Libertyville’s Randy Kuceyeski keyed up for final showdown with Stevenson

After an exhausting week of cancer treatments, all Randy Kuceyeski could think about was football.

The longtime Libertyville coach, who was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in the spring, had just been released from the hospital last Friday and desperately needed a diversion from that scene.

He was adamant about being at the Wildcats’ North Suburban Conference Lake Division opener against Mundelein.

“We drove straight from the hospital to the game,” Kuceyeski said with a laugh.

As the game went on, Kuceyeski grew more and more tired — and once the game was well in hand (Libertyville wound up winning 28-7), he decided that he should go home to rest.

He left at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

“I won’t be leaving early this week,” Kuceyeski said.

Of course he won’t.

This is Stevenson week at Libertyville. And Libertyville week at Stevenson.

Kuceyeski wouldn’t dare miss a second of one of the most heralded games in Lake County each year. The Libertyville-Stevenson rivalry is a big one, and this game in particular means even more to Kuceyeski that usual.

It’s his last one.

Kuceyeski will be retiring at the end of the school year after 18 years at the helm.

“I’m going to miss this game more than any other,” Kuceyeski said. “This is a classic rivalry, one of the best rivalries in the state. Usually, we’re both among the best teams in the area. A lot of good coaches and players have been a part of this game and so many of the games have been decided by a touchdown or a field goal.

“I bet the margin of victory for both teams over the last 30 games is less than 7 points.”

The series, not surprisingly, is also deadlocked.

“It’s 15-15 right now,” Kuceyeski said of the games he’s been involved in as an assistant or head coach. “Obviously, I’d like to make that 16-15 in our favor. That would be another great memory I have from this game.”

Cats’ cupboard full:He#146;s 18 years into his tenure as head coach at Libertyville, yet Randy Kuceyeski is still experiencing firsts.Last week in a 28-7 win over Mundelein, Kuceyeski looked out at the field at one point in the second quarter and realized his offensive unit consisted of nothing but underclassmen.#147;That was pretty interesting because I can#146;t remember the last time that happened,#148; Kuceyeski said. #147;We#146;ve got a lot of underclassmen who start or play a lot anyway. All of our offensive linemen are juniors, our running backs and wide receivers are all underclassmen and then we had a couple of other underclassmen rotate in.#147;That group played about half of the second quarter together and wound up doing well.#148;And that bodes well for the future of the Libertyville program. Whoever replaces Kuceyeski, who is retiring at the end of the school year, could be walking into a goldmine.#147;Whoever takes over will be in great hands,#148; Kuceyeski said. #147;We#146;ve got a lot of good young players.#148;Kuceyeski says that the interviewing process for his replacement will take place as soon as the season ends, but that he does not plan to take part in it.He believes there are several very qualified candidates on his staff who have upped their games even more than usual in light of his own health problems.In the spring Kuceyeski was diagnosed with cancer. While he has focused much of his attention lately on his treatments, Kuceyeski#146;s assistants have picked up a lot of the slack in his absence.#148;#148;We have a lot of very qualified candidates on our own staff,#148; Kuceyeski said. #147;And they#146;ve really proved it this year with me being out so much.#148;Keeping up with Kos:Practically every time Carmel senior running back Jordan Kos carries the ball, he#146;s hitting another milestone.A three-year varsity standout for the Corsairs, Kos is quickly moving up the record books in categories such as all-time rushing yards and all-time touchdowns.Kos is just 773 yards from breaking the all-time rushing yards record set by Jimmy Potempa in 2006. Potempa has 3,543 yards.Although Kos has a guarantee of only five games in which to hit the mark, he#146;s gobbling up yards at a steady clip. He is riding a streak of four straight 100-plus rushing games. Last week against Marian, he rolled up 132 yards.#147;I#146;m not sure what the record for consecutive 100-plus rushing games is,#148; Carmel coach Andy Bitto said. #147;Potempa may have had six or seven. Jordan#146;s right there. And he#146;s also 14 touchdowns away from breaking our all-time touchdowns record. His name is going to be all over the place.#148;Flip-flopped:A small change in the Grant backfield paid big dividends last week in the Bulldogs#146; big come-from-behind victory over Wauconda.Sophomore Jonathon Wells started the year at fullback and junior Kyle Whitman was handling most of the running on the outside.After 2 straight losses, Grant assistant coach Kevin Dempsey suggested simply flipping Wells and Whitman for a change of pace.Whitman wound up rushing for 307 yards from the fullback spot.#147;We got to thinking about how hard Kyle runs,#148; Grant coach Kurt Rous said. #147;Jonathon runs hard, too. He#146;s a big kid for a sophomore. But he#146;s still only a sophomore. Kyle has a little more savvy being older. He#146;s gotten pretty good at knowing how to knife between guys, so we wanted to give him a try inside.#147;Kyle had a great game (against Wauconda). He#146;s got great speed, good knee drive and excellent balance and football knowledge.#148;While Whitman was thriving in his new spot, Wells quickly got used to his. He added almost 100 more rushing yards himself.#147;Wells has some really long strides. I thought he ran really well on the outside,#148; Rous said. #147;We liked the way that worked.#147;But we also think those two guys can be pretty interchangeable. We could end up switching them back and forth.#148;Really big rally:Down by 20 points at halftime last week at Wauconda, Grant not only made up that deficit but scored another 10 points (for 30 total second-half points) to get a 44-41 victory.It was the biggest rally in the six-year career of head coach Kurt Rous, who used to be an assistant coach at Grant and was also a player there.#147;I can#146;t remember us ever making a comeback like that, not since I#146;ve been here,#148; Rous said. #147;It#146;s got to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest comeback in school history.#148;Now, the Bulldogs are hoping the win can give them a big, big boost.They entered the Wauconda game on a two-game skid and weren#146;t playing good football. Their losses to Grayslake Central and Lakes were littered with demoralizing mistakes. #147;We were just looking for a win going into Wauconda. We needed one,#148; Rous said. #147;We#146;re hoping that the way that one ended and how we had to come back and play a really good second half can be a catalyst for us.#147;I think it will be. We had been having kind of dull, lifeless practices before that game. Guys were kind of just going through the motions. But after that win, we#146;ve really had some good practices.#148;#146; Watch out:Think fast.When a 4-0 team plays an 0-4 team, which head coach is more worried?Somewhere, Grayslake Central coach Nick Goshe is screaming, #147;The coach of the 4-0 team is more worried!#148;He would know. His 4-0 Rams take on winless Johnsburg today and he doesn#146;t mince words about the dangers of the game.#147;It#146;s a trap game for us. Without a doubt,#148; Goshe said. #147;Here we are, coming off a nice win on Homecoming last week, things are going good for us. If you look at it on paper, you think we have an opponent (in 0-4 Johnsburg) that we couldn#146;t possibly lose to.#147;And that#146;s when things can go so, so wrong. This is a week where we really, really need to keep our focus and remain as businesslike as possible.#148;During practice this week, the Rams have sometimes needed help remembering that.#147;We#146;ve had a couple of instances here and there this week where we#146;ve had to dial the guys back in,#148; Goshe said. #147;They#146;re still teenagers and they get excited and silly and that#146;s going to happen.#147;The good thing is that we#146;ve got some really good captains this year who do a great job of helping us keep everything in line.#148;Goshe pointed to quarterback Ray Beckman, running back Joey Valdivia, linebackers Kristian Meehan and Jake Paust and lineman Jimmy Molitor for their leadership. He says those five seniors, all of whom are captains, have set a winning tone this year.#147;Molitor is like that bouncer who sits in the back of the room flexing his muscles,#148; Goshe said with a laugh. #147;All of them have dominant personalities like that. They are there to work and they don#146;t mess around and the other guys, for the most part, follow that.#148;