Streamwood reloads under Orszula
Whenever someone in the community asks new Streamwood football coach Mark Orszula how his team looks this fall, he offers a standard response.
“I say come talk to me after Week 10 and I’ll give you an answer,” said Orszula, who coached Westmont for the past five years. “You truly just don’t know until you get out there in the first game.”
Orszula said he likes what he’s seen thus far of Streamwood’s 50-player varsity through summer camp and August practices, though many positions battles continue to rage on.
One area of strength will be the defensive secondary, where competition has bred a high level of play in practice. Nick Gargano (5-10, 170) and Sam Cook (5-9, 175) return at safety and Lenard Brown (5-10, 185) is back to play corner. Sophomore Jelyn Hill (5-7, 140) will join the secondary along with juniors Ivan Luna (5-10, 145), Garrett Brown (5-8, 135) and Vince Lopez (5-6, 145).
Senior linebacker Brett Brogan (5-10, 220) will be joined by junior Melvin Manalansan (5-9, 175). The defensive line is fortified by the addition of tackle Dakota Morris, a 6-3, 350-pound senior who has never played high school football. Streamwood’s most active defensive lineman is Collin Tatone (5-8, 215). “He’s a little undersized, but he’s one of the hardest workers we’ve got and he is one of the best leverage football players in our program,” Orszula said.
Calling the defense is coordinator Eric Fulara. He spent the past five seasons at Aurora Central Catholic, the last three as defensive coordinator. Orszula said he met Fulara at coaching clinics and was impressed with his knowledge of the game.
Coordinating the offense is David Ellett, a holdover from former coach Cal Cummins’ staff. He and Orszula clicked right away.
“Our first meeting we sat down and started talking football and we realized very quickly we were on the same page about everything regarding offense,” Orszula said. “Our backgrounds fit real well because he used to be a quarterback and knows the quarterback, running back and wide receiver stuff. I played football at Northern Illinois as an offensive lineman. So my background is more the line and the run game.”
The ground attack is led by Lenard Brown, who as a junior gained 362 yards and scored 3 touchdowns on 86 carries (4.2 avg.). He’ll by joined in the backfield by Manasanlan, who Orszula called “a surprise” due to his hard, elusive running style.
Two players have competed for the starting quarterback job all summer: incumbent Mason Polich and junior Max Draper, a prostyle quarterback who played for the sophomore team last year. Polich began last season as a backup. He gained the starting nod in Week 3 and had some success, completing 50 of 106 attempts for 786 yards, the fourth highest total out of 13 teams in the Fox Valley area last season. He threw 8 touchdowns. Polich also experienced growing pains, evidenced by 11 interceptions.
“There’s a certain appeal level to both of them,” Orszula said. “We’re looking to utilize both of them, maximize both of their strengths and help our team.”
Streamwood quarterbacks normally benefit from a decent array of athletic receivers to target and this year is no different. Though Blake Holder has taken his talents to NIU, the Sabres can throw to a group populated by several juniors, headed by Noah Polich (5-11, 170). As a sophomore on the varsity last year, he made 9 receptions for 201 yards and a touchdown.
The offensive line returns its starting guards but graduated some key contributors.
“I think we have a good group of kids, a good group of skilled athletes,” Orszula said. “The big goal is to get our line moving with our skilled athletes to get us to where we need to be. We have to make sure we don’t hurt ourselves. We can’t have missed assignments, we can’t have mistakes and we can’t have bad penalties. Any of those three are really going to set us back. We have to make sure we eliminate all three as much is possible.”