High school sports continue to shift with moving parts, mainly in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. The unnatural timing of the football season reaching its six-week conclusion Saturday is a match with Spring sports’ shortened season in questionable State tournament series. The overwhelming sentiment has been to make the best of it and find growth.
Football teams playing showdown games with undefeated opponents in week six included Naperville Central’s 31-30 victory against visiting Maine South in a non-conference game and host South Elgin’s 30-14 victory against Bartlett in the Upstate Eight Conference championship game. Many games were canceled due to contact tracing and other problems caused by the pandemic.
Two high-profile coaches ended their careers with games Friday, Ron Muhitch, and Mike Stine of Naperville Central.
“The game (against Maine South) had the feel of a State quarterfinal or semifinal game,” Stine said in reflection of the game, season, and 38-year coaching career. “It had the big-game feel.”
Stine became head coaches in 2006 following the retirement of Joe Bunge and the two coaches were Central’s only head coach in the last 30 years.
Central linebacker Shane Roth’s blocked kick on a conversion attempt with 1:13 remaining in regular preserved the Central lead and prevented an overtime with Maine South.
“Roth is a big-play player and he would be the player I would expect to come through with a play,” Stine said. “He was the heart and soul of our team.”
Stine will find a new way of spending Friday nights next season after many years. “I played in high school for my father (at Byron High School), then I was at the University of Illinois, then coaching.”
Central overcame a 24-14 deficit in the third quarter helped by a big interception by Ryan Wojcik.
Next season Naperville Central will start against two teams which were undefeated in the Spring, Hinsdale Central and Lincoln-Way East which started the Central schedules the last several years.
• South Elgin head coach Dragan Teonic said in look forward to next season, “We’ve managed to be strong in all three phases over the last three seasons and we will look to continue our growth and progress there, as well.
“We will return a strong group of quarterbacks, including a three-year starter and three offensive linemen. Our linebacker corps is mostly juniors and sophomores, so we should be strong there as well.”
• Naperville North head coach Sean Drendel, whose team played only three games because of opponents’ COVID-19 problems, said about the final game in week six, a 40-34 victory over visiting DeKalb, “a very good team. Very proud of our kids. We scored 20 unanswered points to end the game and the final score came with eight seconds left to win.” Regarding positives he said, “More than anything that kids who have worked most of their high school careers to get on the varsity field on a Friday night were able to…(play). It was not perfect, but taught them many lessons. Life isn’t always fair, but make the most of what opportunities you have and someone always has it worse than you do. We return quarterback, running back, two wide receivers, three offensive linemen; our offense will be a handful. On defense we need to rebuild a strong front seven.”
• West Aurora head coach Nate Eimer said, “We started 1-4 and for the first time in a long time, we had some games that were not competitive at all. We started 20 of 22 underclassmen this Spring. Every phase should be much better (in the Fall) with how many underclassmen we played.”
• Yorkville head coach Dan McGuire said, “the positives are we got to play another year of football. and exposure for our seniors. We feel we have quite a few defensive players returning and look to have a strong defense next year. (Negatives were) overlap with other sports and injuries that could merge into our Fall season.”
• Kaneland head coach Pat Ryan: “Our offensive skill positions will be the strength of the team next year. We get our QB, Troyer Carlson RB Corey Phillips, and a group of receivers, including Sam Gagne and Aric Johnson back. We will be young and inexperienced on defense. We lost all 11 starters. We lost in the last game (21-20) to an undefeated LaSalle-Peru team. It was a hard fought game.”
• Marmion Academy head coach Dan Thorp: “Great respect for the players. The issues with playing, practice, guidelines and protocols were needed and our players dealt with class. We have a nice returning offensive line and offensive backfield and receivers. Excited for the Fall season.”
• Oswego head coach Brian Cooney on the team that won the Southwest Prairie Conference West championship: “Glad to have a chance to play for a conference title in our final game. We’ll have the most returning starters in the offensive backfield.”