YORKVILLE, Ill. — Before he was U.S. House speaker and second in line to the president, Dennis Hastert was known around Yorkville, Ill., as Denny the coach, a beloved mentor to youths on the high school wrestling team and in local Scouting groups who organized road trips to broaden the students’ experiences.
Last week’s indictment accusing Hastert of manipulating bank accounts and lying to the FBI to allegedly cover up past “misconduct” has left hometown admirers searching back through fond memories and struggling to understand how alleged sexual abuse and extortion could have emerged from that period.
Many former wrestlers and Yorkville area residents who spoke to The Associated Press since the indictment Thursday spoke only warmly of Hastert, some athletes saying he was like a father figure as he guided them to championships.
They couldn’t recall anything suspicious about the road trips. None had a clue about who could have made such accusations.
“Now everybody is guessing who it is,” said Bob Evans, Hastert’s assistant wrestling coach, who joined him in taking Boy Scouts camping and fishing in northern Minnesota. “This puts a cloud over what was a pretty special time for people.”
Evans said there was never a hint of wrongdoing and that he was angry that someone would accuse Hastert without coming forward publicly.
Former students say Hastert left an intangible imprint on their lives. Mindful of that record, residents expressed disbelief and confusion at the claims.
Neal Ament, 66, was a senior at Yorkville High School when Hastert arrived in 1965 from nearby Plano to teach history and economics and coach the wrestling team. Ament said the team won the conference in his first season as head coach.
“Our team was just a bunch of floundering farm boys. He came and whipped us into shape,” Ament recalled in an interview Friday.
He was as memorable in the classroom, said Ament, who still lives in the Yorkville area and has run into Hastert at a local hardware store. “Hopefully this will end up being a big misunderstanding,” he said.
