prep football: July 2008 Archives

While the firing of Grayslake Central High basketball coach Tim Bowen was front/center all weekend, the fact of the matter is, North Chicago High's high-quality football program is now without a head coach as well.

Mike Grenda officially quit as coach last Thursday to take a job in the same school district as elementary-school principal.

Besides now being the most-tattooed school principal in the state, Grenda has left a h-u-g-e hole in the Hawks' football program. It's way too late to find a coach from outside the system, so they'll have to promote from within.

That thought has some of us in the Locker Room a bit nervous.

Should be a lot of good ones around this fall.
Waukegan has Mar'Quezie Edmonds
Warren has Zach Shaw
Stevenson has the lefty returning
Zion-Benton has a junior back who saw saw times last year
Lake Forest has the Rees kid who was part-time QB as a sophomore and finished season
Deerfield has a kid back with experience

Interesting to watch should be the kid at Zion-Benton High. After back-to-back 1-8 seasonss, word in The Locker Room is that Z-B will be able to move the ball through the air effectively.
We shall see.

Saw Warren High's sophomores KO Lake Zurich on the road last fall. Couple that with fact that many of the Blue Devils' varsity players are returning and you have to think that the mighty Blue will be in the mix for the NSC Lake title this fall.

LZ definitely will come back to the pack, although the kids who were part of last year's club understand the work ethic and intensity it takes to win. Intensity & effort will take you far on the gridiron.

Seems like Lake Forest had an underclassmen at QB early in the season last fall who was throwing the ball all over the field while playing in a roation with a senior. Then, as the season began to crumble a bit, the underclassman seemed to lose a bit of his playing time.

Last year, Grant High's Bulldogs went 9-0 during the regular season and Wauconda's Bulldogs made the playoffs for the first time in a long, long time.

This year, it's Waukegan's Bulldogs' turn.

The word in The Locker Room is that the team's offensive line is huge and the team will be able to pass the ball all over the field.

The three areas of concern are: 1) running back; 2) linebacking; 3) kicking.
To fix No. 3, Waukegan's coach should be working with the school's soccer coach NOW to find someone who can kick field goals and kick off into the end zone.

As for finding quality linebackers, that's why Waukegan will probably play a lot of 28-27 games this fall.. We our side having the 28, of course.\

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