Come away from a five-minute conversation with Kyle Jackson about the Centennial football program, and it’s easy to get hyped.
The staccato-like, rapid-fire answers the energetic fourth-year coach of the Chargers spews forth on a warm weekday afternoon in mid-July, as he stands on the black track circling the turf playing surface at Tommy Stewart Field, signify this sentiment.
“We’re excited. We’re excited,” Jackson repeated with enthusiasm. “We’re getting more and more ready with every practice.”
Summer workouts are in full swing, and have been, for the area’s high school football programs. The News-Gazette counts 36 high school football teams in our coverage area, ranging from small-school, tradition-rich powerhouse Arcola — the Purple Riders paint the names and numbers of players on telephone poles on the street leading up to the high school on the edge of the Douglas County village — to the brand-new turf and facility upgrades at Memorial Field in Westville.
And all points in between, with the 36 programs spread out in 12 surrounding counties (nine from Champaign County, eight from Vermilion County, four from Douglas County, three from Iroquois County, two apiece in DeWitt County, Ford County, McLean County and Piatt County and one apiece from Coles County, Livingston County, McLean County and Moultrie County).
Champaign County will once again serve as the ultimate destination for high school football programs in the state this year.
Memorial Stadium will host all eight IHSA state championship games on Nov. 25-26. It’s the first time since 2018 that the venerable venue Red Grange, Dick Butkus, Jeff George and other Illini greats through the decades have played at will host the state championship games.
Possibly the last, too, with the IHSA opening up bids to host the state championship games from 2023-27 and citing a desire to have a single venue host all the games.
Champaign has alternated with DeKalb for the last decade, because Illinois football has had a Big Ten home football game that conflicts with the state championship game in odd years.
But let’s not get bogged down in the minute details. Right now, with the summer heat still sweltering and the onset of preseason practices still a few weeks away, it is a time for optimism for high school football players, coaches and fans.
The anticipation of a new season flickers hope within every program, just like the Friday night lights will flicker on around the area in a little more than a month with Week 1 kickoffs set for late August.
It’s the reason the sports staff at The News-Gazette loves covering high school football. We’ll unveil a special section previewing the season on Thursday, Aug. 25, the same day area programs Hoopeston Area/Armstrong-Potomac (who doesn’t love the Cornjerkers’ nickname), Iroquois West (watch out for Iowa offensive lineman commit Cannon Leonard pancaking opposing defensive linemen this fall) and Milford/Cissna Park (the Bearcats have proven 8-man football can thrive and rally a community around it) kick off the season later that night.
The full slate of opening-night games for area programs commences on Friday, Aug. 26. We can already smell the pork chop sandwiches on the grill at Memorial Field in Tuscola, where the Warriors will host Arcola as the Cola Wars resumes. Perched in the press box that night at Tuscola will also be a new venture our radio partners at WHMS 97.5-FM will debut this season.
That’s right. We’re set to broadcast eight high school football games this regular season, with up-and-coming radio talent Joey Wright (an Urbana High School graduate and recent graduate of Bradley University) lending his pipes to bring fans action all season long. Scott Beatty — a pregame host for Illinois football coverage, host of ‘SportsTalk,’ and the play-by-play voice of Illinois baseball — and do-everything preps coordinator Colin Likas will also be contributing their talents to the broadcast.
After the Arcola-Tuscola matchup in Week 1, the radio broadcasts will resume in Week 3 — Illinois plays at Indiana on a Friday night on Sept. 2 — and continue the rest of the regular season. Wright and Co. will be set up in Villa Grove on Sept. 9 to see Illini commit Kaden Feagin and his Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond teammates take on the host Blue Devils at Russ Ghere Field.
The annual Centennial-Champaign Central rivalry game will kick off Sept. 16 at Tommy Stewart Field, with WHMS there to broadcast. The possibility of Champaign Central playing its first-ever varsity game at McKinley Field on Sept. 24 against Urbana will feature a WHMS broadcast, with Quincy Notre Dame at Mahomet-Seymour (Sept. 30), Paxton-Buckley-Loda at Monticello (Oct. 7), St. Joseph-Ogden at Rantoul (Oct. 14) and Monticello at Unity (Oct. 21) rounding out the broadcast schedule.
The 2021 fall football season saw a revival of sorts for a few Champaign County programs.
Unity, led by the dean of area coaches once again as Scott Hamilton embarks upon his 29th season in charge of the Rockets (where has the time gone), reached the Class 3A state championship game and led its passionate fans on a deep playoff run that saw four postseason wins all unfold on the turf at Hicks Field.
Attending a Unity home football playoff game is like going to a lower-level college game, with ads on the video board and a professional feel to the game-day environment.
Mahomet-Seymour, which hadn’t made the playoffs since 2017, advanced all the way to the 5A state quarterfinals last fall. Coach Jon Adkins, just like Jackson at Centennial, is a relatively young coach who exudes intensity and has loads of talent returning for his Bulldogs this fall. Plan on getting to Frank Dutton Field early for any game this fall in order to get a good seat. They’ll fill up fast if M-S quarterback Wyatt Bohm and pals continue putting on a show.
Centennial advanced to the second round of the 6A playoffs, with the Chargers posting their first winning season since 2014. Quarterback Brady Boatright has graduated, but talented tailback and linebacker Brandon Harvey returns as Centennial deals with heightened expectations for the first time in quite some time.
“Yeah, yeah, there’s a little bit of a spotlight on us now,” Jackson said. “That’s a good thing. That’s good for us.”
Centennial also wants to retain the two trophies it holds right now, one for beating Urbana last season and also the Twin City championship after beating both the Tigers and Central last fall.
“We get excited about winning the Twin City championship, but we don’t want that to be our only focus,” Jackson said. “We want to do bigger and better things.”
Much like every high school football program wants to at this point on the calendar. But only a few will carry their communities on a deep postseason push. Only a few will have pep rallies deep into October and November.
But all that will play out in the next few months. It’s why what Jackson expresses below applied to his Centennial football team, but could also be felt by every area program.
“People are excited. We’re excited. Families are excited. Fans are excited,” Jackson said. “We’re ready to get this thing rocking and rolling.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Matt Daniels is the sports editor at The News-Gazette. He can be reached at 217-373-7422 or at mdaniels@news-gazette.com.