Football practice begins in the Fox Valley
Football practice opened for high school teams throughout Illinois on Wednesday, including the 13 programs in the Fox Valley from Bartlett to Crystal Lake.
Change is inevitable as time marches on. Accordingly, three teams have new faces at the helm:
Ÿ Former Grayslake coach and Glenbrook North assistant Vito Andriola seeks to build a winning tradition as the new leader of the Dundee-Crown Chargers.
Ÿ Rich Crabel now directs the Rockets of Burlington Central, who have missed the playoffs three straight years after slumping to 8-19.
Ÿ And former Cary-Grove sophomore coach Brad Seaburg steps into the big shoes left by highly successful, now-retired coach Bruce Kay.
Andriola, who seeks to jump start a D-C program which has won only 17 games in its previous 10 seasons and hasn’t made the playoffs since 1994, raised the expectation level on the first day of practice for his 50-man varsity.
“It was good to get the first day in with our kids, but I truthfully thought we’d practice better,” Andriola said. “We make practice up-tempo, and I don’t think they were used to that. It wasn’t horrible, but we didn’t practice like a playoff team and that’s how we always want to play. We’re trying to get them to think that way.”
Crabel likewise called the opening practice success overall, but stressed he expects far more.
“We had a good first day, but as I told the kids we didn’t necessarily have a great day,” Crabel said. “We had a good summer, but something we had to figure out right away is that things won’t be as laid back now that we’re actually in practice compared to how we may have been in the summertime.”
Elsewhere, Air Force-bound quarterback A.J. Bilyeu and the Bartlett Hawks began preparations for what they intend to be another deep playoff run, and sought-after defensive lineman Evan Finnane and the St. Edward Green Wave opened camp with a late afternoon practice at Elgin’s Abbott Park.
At Larkin High School on Elgin’s west side, the Royals opened their afternoon double session with a thin squad of 20 players, though that total is expected to nearly double in coming days as additional players complete the necessary paperwork.
“We have 20 signed up and practicing,” second-year coach Mike Scianna said. “They’re all scrambling to get everything done today. We’re a little disappointed; they should have done that last Friday. We’ll definitely be in the thirties. Forty-five would be great.”
Scianna sees reason for optimism within the program despite the low turnout on the opening day of practice. A dedicated pee-wee football feeder program was established in the off-season, and Larkin will again field a freshman team. Due to low numbers on the sophomore level a year ago, Larkin’s freshmen competed on the sophomore level.
“We really feel like we have the program starting back in the right direction,” Scianna said.