Bowling Green State University Athletics
Kris Wilson Feature
March 09, 2006 | Men's Basketball
March 9, 2006
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor - Kris Wilson needed help.
The 24-year-old former Bowling Green Falcons' basketball player was almost at rock bottom.
Now with the assistance of Dan and Jackie Dakich, Wilson is slowly regaining control of his life.
"I kind of got into trouble. I got hooked on some prescription drugs and that was a rough, probably 2 1/2-3 years of my life," Wilson said last week in a very candid interview.
Dan Dakich helped Wilson get back into school at Bowling Green and hired him to work with the team's video in the basketball office.
Jackie Dakich aided Wilson in getting his rehabilitation programs started and giving him a daily schedule to follow.
And to top it off the Dakiches have taken Wilson into their home, providing him a solid foundation while he works to get himself straightened out.
"His Mom felt like this was her last option," Jackie Dakich said. "I think she felt Kris was going down a path where he would self-destruct and possibly die over what he was doing."
Wilson played for the Falcons during the 2001-02 season. He had committed early to Marshall, but on the night before he was to sign his national letter of intent, Greg White, who was the head coach at Marshall at the time, called Wilson and said there wasn't a scholarship available.
"That was devastating. I didn't have a place to go to college," Wilson said.
Through the help of a friend of the Wilson family, Dakich found out about Wilson, a two-time first-team All-West Virginia selection who scored 1,739 points at Spring Valley High School.
Wilson then signed to play at Bowling Green.
"That was the first place that Coach actually helped me out," Wilson said.
However, it was a difficult adjustment for Wilson.
"Fall semester was pretty tough for me, being a freshman and being five hours away from home," he said.
It became a nightmare when in late October, Dakich received a phone call from the same family friend that Wilson's father had committed suicide.
"Coach got me out of study hall and told me the news that my father had committed suicide," Wilson said. "That was very devastating. I didn't see that coming at all. My father and I were kind of like best friends.
"For Coach to tell me that, he didn't have to do that. He could have got my Mom on the phone, had her call and tell me. He just felt that was his place to do that.
"He was not just a coach, he was looking out for me as a person, too, and I had a tremendous amount of respect for him after that."
The entire team attended the funeral.
"That meant everything to me," Wilson said about the support of his teammates.
Wilson returned to school and with the help of Dakich and teammates such as Lenny Matela and Keith McLeod, he was able to survive that first year at Bowling Green.
He returned to Bowling Green for a second year, but studies show that anniversaries of tragedies are difficult for the survivors.
One year after his father's death, Wilson left Bowling Green to return to West Virginia.
"The anniversary just got me, it just nailed me," Wilson said. "I think maybe I was in denial that it happened, maybe a little numb over it. Coach tried to help me, but there was really nothing he could do.
"It was just a time I needed to go home, be with my family and sort things out. It turned out not to be the best thing for me."
The decision to leave Bowling Green was one Wilson wishes he had never made.
"I do regret the day I walked out. I regret it every day," Wilson said. "I think about it every day. I wish I had never done it."
Wilson went on to play basketball for two years at the University of Rio Grande, but said "I wasn't reaching my full potential when I was there and I knew that."
Dakich remained in contact with both Wilson and his mother.
"On and off I would talk to his Mom to see how he was doing," Dakich said. "I knew he had gotten a little wayward. Kris was struggling."
It was last fall that was the darkest for Wilson.
"I wasn't in school. I wasn't doing anything in my life. I wasn't working," Wilson said. "It was probably one of the lowest points."
He was abusing drugs and alcohol and his life was in a downward spiral.
"I don't know if I did that because of what happened to my father," he said. "Maybe I was trying to kill the pain, I don't know."
Still he realized he needed help. When talking with his mother, they decided to call Dakich.
The call was made to the veteran Bowling Green coach on Jan. 7 when he was on the team bus, returning from a game at Western Michigan.
"It was a very serious call about his situation," Dakich said.
Before committing to helping Wilson, Dakich made two phone calls. He first called his wife, who was also on the road, returning from a retirement party for her mother in Chicago.
"It took me a little while to digest what was going on and my mind was racing with a lot of thoughts," Jackie Dakich said. "I don't have a background in drug abuse and I really didn't know what to expect.
"I told Dan at that time I would definitely like to help him, but I wanted to meet with him and his Mom first to see what kind of condition he was in and what all this would entail."
The second call was to Gary Swegan, the director of admissions at Bowling Green, to see if it would be possible to get Wilson re-admitted to school. Wilson had sent his transcripts to Dakich last fall.
"All I did was sign a letter of intent to play on his basketball team," Wilson said. "It wasn't like I was a 30-point scorer playing for him. I was just part of the team. I had never done nothing for the guy and he decides to help me out like this. I can never thank him enough."
After meeting with Wilson and his mother on Jan. 8, the Dakiches decided to help him, even allowing him to move into the home.
"As a mom myself, I think you would do anything for your child and I think she was at her last breaking point," Jackie Dakich said. "We sat down with Kris, talked with him and set down some ground rules.
"It was a big decision."
Jackie Dakich was worried about how having Wilson in her home would affect the family's two children, Andrew, age 11, and Laura, age 8.
"I was concerned that it would reflect on them, that it would negatively impact their lives and I was very cautious about that," she said.
The Dakiches established a complete no-tolerance policy with Wilson. His life would be school, meetings, work, and being with the basketball team.
"He was very agreeable," Jackie Dakich said. "He was at, what I would consider, his bottom and I think he would have done anything we asked him to do because I don't think he saw a way out of where he was."
The Dakiches have given Wilson the stability he needed and in the last two months he has proven to them he can be responsible and that he can be trusted.
"The coach-player relationship was such that he respected Dan. And he still had a little bit of fear in him, that if he were to disappoint Dan or do something wrong, that there would be consequences that would be followed through with," Jackie Dakich said. "I think their relationship in the past was a positive. Kris knew he was serious and would help him. But we would also stick to our guns as far as the rules we set up."
The Dakiches helped Wilson get into a clinic in Michigan for his withdrawal symptoms and into daily meetings for his abuse in Bowling Green.
"Quite honestly he has done better than I could have imagined," Jackie Dakich said.
Wilson was hesitant to call Dakich for help, not that he thought his former coach would say no, but rather that he would say yes.
"I was scared I would have to get my life back together and scared on how hard it would be to do that," Wilson said.
Now Wilson is taking it one day at a time, although he hopes to graduate after the coming fall semester with a degree in education and work with special needs children. He also would consider coaching sometime in the future.
"It would be a big step (to get a degree). The stuff that I have been through, maybe I had to go through that kind of stuff to be the person that I want to be," he said.
Wilson will be forever grateful to the Dakiches.
"Coach and his wife have been outstanding," he said. "His wife has done things for me that only my mother and father have done for me.
"I really didn't know what to expect when I called. I didn't know if he could do anything at all. When he asked me to live with him, I thought this might work. People don't see what kind of person he is ... he just cares about people."
