High School Football is Back!
Excitement Always Around Opening Weekend; Preseason Scrimmages a Big Hit; Don't Forget O-Linemen; Grubb's Historic Kicks for Conant 30 Years Ago
Are you ready for some high school football?
Of course you are! Fortunately the Gulf Coast-esque heat and humidity is breaking and the weather looks more comfortable for another season to start this weekend.
I’ll be covering Hersey at Warren on Friday night for the Daily Herald in what looks to be one of the top openers in the state. Both programs have made six consecutive playoff appearances (not including the 2020-21 spring COVID-shortened season with no postseason) and are looking to be playing well into November this season.
There will be some tremendous talent on both sides that is highlighted by UCLA quarterback recruit Colton Gumino of Hersey and 1,700-yard rusher and national champion wrestler Aaron Stewart of Warren. One disappointment is not getting to Hersey senior and North Carolina-bound tight end Logan Farrell, who is out with a torn ACL, since I’ve known his dad Jim for 30-plus years dating to his time as a football and track standout at Fremd.
Opening night is filled with optimism, enthusiasm, excitement, big crowds, rocking bands, cheerleaders and raucous student sections. There is some big energy from the start of a new school year.
My favorite opener was always the battle for Arlington Heights bragging rights between Hersey and St. Viator. Two schools located a mile away from each other. The public school vs. the private school. Players on opposite sides who were on the same side as kids. Huge fan interest.
It was where Viator’s Jarrett Payton made his much-publicized high school football debut with his dad Walter and a number of his former Bears teammates watching. It was Hersey’s Bruce Glover pulling unique plays out of his big bag of tricks. And it even included one of the most successful coaches in area history, Joe Gliwa, switching sides after eight years at Viator to go to Hersey.
The wildest opener for me is easy - when Rolling Meadows beat York 50-49 in 2011. But that one ended about 45 minutes from midnight and pushed the deadline envelope a bit. I’ll take something with plenty of drama in a little less time to start the 2024 season.
Thumbs Up to the Scrimmages
Got a chance to check out Wauconda at Wheeling last Friday for a story for the Daily Herald about the first time the IHSA allowed preseason scrimmages between opposing teams. It’s an excellent idea that I’m sure many people in the Illinois high school football community wish had happened long ago. Second-year Wheeling head coach JeMarcus Moody grew up in Arkansas, where they had scrimmages, and said he was surprised Illinois didn’t have them when he started coaching here in 2018.
The format was interesting with four 12-play segments - each team on offense twice and on defense twice - and no special teams plays such as kickoffs, punts or field goals. Teams could run extra point plays with no defense on the field but Wauconda, which scored three touchdowns to “win” 18-0, didn’t do that.
I would agree with Moody and Wauconda coach Chris Prostka that it would be nice to see teams have the opportunity to run more plays because it seemed to go very quickly. Maybe another 12-play segment for each team? A six-play segment of goal-line plays for each team? Prostka said it would be interesting to see what other coaches and teams did with their scrimmages and it surely will provide a lot of ideas for the future.
It was also cool to see Wauconda bring its cheerleaders and a nice contingent of fans and Wheeling have a student section and Poli Tzarevski sing the national anthem. And 6-3 junior receiver-defensive back Nick Ori, who was a key part of the Wauconda football and basketball varsity teams last year, will be a problem for opponents in the Northern Lake County Conference.
Don’t Forget the Offensive Linemen
It’s also a good time for the annual reminder that it’s important to make sure the offensive linemen are taken care of after games by reporters. One of my biggest pet peeves is a quarterback or running back saying “My offensive line was great,” or “I owe it all to the guys up front,” and then their names are nowhere to be found in the story.
Jot the numbers down early in the game on the roster. Ask the player or a coach who they are because it’s not required that offensive linemen do the dirty work in complete anonymity. They’re often excellent quotes, too.
Grubb Gave Conant a Big Kick 30 Years Ago
Longtime Herald photographer John Starks mentioned before the scrimmage that Wauconda had a female in uniform in kicker Claire Gallagher. It’s not unusual to see it any more - certainly not the kind of big news it was 30 years ago when soccer star Jenny Grubb joined the Conant football team as a kicker.
It was no publicity stunt. Conant’s Dave Pendergast was as consistently accommodating as any coach, win or lose, but if Grubb was going to be on the team it was because she could help one of the league’s best programs succeed. Former Conant football standout and longtime assistant coach Tim Kirby had also coached Grubb in soccer and encouraged her to come out for the football team.
After getting in the required 12 practices to be eligible to play at the time, Grubb took over the kicking duties because of an injury to teammate Paul Berge for a Week 3 game with Hersey. Grubb became what is believed to be the first female to score a point in an Illinois varsity high school football game when she booted a 31-yard field goal and 2 extra points to give Conant its first win of the season 23-13.
Grubb told longtime Daily Herald sportswriter Howard Schlossberg she was “a little bit nervous” who never imagined herself playing football.
“Especially since I’m a soccer player,” Grubb said. “I want to stay on the team.”
And that was good news for the Cougars.
“It’s great having her on the team,” said Conant’s Corey Diemer after he gained 60 of his 122 yards on a touchdown run. “We watched her all week long in practice. Everyone got behind her. When she kicked that field goal she gave us a lift. Everyone rallied around her.”
Pendergast, who retired in 2004 and is fourth in MSL football career coaching victories at 115, told Schlossberg: “We know she’s a great athlete. She’s a real competitive kid. The kids accept her. We felt real confident with Jenny in there.”
Grubb went on to become a four-time All-American in soccer at Notre Dame and played for the U.S. Women’s National Team and for three years professionally.
Hersey’s Pardun, Meek Continue Their Battle
A year ago we wrote about the bond between former Hersey head football coach Joe Pardun, who is now the school’s assistant athletic director, and now-sophomore Ben Meek. The two are linked because they suffer from the neurological disease Neurofibromatosis (NF), a genetic disorder of the nervous system that causes tumors to form on the nerves anywhere in the body at any time. This often results in pain, discomfort, and often many surgeries to keep us healthy and active.
But as Pardun, who played football at Fremd and comes from a family of educators and coaches, said their bond also includes their fight together. Meek helps manage the football and baseball teams and works with the Hersey athletic trainers in the winter.
They are raising funds, awareness, and walking again for the Children’s Tumors Foundation (CTF) with the “Mighty Meeks” team. The 2024 Shine a Light NF Walk Chicagoland will be from 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, Sept. 14 at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve (Shelters 3 and 4) in Palatine. The Hersey football players also volunteer to help set up the event and give support to everyone on the walk.
Mariani’s Second Season Off and Rolling in Nevada
Bubba Mariani, a football and baseball standout who graduated from Palatine in 1997, started his second season as the head coach at Boulder City High School, just south of Las Vegas, with an impressive 43-0 victory.
The only downer for Mariani was his star quarterback may be out for the season with a broken collarbone. But that didn’t change his expectations as he told Robert Vendettoli of the Boulder City Review, “I know this is a talented team. I still expect us to have a great season.”
Mariani isn’t just speaking with blind optimism since he experienced it as a player 30 years ago. He caught the game-winning touchdown pass in overtime in Palatine’s Class 5A state semifinal against St. Rita from sophomore Ken Stopka, who took over as the starter when Matt Marzec suffered a broken collarbone in a second-round playoff game. The Pirates lost the 5A championship game to Providence 16-6.
Mariani was also a Daily Herald All-Area captain on the 1996 team that went 12-1 and reached the 6A state semifinals in Joe Petricca’s final season as head coach. Mariani’s first Boulder City team as head coach finished 7-3.
“Last year was really fun,” Mariani told Vendettoli. “We scored a lot of points, even won a playoff game, but we want more than that. This year is about being more well-rounded, doing the little things to make us a more complete team.”
50th Anniversary of State Football Playoffs
This year is the 50th anniversary of the start of the IHSA football state playoffs, which was two years too late for teams like Elk Grove’s 1972 unbeaten “mythical” state champions, but just in time for Schaumburg’s first great teams. The Saxons were the first MSL school to make the playoffs in 1974 when they lost to East Leyden 14-8.
Fremd is the gold standard in the Mid-Suburban League for most consecutive playoff trips at 16 under Mike Donatucci from 1995-2010.
Hersey, where Donatucci is the defensive coordinator, has the longest active streak of playoff appearances with six. The streak doesn’t include the 6-game 2020 season that was moved to the spring of 2021 and did not have IHSA playoffs.
Prospect has made the postseason five consecutive times and Hoffman Estates and Palatine are next for the longest streaks at three.
The eight-class, 256-team postseason is vastly different from 50 years ago. Back then it was only five classes with 80 teams so winning a conference title was pretty much the only guarantee of getting in the field. Even after the first expansion to six classes and 96 teams, an 8-1 Forest View team coached by Fred Lussow in 1982 didn’t make the playoffs because it finished second in the MSL South.
The playoffs also brought an end to the highly anticipated MSL Super Bowls between North and South division champions. The league scrapped the game after 1974 to ensure both division champions made the state playoffs. Hersey’s season ended after it lost the 1974 Super Bowl but it made the playoffs the next year along with Schaumburg.
Coaching Changes the Norm in the MSL
Bears’ fan favorite Robbie Gould makes his highly anticipated head coaching debut at Rolling Meadows with a trip to Central Illinois to face Pekin on Friday night. Gould, who spent the first 11 years of his successful 18 years as an NFL kicker in Chicago, replaced Sam Baker as head coach.
That’s the fifth consecutive season there has been a new face on an MSL football sideline since Baker replaced Matt Mishler at Meadows for the 2020/2021 COVID season. Since 2000, there have been only three seasons (2003, 2007 and 2019) where there haven’t been any MSL head coaching changes.
Five changes in one season is the most activity in the last 25 years and it happened twice:
2017 - Tim Heyse (Hoffman Estates), Corey Olson (Palatine), Miles Osei (Elk Grove), Bryan Stortz (Conant) and Brian Hauck (Wheeling).
2012 - Lou Sponsel (Fremd), Brent Pearlman (Wheeling), Mike DiMatteo (Buffalo Grove), Larry Calhoun (Elk Grove) and Eric Ilitch (Hoffman Estates.
There were four in 2005 - Mark Stilling (Schaumburg), Bill Modelski (Conant), Tyler Donnelley (Palatine) and Tom Whalen (Elk Grove)
And there were three in 2023 - Anthony Donatucci (Conant), JeMarcus Moody (Wheeling) and Danny O’Donnell (Elk Grove).
Sanchez Nearing Top in MSL Experience
On the other end of the spectrum, Joe Sanchez begins his 23rd season at Barrington as the dean of MSL head coaches. Sanchez, the winningest coach in the MSL at 163, matches Mike Donatucci and Tom Cerasani Sr., at No. 2 for most years as a head coach in the MSL behind Hoffman Estates’ Jim Rucks at 26 (1980-2005).
Donatucci was at Fremd for 19 years (1993-2011) and Hoffman for four (2013-16). Cerasani, who passed away in 2017, was at Schaumburg for 21 (1984-2004) and Palatine for two (1982-83).
Mark Stilling, who took over at Schaumburg when Cerasani retired, begins his 20th season as a head coach. Rich Roberts also was a 20-year head coach in the MSL with 18 at Buffalo Grove (1990-2007) and two at Prospect (1982-83).
Cerasani’s son Tom Jr. is entering his 20th year as a head coach at Leyden. Tom Cerasani Jr. played quarterback for his dad and was an All-Area pick for the 1989 team that won the MSL South title and made the playoffs at 4-5. Tom Cerasani Sr. was a 1965 East Leyden graduate and he was an assistant to Tom Jr. for three years.
All In the Roberts Family
It was interesting to see the Roberts name back in the area football previews with Jimmy Roberts leading the Jacobs girls flag football program. As we mentioned above, Roberts’ dad Rich was a head coach for 20 years in the MSL, but he also was Grant Blaney’s defensive coordinator when Buffalo Grove won a state title in 1986 and took second in 1978 and after he retired as a head coach he went to Barrington as an assistant on Joe Sanchez’s staff.
Jimmy Roberts has been Jacobs’ head basketball coach for 11 years with a 194-131 record, according to the IHSA website, after coming from Round Lake to Algonquin when the legendary Jim Hinkle retired. Roberts has won three regional titles and his 2016-17 team led by future Loyola star postman Cameron Krutwig went 30-2 and lost in the Class 4A supersectional in overtime (double check) to unbeaten Fremd.
Rich Roberts also had a successful six-year tenure as BG’s boys basketball head coach from 1984-85 to 1989-90. He was 82-79 and his first and last teams won MSL North titles and played in the league championship games. Roberts is the only head coach of boys basketball and football division title winners in MSL history.
Five MSL Products Set for NFL Action
Five players from the MSL are in line to play in the NFL this season:
Pittsburgh wide receiver Scotty Miller (Barrington)
Green Bay defensive lineman Lukas Van Ness (Barrington)
Denver offensive lineman Alex Palczewski (Prospect)
San Francisco tight end Eric Saubert (Hoffman Estates)
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (Rolling Meadows)
Look for more on them at Mid Suburban Legends and Beyond this weekend.