Wheaton Warrenville South is on a mission
Wheaton Warrenville South has had one losing football season since 1984. So it's no wonder back-to-back one-point losses to end the 2008 season left a bad taste in the Tigers' mouths.
Wheaton Warrenville South lost to Naperville North 7-6 in a driving rain in the regular-season finale, a game that determined the DuPage Valley Conference championship. Then Downers Grove North upset the Tigers 8-7 in the first round of the playoffs.
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"We sat in the wrestling room and talked with the coaches," quarterback/receiver Mack Tracey said. "Anything less than getting to the championship game would be a disappointment."
"If we'd have played on (artificial) turf, like seven of our nine games this year ...," coach Ron Muhitch said. "We're a fast team. That's the game we play.
"The Downers North game was on Halloween night, and it was spooky enough. The stands were empty, and morale was down. And they had a ridiculous punter that kept pinning us inside our 10."
The returning players said they were running faster and lifting weights harder the next day. They need to.
The schedule is a killer, starting with Hinsdale Central -- the runner-up in Class 8A last season -- in Week 1 and reigning Class 8A champion Maine South in Week 2 before heading into the always-difficult DVC.
"Good programs have problems finding games," Muhitch said. "The only other school we heard from was East St. Louis (the reigning Class 7A state champion). They're going to Ohio the first two weeks."
Wheaton Warrenville South returns much of its offensive line and several receivers. But Steve Kamiotek, the Tigers' top receiver last season, tore an anterior cruciate ligament in the summer and will miss the season.
Wheaton Warrennville South will go with two quarterbacks, Tracey and 6-3 Reilly O'Toole.
"They had completion rates of 70.3 and 70.4 in the summer, the best we've ever had," Muhitch said. "I will work to get them both on the field. Mack is an outstanding runner, and Reilly is the bigger thrower."
A strength for the Tigers will be special teams, including kicker Nick Immekus.
"I had been playing soccer my whole life, but in high school I got the football bug," Immekus said. "I starting getting big, and I chose football ever since. I got serious after getting called up sophomore year. Since I'm only 5-10, my only hope for playing Division I is as a kicker and/or punter."
Immekus, whose field goal against Glenbard North last season was the game-winner, has been talking with several colleges, including Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Drake, North Dakota State, Illinois and Michigan State.
