MSL Football Playoffs: Sunday Slam: Schaumburg's Wild 4-And-In Postseason Ride of 1989
One of my favorite parts of the Sunday paper and sports section were the long notebooks (especially baseball) that had all kinds of news and tidbits. I hope you enjoy the Sunday Slam!
Making the football postseason in 1989 was not a surprise for Schaumburg.
The way the Saxons arrived there was one of the stranger trips in the history of the state playoffs.
When Buffalo Grove claimed the 256th and final spot in this year’s playoff field it wasn’t the first team from the Mid-Suburban League to do so with a losing record. That distinction belonged to Schaumburg when it finished the regular season at 4-5 but claimed the automatic MSL South championship berth 33 years ago.
The Saxons went from state-ranked in the preseason to nearly losing their first 6 games to winning the division title with a lot of help on a wild final weekend. And then they were inches away from potentially winning their playoff opener.
“These kids never stopped believing. They never quit,” Schaumburg coach Tom Cerasani Sr. (pictured above) told the Daily Herald’s Marty Stengle after clinching a playoff berth.
Cerasani, who passed away in 2018 at 71, took seven teams to the playoffs in his 21 seasons in charge at Schaumburg with a state runner-up finish in Class 6A in 1999. His team 10 years earlier had high expectations with his son Tom Jr. back for his third year as a starting quarterback. He earned Daily Herald All-Area honors by throwing for 1,504 yards and rushing for 492 and 10 touchdowns.
The Saxons also had all-area picks in receiver Ray Hlad, who set the MSL record for receiving yards in a season, offensive lineman Rob Conaway and defensive back Mike Miller. Offensive tackle Kevin Meyers was an all-MSL selection. They were ranked 10th in 6A by the Associated Press and second by the Daily Herald in the preseason.
And then they lost to Elgin 10-6. Fell 17-7 to Barrington. Lost 19-14 to Palatine on a TD with 13 seconds left. Stumbled again to Buffalo Grove 28-20 at a time when a 6-3 record was needed for an at-large playoff berth.
As Jim Mora would squeakily sneer, “Playoffs?!? Playoffs?!?”
Even the first win was a 22-21 overtime escape in the MSL South opener against Rolling Meadows but the excitement was short-lived with a 28-21 loss to Conant to drop to 1-5. Wins over Prospect (28-7) and Hoffman Estates (6-3) put them in a three-way tie for the South lead, but with a very remote shot of making the postseason, going into the final weekend.
Then the Saxons watched everything change in stunning fashion on a Friday night. Meadows was in position to clinch the automatic South berth when Hoffman scored its first 2 touchdowns in three weeks in the fourth quarter to win 14-13. Conant proceeded to lose its second straight game in a 21-20 upset in the finale for retiring Prospect head coach Joe Gliwa.
In a season filled with so much struggle and adversity, Schaumburg went out Saturday afternoon and wrapped up the South title outright with no drama by pounding winless Elk Grove 34-0.
“When we went 0-4 right away, I don’t think there was a person in this entire school except the team who thought we would be in the playoffs,” said Tom Cerasani Jr., who would go on to play at Wisconsin and has been the head coach at Leyden since 2005.
They would face Downers Grove North and Pete Ventrelli’s vaunted veer option in a Wednesday afternoon first-round game. Befitting their crazy year the Saxons scored first on a run by Cerasani, who threw for 199 yards and ran for 41, even though he suffered an injury to his side early in the game.
They were down only 21-19 in the fourth quarter and driving from their 17 to a fourth-and-1 at the Downers North 40. Cerasani tried a quarterback sneak and controversy ensued when the officials’ spot put the Saxons inches short of a first down.
“On the surge Tom said he came down at least a yard past,” coach Cerasani told Stengle after the game.
“I was way over the line,” Cerasani Jr. said afterward. “I think we would have gone in to score.”
Instead, Downers North drove to the clinching score in a 28-19 win. But the Trojans would lose in the second round to a Conant team that made it all the way to the semifinals where it lost at perennial power East St. Louis. And Schaumburg’s 4-and-in playoff season would be its last until 1995.
Perfect Start Historic for Nelson: Hersey’s second undefeated regular season was also historic for first-year football coach Tom Nelson.
Nelson, the former Hersey star who played in the NFL, is only the second coach in MSL history to start his career with a perfect regular season. Palatine’s Bob Schuetz also had a perfect opening in 1997 en route to an 11-1 finish and state quarterfinal berth.
Ken Olson went 8-0 in the first year of Maine West’s program in 1959. Barrington’s Tom Frederick went 9-0 in 1950 when it played in the old Northwest Conference.
Former Hersey coach Dragan Teonic also led South Elgin to its second consecutive 9-0 regular season and its fourth straight playoff berth.
Strong Start for Naymola at Huntley: Rolling Meadows graduate Mike Naymola kicked off his head coaching career by leading Huntley to an 8-1 finish and a share of the Fox Valley Conference championship with Prairie Ridge and Jacobs.
Naymola was an assistant for 10 years for the Red Raiders and has them back in the playoffs after a one-year absence. They made 6 consecutive postseason trips from 2014-19. Naymola was a starting wide receiver when Meadows won its first MSL division title in 1999 and also was an assistant coach at his alma mater.
Rob Pomazak, a 1996 Rolling Meadows graduate and football and baseball standout, led St. Charles North to an 8-1 record and the DuKane Conference title. The North Stars are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2018, when they capped a five-year postseason run with a second-place finish in Class 7A.
Shameless Alma Mater Plug: York has been best known in high school sports circles for running them around the competition with 28 boys titles and a girls title in state cross country and five boys track and field team championships.
But the Dukes’ football team made history Thursday night when they completed their first unbeaten and untied regular season with a victory over Oak Park-River Forest. The only other time they went unbeaten was in 1932 at 7-0-2 under Clarence D. East, who the football field is named after.
York made a dramatic turnaround in 1982 with the arrival of Gary Grouwinkel from Prospect. Grouwinkel took over a program that won 14 games in seven years and took it to the playoffs 10 times before retiring after a quarterfinal loss to Schaumburg in 1999.
Max Gets on the NBA Board: Two years ago Max Christie was in the process of completing his stellar high school basketball career at Rolling Meadows where he became the MSL’s all-time scoring leader.
After a season at Michigan State, Christie opted to head to the NBA and ended up alongside LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook on the Los Angeles Lakers. On Tuesday night, he made his debut in a loss to defending champion Golden State, played 2 minutes and got his first points on his only shot attempt from 3-point range and grabbed his first rebound. He did not play in Thursday’s loss to the crosstown Clippers.
Christie joined fellow Meadows grad Aaron Williams as NBA players. Williams averaged 5.8 points and 3.9 rebounds in 715 games with 10 teams covering 14 seasons.
Dave Corzine, who led Hersey to the Class AA Elite Eight in 1974, averaged 8.5 points in a 13-year career that included seven seasons with the Bulls. Kevin McKenna (Palatine), who is currently an assistant at Oregon, averaged 5.4 points in 6 seasons and was a reserve with the 1982 NBA champion Lakers.
Ron Kozlicki also played at Palatine before it joined the MSL. Kozlicki averaged 2.9 points in 37 games with the 1967-68 Indiana Pacers in the American Basketball Association (ABA).
Remembering Hersey’s Thomas Rodgers: Condolences to the family and friends of former Hersey basketball star Thomas Rodgers Jr., who passed away at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights on Oct. 5 at 47.
Rodgers was a 1994 Daily Herald All-Area selection who averaged 15 points and 9 rebounds a game and helped Hersey and coach Don Rowley win the MSL North title. In one of the most exciting MSL title games in history, Rodgers had a game- and career-high 34 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks in an 84-77 loss to Elite Eight-bound Conant and future Division I standouts Rick Kaye (Eastern Illinois) and Corey Brown (New Orleans).
Rodgers also played at Elgin Community College.
https://www.glueckertfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Thomas-Earl-Rodgers-Jr?obId=26129231#/obituaryInfo