In the dozen years since he left Joliet West to embark on a journey through the college coaching ranks, Luke Yaklich never ruled out a return to the high school level.

High school basketball has remained close to his heart.

“People would ask me when I was at the college level, ‘Would you ever go back to high school?’” Yaklich said. “And I’d say all the time, ‘I’m just a high school coach that gets to coach college basketball.’ That’s who I am.

“I’m excited about it.”

Yaklich is coming back to where it all started, making his return to high school basketball as the new boys coach at Lincoln-Way East.

“I’m jacked up,” Yaklich said. “Illinois is home. I love Illinois high school basketball and southwest suburbs basketball. I had an amazing experience in Joliet. I’ve always recruited Illinois as a college coach. These are my roots.”

Yaklich is coming off his first college stint as a head coach. He went 47-70 over four seasons at Illinois-Chicago, ending with the 2023-24 season.

He spent the eight years before that as an assistant coach with stops at Illinois State, Michigan and Texas. The Wolverines went 63-15 in two seasons with Yaklich on the staff and finished as the national runners-up in 2017-18.

Before heading to the college game, Yaklich coached high school basketball in Illinois for 14 seasons, spending time at Sterling, LaSalle-Peru and Joliet West.

At Lincoln-Way East, he replaces Rich Kolimas, who had been the only coach in program history. Kolimas finished 341-316 over 24 seasons.

“Rich did an amazing job for the entire tenure of the school,” Yaklich said. “Rich and I have been friends ever since my days in Joliet. I respect him and I want to continue to build on what he did and add my own flavor and twists and emphasis on the program.”

Yaklich, who will also be a social science teacher at Lincoln-Way East, credited former Michigan coach John Beilein with reinforcing his love for the basics of basketball.

“My time with coach Beilein probably solidified my love and appreciation for high school basketball,” he said. “We did things at such a fundamental level at Michigan, and that reinvigorated my desire to teach the fundamentals and make a difference on a day-to-day basis and see kids grow for four years.”

Yaklich said he has taken different things away from all three head coaches he worked under in college, including Dan Muller at Illinois State and Shaka Smart at Texas.

“Dan Muller allowed me to grow and cut my teeth as an assistant,” Yaklich said. “Coach Beilein allowed me to emphasize where my passion is — on defense. Coach Smart was awesome with building a culture, building relationships and having accountability to the culture.

“I’ve definitely grown, exponentially, as a coach since my time in Joliet. Ultimately, those three guys shaped me in so many different ways.”

Yaklich intends to show kids in the Lincoln-Way community that his program will be the right place to prepare for a future in basketball.

“With our lifting program and our skill development program, we’re going to grow their talent and make them into skilled, talented, tough, disciplined players that are ready to play, obviously at the high school level but ready to go on and play in college,” he said.

Yaklich expects his teams to pride themselves on tough, in-your-face defense.

Ultimately, he feels all the pieces are in place at Lincoln-Way East.

“I think it’s a school and a community that people look at and you think big,” Yaklich said. “You think strong academics and strong athletics, and when you combine that with the great kids who are at Lincoln-Way East and the support you get from the staff and administration here, you have a situation where you can be successful and build something over the long term.”