What’s your name at position at Niles North? My name is Ulises Silva, and I am an assistant coach at Niles North.
Why did you decide to come to Niles North? I decided to come to Niles North because I have a good friend named Brett Bildstein, who is also the athletic director here. Since I had been working with his son for a few years in strength and conditioning, he decided to give me a call and asked me to take this job, so now I’m here.
How has your experience at Niles North been for you? My experience right now at North has been extremely positive. It’s definitely a culture of “work hard, play hard” here. You can tell the kids really, really are bought in, especially in the weight, too, which is a great thing to see. And it’s kind of a testament to Coach DeGeorge’s philosophy and mentality, and all the effort he puts into it.
What made you wanna become an assistant coach? I’ve been coaching sports performance and strength and conditioning since I was 19, 20 years old. So it was one of those things where, growing up, I’d realize that there was a lack of education in high school and young athletes. So I decided to get into the field to give student athletes what I felt needed growing up.
What is your favorite sport and why? Track and Field. I coached track at New Trier, and I’m going back for my 4th year, so it’s really been one of the things I’m passionate about for sure.
What do you like to do in your free time? I would say I love learning. To me, coaching track and field is where you can never not be learning. It’s one of those things that if you’re not working at it every day, you’re not giving it the passion and time it deserves, then you’re really going to be exposed as a coach, so I really make the time to learn. I read a lot, I love to work out, I play basketball a decent amount, and I coach in my free time.
If you could master any skill ever, what would it be and why? If I could master any skill, I would master the skill of coaching. Whether that be both philosophically or actually being a practitioner, both are very important. Like I said, coaching is a huge passion of mine and something that I hold near and dear to me.
Who’s your favorite athlete? I don’t know if I have a favorite athlete, but I do have a few favorite coaches, the coach from UConn, his name is Dan Hurley, he’s their head basketball coach. I just think his mindset, I mean, any of his athletes, I would say the whole UConn basketball team, they embody a culture of toughness, but also caring and taking care of each other. So I would say anyone on the UConn team. Obviously, Kobe Bryant has to be one of them, and also Michael Jordan for sure.
If you could have one superpower, what would it be? If I could have one superpower, it would probably be mind-reading. I feel like I would love to know what’s going on inside everyone’s head. I feel that as a coach, you already kind of have to think about that type of stuff, but being able to read minds would make my life ten times easier.
What’s one piece of advice that you learned that you’d pass on to student athletes? I would 100% say that effort will triumph over all. I feel like most kids nowadays, especially when I was in high school, thought that they were too cool to try or put in effort in. So I would say put in effort, give everything your best. As corny as it might sound, effort and small changes every day amount to huge growth.
