The holiday giving spirit has been extended year-round by a quartet of Triton College coaches who value community involvement as much as winning in their particular sports.

And in many cases, the coaches have enlisted Trojan athletes to become involved in their efforts, not only in promoting charitable causes, but also learning important lessons in life.

"If you can make a kid smile for a minute, or a family, it's worth it," baseball coach Harry Torgerson said of his team's visit to the Ronald McDonald House near Loyola University Medical Center.

"Our main focus is to affect every kid, and provide positive role models. Get kids to understand sports as a microcosm of life," women's basketball coach Marques Hatch said of his non-profit Athletic Konnection he has helped run since college.

Added wrestling coach Tim Duggan about his community-based 312Wrestling program: "Nothing is better for discipline and accountability.  You have to be dedicated to be a wrestler. Maybe a lot of kids lack self-confidence. But you can develop that in wrestling, a one-on-one sport." 

The community in which the coaches serve blankets the Triton district and beyond. Hatch's organization has expanded to Las Vegas and Dallas-Ft. Worth. And in packing boxes of groceries at a food bank, softball coach Christina Christopher's players officially represented the African country of Ghana.

Christopher's team trip to the non-profit Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) facility in Schaumburg was particularly timely during the holiday season. Access to enough food is never assured even in a land of plenty like the United States, let alone much of the rest of the world. Middle-class families have had to tap into food banks even after the Great Recession abated.

FMSC meals are developed by food science and nutrition professionals to supplement nutritional needs and reduce problems with malnutrition. During the Triton visit, the players packed 38 boxes.

"Our experience with Feed My Starving Children was one that we as a team will never forget," said Christopher. "It was my first time along with most of my team to work with such an organization. Our team was cheering after each box was filled and excited to provide nutritious meals to children worldwide."

The softball players indeed make good use of their off-season. Christopher supervises instruction by her players to travel softball teams such as the Melrose Park Devils and Elmhurst Emeralds at the D-Bat DuPage indoor facility in Villa Park. The program is open to all softball players, and none are turned away due to ability to pay. The Trojan players also conduct private lessons.

"This is part of their softball commitment at Triton," she said. "Some want to be instructors after their playing days. They learn about teaching from coaches. And the kids prefer learning from a college athlete. They get the hang of it and starts to feel like second nature.

In a similar manner, Torgerson enlisted his baseball players to help hospitalized children going through treatment. Steve Korbel, the father of right-handed pitcher Trey Korbel, had been involved with Comer Children's Hospital for a number of years. Trey then persuaded Torgerson and his teammates to get involved.

In 2018, some 35 players were involved in pitching in $4 to $5 each for toys and coloring books for hospitalized children. The team was given a tour of Comer Children's hospital.

Torgerson said he could not connect with Comer for a repeat visit this year, so he switched the Trojans' support to Ronald McDonald House by Loyola. Ronald McDonald House provides lodging to families of hospitalized children at Loyola. The team two made separate trips splitting among the pitchers and position players.

"I just think that the guys need to understand there's less fortunate people, and they need to count their blessings," Torgerson said. "One of my assistant coaches, Jeffrey Halter, is a cancer survivor."

Torgerson also helps out as a server at a special holiday dinner at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn. His wife, Nicole, is a nurse at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Hatch is the basketball director of Athletic Konnection, founded out of college at Grambling State University with Jason Gibson and Byron Banks, two of his childhood friends. The trio had a class project to start a non-profit organization, and carried the idea over long-term. While Athletic Konnection has spread far and wide, its heart and soul is in Proviso Township. Hatch grew up in Broadview while Gibson and Banks hail from Maywood.

"We provide sports training, tutoring and mentoring to kids," said Hatch. In addition to basketball, football and baseball instruction is offered.  Triton hosted some 150 to 175 participants for a football camp, while Proviso East and Proviso West high schools provided their gyms as instructional sites.

Athletic Konnection expanded to Las Vegas when Gibson moved to the Nevada metropolis and became an athletic director at a high school. Another friend of Hatch resided in the Dallas area, so the organization was able to further expand. However, the two cities host basketball-only programs, while Chicago covers basketball, football and baseball. Hatch supervises three grade-school basketball teams amid a spring and summer traveling program.

"Our program allows kids in the community to have somewhere to play, and we try to provide positive role models," said Hatch. Each sport holds a free, open-to-all tryout camp.

Hatch on Thanksgiving weekend had his Triton team give back by coordinating a food giveaway in Maywood. The women's basketball team partnered with the Hooper Johnson (HoJo) Family Assistance Program to hand out approximatly $10,000 worth of food to families in need in Proviso Township.

Duggan does for youths in wrestling what Hatch provides in three sports and Christopher for softball. His 312Wrestling began in a storefront in the St. Patrick High School area six years ago and "kind of turned into something else, turned into a huge club," Duggan said. All would-be wrestlers are accepted no matter their ability to pay.

312Wrestling has hosted almost 1,000 participants teaching the techniques of freestyle and Greco, the two Olympic-style wrestling forms.  Where Duggan once did it all, he now has assistant coaches to work the program due to his busy schedule coaching at Triton and as a Chicago police detective.

"Once the season is done, we do camps and clinics," Duggan said. "We've collaborated with the Beat the Streets program. We help bring wrestling to under-served communities. We bring in guys who have wrestled in the Big Ten who have donated their time."

Triton's athletic facility has also hosted 312Wrestling clinics. "Over the summer we had upward of 80 kids at one time," Duggan said. "We could not have fit that in to a storefront."

The wrestlers-in-training quickly are taught one's attitude is paramount.

"One of biggest lessons is you have to know to win and have to learn how to lose," said Duggan.

But when he and his fellow coaches go out in the community, it's different. It's all win-win for scores of youth and non-profit organizations.

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