By Bobby Narang
Naperville Central High School is ready to turn the page.
The Redhawks, one of the top teams in the DuPage Valley Conference on seemingly an annual basis, are coming off one of their best seasons in the Spring version.
Six games. Six victories.
But, that’s the Redhawks’ on-the-field record. On paper, the Redhawks lost all six of their games after the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) sanctioned the football team for violations of its transfer bylaws. The violations led to a forfeiture of Naperville Central’s football games from 2018 through the six-game 2021 seasons, which included 17 victories that were vacated.
First-year Naperville Central head coach Mike Ulreich said his team moved past those headline- grabbing news in late May.
“We talked about this a lot in the Spring, when the (transfer) story came out mid-May,” Ulreich said. “Our conversations with our kids were that we were going to stand tall throughout all this, and approach our work with a certain demeanor and competing at a certain level, especially with the way we carried ourselves.
“We were going to stand tall. This wasn’t a problem of any kid on our team. In May, they faced some hostility on social media, and when we play our rivals, we will hear it again. But since that May meeting, we’ve moved on. We’re really excited about this Fall.”
Ulreich said the first official day of high school practice Monday was a continuation of a solid Summer for the program. Several players made significant gains in the strength department, in part because of first-year strength coach, Jake Kolbe. The former Illinois State University quarterback led the Redhawks to the Class 8A State championship in 2013.
“The (weather) cleared right before the start of practice,” Ulreich said. “Sometimes you have grand expectations for day one of football, so the weather cooperated. We had a tremendous Summer, and we’re excited to build off that momentum and the kids had a great demeanor.
“Today, the first thing we talked about in our team meeting was that we really want to separate ourselves from our competition.”
Even with significant graduation losses, especially in their 3-4 defense, the Redhawks return plenty of firepower. In total, Naperville has five starters back on offense, including quarterback Owen Prucha, star wide receiver Reggie Fleurima, and running back Niko Gordon. Fleurima, a Northwestern University recruit, is a player to watch this season.
On defense, the Redhawks have four starters back, with middle linebacker Ethan Pytlak one of the main returnees. Naperville Central, though, took heavy losses on its defensive line.
“We have one or two guys at every position (on offense) that are really impressive this summer, especially in the weight room,” Ulreich said. “We lost all three starters on the defensive line, but we feel good about our strength in numbers. Physically, we got some big kids in the front seven (on defense). It will take some time for those 11 defensive guys to learn how to play together, and for one or two of them to find that leadership role.”