Players, coaches excited about football season

New Huntley head coach Matt Gehrig walks in between players during warm-ups before practice Wednesday. Gehrig coached at Larkin High School in Elgin before taking the reins at Huntley. (Danielle Guerra – dguerra@nwherald.com)

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First-year Huntley football coach Matt Gehrig expressed the sentiments shared by coaches and athletes all over Wednesday.

“The feeling is one of pure excitement,” Gehrig said of the first day of fall sports practice in Illinois. “There was an energy about the kids when they warmed up and they pushed through a pretty intense practice.”

The 90-degree heat and humidity aside, it was a good day. Every team is undefeated and hope abounds with the start of a new season. Football teams kick off their campaigns Aug. 27.

Locally, many of the same teams that had success last season look strong again this year. Cary-Grove is coming off a Class 6A state championship season. Prairie Ridge made its first trip to the playoff semifinals. Crystal Lake South returns several key players from a 9-2 team, Crystal Lake Central won its first playoff game in 31 years and Richmond-Burton made the Class 4A semifinals the past two years.

Gehrig takes over at Huntley for Steve Graves, who resigned after energizing the Red Raiders’ program with back-to-back playoff appearances.

He is one of four new coaches in the Fox Valley Conference this season.

“We’ve had consistent turnout throughout the entire summer camp program,” Gehrig said. “When reporters and other coaches evaluate teams they’re looking at a list of guys they can identify who are returners, with experience and maturity being good predictors of how good a team is going to be. In that sense, maybe we are flying under the radar.”

Quarterback Tim Lycos hopes the Raiders are underrated to start the season.

“We have no big names out there and we’re not that big,” Lycos said. “But we’re a fast team. I’d love to be like Cary-Grove.”

C-G perennially has dominated the area with great overall team speed, like the Trojans did last year when they won the third state football title in FVC history. C-G coach Bruce Kay starts his 22nd season with four returning starters from the championship team.

Prairie Ridge was knocked out of the 6A playoffs by C-G, 40-7, last season. The Wolves will look different on offense, but their defense will be quite similar to last season and they should contend again in the FVC Fox Division.

“Our effort’s where it needs to be,” Prairie Ridge safety Devon Vance said. “We need to find our rhythm, but that’s coming along. We excelled a lot in the summer. I think we were past where we needed to be. Now, we can really fine-tune it before the game.”

Wolves coach Chris Schremp will revamp his offense, but likes what he’s seen from quarterback Stephen Covalt and fullback Connor Greenwald in the triple option. Prairie Ridge took a trip last month to Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis. for three days of camp in helmets and pads.

“We work on team bonding and get some extra work in,” Vance said. “It’s a lot of fun. We stay in the dorms and you room with teammates and get to know people you might not know all that well. We get some good work in.”