Thijs is awesome, along with Poulin they are arguably the best HS staff in the state, however they are just one of the many factors on why that program and even SCE have had sustained success over the last 5-10 years. Bill kind of touched on it above, The best athletes in that St Charles area , for whatever reason chose softball when they were discovering athletics, could be the neighborhood they were in and that's what all their friends were playing or looking up to older girls in the neighborhood that played, there was an excellent rec program in that area for many years, then most of them funneled into solid travel programs with great coaches like Wasco and Silver Hawks. All of these play factors into the success of the sport at those HSs and maybe the same goes for other areas, such as Barrington and SWS. Bottom line, I don't think its one coach, Its not necessarily wealth (that helps), its just one big snowball effect that starts when these kids are 4 & 5 years old.