(Sugar Grove, IL. ) - Waubonsee Community College recently honored long-time coach John Bell and a pair of former two-sport standouts, Maxzine Rossler and Robin Reder, with induction into the Chiefs' Athletic Hall of Fame. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the trio was not formally inducted in early May at the school's annual Athletic Awards Banquet, which was cancelled. However, the trio was presented with their official induction plaques on June 24, and they will be further recognized at the college's 2021 banquet.
Bell, a long-time teacher and track coach at Aurora West High School, also guided Waubonsee's Cross Country program for 30 years beginning in 1984. He led the Chiefs to 22 Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference (ISCC) titles, and was named the league's Cross Country Coach of the Year 17 times. His men's teams captured an unprecedented six consecutive titles from 1998 through 2003, and also achieved another unprecedented feat from 2007 through 2010. All four of those years his runners took both the ISCC title and the Region IV crown, and finished in the top-25 at the NJCAA Division I National Meet, while the women accomplished the same feat twice during that span. Overall his teams won a dozen Region IV titles, with Bell leading 127 runners to All-ISCC honors and 99 runners to All-Region status. He took seven men's teams to the National Meet, placing 7th in 1996 and 11th in 2001, the best finish by any school without a foreign-born runner. Bell also steered Waubonsee's women to six ISCC crowns and five Region titles, with a pair of top-20 finishes nationally. In addition, Bell led the men's tennis program for 13 years, and was the recipient of the first ISCC Men's Sports Coach of the Year Award for the 2000-2001 school year. That year he guided both the cross-country team and tennis squad to conference crowns, region titles, and 11th place and 20th place finishes respectively at Nationals. Coach Bell was previously inducted into the Aurora West High School Hall of Fame in 2003 and the ISCC Hall of Fame in 2005.
After being a key member of Hinckley-Big Rock High School's back-to-back Class 1A state basketball championship teams, and an All-Conference performer in soccer, Rossler burst onto the national scene at Waubonsee. The fleet-footed scoring dynamo quickly established herself as the all-time leading scorer in Waubonsee women's soccer history, setting or tying 18 Chiefs' scoring records. In 2010 Rossler was third nationally in goals with 37, third in points with 82, and scored in every ISCC match on the way to being named an NJCAA Second Team All-American, and the Region IV and Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference (ISCC) Player of the Year. Despite being a marked woman her sophomore year, Rossler finished second nationally in goals with 34, was third in points with 83, and 12th in assists with 15. She was named an NJCAA All-American once again, and was selected to both the All-ISCC and All-Region First Teams. On the basketball court the 5'4" guard averaged 12.5 points-per-game while helping the Chiefs win 35 games over two seasons, earning All-ISCC honors both years and All-Region Second Team as a freshman. Rossler was an easy choice as Waubonsee's Female Athlete of the Year for 2011-12. Rossler went on to Purdue University-Northwest where she still holds nine school records in soccer despite playing only two years there. She was also a member of the Peregrines basketball team for two seasons, and earned a degree in Education in 2015. Rossler has served as a teacher and has coached girl's basketball and soccer the last four years in the Yorkville School District. She is set to begin working as a Special Education teacher in Carol Stream this coming fall.
Reder was a stellar three-sport athlete at Aurora East High School, where he is a member of the Tomcats' Sports Hall of Fame. A key figure on the school's 1972 basketball squad that finished third in the state, Reder then brought that winning pedigree to Waubonsee, helping lead the Chiefs' 1974 basketball team to the Skyway Conference title. His sophomore year he represented Waubonsee on the hardwood in the North-South All-Star game. In the spring, he played second base and shortstop on the baseball team, earning All-Skyway honors as a sophomore. In an era when only wood bats were used, Reder still batted over .300 and stole 27 bases to help the Chiefs go undefeated in Skyway play to win the college's first ever conference baseball championship in 1975. That team, which was inducted into the Chiefs' Hall of Fame in 2011, also won a Sectional crown and reached the Region IV Tournament title game, back when all 45 junior colleges in Illinois participated in one division. Reder went on to Aurora University where he also played baseball and basketball, earning the Spartans' MVP award on the court his junior year. He graduated in 1977 with a degree in Education and returned to Waubonsee to serve as an assistant baseball coach. He began playing major fastpitch softball and became a key member of the Aurora Home Savings & Loan team that won the International Softball Congress (ISC) National Championship in 1980. Reder later took over as player/manager of the Aurora Dolan & Murphy Shamrocks team in the late 1980's, and has helped them qualify for the ISC National Tournament nearly every year the last three decades. Reder was a teacher and coach in the Aurora East and Aurora West School Districts for seven years before moving over to the Indian Prairie School District in 1987. He taught and coached for the next 27 years at Hill, Still, and Granger Middle Schools, where he served as Athletic Director for a time before retiring in 2014.
John Bell Maxzine Rossler Robin Reder
