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ROCKFORD — It’s ancient history, but it’s East history. The E-Rabs have won more state titles, by far, than any team in the NIC-10, and are the only school to win state in basket-

ball (three) and football (in 1974 and 1985).

“That’s what makes East unique,” said first-year coach Jer-emy Warren. “They do have history. It’s old; these kids weren’t

born, but they accom-plished some things here. They reached the pinnacle here. Not just in football. In ev-erything. You walk into that second floor (where the trophy case

is) and it’s amazing how successful they’ve been historically.”

An improvement to 3-6 — up from 9-54 the previous seven years — has East looking up. Page 7

FREEPORT — Coming off a two-win season, Freeport looks to turn things around with a little more bal-anced offense.

“We’ll stick with the spread, but we hope to run more often, and more effectively, this year,” said coach Terry Werntz. Page 8

B E L V I D E R E — Ryan Zarembski knows he has big shoes to fill.

The first-year Bel-videre North coach takes over for the re-tired Curt T o b i n , who re-mains on Zaremb-ski’s staff o v e r -s e e i n g s p e c i a l t e a m s . Zaremb-ski inher-its a team that fin-ished 7-5 last year, r e a c h -ing the Class 6A quarter-finals before losing to Crystal Lake Prai-rie Ridge. He under-stands expectations are high.

“I’d rather have some expectations than none,” he said. “But we don’t want to constantly talk about last year. It’s not fair to these kids.”

Meanwhile, Bel-videre will have a smaller offensive line than in past seasons, but that doesn’t faze coach Matt Weckler.

“They are a scrap-py bunch,” he said. “They won’t back down from any one.”

The Bucs’ line boasts four seniors, including two players — guards Dan Kopp (6-1, 200), and Luke Vance (5-10, 180) — who started as ju-niors.

Pages 4, 5

BULLETINROCKTON —

Hononegah has had 23 winning regular seasons in the 28 years it has played in the NIC-10. But only once have the Indians won the out-right conference title (1996).

“That’s huge, defi-nitely huge,” line-backer Skylar Puri-foy said. “We haven’t had one in such a long time. We haven’t been part of it. We want to

feel that crown, that conference champi-onship. We want it so bad.”

This could be the year. The Indians are coming off con-secutive 8-3 seasons where they reached the second round of the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in more than 20 years. And they return nine starters.

Still, this will be a much different Hon-

ROCKFORD — Jefferson went 1-8 last year, but the J-Hawks snapped a 17-game losing streak and also lost two other games by 1 and 5 points.

“We didn’t get the success we wanted, but we took a step,” said senior running back/safety Royce Dixon. “And that step started a chain. We don’t plan on going down any time.”

It won’t be easy.“I’ve never looked

much at wins and losses,” coach Rick Schmitz said. “I look at how much better are we at midseason than we are now and how much better we are at the end of the season than we were

at midseason. I think the administration wants that too. They want to see us de-velop and get better so that next year and the year after and the year after that we start building a core here. This is not go-ing to be a quick fix.” Page 12

R O C K F O R D — Guilford does not have a physically im-posing offensive line.

“We’re small up front,” coach Mel Gil-fillan said.

But size isn’t every-thing, a point Guilford hopes to pound home junior running backs Dontrell Chance (5-foot-5) Gary Ford (5-7).

“We’ve got the best running back we’ve had going back to Montell Clanton and Deon Williams in Dontrell Chance,” Gilfillan said.

“Gary is more of a guy who will hit you. He’s not real big, but he’s a tough kid.”

Ford is tough. Chance is fast, as in 4.39 seconds in the 40

fast. He’s also elusive. Two top runners and a veteran quarterback in Cody Bell have the Vikings hoping to do more than just reach the playoffs for the seventh-straight year.

“We’re trying to get seven, eight, nine wins,” linebacker Andy Nichols said. Page 9

R O C K F O R D — Billy Cook wanted to fix Auburn’s work ethic. He did, yet the Knights slipped back-ward, going winless after winning four games his first two years as coach.

“It’s demoralizing a little bit, but it just tells you what you need to work on,” Cook said.

Cook’s answer was to stop worrying so much about the pass and switch back to a run-based, 4-3 defense after a year of experi-menting with a 3-4.

“The 3-4 was more of a pass-type cover-age defense that you see in the NFL,” Cook said. “In this confer-ence, you’ve got to get eight in the box.” Page 3

M A C H E S N E Y PARK — Harlem re-turns one starter from a team that won eight games two years in a row for the first time in school history.

“ Y o u can’t re-p l a c e some of t h o s e guys who are play-ing at Division I schools now,” coach Jim Mor-row said, “but we’ve got a tough group. They are gritty.”

And explosive. Keith Purifoy was perhaps the NIC-10’s most explosive run-ning back as a sopho-more before missing last year with an in-jury. His return could be the key to Har-lem’s spread offense.

“I’m anxious to get on the field with my teammates,” Purifoy said. “I missed them a lot. This is my last year. I’m ready to give it my all.”

Harlem’s big-play offense hopes to not miss a beat with a new cast of leading men.

“I feel we can score every single play,” quarterback Brandon Rodgers said. “We just try to get our ath-letes in space and let them do what they do with the ball in their hand.

“Everybody says they don’t know about us because of the senior class we graduated. But we’re not trying to fill any-body’s shoes. We’re trying to make our own name for our-selves.” Page 10

BULLETINROCKFORD —

Boylan doesn’t talk about its record of 38 NIC-10 victories in a row.

“We’re not wor-ried what we’ve done in the past,” coach Dan Appino said.

Others are.“Until somebody

beats Boylan, they are the top of the league,” Guilford coach Mel Gilfillan said.

Boylan, though, faces more challeng-ers this year in a far more balanced NIC-10. “It’s easier to say who you don’t think is going to challenge,” Appino said.

Boylan’s plans for

a fifth consecutive undefeated NIC-10 title revolve around its offensive line. Ap-pino said the Titans don’t have “any su-perstars” but have a lot of balance.

“We’ll spread it out,” Appino said. Our kids like that shared responsibil-ity. Not only do they have to block, there is a chance they are going to get the ball.

“It keeps kids in-terested. It’s helped us recruit more kids within the school, kids who normally are basketball play-ers but like playing football now because there is a chance they are going to get the ball.”

The Titans also

have a big, physical offensive line. “We’re all happy about that,” running back/safety Chris Miller said. Page 6

GRIDIRONROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010 75 CENTS20 PAGESVol. 3, No. 1 — Est. August 28, 2008

Final Home Edition

NIC GRIDDERS CELEBRATE 50 YEARS

Meet the TeamsComplete NIC-10 rosters and a look at returning offensive, defensive stars. Pages 3-12

onegah team, as it trades size for speed and quickness.

“We’re not go-ing to be able to just stand up and go toe-to-toe with people this year,” coach Tim Sughroue said. “Our offense is predicated on guys getting off the ball as quickly as possible.”

“It’s going to be different, because we have different play-ers,” agreed Chase Robinson, a three-year starter at quar-terback. “We’re a lot smaller, no doubt, but it will be a good transition.

“It’s a lot more get out and run now. That’s a lot easier for me, because I’m not that big.”

On defense, small-er, quicker linemen will have to shoot between the gaps, instead of taking on linemen head-on.

“We don’t have size, so we have to use our speed and quickness and get in the backfield,” Puri-foy said.

The Indians think smaller and quicker could be the route to a title. “We’ve just got to play our game,” Robinson said. “If we think too much about it, we’ll get big heads and get too confident. That’s where we’ve faltered in the past.” Page 11

MORE ONLINEFor complete cov-

erage of football in the Rock River Val-ley, visit rrstar.com/ gridiron.

Meet the WritersFrom 1960 to 2010, a lot has changed — in-

cluding the way we cover football in the Rock River

Valley.

Page 2

Running BraveHononegah High’s Bryan Rothmaler (22) rumbles into the open during a game against Steve Thomas (23) and Boylan last season. Season preview, Page 11

Pure PurifoyHarlem High’s Keith Purifoy (25) breaks away from would-be Woodstock defenders during a game last season. Season preview, Page 10

Boylan Again Looking Like the Team to Beat

Dan Appino

Chris Miller

HUSKIES WANT TO MAKE PUSHHarlem Will Try

to Unseat Titans

Jim Morrow

AUBURN READY TO MAKE A STATEMENT

Vikings Fight for Respect in the NIC

Jefferson Begins Long Road Back

Royce Dixon

Message to the League: Don’t Sleep on Hononegah

BELVIDERE, BELVIDERE NORTH IN THE HUNTTeams Could Play the Foil This Year

Tony Tindle

Marcus Gooden

PRETZELS WOULD LIKE TO PROVIDE TWIST

East Wants to Revive Proud Tradition

Scott Morgan, Rockford Register Star File Photo

Scott Morgan, Rockford Register Star File Photo

Cody Bell

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Kicking off our 26th year of coverage!

NIC-10 Game of the WeekBoylan vs. Harlem

Pregame 6:45 • Kickoff 7:15

The only source you need on game night!Check out our full schedule or listen live at 1440wrok.com

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2 Rockford Register Star | Friday, August 27, 2010 www.rrstar.com e-mail: sports@rrstar.comgridiron

Editor Randy Ruef

Assistant Editor Matt Trowbridge

Art Director Adam C. McHugh

FeaturesA look at the area, including conference previews of the Big Northern East and West, NUIC Upstate and Northwest, the NAC and the Big 12 East and West. Pages 14-19

DepartmentsNIC-10 previews 3-12Area previews 14-19Team schedules 13

online: rrstar.com/

gridironVideos

Check out rrstar.com/gridiron at noon today for our featured video on the Game of the Week. And don’t forget to look for our other videos on Gridiron This Week and staff predic-tions.

Daily content guideu Today: It’s

Game Day! A quick look at tonight’s action.u Saturday:

What happened? Complete coverage of Friday night’s games. u Sunday: A

team-by-team, historical look at the NIC-10 and area, in-cluding conference finishes, playoffs and all-time statistical leaders.u Monday: Emily

Tropp offers news and nuggets from the prep football scene in Quick Shots.u Tuesday:

Sports Editor Randy Ruef analyzes individual and team stats from around the Rock River Valley.u Wednesday:

What’s up? Previews of the week’s top games, along with a capsule look at the match-ups.u Thursday: A

feature look at an area player, coach, team or trend.

UpdatesTonight, our re-

porters will tweet at twitter.com/ rrstar_sports from the following games: Boylan at Harlem, Guilford at East, Freeport at Jeffer-son, North at Hon-onegah and Christian Life at Rockford Christian.u Plus: Go to

rrstar.com/ gridiron tonight for quarterly game updates, box scores, stories and photos from all the preps action in the Rock River Valley.

THE HoT roUTE Who and What to Watch This Weekend

So what’s with the retro look of this year’s Gridiron prep preview section?

Well, we’re dub-bing this the 50th an-niversary of the mod-ern Northern Illinois Conference era. Ac-tually, the NIC-10 name didn’t debut until Hononegah joined the conference in 1982. But bear with our reasoning.

For athletes in the Northern Illinois Conference — then known as the Big 8 — travel in the 1950s was an ordeal. The conference consisted of teams from Auro-ra, Joliet, Elgin and LaSalle-Peru along with Freeport and Rockford East and Rockford West.

Then, in 1960, Rockford Auburn opened and joined the conference, re-placing Joliet. It was the beginning of a sea of change for the conference that was reshaped from a regional conglom-eration of schools to

one centered in and around Rockford.

In 1963, Harlem (then in Loves Park) and Belvidere came on board and Rock-ford Guilford opened, replacing Elgin, Au-rora East and Aurora West.

In 1964, Boylan joined the conference and LaSalle-Peru dropped out.

These were signifi-cant changes. Aurora West and Elgin domi-

nated the conference for long stretches. Each school won or shared 10 conference football titles, while Aurora East claimed shares of eight titles and Joliet seven.

There have been more changes over the years. Rockford Jefferson joined in 1971, bumping the number of teams to nine. Rockton Hon-onegah joined in 1982, creating the first version of the NIC-10. Rockford West closed at the end of the 1988-1989 school year, chang-ing the conference back to the NIC-9. It moved back to a 10-team conference in 2007 with the opening of Belvidere North. Freeport is now the last charter member of the conference.

We recognize this year is the 50th anni-versary of the open-ing of Auburn, which marked the begin-ning of the modern NIC-10.

We are carrying

that theme through-out our NIC-10 pre-views, starting with the cover, which fol-lows the look and layout of a Rockford Morning Star from 1960.

On the ensuing pages, we carry this look with each NIC-10 team preview. And we have gone out and gotten past stars or top players on past champion-ship teams to pose with this year’s stars. If you want to see the color versions of the photos, go to rrstar.com/gridiron.

Maybe you’ve heard of these past stars, or even watched them play. Maybe you’ve never heard of them, but they represent a spe-cial time or special era for your favorite school.

Read on and enjoy learning about this year’s teams as well as yesteryear’s high-lights.— Randy Ruef, editor

About this special section

randy ruef

Table of Contents

ROCKFORD — Dave Shultz vividly remembers the big-gest football game in the early history of what has evolved into today’s NIC-10.

Both East and Free-port were 7-0 in what was then called the Big Eight when they met in the second-to-last game of the 1959 season at Beyer Sta-dium.

“There was prob-ably 7,000 people at that game,” recalled Shultz, a sophomore at East at the time. “At old Beyer Stadium, it didn’t have the big, high stands like they have at Guilford. On the home side, it was probably about 20 rows, but they went from end zone to end zone, and that side was packed.”

The stands on the opposite side of the field were much smaller, but they were packed, too, Shultz said.

“And there were people standing six to eight deep all the way around the track,” he said.

The game ended in a 19-19 tie when East rallied for two touch-downs in the final minutes, but missed both extra point kicks. The teams finished the year at 8-0-1 — there were no state playoffs back then.

“But what I re-member most about that was it was the big-gest crowd I ever saw at a football game,” he said.

Shultz helped chronicle the league’s action and growth in the three decades after his graduation from East while work-ing as a sports report-er at the predecessor of the Rockford Reg-ister Star from 1966-70. He later became assistant sports editor (1970-76) and sports editor (1976-1989).

“I didn’t see much football after I was assistant sports edi-

tor because I was on the (sports copy) desk every night, including Fridays,” said Shultz, 65, who now is as-sistant metro editor. “And when I became sports editor, I was in the office on Friday nights to do the re-writes.”

Former Register Star sports reporter Charlie Rayman saw plenty of Rockford high school football games as he covered the league from 1974-89.

He considers the undefeated state champion East team in 1974 as the best he saw during his report-ing career in Rock-ford.

“East had super players,” he said. “They were not real big but quicker than everyone. That team could beat anybody to-day (in the NIC-10).”

Rayman, 77, wit-nessed changes in the players and their skills from the start to the finish of his ca-reer. “They were big-ger, stronger, faster at the end.”

The players’ inter-action with reporters also changed, he said.

“They weren’t as good in interviews. They didn’t say much,” Rayman said of the players in the 1970s. “I don’t know if the coaches had clamped down on them or what. The best quotes were from the coaches in the early days.

“The elite players got better (in later years), maybe be-cause they knew they were going to be asked a lot of questions.”

In contrast, play-ers’ comments are the mainstay of game coverage, advances and features in today’s stories.

“There is more per-sonality coverage now than there was back then,” Shultz said.

The newspaper’s game coverage has changed quite a bit

through the years, as reporters are sent to more area contests.

“We didn’t cover a lot of games that were called area games because we were re-sponsible for cover-ing all the (Big Eight) conference games. We would cover four games and an ‘area game of the week,’” he said. “Now we don’t bother to see all the conference teams every week.”

In recent years, the Register Star has reg-ularly covered three or four of the five NIC-10 games, while trying to cover at least two or three area contests with its staff writers. And with the help of the Freeport Journal-Standard, a fellow GateHouse newspa-per, there are as many as 10 games staffed each Friday night.

But while the num-ber of games with reporters has grown, the overall number of game results in the paper has dropped.

“We used to cover 10 counties in Illinois and six in Wiscon-sin,” Shultz said. “And we were expected to have scores from all those games, so there might be 55, 60 games a night.

“And they were all coming in here over the phone. We didn’t have e-mail; we didn’t have fax. We had a crew of six to eight kids answering the phones and tak-ing scores, and they were feeding it to two or three writers who were pounding it out.”

Now, the Register Star focuses mainly on schools in Winnebago, Boone, Ogle and Ste-phenson counties, while also rounding up scores and short rewrites from several of the smaller schools in Jo Daviess, Carroll, Whiteside, Lee and DeKalb.— Doug Goodman, Rockford Register Star

The write stuff ... for 50 yearsCharlie rayman

dave Shultz

Editor’s noteWeek 1 previews for the NIC-10 and area — as well as staff pre-

dictions for those games — appear in today’s Sports section.

Staff Writers Emily Tropp, Brenda Young, Jay Taft, Doug Goodman

GRIDIRON, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 27, 2010

4 Rockford Register Star | Friday, August 27, 2010 www.rrstar.com e-mail: sports@rrstar.comgridiron

Meet the BucsPlayer No. Pos. Yr. Ht. Wt.Max Bahling 68 OL Jr. 6-1 220 Cody Bruneau 30 DB Jr. 5-8 160 Quentin Canty 10 DB Jr. 6-1 160 Cody Colquette 17 WR Sr. 6-1 175 David Gamboa 26 RB, DB Sr. 6-0 190 Aaron Gloria 57 OL Jr. 5-10 220 Marcus Gooden 19 RB Sr. 6-0 200 Reed Greiter 87 WR Jr. 6-2 185 Kyle Harris 34 RB Jr. 6-1 185 Jake Hayes 55 LB Jr. 6-0 200 Anthony Hernandez 12 DL Sr. 5-8 170 Adonis Howell 3 DB Sr. 5-6 160 C.J. Hunt 91 OL Sr. 6-4 340 Josh Isaac 23 DL Sr. 5-10 175 Josh Kasper 6 QB, DB Sr. 5-10 180 Dan King 39 FB Jr. 5-10 185 Zak Knutson 15 DL Jr. 5-10 180 Dan Kopp 51 OL Sr. 6-0 180 Jake Mackeben 28 DB Jr. 5-7 145 Brad Marozik 90 DL Sr. 6-0 260 Edward Marquez 64 OL Sr. 6-1 230 Stephen Mead 5 DB Sr. 5-7 170 Eric Mortenson 75 DL Sr. 6-0 240 Austin Nofsinger 71 OL Jr. 5-7 220 William Padilla 2 DB Sr. 5-9 200 Bobby Pestor 54 OL Sr. 6-2 190 Rickson Phua 11 RB Sr. 6-0 160 Cory Sentek 76 OL Jr. 6-2 260 Aaron Slaven 1 QB Sr. 5-8 160 Chris Smith 45 DB Sr. 6-1 180 Craig Steinkamp 33 DL Jr. 5-7 165 Dallas Stevens 37 LB Sr. 6-0 190 Luke Vance 52 OL Sr. 5-11 175 Troy Vandenbroek 9 QB Soph. 5-7 185 Jacob Vincent 84 TE Sr. 6-1 220 Zak Walker 50 LB Sr. 5-8 185 Zack Zawada 82 DB Jr. 6-0 170

History LessonThe Belvidere Bucs are the last team from the Northern Illinois

Conference to capture a state championship, winning back-to-back titles in 1993 and 1994.

In fact, the Bucs are the most successful program in the North-ern Illinois Conference — which has seen several forms including the Big 6, the Big 8, the NIC-9 and the NIC-10. The Bucs have 11 conference crowns, including eight solo and three shared. And they are No. 1 in the conference in playoff appearances (22), playoff wins (34) and tied with East and West for most state championships (2).

Belvidere has boasted some top players over the years, including Matt Anderson, Todd Martens, Rob Dal Santo, Matt Barr and Mike Junkin, who went on to be a first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns.

BUCS HOPE TO BE TOUGH TEAM TO CRACK

BELVIDERE — The thoughts of play-ing varsity football made Troy Vanden-broek sick. Literally.

When the Belvi-dere freshman quar-terback got word he was going to start his first varsity game last year at undefeated Boylan in Week 7, his initial reaction was not good. He vomited three times on the way to the game.

“I was nervous from the day I woke up and found out to the end of the game,” he said. “You dream of playing football un-der the Friday night lights, and doing it in my freshman year was an incredible ex-perience.”

Belvidere lost that game to Boylan 49-19, but Vandenbroek’s performance was far from sickening. In his first varsity test, the young quarterback completed 12 of 19 passes for 182 yards. “I tried my best, I did what I could,” he said. “As a freshman I didn’t know every-thing in my head. Everything I did was shooting from the hip.”

More than any-thing, Vandenbroek proved he belonged on a varsity field. In just three regular season games, Van-denbroek completed 32 of 50 passes for 542 yards and four TDs, leading the Bucs to the playoffs. And

it started with the Boylan game.

“He went out there with such confidence and poise to be able to run our offense,” Belvidere coach Matt Weckler said. “And when he completed some plays on third down and moved the ball down the field, I thought, ‘we’ll be OK with him.’”

Teammates praise Vandenbroek not only for his strong arm, but for his smarts and his ability to make some-thing out of nothing.

“Troy, to be a soph-omore, looks like he’s been playing quarter-back for years,” said senior halfback/de-fensive back David Gamboa.

Vandenbroek isn’t the only offensive weapon in Belvidere’s arsenal this season. The Bucs young and talented backfield in-cludes speedy junior halfback Kyle Harris (586 combined yards, 11 TDs), and Marcus Gooden, a 6-0, 200 ju-nior, who moves from halfback to fullback. Last year Gooden reached the 1,000-yard club with 716 rushing yards and 323 receiving yards and 11 TDs. He will get the bulk of the carries again this season.

“I like to touch the ball a lot,” he said. “But as long as the whole offense is together and we’re scoring touchdowns, I’m happy.”

“It’s great block-ing for Marcus,” of-fensive lineman Dan Kopp said, “especially when he’s bigger than half of the offensive line. He’s such as a great athlete. You just need to open a seam and he’s going to find it.”

The receivers in the Belvidere offense

include senior Cody Colquett, junior Reed Greiter and senior tight end Jacob Vin-cent. The offensive line is small and led by two returning se-niors, Kopp (6-1, 200) and Luke Vance (5-10, 180).

Belvidere’s de-fense is experienced with eight returning

starters. Josh Isaac and Brad Marozik an-chor the front line, and Stephen Mead and Kopp lead the line-backing corps. Gam-boa, who was second on the team in tackles (33) and first in inter-ceptions (3), heads up a talented backfield that includes two new starting cornerbacks:

Adonis Howell and Quentin Canty.

“The defense can go either way,” Gam-boa said. “We can be an average team, or we can be a top de-fenses in the NIC-10. If we keep working hard, we can be very good.” — Paul Anthony Arco, Rockford Register Star

Belvidere Features Plenty of Offense

Scott Morgan, Rockford Register Star

About the BucsCoach Matt Weckler (fourth season, 17-14)

Last Season 5-5

Last Playoff Appearance 2009

Returning Starters David Gamboa (6-1, 180, Sr., RB/DB); Troy Vandenbroek (5-8, 185, Soph. QB); Marcus Gooden (6-0, 200, FB, Jr.); Cody Colquett (6-1, 190, Sr., WR); Kyle Harris (6-0, 190, Jr. HB); Dan Kopp (6-1, 200, Sr., OL/LB); Will Padilla (5-9, 200, Sr., DB); Josh Isaac (5-9, 180, Sr., DL); Luke Vance (5-10, 120, Sr., OL); Brad Marozik (6-1, 245, Sr., DL); Jake Vincent (6-0, 220, Sr., DL/TE).

Other Key Players Stephen Mead (5-5, 175, Sr., LB); Quentin Canty (6-1, 160, Jr., DB); Ian Carlson (6-6, 185, Soph., LB); Reed Greiter (6-3, 185, Jr. WR); Zach Zawada (6-2, 175, Jr., DB); Adonis Howell (5-9, 170, Sr., DB).

Strengths Talented offensive backfield…eight returning starters on defense … experienced defensive backfield.

Weaknesses Lack of depth … small offensive line.

OutlookIf Belvidere is going to return to the playoffs, it must avoid a slow start. The Bucs open with four quality opponents: Auburn, Hononegah, Harlem and Guilford. Going 2-2 in that stretch would be a realistic goal, and one that would lead to another playoff berth

QuotableFromWeckler: “We have a lot of players com-ing back. We’re optimistic that we can compete with all the teams in our conference. We’re back to where we can honestly say our goal is to compete for a conference championship.”

Conference Titles1972: 7-1 (tied with Guilford)1983: 8-11986: 8-11987: 8-1 (tied with Hononegah)1988: 8-11989: 7-01990: 7-11992: 7-1 (tied with Boylan)1993: 8-01998: 7-12005: 8-0

Playoff Record22 years in the playoffs; 34-20 all-time playoff record; 5A state champ in 1993; 4A state champ in 1994

All-Time Statistical LeadersTop Three All-Time Single-Season Rushers*Player (Year) G Att Yds Avg. TDsRob Dal Santo (1989) 12 266 1922 7.2 27Patrick O’Brien (2007) 12 255 1700 6.7 27Rob Dal Santo (1988) 14 265 1523 5.7 18Top Three All-Time Single-Season Passers*Player (Year) G Att Cmp Yds Int TDsBrian Pottinger (1986) 11 159 65 1279 NA 11Rob Tobin (1987) 13 153 71 1230 NA 10Kyle Tevebaugh (2007) 12 148 74 1145 10 6Top Three All-Time Single-Season Receivers (Yards)*Player (Year) G Rec Yds Avg TDsCharles Chatman (2007) 12 46 877 19.1 8Robb Chamberlin (1988) 14 55 856 15.6 7Dave Guse (1983) 11 45 800 17.8 9* Stats go back to 1963

Scott Morgan, Rockford Register Star

Ground AttackChuck Leonard (from left), Marcus Gooden and Todd Lay pose at Funderberg Stadium. Leonard was an all-conference tight end for the 1994 state cham-pion Bucs. He currently lives in Belvidere, teaches 4th grade at Prairie Hill Elementary in South Beloit and is an assistant football coach at Rockford Chris-tian Life High School. Lay was an all-conference defensive lineman for Belvidere’s 1993 state champs. He now lives in Deerfield and works for Dean Foods.

Hardware StoreChuck Leonard (from left) and Todd Lay hold the state championship trophies they won in the mid-1990s. Marcus Gooden (19), a fullback for this year’s Belvidere team, hopes to add a trophy of his own to the school’s case.

Photos available at rrstar.com/buyphoto

If Belvidere North is to duplicate last season’s appearance in the Class 6A quar-terfinals, the Blue Thunder again will ride on the backs of quarterback Tony Tindle and fullback Austin Smaha.

“It all starts with those two,” said new coach Ryan Zaremb-ski, whose team re-turns just five play-ers, three on offense and two on defense.

“That’s pretty deadly to have me and Tony back there,” Smaha said. “Defens-es will key on Tony some plays and on me sometimes. That’s go-ing to give us room to break plays.”

Tindle returns after a solid junior season, throwing for 903 yards and eight touchdowns while running for 496 more with seven TDs, even though he didn’t crack the starting lineup until midway through the season.

Tindle spent the past few months working on his pass-ing game at offsea-son football camps. But his biggest im-

provement might be a stronger belief in himself.

“I am a lot more confident, knowing that I can succeed at this level,” he said. “Confidence is ev-

erything. The players coming back, I trust a lot. It gives you a lot of confidence when you have the guys to back you up.”

The running load will fall on the broad

shoulders of Smaha. A bruising 6-1, 205 fullback, Smaha was the workhorse on the North offense as a sophomore with 358 yards and seven TDs, and that won’t change

this season. “Austin is young,

but works harder than anyone,” said Tindle. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes All-State this year. I’m going to do all I

can to help him get there.”

“You have to look long and hard to find a better junior run-ning back in the state of Illinois,” said Za-rembski. “I coached

guys in college that went on to play Divi-sion I. Austin’s the type of kid that’s not going to be paying for college.”

Tindle will look to spread the ball to a

batch of juniors, in-cluding Kurt Siem-sen, Issac Garcia, Ryan Gamble, An-dres Coral and Ryker Rodakowski. “We are faster than we were last year,” Tindle said. “Siemsen has good hands and Isaac has worked hard all three years. There is a lot of speed on this team.”

The North defense is young and inexperi-enced. The defensive line is anchored by tackle Brandon Bown (6-2, 210). Other key defenders include Smaha at outside linebacker (66 tack-les) and Garcia in the defensive backfield.

Zarembski has made one small ad-justment on defense, shifting from a 3-5-3 base to a 3-4 front. Expect the Thun-der to blitz more this year.

“That’s been the point of empha-sis,” Zarembski said. “They’ve come around to it pretty well. You get guys in the right spot and then they’ve got to make plays. If you can’t tackle, there’s not much you can do about that.”

Smaha doesn’t ex-pect that to be a prob-lem. “This defense is going to give us more pressure against a run offense like Hon-onegah,” he said. “We should be able to stuff the run this year.” — Paul Anthony Arco, Rockford Register Star

Rockford Register Star | Friday, August 27, 2010 5www.rrstar.com e-mail: sports@rrstar.com gridiron

Tindle, Smaha Lead the Way for North

BLUE THUNDER NO LONGER IN DISTANCE

Ben Woloszyn, Rockford Register Star

Ben Woloszyn, Rockford Register Star

What’s the Catch?Belvidere North quarterback Tony Tindle (left) plays a little catch with former Belvidere fullback Rob Dal Santo. Dal Santo was an all-state running back for Belvidere in 1989, when the Bucs were the only game in town. He now owns and operates Dal Santo Painting in Rockford.

Meet the Blue ThunderPlayer No. Pos. Yr. Ht. Wt.Zack Bending 65 OL, DL Jr. 5-8 216 Marcus Benyonson 86 WR, DB Jr. 5-8 165 Brandon Bown 81 OL, DL Sr. 6-2 210 Jon Bredlau 62 OL, DL Sr. 5-9 185 Andres Coral 47 RB, LB Jr. 5-10 185 Josh Dummer 76 OL, DL Sr. 6-4 265 Dustin Dussalt 55 OL, DL Jr. 6-0 210 Dom Fleming 45 OL, DL Sr. 6-3 175 Ryan Gamble 11 WR, DB Jr. 5-7 150 Isaac Garcia 9 WR, DB Jr. 5-10 175 Kyle Gibson 43 WR, DB Jr. 5-10 175 Reece Hampton 54 OL, DL Jr. 5-10 225 Ethan Hauser 10 K Sr. 5-11 170 Michael Hejmej 57 OL, LB Jr. 6-0 210 Justin Hodges 73 OL, DL Soph. 6-4 275 Christian Holsker 44 LB Sr. 5-8 175 Zach Koga 82 WR, DB Sr. 5-10 150 Danny Kroman 83 WR, DL Jr. 5-10 183 Alex Larbee 66 OL, LB Sr. 5-9 170 Mike Lewis 78 OL, DL Sr. 6-5 330 Blake Loken 41 WR, DB Sr. 6-1 170 Alex Maavich 30 LB Sr. 6-0 150 Jason Meister 87 WR, DB Sr. 5-7 130 Kiernan Moore 32 OL, LB Jr. 6-0 180 JJ Moton 56 OL, DL Sr. 6-0 190 Vince Nolasco 60 OL, DL Jr. 5-11 180 Nick Older 26 WR, DB Sr. 6-0 150 Josh Pagan 4 RB, DL Sr. 5-8 195 Nick Paul 52 OL, DL Jr. 5-10 225 Danny Psaltis 25 RB, LB Jr. 5-8 180 Zach Radcliff 82 WR, DB Sr. 6-0 210 Ryker Rodakowski 22 WR, DB Jr. 6-0 165 Seth Schneider 67 OL, DL Sr. 5-9 255 Kurt Siemsen 85 WR, DB Jr. 6-2 175 Austin Smaha 21 RB, LB Jr. 6-1 205 Luke Streight 88 WR, DB Sr. 6-0 155 Caesar Tamayo 20 WR, LB Jr. 5-10 150 Tony Tindle 17 QB Sr. 6-1 190 Lauren Waddell 7 K Sr. 5-7 125 Luke Williams 32 WR, DB Jr. 5-7 145 Steve Wolf 72 OL, DL Jr. 6-1 215 Michael Yurevich 2 WR, DB Jr. 6-1 175

About the Blue ThunderCoachRyan Zarembski (First season)

Last Season 7-5

Last Playoff Appearance 2009

Returning Starters Tony Tindle (6-1, 190, Sr., QB); Austin Smaha (6-1, 205, Jr., RB/LB); Andres Coral (5-10, 185, Jr., LB/RB); Josh Dummer (6-4, 265, Sr., OL/DL); Josh Pagan (5-8, 195, Sr., RD/DL); Brandon Bown (6-2, 210, Sr., OL/DL).

Other Key Players Justin Hodges (6-4, 275, Soph., OL/DL); Kurt Siemsen (6-2, 175, Jr., WR/DB); Ryker Rodakowski (6-0, 165, Jr., 6-0, 165); Ryan Gamble (5-7, 150, Jr., WR/DB); Reece Hampton (5-10, 225, Jr., WR/DB); Isaac Garcia (5-10, 175, Jr. WR/DB); Dustin Dussalt (6-0, 210, Jr., OL/DB).

Strengths Solid running game ... team speed.

WeaknessesInexperienced defense ... lack of depth.

OutlookDepth is a concern for the Blue Thunder, who were hit hard by graduation, return-ing only five starters this season. For the team to again advance deep into the playoffs under first-year coach Ryan Zarembski, supporting players are going to have to step up, given that opponents will be focused on stopping quarterback Tony Tindle and fullback Austin Smaha.

Quotable From Zarembski: “We’d like to be in the top half of the conference. I will deem it a suc-cessful season if we win at least one playoff game and then see where we go from there.”

History LessonBelvidere North is the baby of the conference, having opened its

doors in 2007 when the growing Belvidere district split into two high schools.

But the Blue Thunder’s football growing pains were few and mild. After a 2007 season that featured mostly underclassmen, North amazingly reached the playoffs in 2008 with a 5-4 conference record. Then last year, the Blue Thunder tied for fourth at 5-4, but lasted the longest of any NIC-10 team in the postseason, reaching the state quarterfinals in Class 4A.

All-Time Statistical LeadersTop Three All-Time Single-Season Rushers*Player (Year) G Att Yds Avg. TDsCorey Wennmacher (2008) 10 175 1192 6.8 18Zackery Stinson (2009) 12 131 844 6.4 5Tony Tindle (2009) 12 127 561 4.4 7Top Three All-Time Single-Season Passers*Player (Year) G Att Cmp Yds Int TDsTony Tindle (2009) 7 45 77 893 8 5Corey Wennmacher (2008) 8 124 68 771 9 9Corey Wennmacher (2007) 8 85 32 412 3 2Top Three All-Time Single-Season Receivers (Yards)*Player (Year) G Rec Yds Avg TDsDylan Roberts (2009) 11 22 443 20.1 8Doug Traceski (2008) 10 21 293 14.0 3Jacob Billon (2008) NA 22 227 10.3 5

* Stats go back to 2007

Conference Titles

None

Playoff Record2 years in the playoffs (playoffs didn’t start until 1974);2-2 all-time playoff record;Best finish is third round in 2008

Northern LightsBelvidere North QB Tony Tindle (right) hopes to pass the Blue Thunder to a conference title and repeat the success of past Belvidere star Rob Dal Santo.

Photos available at rrstar.com/buyphoto