MEET JAY MIKES |
| Personal
Background |
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I grew up in Bloomingdale, Illinois, the fifth of nine
children (Jimmy, Judy, Joy, Jeff, Jay, Jeanne, Jill, Joe and Jerry--all
J's!). I graduated from Lake Park High School in Roselle, Illinois in 1971. While in
high school I played baseball my sophomore year, basketball for four
years, and reluctantaly ran cross-country
my junior year. I was elected captain of
the varsity basketball team my senior year. While attending Northland College
in Ashland, Wisconsin, I played some
basketball (2 years on the bench as a
freshman and sophomore), baseball my
junior year, and served as President of
the Northland College Student
Association for one year as a
junior/senior. I graduated from
Northland
Magna Cum Laude
in 1975 with a double major in Political Science and Philosophy & Religion.
In 1976-77 I returned to Northland to
complete coursework for certification in
education including a semester of
student teaching at my high school alma
mater.
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Career:
Teaching & Coaching
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I began teaching in Schaumburg School District 54 in 1979. As a junior high social studies teacher,
I taught World History, American history and World Cultures. I also
spent two years teaching 6th grade at the elementary level. I
retired from teaching in June 2013.
I began my
coaching career at age sixteen when I
coached Little League and Colt League
baseball in Bloomingdale, Illinois. Over
six seasons my teams won nearly eighty
percent of their games. I had lots of
talented players!
I began training
high school basketball players in the
off season in 1978. I helped several
athletes earn college scholarships to
Division I, Division II, and NAIA
schools. One athlete, Ivan Daniels, was
a 1985 draft pick of the Indiana Pacers.
It was during this time that I began
developing many of the training
techniques I used for skill training, power training and mental training. Many of these
ideas can be found in Basketball FundaMENTALs: A Complete Mental Training Guide which was
released in the fall of 1986 and sold over 20,000 copies in English. The
book has been
translated into German and Japanese as well.
I coached girls and boys basketball in junior high for many
years producing several conference and tournament champions. Once again,
I had many talented players. I also coached my son's youth league and travel basketball teams.
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| Family &
Schaumberg Roots |
I have been married to my wife, Karen,
for 30 years. We have
three adopted bi-racial children. Emily graduated from the University of Kentucky
in 2014 with a degree in Finance.
Josh played football and majored in Communications at Winona State University.
He graduated in 2016. He was
named an Honorable Mention All-American
as a junior and senior. Peter is on his
own. Based on our adoption experience, I
have written a novel entitled
Uncle
Tom's Clinic, available through Amazon.com.
As a descendant of many of the early
settlers of Schaumburg, Illinois, I produced a video documentary on the early settlement
of Schaumburg entitled, Schaumberg Roots: Beginnings Through Civil War. The video was
released in 2009 and is available for checkout or sale at the Schaumburg Library.
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