Still Football In Pecatonica This Year

Pecatonica head coach Eric Bergin instructs players during a
special teams drill during practice on Aug. 19.

Contrary to reports, there is still a football program at Pecatonica.

When news of the cancellation of this season's varsity schedule came out in March, the Rockford Register Star offered the ominous phrase, “the Indians will not exist.”

So much for that.

Declining numbers forced a switch to a junior varsity schedule for this season for the Indians, who did not have enough players to play the last three weeks of a winless season in 2012. Nearly 10 months later, the practice field just to the south of the school is being used once more.

On Aug. 19, the first Monday of practice, 16 freshmen, sophomores and juniors suited up for first-year head coach Eric Bergin. That evening, the players worked on running plays and kickoff returns, afterward splitting up so that Bergin could work alone with five linemen.

The practice concluded with sprints across the practice field to and from, with Bergin counting down the seconds until the next whistle for the next sprint. There, the fastest runners always finished first and the slowest runners were encouraged by the rest of the finished teammates. All of which survived to make it to the practice-ending huddle.

With 16 players, most will be seeing duty on both a new-look offense and defense. Obviously all would like to play, but they cannot be overworked. Thus, the never-ending concern for Bergin and his coaching staff.

“We've been practicing hard,” Bergin said. “It's a new process for them, a new offense and a new defense is being installed. We're working on that, and we'll go from there. Hopefully we stay healthy and don't have any dings and stuff like that to avoid the situation we had last year. We'll line up with our 16 kids and we'll play. That's what we'll do and try to build it from here.”

The Indians will open the season on Friday evening at Lena-Winslow against the Panther JV squad. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will mark the first time since September 28 that Pecatonica purple and gold donned the gridiron.

Be it junior varsity or varsity, Collin Viel, one of three juniors on the Indian team, is just happy to play.

“We're very excited because we're getting to play,” Viel said. “We're juniors and we're supposed to be playing varsity this season, but since the numbers and all those problems, we just get to play now. That's a good thing for us.”

“Everyone says that it sucks that we're playing JV, but I'm just excited to be playing games,” junior Alex Thayer added. “I'm glad to have a season.”

Under the junior varsity scheduling arrangement, the Indians will suit up against the junior varsity squads of its Northwest Division foes of the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference. Included in the schedule are two Saturday dates with Ashton-Franklin Center (the team's lone NUIC crossover game, as well as the Homecoming game) in Week 5 and archrival Durand in Week 6; as well as a Monday night tilt with South Beloit in Week 3.

Numbers and size may be small, but speed is plenty for the Indians. They will look to use that to their advantage in the nine-week grind.

“We have some kids that can run, so we'll use that to our advantage,” Bergin said. “We have a little bit of speed we can use and we'll try to get them out in the open and do some things off of that.”

Despite an abrupt end to last year's season, the remaining players have worked hard toward erasing the adversity, whether it is putting in the effort physically in the offseason, or trying to recruit more bodies to join the program.

“The tempo has picked up a lot,” Viel said. “We've had harder practices and had more running and lifting a lot. It's just a lot more up tempo now.”

While dropouts have run rampant, additions have been made. One of which is the Indians' third junior, Skyler Alongi.

Having lived in Orangeville at the start of high school, grades were an issue for Alongi until they were finally good enough to earn a spot on the team.

“I'm excited because this is my first year playing football, ever,” Alongi said. “We've been getting in shape the whole offseason, so hopefully we'll be good.”

Asked what would make a great sell to get more bodies out for the program, the three juniors offered their own bit of persuasion.

“It's a lifetime experience,” Viel said. “You don't get to play football again. We're a small school, so a lot of us won't be going to these high-end colleges and playing D-I football. So it's just this experience. You come out, you play as a family, you play with your friends, you get to experience it, love it.”

“Last year everyone didn't want to go out because we were bad,” Alongi said. “It's not going to change your football team around by not going out.”

“I think if you don't play now, this is a part of your life that you're going to regret for the rest of it,” Thayer said.

The plan is to try to field a varsity team once more in 2014. But before that, all will hinge on what happens this season.

“We got 16 kids out here that want to play football,” Bergin said. “We're starting ground zero right here, and these kids are a part of it. After this year, hopefully we'll be a team of sophomores and juniors, and hope to keep building from there.”

2013 Pecatonica Indians Football Schedule
Friday, Aug. 30 - @ Lena-Winslow (7 p.m.)
Friday, Sept. 6 – vs. Eastland/Pearl City (7 p.m.)
Monday, Sept. 16 - @ South Beloit (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Sept. 20 - @ Dakota (7 p.m.)
Saturday, Sept. 28 – vs. Ashton-Franklin Center (12 p.m.)
Saturday, Oct. 5 - @ Durand (11:30 a.m.)
Friday, Oct. 11 – vs. West Carroll (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 18 - @ Forreston (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 25 - @ Galena (5 p.m.)

Cutter: “Next Year”

Not to worry, these girls on last year's Dakota volleyball
squad WILL be back for this year.

One of the most important roles of journalists is to get things right and get facts straight. This means so much more than making sure the rushing yard count is correct.

Somewhere down the line a mistake will slip through the cracks. Even when we don't know of their existences until later down the road.

I would like to bring light to one of the most common high school sports media mistakes that even the most seasoned professionals make. In fact, sports media types alone do not make the mistake. I have also heard coaches and athletes make this same mistake.

This is the belief that a junior, sophomore or a freshman on a particular varsity team “will be back next year.”

For example: “All of the girls on Dakota's volleyball team will be back next year” (as mentioned in 2012).

Do we know this for a fact? Did the girls commit to a multi-year agreement that they will play until the end of their senior year?

As not to pick on one particular team, does any athlete in the area sign a four-year contract before their freshman year stating that they are bound by a particular program until graduating high school? Has this ever happened?. As much as our coaches would like to see every freshman player stay for all four years, we all know that the success rate of that happening is not 100%.

This may seem like semantics for print journalists, but think of it this way: If the not-so-entirely-true phrase of “will be back next year” is put in print, and the newspaper ceases operation, someone looking back through microfilm many years down the road will still be confused. They have put that phrase on record.

With “will be back next year,” journalists have given an indication that these particular athletes are definitely returning for the following year. Readers do hold on to that as a truth. When they do so, they don't give out the fine-print information – you know, the stuff said real fast at the end of a car dealership commercial.

Over 100 years ago, high school yearbook accounts often mentioned the “disbanding” of high school sports teams after the last contest, or after the postseason banquet. We are seeing less and less of this disbanding in today's high school sports environment with strict weight room commitments and the like.

Technically, no high school student can be committed to a particular team for a cycle of one year. This is because, technically, high school students do not belong to a particular high school during the summer vacation (save year-round schooling).

We forget that there is a period of time when all high school students are considered “free agents” in a way. The only way these kids can come back to their school is after they fill out all of the registration paperwork and pay the fees. The only way an athlete can come back to their team is if they fill out all of the participation paperwork and pay the fees.

This is the clause that gives athletes and their families the right to transfer to another high school. No contracts are ever breached when someone transfers. No punishments are handed out and no fines are doled out.

No athlete is any kind of property of a particular team when the season is not taking place, nor is any student any kind of property of a particular school when the school year is not taking place. This also gives students the opportunity to switch sports in a particular season if they do choose.

Speaking of transfers, the number of those taking place in the area are on the rise – for whatever reason. This fact is also a terrific reason why we should never suggest that anyone “is returning” to their team “next year.”

How many among those followers of Winnebago's boys basketball team, in 2011, said that Marcus Posley “is returning next year?” (He went to Auburn, where he was eventually ruled ineligible by the IHSA).

How many among those followers of West Carroll's softball team, in 2009, said that the next two years were going to be really awesome, since Jordan Kasbohm was just a sophomore? (She went to Moline for her next two years, where she helped lead the Maroons to a Class 4A title in 2010 and a third-place finish in 2011).

How many among those followers of Dakota's boys basketball team, in 2012, said that the Indians were going to be the team to beat because Kendall Lawson “is returning next year?” (He went to Rockford Lutheran and helped lead the Crusaders to a 3A regional).

Rather than believe an athlete has pulled a lie on someone, there is a more correct way to address a team's future, without having to elaborate on transfers or writing up fine-print information.

Instead of saying “five of Keith Country Day's six starters will return next year,” we should say “Keith Country Day loses one starter to graduation this year.” The latter statement about the volleyball program is more of a fact. Did we know at the time they won the IHSA Class 1A championship that those non-seniors on the team would definitely be returning for 2013?

On an aside, to suggest that any team would be a “team to beat” because they “will be returning a lot of their starters,” is not an absolute fact. That's another column for another day.

Such varsity starting spots are not automatically reserved for anyone just because they have so many more years of eligibility left. In fact, no athlete practicing today should consider themselves a varsity starter “this year.” They are only that when the first contest arrives.