Happy he took 'leap of faith'

Leaving his family wasn't easy for Benjamin Euler, but he missed Wheaton Academy too much

Chicago Tribune, January 14, 2007
By Barry Temkin Link

It was the best of news and the worst of news.

Wheaton Academy's Andy Euler was going to become a college basketball coach. His son, Benjamin, couldn't have been happier—or sadder.

He was thrilled because his dad wanted to coach at the college level and now would get the chance at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga. He was disconsolate because it likely meant leaving Wheaton Academy.

Benjamin had lived on or near the campus since Andy had arrived as the school's basketball coach 13 years earlier. He had tagged along to practices and games and taken countless shots in the gym, dreaming of the day he would play for the Warriors and for his dad.

He finally had done it last winter as a sophomore, but now what? He could, of course, go with his family, but there also was the possibility to stay and live with Principal Jon Keith, a close family friend, and graduate from the school he loved.

The decision-making process would be agonizing, and the journey that followed it equally so. Even now, as he recounted it all while sitting in an atrium on the Wheaton Academy campus Wednesday, Euler's emotions were easy to see.

"I just remember lying on my bed," he said. "It was killing me. It was the most stressful, the hardest decision I ever made in my life.

"On the one hand, I want to be with my family. On the other hand, the rest of my life is here.

"Both conditions couldn't be met."

At first Euler leaned toward staying, but eventually he decided he should go with his family that summer and at least give the South a try.

"He struggled with it and even said so," Andy Euler said, "but he was willing to believe this is what God wanted us to do at this point and was good for us at this point.

"But I could see the emotion. As a dad my heart was ripped out several times, and of course I questioned whether I should have done it even after I had made the commitment."

Benjamin enrolled at Chattanooga Christian School, just across the border from Georgia in Tennessee. It was a good school, he said, but it had one great failing: It wasn't his old school.

"I love Wheaton Academy," he said. "I love the people here, what it stands for; and everything I know is wrapped up here."

He asked his dad and his mom, Melissa, if he could contact Keith to see if he could return, and they agreed.

"He was real miserable here in terms of the school," Andy said.

Keith's door was still open, and he went to court to become Euler's legal guardian. The biggest question was whether the Illinois High School Association would make Euler ineligible for an extended period.

Keith requested a ruling, but Euler transferred before the IHSA reached a decision, taking what he called a "leap of faith" and returning Oct. 5.

Shortly after that, IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman ruled Euler ineligible for 30 days for transferring during the school year.

That was a relief for Euler because it meant he would be cleared for the start of practice in November.

Life has gone smoothly since. Keith and his wife, Shirley, have two daughters in college, so they have plenty of room, and their son, David, a senior, and Benjamin have been close friends for years.

The one negative for Euler is missing his family, including the family dog, Yukon. Andy, though, has attended a few Warriors games, the family came up for Thanksgiving and Benjamin went home at Christmas, all of which has eased the transition.

"It has worked out better than I thought it would," Euler said.

That has included basketball. Paul Ferguson, the new Wheaton Academy coach, had been Andy Euler's assistant in the late 1990s, so Benjamin was comfortable with him.

That was important because after family, faith and education, basketball is tops on Euler's list. No one, Ferguson said, has taken more shots in the Wheaton Academy gym than Euler, who knows the building so well he immediately noticed a change in the lighting when he returned.

"When he was 6 years old you'd see him in the gym shooting," Ferguson said. "And over the years, here he is at 6 a.m. shooting jump shots and lifting weights.

"He loves the game of basketball. He is a true coach's son."

The work has paid off for Euler, the team's sixth man last year but now a 6-foot-3-inch starting guard averaging about 15 points a game.

He wants to play basketball in college. His dad hopes he does it for Covenant, but Euler wants to play at as high a level as he can.

That could lead to another tough decision on whether to follow his dad or be elsewhere.

"It would be great, I would love it, but I'm really not sure," he said of playing college ball for Andy, and he clearly is happy that decision can wait for a while. "I guess I wouldn't know until the situation came up."