He’s not only the baseball coach and athletic director here at Whitney Young. He is really well liked among the whole Whitney Young community, not just the staff and faculty but the students, too. Coach Christopher Cassidy was asked a couple of questions regarding his life and what he likes to do inside and outside of school. This is what we got from our interview:

Question: “Tell us a little bit about yourself?”

Answer: “This is my 24th year here and I have always coached baseball. I started my first year here as a substitute. And then became a physical education teacher the next year. I have taught every level of P.E.; Driver’s Ed, Health, and I currently have three classes of lifetime fitness and the baseball coach, sixteen inch softball coach and I’m the athletic director.”

Question: “How has being the athletic director of Whitney Young affected your life?”

Answer: “I do a lot of busy work everyday. I spend a lot more time, as the athletic director going to games, dealing with coaches and stuff. I spend a lot of time just like I am right now in front this computer. Making sure people have checks for officials, buses, schedules are sent in, eligibility sheets are done, all of that kind of stuff. And it is not as glorious as walking out and getting a medal with the basketball team or you know a city championship medal. It’s like that’s the fun part and this…this is the work part.”

Question: “Have sports always been a part of your life?”

Answer: “Yes, I’ve played baseball my entire life and I was just kind of  sports guy since I was little. We played wiffle ball on the corner, we played tag football in the street. Each season led to a different thing, we used to play floor hockey in our basement. You know shooting socks around and stuff like that, so it was always something sports related. But the only sport I played organized was baseball. And I played in high school and I played at the University of Illinois at Chicago and then I coached Girls’ Softball  for a year before I came here and became the baseball coach.”

Question: “How was it playing collegiate baseball?”

Answer: “ I walked on. So I left Mount Carmel with no scholarship, no preferred walk on status or anything and I went to school for two years at UIC. Then decided you know what; I really like this because I went back to Mount Carmel and I helped volunteer coach and it was just so much fun; I said you know what, why don’t I just try out? A couple of my friends were on the team there, so I tried and I made the team and I got to play three years of college baseball and it’s…it’s fun. It’s a lot of hard work, but definitely worth it.”

Question: “Outside of your love for sports, what else do you enjoy doing?”

Answer: “I like to relax. I don’t know everything I do is sports, sports, sports, so other than that just watch some tv shows and stuff like that. There’s not a whole lot else that I do. It’s Basketball, it’s Girls’ Volleyball, when they’re winning and Boys’ Basketball, when they’re winning and Girls’ Basketball, when they’re winning. There’s not a whole lot of time to kind of sit back and relax with my wife when we get home. She teaches preschool in the parks. So she has kids all day and I have kids all day and then we go home and just relax and chill out and try to not think about it ‘til the next day.”

Question: “What’s one of your favorite tv shows?”
Answer: “ I like all the superhero stuff that’s coming out you know with Arrow and Flash, all that kind of stuff. Agents of Shield  and how they kind of blend into The Avengers and that kind of stuff got me, it definitely has to be action. I don’t like a lot of the real world stuff, I’d rather just kind of phase out and go into that.”

Question: “Who would you say is your best friend here at Whitney Young?”
Answer: “Ha ha ha…I don’t know, we got a lot of guys who hang out in the office here, so I’m not going to say anybody’s my best friend. The guy I’ve known the longest is Coach Locks because he played for me when he was here as a player and then when he became a teacher. The first thing he did was run over here and say ‘Hey, you know I definitely I want to be a part of the team and everything.’ So we’ve been going at it for..for quite a long time. So I probably know him as long as anybody. Coach Franken and I started at the same time, so I helped coach football for a little while before I became a director. So you know, we’re pretty tight as far as that goes. But I hang out with Coach McCarthy on days off you know…we hang out. Coach Nunn, same way…you know it’s a lot of guys that hang out here.”

So we went around and asked some of Coach Cassidy’s peers and players what their thoughts were on him and this is what we got:

“I mean he is a great coach. He is very inspirational. When I was on JV, I really didn’t  know him that much but as I got into Varsity. He started to notice me more and started helping with my swing and everything baseball wise. He’s a great… great person.”  ~Jacob Salazar ‘17

“He’s a great friend. Great coach. A great educator. And just a true friend.” ~Coach Nunn

“Well professionally I think he is very organized and hardworking. Has a good work ethic. I think he is always trying to improve not only this baseball program but the whole athletic program. Personally I’ve known him for over twenty years and I think he is also a good person.” ~Coach Franken

“I don’t think there’s anybody that works harder than Cassidy with trying to do things the right way. He legitimately cares about all the sports teams. He cares about his coaches. He wants us to do things the right way. He wants us to have success. He is just really good to work for because you know that he is going to be honest with you and he is not going to do anything underhanded, it’s like, what you see is what you get.” ~Coach Locks