I guess UWGB requested the closest possible opponent:
Rob Demovsky column: Baby, road trips tough for dad-to-be
If Tod Kowalczyk's pregnant wife goes into labor on her due date, at least he'll have a chance to get home in time for the birth of the couple's first child.
That was the good news for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men's basketball coach on Tuesday, a day after his team's disappointing 65-54 home loss to Wright State. The Phoenix (12-10) learned its opponent for the Feb. 17 ESPN BracketBusters game is Northern Illinois (4-15), located in DeKalb, Ill.
Kowalczyk's wife, Julie, is due the same day.
Organizers of the event designated UWGB a road team months ago, and when Kowalczyk found out it coincided with Julie's due date, he asked if his team could be kept as close to home as possible.
He got his wish.
There was no possible opponent located closer than NIU, which is about 230 miles from Green Bay.
"It eases my mind just for me, personally, but also for Tod — it eases my mind knowing his mind will be eased so much by this," Julie said on Monday.
Kowalczyk said he won't travel with his team on the eve of the game, and as long as his wife doesn't go into labor, he'll drive to NIU on the day of the game. He plans to do the same thing for the Feb. 14 game at Illinois-Chicago.
"We were hoping to induce on Feb. 11," he said, "but the doctor said she won't be ready by then."
Kowalczyk has every intention of coaching every game, but admitted that it's "possible I could (miss a game) because I don't want to miss that. If she goes into labor while I'm home, I'll obviously stay with her."
Like any well-organized coach, Kowalczyk has a plan just in case things don't go, well, according to plan. If Kowalczyk has to miss a game, his most veteran assistant, Dale Race, will handle the game-management decisions. Assistants Jon Harris and Brian Wardle will split the scouting and play-calling duties.
"He said he would a miss a game, huh?" Julie said, sounding surprised. "That's news to me. I've told him right from the start that I don't want him to miss a game. I don't think he will have to thanks to the games being so close to home."
These are interesting times for Kowalczyk. Though his team, picked to finish second in the Horizon League, has been wildly inconsistent, his life outside of coaching has been something of a whirlwind. He met the former Julie Nordgaard — the sister of former UWGB basketball stars Chari and Jeff — in early 2005, bought a new home on the bay in Dyckesville and got married in the summer of 2005.
Kowalczyk always imagined having a family, but the fast track to becoming a head coach by the time he was 35 somehow got in the way.
"I'm 40 years old and having a child for the first time," Kowalczyk said.
"There's obviously an awful lot of excitement and anxiousness. Hopefully, my life won't be defined by wins and losses, which I know it kind of is sometimes."
www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070131/GPG07/701310549/1229/GPGsports
