Moraine Valley has produced many successful student-athletes who have gone on to do great things across the world in and out of athletics. This is a new series to highlight those alumni.

Bob Morack never had aspirations of going to college or earning degrees. His plan was to work in construction with his father after graduating high school. However, baseball became the first step on a different path toward what ultimately became his dream job.

These days Morack promotes education and sports instead of toiling with manual labor. He has been the athletic director at Reavis High School since 2017. He started there as a teacher in 2000 while also coaching the soccer team for 16 years as well as heading the baseball team. With a large percentage of his students moving on to Moraine Valley, he can't help but praise how the college changed his life.

Morack played baseball at Reavis, his alma mater, with the intent to get a job after graduation. But then, now retired Moraine Valley baseball Head Coach Al Budding called.

"He saw me play and asked if I was going to college, and I said I was going to get a job and make money," Morack said. "I say Moraine Valley wasn't the reason I went to college; it was the reason I stayed in college."

Morack attended Moraine Valley from fall 1996 to winter 1998 and was a catcher for the team formerly called the Marauders before becoming Cyclones in 1998. He was the preferred catcher for his southpaw teammate, Bobby Madritsch, who went on to pitch for the Seattle Mariners. Not everyone could pocket those fastballs.

Some of his fondest memories are traveling with the team to places he'd never been, like Arizona on a spring trip. But what he really appreciated was how he was treated like a part of the family. His coach asked for his input, and he looked up to athletic trainer Geoff Davis and athletics director Bill Finn.

"The school provided me with comfort. I had people who cared about me. It was easy to go to Moraine Valley, but it wasn't easy to stay because you have to put in the work. If I didn't go to class, coach was on me. A counselor took me under his wing and asked what I wanted to be. The list goes on and on of the people who helped me," Morack explained. "I'm in my dream job because there were people at Moraine Valley who cared about me. You get lost sometimes, and I got one-on-one attention. I wasn't the greatest student, but they kept me on track. I had the support."

After spending 2.5 years at Moraine Valley, Morack was asked to assist Budding with coaching. While in that role, Budding helped him move on to a four-year college to continue his studies and play ball. He eventually attended Chicago State University, Trinity Christian College and Saint Xavier University, earning several degrees.

"I probably wouldn't have gone on if I didn't have the bridge of baseball. Moraine Valley was the turning point. I never had a bad day there," he said. "Now I work at a high school I was meant to be at, and I'm so happy to be here."