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Burlington Central tabs Newburger as new football coach

New Burlington Central football coach Jason Newburger intends to be a program builder.

"What I would love our program to do is to compete perennially," Newburger, 31, said after he was announced Friday as the Rockets' new coach pending approval of the District 301 board at its May 18 meeting. Newburger replaces Rich Crabel, who stepped down in December with a 22-16 record and two playoff appearances in four seasons.

"We're going to build from the youth program all the way up so that our program has sustained success at the high school level," Newburger continued. "Certain programs can always win and always make the playoffs and sometimes have deep runs with that one good class of athletes. That's not hard to coach. It's about building the program from the ground up and making sure that every year you're retooling, reloading and making a run at having years of sustained success."

Newburger knows first hand what it takes to build programs; He helped build three of them as part of the first graduating class from Vernon Hills High School in 2002. A three-sport athlete, he was named Daily Herald 2001-02 Lake County Male Athlete of the Year.

In his senior year at quarterback, Newburger was named all-state after throwing for 2,149 yards and 19 touchdowns and rushing for 7 more and leading his program to the Class 5A quarterfinals in its second year of varsity competition.

As a basketball player, he averaged nearly 10 points and more than 4 assists per game and sank 48 3-pointers.

Newburger was named honorable mention all-state in baseball, perhaps his best sport. After batting .515 with 53 hits and 41 runs as a senior, he went on to play four seasons for coach Dewey Kalmer at Bradley University, where he graduated with a degree in business administration.

Newburger spent a few years working in the real estate industry before becoming a student teacher and coach at Vernon Hills in 2011. He has spent the last four years as an assistant football coach with one season at Glenbrook North sandwiched between three at Vernon Hills.

"We're excited to hire Jason," Burlington Central athletic director Steve Diversey said. "His energy and enthusiasm for the game and his experience coaching at a Class 6A program, I think, will help take Central football to the next level. He brings a different approach and a different energy to the program and he really connects with the kids."

Newburger, who joins Central's math department, has a clear vision of the type of football teams he expects to field.

"Our offense is going to be dynamic, our defense is going to be fast and physical," he said. "Hopefully, Rocket Hill will be a great place to be on Friday nights, it'll be exciting and we'll see a lot of wins over the next handful of years.

"The personnel is pretty much everything and it starts with the quarterback. Hopefully, we will develop some really great quarterbacks from the youth program on up and we'll be able to run and throw. I think in the state of Illinois, once you get to football in November you're going to have to run the ball. Being balanced is the ideal situation.

"Run it, throw it - as long as we're gaining yards. We're going to utilize the talent that we have and get our playmakers the ball with room to run and, hopefully, light up the scoreboard."

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