The North Shore Weekend, August 26th, 2023

- Joan Rivers

8 hour of need

The story of Danish Jews who escaped the Nazis comes to life in a new graphic novel

9 honor society Lake County Honor Flight program sent veterans to Washington, D.C. for the 22nd time this month

LIFESTYLE & ARTS

10 work it

Winnetka's Jennifer Morehead comments on the changing conditions of the workplace

12 #hashtag

Elizabeth "Liz" Turnbaugh talks about her My CharCUTErie business and more

13 material pursuits

From Sardinian water to an interior design tome about the iconic Frances Elkins, your weekend must-haves await

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

14 sunday breakfast

Former New Trier tennis player Stephanie Nykaza has been an ace field hockey coach at her alma mater for more than three decades

John Conatser FOUNDER & PUBLISHER

ADVERTISING @NSWEEKEND.COM

Jennifer Sturgeon

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Michelle Crowe, Dustin O'Regan, Kemmie Ryan, Sherry Thomas, Megan Weisberg

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Thomas Connors, Mitch Hurst, Bill McLean

DESIGN

Linda Lewis PRODUCTION MANAGER/GRAPHIC DESIGNER Chris Geimer ADVERTISING COORDINATOR/GRAPHIC DESIGNER

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART

Tom Bachtell, Barry Blitt ILLUSTRATION

Cheyanne Lencioni ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

MITCH HURST

When you get Jeff Perry started on talking about what it meant to grow up in Highland Park and attend Highland Park High School, be prepared for superlatives. Perry, co-founder of Steppenwolf Theatre along with his high school classmate Gary Sinise, is also a well-known film and television actor whose most recent television acting credit is Alaska Daily opposite Hilary Swank.

Perry just wrapped Steppenwolf’s production of the Harold Pinter play, No Man’s Land, in which he played Hirst, an eccentric alcoholic. But regardless of the medium, Perry will tell you it all started with the creative energy that was infused into Highland Park High School.

“Highland Park and the mysterious but wonderful art-loving chemistry of that community one hundred percent is the reason I fell in love with acting. It's the reason I'm still in love with it,” Perry says. “I got to visit Barbara June Patterson, in Nashville, Tennessee a month or so before she passed away. For 12 years. She was a transformative English and drama teacher at Highland Park High School. She took Gary and I at age 15 and threw us into some auditions for West Side Story, gave us parts, and changed our lives.”

Perry’s visit with Patterson will be part of documentary released on PBS American Masters as part of the celebration of Steppenwolf’s 50th Anniversary, which takes place with the 2025-2026 season. While his passion for the stage will never dim (more on that), Perry points to his early television work as the catalyst for allowing him to build a broad acting career.

“It was being cast as a regular with Don Johnson in Nash Bridges on network TV in the eighties and early nineties and being on Grey's Anatomy, a wildly popular show,” he says. “And then being on a show like My So-Called Life,

with Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwin for seven years, it's the television roles that probably give you the greatest exposure.”

Perhaps more than any other theater company, Steppenwolf actors like Perry have gone on to perform before and work behind the camera—Sinise and Perry, John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf, Joan Allen, and a host of others. And it has a collection of Tony Awards that rivals any house on Broadway.

“Something that I'm grateful for and proud of is the way this community of artists in American theater history, these kinds of careers just didn't used to happen,” Perry says. “The choice

or hundreds of dollars in theater work.”

The love for live performing and for doing ensemble work and the ability for the ensemble to control its work and control its destiny is what remains special about Steppenwolf, Perry says.

“It's important for me. I don't care if it pays 10 dollars or 100 dollars. It's important to me to do a play. I'm passionate about doing it live and doing it with people I love and that I respect, and it will help me grow,” says Perry. “Laurie Metcalf would famously say she loved and was grateful for her work on Roseanne and I know, it might sound disrespectful, but there was an aspect to which her coming back every hiatus to do a play at Step, an aspect which she spoke honestly of was, ‘I want to make sure I can still act in difficult material’.”

Steppenwolf is known for many things, but perhaps, especially in the theater community, it’s focus on ensemble and independence. Productions curated and selected with actors in mind who’ve known and worked alongside each other for decades. The freedom to stage plays by up-and-coming playwrights as well as plays by Pinter. This ethos was part of the early discussions when Steppenwolf was conceived.

“That was part and parcel of our conversations. It was the whole thing. It was a selfdetermination,” Perry says. “It would be like organizing a smaller group of farm workers and saying, ‘Guys, we're buying our own farm, and we may succeed, we may fail, but we're running it. Period’.”

Jersey. POTUS Or, Why Behind Every Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is about “how seven brilliant and beleaguered women risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-n-chief out of trouble.”

There is also the world premiere of a play written by Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, Purpose, starring Felicia Rashad, who Perry says is, “an amazing artist both as an actress and director. The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse is a farce about the language that currently dominates our politics.

which was very short-lived but had a real reverberation, and then being on Scandal on ABC

became either I make tens or hundreds or thousands of dollars in camera work, or I make tens

These values are present in Steppenwolf’s upcoming 2023-2024 season. There’s Sanctuary City, a play by Martyna Majok about two immigrant teenagers in post-9/11 Newark, New

Now that he’s finished with No Man’s Land and his hiatus from Hollywood is over, Perry says he’s headed back to Los Angeles. He was scheduled to begin filming the second season of Alaska Daily, but a little strike got in the way.

“I'm waiting for the writers and actors strike to end and all that,” he says. “What's next for me is going on a picket line.”

Jeff Perry (left) and fellow Steppenwolf ensemble member Austin Pendleton recently appeared in the company’s production of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land.

Jeff Perry

Jeff Perry, one of the founders of Steppenwolf, says the idea of working as a collaborative ensemble was there from the very beginning. Photography by Lisa Ebright

HOUR OF NEED

A new graphic novel tells the story of courageous, everyday Danes who helped Danish Jews escape the Nazis during World War II. For author Ralph

BY MITCH HURST THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

Ralph Shayne grew up in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, but his roots are in Denmark. His mother was born and raised there but had to escape to Sweden at the end

of World War II to avoid being captured by the Nazis and facing almost certain death. In Sweden, she met and married Shayne’s father, a Chicagoan studying abroad, and returned with him to Chicago.

Shayne recounts his mother’s story and the story of how everyday Danes contributed to her safety and the safety of other Danish Jews

in his new book, Hour of Need: The Daring Escape of the Danish Jews During World War II. The book, which is released on September 12, is illustrated with artwork by Danish artist Tatiana Goldberg.

Shayne got to know his mother’s family well through frequent visits to Denmark while he was growing up. It is a trip he made with his twin children to Denmark in 2009 that serves as a backdrop for telling the story of his mother’s escape from the Nazis.

“The way the book is structured, my mom tells them about what it was like when she was their age, nine years old, and then goes back and tells them about when the Germans came and the family had to flee,” Shayne says. “Everything is derived from family diaries and then research I did on the additional participants that helped my mother escape from the country.”

There are two moments that Shayne says were critical in shaping the idea for Hour of Need. His mother died in 2016 and a year later he went back to Denmark to reconnect with family. He had always planned on following his uncle's road

high school and where my kids also go, and Congressman John Lewis came and spoke and gave an amazing presentation about his graphic novel called March,” Shayne recalls, “That's when I really started to realize that I could take the story and put it into this graphic novel format that would make it accessible to my family and to kids. It was really inspired by Congressman Lewis’s book, and what March has has done in making civil rights history accessible to children and young adults.”

We don't hear enough stories about the Holocaust that show how everyday citizens came in and got involved and helped, Shayne says. That's what’s unique about Hour of Need The book was produced in collaboration with the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, which will host a book launch on September 10. Shayne hopes to work with the Museum to broaden the book’s reach to school children.

“One of our primary interests and the value of working with the Illinois Holocaust Museum is they have 100,000 youngsters who come through the museum every year,” says Shayne. “They're connected to almost 40 other Holocaust institutions around the country that also have similar education programs and we’re hoping to work with them to help access the school market in classrooms.”

Shayne worked with Danish artist Tatiana Goldberg to bring his words to life, and he says she turned out to be the perfect partner to illustrate the book. They met via Zoom calls and finished the project during a weeklong visit he made to Denmark last summer.

“She has been absolutely amazing and I’m very, very lucky,” Shayne says.

“She has taken such a personal interest in getting everything right, including what curbs look like in Denmark versus here and what ducks look like, and the coats that everyone wore. We had discussions about drapes and wallpaper. It was that level of detail.”

There have been a few tellings of the escape the Danish Jews from the Nazis, but the story is not well known, and Shayne hopes Hour of Need will bring broader attention to the everyday heroes who made it happen.

map of the escape route to Sweden that his family took, so along with his cousin he took his family on that route and traveled down to the place on the coast where they got on a fishing boat and escaped.

“Then later that same year, I was at an event at Frances Parker, where I went to

“I felt that I had a very personal story to tell, and I definitely want to get it into people's hands. That's been the motivation, and also to be something useful to the Museum,” Shayne says. “I think it's a powerful story.”

Hour of Need will be published on September 12 and is available for pre-order at most major online bookstores. The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will host a book launch on September 10. For more information visit ilholocaustmusem.org.

Shayne, the story is personal.

HONOR SOCIETY

Lake County Honor Flight program rewards veterans with a trip to Washington D.C., where they visit monuments and build friendships that can last a lifetime.

BY MITCH HURST THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

A few weeks ago, when Army veteran Dorothea Barclay boarded her flight to Washington, D.C,. she knew she was going to visit the city’s many monuments and also bond with fellow veterans.

What she didn’t know was that the trip would help heal some old emotional wounds she suffered during her years in the Army. Barclay, a resident of Waukegan, was one

stories about the honor flight and that the experience was therapeutic. It was beyond what words can say. It made me feel whole again.”

Paula Carballido co-founded Lake Forest Honor Flight in 2013. The organization sponsors three flights a year, and this month’s trip was the group’s 22nd to date, 463 veterans have had the opportunity to participate in the program. It is one of the few honor flight programs that sponsor overnight trips. Veterans tour DC for three days.

“We meet in North Chicago and then charter a bus to Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee.

donations from members of the community. Carballido says she inspired by a veteran named Frank who was a member of the Black World War II Navy Veterans of Great Lakes, the group that erected the veteran’s memorial in North Chicago.

and they taught me when they returned home, they did not have the same respect from their communities as World War II veterans,” she says. “The veterans start get a sense of healing throughout the journey, and now we joke that we start out as strangers, then we become friends, and by day three we are family.”

Antonio “Tony” Tellez has participated in two trips with Great Lakes Honor Flight, one as a guardian and more recently as a veteran. Tellez is Mexican by birth and grew up in Waukegan. He began serving in the Marine Corps in 1971 and says the honor flight trips are unique.

of 15 participants in the Lake County Honor flight, which celebrates America’s veterans with a multi-day trip to Washington, D.C. to honor their service. Barclay says she wanted to participate in the trip because of the trauma she endured which caused her to suffer from PTSD.

“I have been in a women’s group and fortunately through the V.A. received therapy the last five years,” Barclay says. “I had heard

We have a total of 15 veterans on every flight and each has a guardian, so with volunteers there’s a total of 64 passengers,” Carballido says. “We go to the Vietnam and Korean War memorials, the World War II Memorial, the Air Force and Marine Corp memorials, Navy Memorial Plaza, and Arlington Cemetery for the Changing of the Guard ceremony.”

Lake County Honor Flight has a few corporate funders, including Southwest Airlines which has donated airline tickets, but the majority of its funding is derived from smaller

“He inspired me to do honor flights even before I knew honor flights in general. We took six local veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit the Martin Luther King Memorial in 2012, just a year after it was unveiled,” Carballido says. “We all wanted to see that memorial, but then since they were all veterans, we decided to see the other memorials.”

A year later, Carballido applied to the national umbrella organization for honor flights and in 2013 the Lake Forest Honor Flight program was launched. Carballido says it’s the most rewarding volunteer work she’s ever done.

“The Vietnam and Korean War veterans are the majority of who come on the flights now

“You’re not just going for a day like most of the honor flight chapters do. It’s a threeday event, so you really get to bond with your fellow veterans,” says Tellez. “It’s more than having gone on a trip with a bunch of people. It was totally amazing. It took a couple of days to come down from the high.”

For Barclay, who was the only female veteran on the August flight, she felt a sense of the camaraderie she yearned for when she first entered the Army.

“I was by these gentlemen, and they showed respect, love, caring, and dignity, everything that I had originally signed up for or be connected with.” she says.

For more information or to donate to Lake County Honor Flight, visit lakecountyhonorflight.org.

Veterans Antonio “Tony” Tellez (above) and Dorothea Barclay were honored during the Lake Forest Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C. earlier this month. Photography by Janelle Rominski

WORK IT

BY THOMAS CONNORS THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

“The Great Resignation.” “Quiet Quitting.” “Rage Applying.” Workers and working have been through the wringer over the last few years. COVID didn’t kill every opportunity, but it certainly led employees and employers alike to reconceptualize the workplace; a workplace that is also being transformed by artificial intelligence (AI). As the CEO of Flex HR, a rapidly expanding human resources and payroll outsourcing and consulting firm with offices in Chicago and Atlanta, Jennifer Morehead has a front-row seat to this shifting landscape.

A Nebraska native, Morehead began her career in the analyst program at a consulting firm after graduating from Northwestern University. She then spent seven years at the Tribune Company while earning her MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. In 2010, she started a digital marketing company, then sold it in 2020 and bought Flex HR. Armed with estimable skills and insights, Morehead continues to succeed in a time of change by achieving spectacular growth for her firm—which has been named three times to Inc. magazine’s annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies— and solid results for her clients.

“It’s interesting to have been both a founding CEO and an acquiring CEO,” shares Morehead, who lives with her husband, Brad, and three young children in Winnetka. “I was lucky to acquire a company where the leading subject matter expert at the company—its founder—wanted to stay on and we got along and still do. I feel very grateful to help our clients with their HR and payroll because these are such essential functions to a business.”

Facing a shrunken pool of job candidates and a population of employees demanding flexibility and better life/work balance, companies must strategize effectively to meet the new normal. When it comes to the transformation that characterizes the American workforce these days, Morehead observes, “Employers need to be nimble and open to designing a work team that looks different than it did before by incorporating gig workers, consultants, and W2 employees, often in a remote or hybrid setting.”

While many major players—JPMorgan Chase, Meta, Twitter—are playing hardball when it comes to returning to the office, Morehead is a big proponent of remote and hybrid work. “Overall, I think remote work is good for the American family, for the default parent who maintains the bulk of child-rearing responsibilities, and it can bring down some of the overhead costs for

businesses,” suggests Morehead, whose book, CEO From Home, details how someone can start, acquire, or continue to run a business on their own terms while working from home.

“Employers are able to recruit talent beyond the geographical confines of their city and evolve with the changing geographic needs of current employees. In order to do a remote or hybrid work setting well, employers should design virtual get-togethers like regular town

there must be a plan for this along the way that could include a comprehensive mentor program. In addition, while quiet quitting is a trend with remote work so is quiet hiring, so it can go both ways between employer and employee.”

The fast-accelerating reality of AI is firmly on Morehead’s radar. “AI will most likely start displacing workers at the bottom rung of knowledge industries like marketing, publishing, banking, and consulting and will reach many other industries as it proliferates,” she observes. “It will be important to retrain existing employees to interact with AI effectively to be more productive in their own roles without sacrificing data security, client confidentiality, integrity in the end product, and overall tone. These workers will need to be upskilled or reskilled, so they won’t lose their jobs. Employers need to be evaluating job descriptions and scope of work for their workers to plan how they might evolve in an AI setting. In addition, employers should decide how to incorporate the allowed or prohibited use of AI in their work setting in their employee handbook.”

Looking back at the evolution of her career, Morehead recalls a moment that came to inform all that followed. “I was about to turn 25. I had worked in a consulting job out of college and was supporting a husband through business school at Kellogg. When we moved back to Chicago, I took a risk in a 100 percent commission sales job for WGN Radio, which at the time was owned by the Tribune Company. The AM radio industry certainly wasn’t sexy, but it taught me how to sell and take entrepreneurial-related risks. At age 26, I was quickly promoted to a sales management position running a $30 million sales department. I don’t think I would’ve had the opportunity in another job to get that type of experience so quickly, and it changed the trajectory of my career. It taught me that sometimes, it’s good to take the road less traveled.”

For more information about Flex HR, visit flexhr.com, CEO From Home is available at amazon.com

hall meetings and offer ways to connect in a remote work setting outside of specific work tasks, such as virtual yoga sessions or virtual book clubs. Employers can incorporate monthly or quarterly in-person time. Training and relationship building take longer in a virtual setting, so

As CEO of Flex HR, Jennifer Morehead guides clients through a post-COVID world that is increasingly impacted by AI.

Multi-Channel Marketing

When selling your home, I (with the Engel & Völkers brand behind me) ensure your property gets the exposure it needs through a multi-channel marketing strategy. I focus on local campaigns supported by multinational and global teams that provide the expertise and connections needed to market with strength and impact. Through regional and national advertising, digital and social media campaigns, Engel & Völkers offers exclusive marketing opportunities such as Private Residences, Shop TV, and our award-winning public relations efforts to showcase your property. To learn more about the opportunities that come with listing your home with me and Engel & Völkers, let’s connect. Learn more at carlyjones.evrealestate.com.

#HASHTAG

EDITED BY DUSTIN O'REGAN ILLUSTRATION BY TOM BACHTELL

ELIZABETH “LIZ” TURNBAUGH is the owner of My CharCUTErie. In 2019, Turnbaugh left her successful career at a global wine and spirits company to pursue real estate—and that’s when she also developed an appetite and artistic gift for creating charcuterie boards. She first started making the boards as culinary gifts for family, friends, and clients. They became so popular that she was inspired to offer them for sale. Turnbaugh then launched My CharCUTErie in March 2020 as a pop-up shop in downtown Libertyville, just as the pandemic hit. However, that didn’t slow her down and demand for her imaginative charcuterie boards grew fast with a storefront opening a year later in Lake Forest. Turnbaugh recently expanded My CharCUTErie to a new location in Libertyville, featuring The Graze Bar, a new concept in charcuterie made on the spot for last minute occasions. Turnbaugh also owns Libertyville's The Board Room, a luxe eatery serving elevated, shareable plates and entrees. Turnbaugh credits her success as a new entrepreneur to faith, grit, and trusting her instincts. She believes that hiring others who complement your own skills and empowering them to share your vision are also keys to success.

#ON MY NIGHTSTAND

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. I was first interested in the book when I saw ‘grit’ as part of the title. I truly believe in the concept of ‘grit’ and how this type of unwavering determination gives you the power to withstand turbulence in both your personal and professional lives. In the book, the author first challenges you to find your passion and then presents the way grit trumps talent by giving you the ability to stick to a goal over a long period of time. It’s given me reassurance and guidance as a burgeoning entrepreneur.

#ON MY MOBILE

My favorite app is Daily Hope, which provides an encouraging morning devotional that helps me start my day with gratitude and purpose. Having a young family and running two businesses, along with selling homes, makes for some very hectic days. The words of hope and encouragement stay with me throughout the day and keep me grounded and reminded of all that’s positive in my life.

#IN MY EARBUDS

My go-to podcast is the Go Giver. The premise of the podcast is based on the best- selling book of the same name, co-written by the host, Bob Burg (along with John David Mann). The guests, the topics, and the discussions all further illuminate the importance of service to others and how the power of giving and putting others first leads to abundance in your own life—through your career, your personal life, and the ways you can impact your community.

MATERIAL PURSUITS

This weekend’s curated luxury trends

FRANCES ELKINS

Rizzoli has published a wide-ranging book on the timeless, elegant interiors of the versatile Frances Elkins, the grande dame of early 20th-century design. Ahead of her time, Elkins became a successful decorator who by the early 1930s had reached the top of her profession. Working throughout the United States, Elkins brought an international perspective and architectural sensibility to her work. Her social circle included couturière Coco Chanel, arts patron Misia Sert, and painter Salvador Dali. Showcasing never-before-published material, Scott Powell’s Frances Elkins: Visionary American Designer includes more than 60 interiors illustrating her outstanding sense of color and her gift for mixing periods and styles—from her early work on the Monterey Peninsula to the North Shore estates she designed with her brother, renowned architect David Adler, to homes for film star Edward G. Robinson and banking heiress Celia Tobin Clark. With images by top photographers of the day as well as newly commissioned images of extant Elkins interiors, this volume will serve as a revelation and inspiration to fans of design. For more information visit, rizzoliusa.com.

ARTESIAN WATER

Smeraldina natural artesian water originates from Sardinia, an island known for its natural beauty, its ancient traditions, and its high number of centenarians. The water’s source is located in Gallura, far from major cities, industries, and other pollution sources, and where the air is made clear and fresh by steady winds. Smeraldina originates from deep within the heart of a mountain considered sacred by the ancients: Monti di Deu or the Mountain of God. The brand’s rare balance of minerals is preserved throughout the production and bottling process at a state-of-the-art bottling plant in Sardinia. Smeraldina was recently voted the best still water in the world among 100 entries at The Berkeley Springs International Blind Water Tasting, the world’s most prestigious water tasting featuring brands from all five continents. Taste the award-winning Smeraldina for yourself. For more information, visit aquasmeraldina.it

SET IT

Soleil Toujours Clean Conscious Set + Protect Micro Mist Sunscreen SPF 30 is the hands-down favorite sunscreen of the summer. A 70 percent+ organic, sunscreen face mist with hyaluronic acid, vitamin c and vitamin e to protect and hydrate the skin, and set your makeup, in one step. This super fine, reef safe mist is the perfect final step of your daily skin care routine. Finish your look with totally clear, weightless, and water-resistant sun protection. It’s not greasy at all and adds absolutely no white cast. Keep it with you for effortless SPF reapplication throughout the day. This mist feels like your favorite setting spray and protects your beautiful face. soleiltoujours.com

Retiring New Trier Township High School field hockey coach Stephanie Nykaza—a 14-time state champion at her alma mater—points to a setback in tennis as the springboard to her success in field hockey.

BY BILL MCLEAN ILLUSTRATION BY BARRY BLITT

As a New Trier Township High School (NTHS) freshman in 1979, Stephanie Nykaza, nee Allans, made the junior varsity girls’ tennis team. That was no small feat in sneakers.

A JV netter at NTHS—packed perennially with ace players, then and now—could rout varsity members of tennis teams at most other schools.

“I liked tennis,” Nykaza, a Winnetka native, recalls. “But I wasn’t sure I would end up loving it.”

Such uncertainty lingered until the end of the summer before the start of her sophomore year. Many of Nykaza’s tennis peers had worked harder than she had to reach a higher level in the offseason.

“It showed, clearly, that I had not put in the time on the court necessary to deserve a spot on the team,” Nykaza says. “I got cut.

“My parents (the late Steve and Mary Allans) then told me, ‘Find another sport.’”

The young Stephanie discovered field hockey and ran with it for virtually the next four decades. The sport lifted her confidence, shaped her identity, and allowed her to repay it and positively impact hundreds of athletes via a highly successful coaching career. Nykaza (NTHS, Class of 1983) battled at the attack position in high school and then competed as a defender and midfielder at Michigan State University, where she served the Spartans as a captain.

New Trier had captured two field hockey state championships in program history when she was hired to helm the varsity squad at her alma mater 35 years ago. Nykaza guided Trevians to a state title in her second season and led teams to 13 more Illinois titles, including the last four.

Also a kinetic wellness teacher at NTHS, Nykaza, 58, plans to retire from coaching and teaching after the 2023-2024 school year.

“I’ve told my field hockey players about what happened to me in tennis all those years ago,” says Nykaza, who was also a speedy outfielder on NT softball teams. “I wasn’t always successful in sports, and, in my case, there was a reason for that. You have to be all in, full throttle, in the sport you’re playing. I firmly believe you have to go hard and go big if you’re at all interested in

becoming the best athlete you can be.

“As a field hockey coach,” she adds, “one of my main responsibilities is to help create excitement for the sport at New Trier. I’ve been able to do that from the beginning, with the help of my staff and the constant support of New Trier. Leaders are only good leaders when they have great assistants (and underlevel coaches); I’ve always had those at New Trier.”

Nykaza’s 2023 staff comprises Brittany Ro mano, Sal eema Rogers, DeDe Kerr, Deb Kind, Tania Bouw man, and Jan Douaire.

“When all of us show how much we care as coaches, our play ers play their hearts out for the program in practice and in games,” says Nykaza, whose final NTHS field hockey

crew was scheduled to open its season at Oak Park and River Forest High School on August 24.

Nykaza studied Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation at the University of Illinois Chicago and landed jobs in the field of corporate fitness and stress management. She found time as a young adult to compete for a Chicago-based field hockey club, run field hockey clinics, and coach at field hockey

“Field hockey,” Nykaza says, “always After New Trier tapped Nykaza to take over as head field hockey coach, the least surprised people along the North Shore were Stephanie’s parents.

“Mom and Dad liked to tell me, ‘You’d be a natural as a coach,’”

Nykaza remembers. “I was a hardcore coach in my early years at New Trier, and I could keep up with

my players on the field. I was intense. I had passion. I found out my players gravitated to my passion for field hockey. I might come across as rigid at first, but people eventually find out that I’m a big softie inside. The more I coached, the more I realized, ‘This is my calling.’ I love working with, and motivating, teenagers.

“Coaching filled me.”

Nykaza’s mentor and longtime friend is Barb Liles, who retired in 2007 after 29 years of coaching field hockey at OPRF HS. Liles co-founded Windy City Field Hockey Club in 1991. Nykaza was involved with Windy City—the Chicago area’s oldest and largest club—and USA Field Hockey, the sport’s national governing body and a member organization of the United States Olympic Committee and the International Hockey Federation.

Stephanie and New Trier alumnus Michael Nykaza, an attorney, got married 32 years ago. They raised future New Trier graduates Nick, a 31-year-old Chicago attorney, and Kristen, a 26-year-old who works as a nurse in Milwaukee.

Stephanie Nykaza enjoys paddle boarding, wakesurfing, kayaking, biking, snow and cross-country skiing, working out regularly, and golfing. There’s no telling how many more “ing” activities she’ll add to her crowded recreation plate after her final day at NTHS.

“Could I coach New Trier field hockey for one more season?” Nykaza says. “Probably. I still have the passion. The fire in my belly is still burning. And I’ll always bleed New Trier blue and green. But I want to retire fresh, not as some old coach with outdated ways of running things.

“It’ll be nice, not being on a bell schedule as an educator, and I’ll get to sleep more,” she adds.

Folks have told Nykaza that winning her 15th state championship near Halloween this fall would be a scary-good—and perfect—way to end her decorated coaching career at New Trier.

“That would be a nice way to go out, but perfect?” Nykaza says. “Okay, maybe. But I’d also consider a loss in the state championship game to be a part of a perfect season, as long as the girls had experienced the highs and lows of the season and learned a lot about themselves during the journey. You know, you can lose a tough game and still be proud of the way you played.”

When all of us show how much we care as coaches, our players play their hearts out for the program in practice and in games.

Stephanie Nykaza

BRING YOUR COLLECTIBLES FOR APPRAISAL

Potential Cash Offers On The Spot!

northshoreexchange.org

Gold Standard Auctions is partnering with the non-profit North Shore Exchange to invite clients to bring in their gold and silver coins and other collectibles for appraisal and potential cash offers. We will be paying the highest prices for these items.

We are interested in:

• Gold and Silver Coins

• Fine Art

• Fine Watches

• Fine Jewelry

A percentage of all sales will be donated to North Shore Exchange

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2023 10-4 North Shore Exchange 1100 Central Ave, Wilmette, IL 60091

FRIDAY & SATURDAY

SEPTEMBER 8-9, 2023 10-4 North Shore Exchange

372 Hazel Avenue, Glencoe, IL 60022