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W H O  W E  A R E

STEVE GREGORY - Founder and President
Steve is a former Quarterback at the University of Arkansas who has truly become a student of the game of football. He has consistently given back to his local communities by using all of the positive intangibles football has to offer. In 1982, a member of the University of Arkansas football team, under Head Coach Lou Holtz and later in 1984 with Head Coach Ken Hatfield. Steve solidified lessons of life through team sport and great coaches.

With a Marketing background, Steve has balanced coaching football with his professional career as a Major Account Executive in the Corporate world.  He has coached Quarterbacks privately for the past 7 years under the banner of the "Quarterback Farm".  Steve's coaching experience covers different levels from a 10 year old Dallas, TX area Super Bowl Championship team to 5-A Parochial all boys Cathedral High in El Paso, TX, and now most recently the varsity Offensive Coordinator and QB coach at Marmion Academy College Prepatory high school in Aurora, IL.   During the late 1990's he also directed Summer Football camps for Elementary, Jr High and High School student athletes in the North Dallas Texas and Chicago, IL areas.

His family has a long line of military Veterans, so Steve's patriotism for his Country runs deep. He signed up for an 8-year commitment with the United States Army after college. Steve says he enjoyed his time in the Army because of the many similarities to the sport of football. "Just like the Army, Football builds leadership skills, and teaches many valuable lessons in life, IE..."getting up after being knocked down,"..."preparing for an upcoming challenge, regardless it is an opponent on a football field, battle field, or a challenge in the business world, these lessons you never forget".

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DAVE CLARK - Board Member
Dave has lived in Naperville for 13 years. He has one son, Tyler, who is 14 years old. Dave grew up in Mitchellville, MD (a suburb of Washington, D.C.), was an honor student at DeMatha Catholic H.S. and went on to graduate from The University of Notre Dame with a degree in finance. Dave started his professional career as a Sales Rep. for Merck in Houston and relocated to Philadelphia and Cincinnati before landing in the Chicago area. He is currently an Area Business Director for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Dave has previously served on the Notre Dame Monogram Club board of Directors.

Dave played three sports in high school: football (QB), baseball (C) and basketball (G). After receiving scholarship offers for football and baseball, he chose to attend Notre Dame on a baseball scholarship (1981-1985) where he lettered 3 years as the starting catcher. While in college, Dave served as a Director for the NCAA Volunteers for Youth program and was responsible for identifying and recruiting athletes to participate in the Big Brother/Big Sister program in South Bend. Dave also participated as a Big Brother and mentored a local youth.

Dave has been involved in coaching youth sports for over 9 years. He has coached baseball in the Wheatland and Naperville Little League organizations. He has coached basketball in the Wheatland and Naperville Tarheel programs in addition to coaching his own summer league teams. Finally, he has coached football in the Naperville Youth Football League and the Naperville Titan Pop Warner program.

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DAVE HILDERBRAND - Board Member
Dave is a 29 year career law enforcement officer and currently Captain of the Naperville Police Department in Naperville IL. Dave also served his tenor as a youth investigator, media liaison, police trainer, supervisor and commander of criminal investigations. He has spent his career serving the needs of youth and families, preventing crime violence and substance abuse by developing dynamic community partnerships involving schools, students and parents. As a former offensive lineman at Western Illinois University, and a proud sport parent whose son played offensive tackle at the University of Illinois, Dave has seen first hand the challenges young athletes are faced with on a day today basis.

Dave is he founder and President of "Realworld Leadership". His organization creates public awareness with social decision making within various groups of students. Dave is asked to speak to Big Ten Conference Student athletes each year to educate and generates social awareness.

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DAN DREWS - Board Member

"Creating better leaders for tomorrow starts today" is a concept Dan has long believed in. Growing up in St. Joseph, Illinois, Dan was always participating in the community. Whether it was helping as a member of the local Boy Scout Troup or being elected to attend the American Legion's Boys State leadership program, he was always looking for ways to grow as a leader.  After high school, Dan matriculated to Eastern Illinois University where he walked on to the football team.   While at Eastern, he became president of his fraternity and won Eastern's Fraternity President of the Year Award.  He also became the anchor person for the WEIU news cast and graduated with a degree in speech communications focused on television news casting.
 
Upon graduating, Dan took a job with Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Chicago. Rapidly rising through the ranks of the company, Dan was asked in 2000 to start up the company's new truck rental division in Chicago. He continues today as the head of the rapidly growing Enterprise Rent-A-Truck division in Chicago.
 
Dan's love for sports continues through his training for triathlons and coaching youth sports. He has been a head coach in Naperville Youth Football League since 2006. Dan resides in Aurora, IL with his wife Michele and their three kids Gavin, Hailey and Brynn
.

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JOESEPH CHIVARI - Board Member
Joe firmly believes that athletics brings the best and worst out of people. To realize the best that athletics has to offer, athletes, parents, coaches, administrators and the community must create a relationship that emphasizes the goal of a value based experience for athletes. When young people become aware of values that create a productive behavior, they often embrace those values to become good citizens. I believe that Blue Chips for Life is an organization within the community that assists young athletes to reach that goal. The efforts of B.C.F.L. counter-balances the negative socio/economic stimuli that regularly bombards youth. The combination of fun, athletic activities with serious value education has always been a part of my adult life. My involvement with B.C.F.L is a natural fit for me and I look forward to using my time with this organization to help young athletes realize the best that athletics has to offer.

Marmion Academy Athletic Director, 2000 - Present
Head Track & Field Coach 18 Years
Sophomore Football Coach 19 Years
IHSA Soccer Advisory Committee 2004-2007
Played Football for Marmion Academy 1967-71

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FRANK TONKOVICH - Board Member
Frank is currently a law enforcement officer with the Naperville Police Department. Frank is a Field Training Officer whose primary duty is to instruct and develop new officers on the department. By training new officers, Frank makes an impact in the community by providing them highly qualified police officers. In his nine year police career, Frank has made it his priority to impact the youth by teaching them how important education is with also being an athlete.

Frank’s athletic background starts out at Homewood-Flossmoor High School (Flossmoor, IL), where he excelled at Football and Wrestling. Frank continued on with his athletic achievements and earned a scholarship at the University of Wyoming under Joe Tiller (Current Head Coach – Purdue University). During his career, Frank was a part of the 1993 Wyoming Cowboys that played in the Copper Bowl against the Kansas State Wildcats. Frank is a father of two boys, Jack and Anthony, and married to Jennifer, who is also a law enforcement officer. Frank understands what athletics has done for his life and wishes to share his experiences with other youths through Blue Chips for Life.

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JASON MARKER - Legal Advisor
Community involvement is not only enlightening, but critical to formation of a successful career. This is what Jason Marker has learned throughout his life which began by helping in his church group at St. Joan of Arc parish in Lisle, Illinois when he was in grade school. Jason is a 1993 graduate of Naperville Central High School and a 1997 graduate of Illinois State University where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and a Minor in Philosophy. Mr. Marker later became involved in his college community in Bloomington-Normal, IL as an Illinois State University senator and the recruiting chairman of his fraternity, Phi Sigma Kappa. He sat on many community-Greek counsel meetings to ensure the University's Greek population gave back to their community.

He obtained his law degree from The John Marshall Law School in 2000 and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 2001. Jason's professional career began after he graduated law school and joined the fi rm of Alholm, Monahan, Keefe & Klauke. He later joined the firm of Knell & Poulus in Chicago, Illinois before becoming a partner with the successful real estate fi rm - Quinn & Meadowcroft. Currently, Jason is litigating in Cook, DuPage, and Will counties. Jason has volunteered legal services via pro bono hours to needy clients and currently is a member of the DuPage Bar Association, Will County Bar Association, American Bar Association, and Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He is also a member of the Naperville and Bolingbrook Chamber of Commerce.


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JIM BONEBRAKE - Board Member

Jim has been a small college and high school football coach the past twenty years. His coaching has taken him from St. Ambrose University in Davenport IA to North Park University in Chicago IL. Jim’s high school experience has included Rolling Meadows, Geneva, and for the past six years he has been the linebackers, punters, and kickers at Naperville North High School. Jim has run the Boomer Bonebrake Kicking Academy for the past 8 years instructing players from 4th grade all the way through college.

 

Jim has been a lifetime resident of Illinois graduating from Joliet West High School in 1984 where he participated in football, baseball, wrestling and track. He matriculated to The University of Chicago where he was a linebacker and four-year starter as punter/kicker and received All-Conference honors and Pre-Season All-American status. He also was a 3-year letter winner on the baseball team and could use the John Deere and drag an infield like nobody’s business. He graduated from The University of Chicago with an A.B. in Public Policy. He finished his academic career and began his coaching career at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA. Jim served as a graduate assistant football coach and out of state recruiting coordinator. He graduated from there in 1990 with and M.B.A.  Since the fall of 1990 Jim has been an options trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange spending his time trading options on commodities. In 2005 Jim opened up BBK Sports in St. Charles, IL and has serviced youth through college athletic teams all over the Midwest.

 

Jim’s  off-field success have been enhanced by his involvement in athletics:“ I have been in and around athletics my whole life and it re-enforced the values my parents taught me.” “Athletics is a microcosm of the ‘Real World’, it is about the willingness to compete and handle wins and losses both as learning tools and waking up the next day and competing again.” Jim resides in St. Charles with his wife Felicia and son Cole and daughter Abigail

 

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DOUG SMITH - Board Member

Current Athletic Director for Naperville North High School; Naperville, IL.

(Bio Coming Soon)