Title defense begins

Playoff experience helpful in Plano's quest to stay on top

It's said that old habits die hard, which is something the Plano Reapers hope holds true as they begin their second consecutive state title defense on Friday at Peotone.

Plano joins the 1998 Kaneland Knights as the only Beacon News coverage area teams to open a defense of back-to-back titles.

"Certainly we know we're not last year's team, and we're not the year before's team and we don't have to be," Reapers head coach Jim Green said. "That's the approach we coaches are taking. We've learned a lot over the last three years, the staff has, and we've taken a low key approach.

"Even though it would be a notch up for (Peotone) to say they beat the defending state champions, these kids aren't actually the state champions until they go out and prove it this year."

One of the main reasons Plano was able to repeat last year --and why no one should count them out this season -- is because of the work that has occurred on the practice field.

The current underclassmen and the juniors and seniors who saw limited time in varsity games actually have more experience than many of their opponents -- in each of the last two years, those players served as the practice squad, getting an extra 10 weeks of work in the last two years against players who would win state titles.

"It's the extra 10 weeks, plus it's the playoff experience, seeing how the crowd is at the games and how intense the games are," senior running back and defensive back Kevin Day said. "They get a good experience."

Despite losing so many seniors, several key elements return. On the offensive line, starting center Ty Staton holds everything together up front.

The running back group of Adam Iverson, Day and J.J. Cannon are all experienced varsity players. Green is confident that those players will take off the pressure off of first-year varsity quarterback Johnny Mendez.

"That will be real important, us getting our fakes off," Day said. "Johnny Mendez is doing a good job with that this summer. As long as we have our fakes we should be able to be pretty good with this offense."

Defensively, Cannon and Day lead a group that includes junior linebackers Brandon Grote and Cesar Ocon -- both of whom did see varsity action last year. Many eyes will be on this group and how they come together as last season the Reapers pitched four shutouts and held nine opponents to eight points or less.

"I think that's what shocked people last year," Green said of his defense. "We feel good about our defensive backfield. We're not the tallest group back there and we know teams are going to try and pick on them, but we feel that may be one of our strengths."

Where there is concern is up front and in the middle, and Week 1 will go a long way in determining how ready those players are.

The Reapers open with two tough non-conference games against Interstate Eight Large opponents Peotone and Herscher, both of which made the playoffs last season. In Week 3 awaits rival Sandwich, which missed out on the postseason by a game last year and consistently provides stiff competition. And once again, the Reapers' season concludes with Coal City, which beat Plano last year and went undefeated in the regular season.

In between are Interstate Eight Small opponents Dwight, Lisle, Westmont, Seneca and Wilmington, with only Wilmington coming off a winning season.

"It's kind of funny because there are still people that are going to doubt us, but there are a lot of people that aren't doubting us like they did last year because we were able to accomplish it with kids they weren't expecting to," Green said. "Our goal of course is to make the playoffs. We'd like to say we want to be conference champions again because we lost out on that last year and so we'd like to reclaim that title first. You go in stages. We aren't looking at Game 14, I can tell you that right now."

Prep Football Focus