to a 1-2-2 ball press. Your two McHenry teams have played the ball press, often pressuring full court or three-quarters court. What determines which defense your team will play?

Card: When I started at Prairie Ridge, that was maybe as good a talent as the school has ever had, so we were straight man-to-man. When my dad was in charge of the defense [as an assistant coach], I thought we were as good in man-to-man as there was. But you got to have players. You got to have athletes. We probably weren’t getting as good of athletes as things went along. I still believe that pressure defense is the best way to win, at least in high school. Looking at ways just to be super aggressive, this defense allows us to press people like Warren and teams of that nature, teams that are better than you, but it is a bit like playing with fire when you do it.

Playing the 1-2-2 ball press for four quarters requires players to have plenty of stamina. You sometimes played six kids off the bench in the first quarter. How did that help the team, especially during a 12-game stretch where you were without your leading scorer and rebounder in Adam Anwar due to a broken wrist?

Card: We play usually 10-11 kids in a game. This year was a great example of [why]. We got kids hurt, we got kids injured, and there’s not a big dip because you’ve been playing a lot of kids. If a couple of kids go out, these other kids have been playing. I think, also, kids have a better feeling of the game, and they practice harder knowing that there’s a chance that they can get in the game. Those two things go hand in hand. The more kids play, the more you build depth.

Few teams could match your team’s length and physicality this season. Who deserves that credit?

Card: I believe our weight room is as good as any in the state, and I know for a fact that John Beerbower (strength and conditioning coach) is as good as anybody in the nation. I’ve never had kids this tall, and I’ve never had kids that look like the kids that we have right now. We’re impressive in our uniform. Conner [McLean], Carter [Sites], Adam [Anwar] ... I mean, we were put together.

You have been called “Corky” since you were a baby. What is the origin of the name?

Card: I’m named after both of my grandfathers, who both passed away when I was 1, so I’m officially Raymond Howard. I’m not sure if they thought it was a little too official, but they looked for something back in the day that people knew was going to be nickname. My mother’s side is Irish. Her maiden name is Sullivan. Cork is an Irish sect out there (second largest city in Ireland), so my guess is my name is [based on] something along the lines of our Irish heritage.

McHenry boys basketball won a conference championship for the first time in 49 years this season. What has to happen to make it two conference titles in two years next winter?

Card: Each year is its own group. The first thing we tell our seniors is that this is the first of many lasts. It’ll be their last summer as a senior, their last year getting prepared. You meet with the kids, you tell them what they need to work on, and then you see where they get. They’re each on their own merits. I don’t think you ever look at it as repeating.

Your dad being your biggest coaching mentor, how did he help you?

Card: He was the standard for everything that I’ve done. But we don’t quite look at the game the same. He was always very good about at pointing me in the right direction and then letting me learn. I’m more of a big-picture guy, and he definitely was into the details of things, so it was a really good fit. And Rob Niemic (current assistant coach) is the same way. Rob’s very detail-oriented and has a really unique way of looking at games. He can process a lot of information quickly.

You’re 59 years old – not old, but not young. How long do you want to keep coaching?

Card: I definitely think coaching has kept me young at heart. Working with high school kids, I definitely get as much from them as hopefully they get from us [as coaches]. I feel really good. McHenry’s been really good to me, so I have not thought about an end game yet. I’ll keep doing it until something comes up.