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The Cavalier Coaches

The Carlinville High School football coaching staff includes, from left, Bill Duncan, Ken Garrison, Louis Fornero, head coach Don Borgini, Chad Easterday, Alan Copper, and Bob Flowers.

CHS Captains

The 2007 Carlinville High School Football Captains are back row, from left, Evan Kiehna, Justin Frankford, and Marcus Rutherford; front row, Dane Walker and Dusty Hainsfurther.

SCC WEST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS!!!!

Wednesday, February 27

Opportunity knocked, Borgini answered

Former Miners great returns to coach Gillespie

By Steve Porter
The Telegraph

GILLESPIE — The tug on Don Borgini’s heart was a strong one. That’s why the former Gillespie High football player decided to return home and become the Miners’ new head coach.

“I’m really excited,” Borgini, the Carlinville Cavaliers head coach the past eight seasons, said Tuesday. “There have been a lot of emotions because Carlinville is a tremendous school district. But Gillespie has a lot of great things to offer."

“Sometimes when the opportunity knocks, you have to take a look at it,” the 48-year-old Borgini said.

Gillespie principal Joe Tieman made sure the Miners knocked loudly on Borgini’s door. They got the guys they wanted.

“I don’t want to speak for Don, but he told me he wanted to end his career where he started it,” Tieman said after Borgini officially took the coaching reins Monday night.

The Gillespie School Board accepted him to replace Casey Sholtis, thus reuniting Borgini with his former school. The 1977 Gillespie High graduate was a successful coach at Virden and Carlinville, yet sought an opportunity to come home.

“We’re thrilled,” Tieman said. “His record is that he will gets kids out to play football. And more important that football, as far as I’m concerned, is that we’ll have him on board as a physical education and driver’s education teacher.

“He will have positive influence with all of our students,” Tieman said.

Borgini’s leaving a football program that won the South Central Conference West last season and stepping into one that has struggled the past two years.

Gillespie, which was 15-32 under Casey Sholtis, the Miners coach the past five seasons, went 2-7 last season after going 0-9 in 2006. However, just three years ago, Gilelspie went 8-3 and finished first — at 5-0 — in the West.

“Don will get the program rolling (again),” said Gillespie school board member Don Dobrino, the head coach at Mount Olive and Borgini’s former quarterback with the Miners. Borgini, a 1977 graduate, served as quarterback for the 1976 team that finished second in the 2A state finals.

The Miners were 163-99-1 during Dobrino’s 27-year tenure that began in 1970. The 1990 team compiled a 12-2 record and finished second in the 2A finals. From 1995-2004, Gillespie couldn’t produce a winning season, which included Dobrno’s last two years, six under Jack Burns and Sholtis’ first two seasons.

Gillespie is competing in the SCC one more year before hooking up with the revised Prairie State Conference in 2009-10. Staunton is also making the switch. The Miners have been a part of the SCC since the 1920s.

“The Prairie State is a good move for us,” Tieman said. “The South Central was great for us, but we had to make a choice to move forward.”

Borgini said Gillespie’s decision to switch conferences didn’t figure into his decision to leave Carlinville.

“It had no impact on it at all,” he said. “It was an opportunity to go back home and where my dad (the late Emil) was for 35-36 years.”

Tuesday, February 26

Borgini to return to Gillespie as football coach

By Dave Kane
State Journal-Register

GILLESPIE — Don Borgini, who was a senior quarterback for Gillespie High School’s Class 2A state runner-up team in 1976, is returning to the school where his football life began.

The Gillespie Board of Education approved Borgini as the Miners’ new football coach Monday night. Borgini, head coach at Carlinville the past eight seasons, also was approved as a driver’s education and physical education teacher at Gillespie.

Borgini, who also was head coach at Virden for 17 years before going to Carlinville, will take over for Casey Sholtis.

Sholtis, the Miners’ coach the past five years, was not rehired after Gillespie went a combined 15-32 during his tenure.

Gillespie had one winning season under Sholtis: 2005, when they beat Borgini’s Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs and eventually finished 8-3. That was Gillespie’s first winning season since 1994, when the Miners went 5-4 under long-time head coach Don Dobrino — who coached Borgini in the 1970s.

Borgini has a 25-year career record of 293-69, including 58-25 at Carlinville, where the Cavaliers reached the playoffs in seven of his eight seasons. Virden also reached the playoffs 13 times during Borgini’s tenure.

Borgini, who will continue as a teacher and baseball coach at Carlinville for the balance of this school year, declined comment Monday. But Gillespie principal Joe Tieman said Borgini will be a good addition at the Macoupin County school.

“We had about 30 applicants, and we interviewed five finalists,” Tieman said. “We came to the conclusion that Don was the best person both for the football and teaching positions. He’s a great fit for our school.

“He’s a great person. He’s student-friendly. I taught with him at Virden for six years, and my experience is, Don gets a lot of kids out for football. He has a positive approach. That’s what I look for in a coach and a teacher.”

Virden was one of the Prairie State Conference’s dominant programs during Borgini’s tenure. Gillespie, a charter member of the South Central Conference, is scheduled to join the Prairie State in the 2009-10 school year.

Tieman also said the school board gave the go-ahead Monday for an improvement project that will include installation of an all-weather track that could be ready in the spring of 2010. The project also will include re-crowning and re-seeding the Gillespie football field, new lighting and drainage systems and a new scoreboard.

Dave Kane can be reached at 788-1544.

Tuesday, February 26

Gillespie mines rival, hires Borgini

Coach returns to alma mater from SCC West foe Carlinville

By Steve Porter
The Telegraph

GILLESPIE — Don Borgini is coming home. The one-time Gillespie High sports standout will coach the Miners’ football program next season.

The Gillespie School Board approved Borgini’s hiring Monday night. He will also teach physical education and driver’s education at the school, a member of the South Central Conference’s West Division.

“This is a good hire for us,” said Gillespie school board member Don Dobrino, the head coach at Mount Olive High and the Miners’ head grid coach from 1970-96. “I think people in the community are excited about it because Gillespie is getting a quality coach and person.”

Gillespie principal Joe Tieman agreed. “We certainly liked Don’s experience and he’s a very pro-active person,” Tieman said. “It’s great to have him on board and he will be a welcome addition to our school. He will have an impact in our community.”

Borgini served as Carlinville High’s head football coach the past eight seasons, compiling a 58-25 record. Carlinville went 6-4 in 2007 and finished first in the West. During Borgini’s time at Carlinville, the Cavaliers experienced only one losing season and were playoff-bound on seven occasions. Carlinville went 11-2 in 2001.

Prior to guiding the Cavaliers, Borgini was Virden’s head grid coach from 1983-99. The Bulldogs, members of the Prairie State Conference, were 135-44 during his 17 seasons and posted 10-win campaigns six times. They qualified for the playoffs 13 times and had just two losing seasons.

“He has done a great job at both places,” Dobrino said. “The program has been struggling here, but Don will get it turned around. He’s a tremendous individual working with kids.”

A 1977 Gillespie High graduate, Borgini excelled for the Miners and starred at quarterback for the 1976 Dobrino-coached team that went 12-1 and finished second in the Class 2A state finals.

Borgini replaces Casey Sholtis, the Miners’ coach the past five years. Gillespie was 15-32 under Sholtis, including a 2-7 record the past season. Just three years ago, the 8-3 Miners were the toast of the West, going 5-0 in it.

So while Borgini inherits a rebuilding job at Gillespie, it might be a quick one since the Miners are bidding farewell to the SCC. They will become part of the revamped Prairie State in the fall of 2009. Carlinville, meanwhile, will remain in the SCC, which will become a one-division, 10-team league.

Several years ago, Dobrino’s Mount Olive Wildcats also made a similar move from the SCC to Prairie State. Staunton, a member of the SCC East, also joins Gillespie in the 2009 conference change.

“Don’s dad (Emil) was a teacher, a principal and a superintendent at Gillespie when Don was a student here,” Dobrino said. “So he told me he really wanted to come back and he made up his mind to do it.”

Dobrino, 72, intends to coach two more seasons at Mount Olive before retiring. “We’ll get to play Gillespie (as a conference member) in 2009 and that’ll be an interesting game when we play because it will be in my last year,” Dobrino said.

steveporter51@hotmail.com

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Cavies Take The Field

The Cavies take the field against Southwestern in 2005.

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