For East, it's baptism under fire

BOLINGBROOK -- For the new kid on the area high school football block, varsity-level competition arrived without so much as the sounding of a full-speed ahead whistle.

Rather, there was some brief stretching. A little game of catch. Then, Plainfield East met Naperville North.

The two hooked up in Round One of 7-on-7 play Tuesday night on a patch of grass down below the tennis courts at Bolingbrook, white chalk lines marking the makeshift playing field. East fielded a team of all juniors. North fielded a team of Huskies. None were to be mistaken for the school's mascot.

Interesting.

"You said the word," East coach Shane Trager said. "First of all, it's going to be interesting to see how tonight goes. I've developed a good feel for the guys over the last year, working with them since last summer. But, I'm really looking forward to seeing how the 7-on-7s go.

"Mainly, we look for guys to execute their route running, to be communicating on defense and just generally competing against other teams.

"It's nice to match up with other schools rather than just practicing against yourselves every day in the summer."

Trager takes the reins of East's new varsity football program after spending 14 years at Seneca, 12 as the school's defensive coordinator. At Seneca, he coached alongside Dave Lett, Don Brown and Doug Evans and had a hand in helping the Irish win the Class A state basketball championship in 2005-06.

When opportunity knocked, Trager jumped at the chance to fulfill his dream of becoming a head coach. He moved to East in 2008-09. He helped launch the Bengals football program through his work on the freshman and sophomore levels in the fall of '08. The freshmen were 3-3-3 and sophomores 2-7.

"They each had their own schedules," Trager said. "They weren't your traditional schedules. The teams that played us actually were doing us favor and scheduling us with them however they could fit us in. They already were locked in their schedules. Both the freshmen and the sophomores were competitive in every game.

"The only game we really didn't have a chance in at the sophomore level was when we went up to Mount Carmel. And, even in that game, we lost 40-0, but we were competitive for the first two quarters. So, that was an experience in itself."

The same could be said for Trager's first 12 months on the job at East.

"Obviously, it's a dream come true," he said. "But I would be lying if I didn't say it's little stressful and challenging at the same time. But it wasn't like I didn't know what I was getting myself into.

"I look at it as an opportunity and as an honor to coach for a brand new school and a brand new program within the Plainfield community."

At East, Trager is installing a Wing-T offense and a base 50-defense. He hopes to create some headaches for his new coaching rivals in the Southwest Prairie Conference with a look and a scheme that few have seen before.

"I think he's going to shock a lot of people with the program," East junior quarterback Brad Goffinet said. "And I think with his coaching ability we can have a very successful program. He stresses how everybody on the offense needs to work together so we can score and we can win. It's not all about one person. It's about everybody contributing to be a team."

Goffinet will be called on to read defenses and make play changes at the line of scrimmage. He'll also be asked to throw the ball from on the run.

"There's a lot rollouts," he said. "We have a couple of dropsteps, but I think I can show a lot of my ability and show that I can throw in a Wing-T and win games out of it.

"In reality, our goals are to improve and become a strong team and build up confidence. To us, as a team, age doesn't matter. We go in there thinking everybody has juniors, just like us.

"But, we're going to build our confidence level, and get ready for our senior year when we have a full school. By then, we'll be ready to play. I think we'll have a shot to be one of the best teams in our conference."

Fullback/linebacker Chris Fields was one of East's only two-way players during his sophomore year. From the start, he was impressed with Trager's communication skills.

"He brought a lot of confidence to us," Fields said. "He brought in new material, a new offense I hadn't seen before. I like the way he coaches. He's a good guy and a good coach.

"He's always in the weight room with us, talking with us, making sure we get our lifts done. He's seeing to it that we're bonding and getting to know each other and having some fun, too.

"We've talked about how I need to be a leader. Me and Brad (Goffinet) are picking our voices up, picking everybody up, making sure they get their jobs done.

"It's going to be exciting for us to see where we stand within our conference. And I think it will be great experience for next year, too, when we'll have a full team of seniors and juniors."