Mother McAuley Flashback: Reflections of an All-Time Great

Therese Boyle-Niego, a former Mother McAuley volleyball standout, has her hands full with her own children when it comes to their athletic endeavors.

"They'll come in and say, 'I scored 20 points, I did this and that,' " Boyle-Niego says. "And I'll say, 'Really? Are you playing an individual sport? Isn't this a team sport you're playing?' It's funny. It's the only way they're going to learn."

Boyle-Niego uses these moments to teach her children lessons – lessons she learned while playing volleyball at Mother McAuley.

She now runs Elite Volleyball Program, Inc., and raises her six children in Chicago. She performs both of these tasks with the values she developed while playing in the Mighty Macs' program, which traces its dynasty back to the late 1970s.

The Mother McAuley Tradition

Mother McAuley's volleyball dominance began in earnest in 1977, the year the school moved to the Illinois High School Association from the Catholic Youth Organization.

According to Donna Smith, who coached the team to its first IHSA state championship in 1977, "that was pretty much when things really started full-blown." Since then, Mother McAuley has won 13 state volleyball championships and has had three runner-up finishes.

Mother McAuley has nurtured its reputation through the development of teams that feel more like families.

"Some people sometimes think it's a cult, but it's not. It's one big family," Smith says. "And that family extends all the way back into the early '70s and even earlier than that."

Boyle-Niego, who comes from a family that put five girls through the Mother McAuley program, played from 1978 through 1981, winning state championships in her junior and senior years.

Anne Malone, who now coaches at Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, coached Boyle-Niego at Mother McAuley.

"(Boyle-Niego) hit the ball harder than anybody else at that time," Malone says.

Malone also raves of Boyle-Niego's humbleness. Malone says she would tell reporters about her whole team, but the reporters would only quote her about Boyle-Niego.

"Therese was always offended that her name was the only one that was mentioned when she knew that she couldn't do anything without the rest of her team," Malone says. "She wanted to let everyone know that she was just another member of this team."

After Mother McAuley, Boyle-Niego wasn't done with volleyball. She was just getting started.

The Final Four and Professional Volleyball

Boyle-Niego moved to California to continue her volleyball career. She played for the University of the Pacific.

Pacific had never won the national championship prior to Boyle-Niego joining the team. By the time she was done, the Tigers had their title, as well as a combined 137-23 record over her four years.

Boyle-Niego remembers how, during the 1985 national championship match, she dug deep into her past for inspiration. Pacific was playing Stanford and had won two of the first three games, but was losing in the fourth and in jeopardy of watching momentum turn.

"I can remember vividly 25 years ago being down 11-2 and looking at a couple of my teammates," she says. "We looked at each other, and that look in the eye showed that loyalty and that we had to do this together."

Pacific would win the championship, capping a 36-3 season.

Boyle-Niego continued her career both as a player and a coach. She played professionally for three years. She also assisted at the University of Wisconsin and was the head coach at Loyola University.

Passing on Life Lessons

Boyle-Niego now has the challenge of teaching the lesson she's learned to her children and those she coaches at the camps she runs.

"I think the loyalty thing about being on a team has helped me with my business, my family and my relationships," she says.

Discipline. Routines. Eating right. These are all values instilled in her at a young age that she applies to her life now, and they're the values she teaches others.

"It's not easy all the time, but I want my kids to have character," Boyle-Niego says.

It shouldn't be too difficult for her children. They're learning from an all-time great.

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