Coachspeak: Lemont's Eric Michaelsen

Position: Head coach.

Delegating authority: "The advantage for me is I'm able to work with both sides of the ball pretty equally and give me input. I'm blessed because I have excellent coaches, excellent coordinators, and it allows me to do that and take care of the other responsibilities."

Building off reaching 6A state finals: "It was nice, but it was last year, and we got those extra five weeks to practice and play games."

Does it make a difference: "The carryover is nice because it allowed us to get some of the younger kids some experience and they got the chance to see what we expect up here on the varsity. It also gives the kids who were returning that goal, or that mindset, that they want to do as well as they possibly can and do as well or better than last year's team. We've tried not to talk about last year very much at all, especially once the season got going here, but I know in the back of their minds, excellence is something that this group wants to strive for the rest of the season."

-- Interviewed by Bill Scheibe