Meaney's 50th win wears well at Bartlett

No more than five minutes after their 42-23 victory over South Elgin was complete Friday night, the Bartlett football players were already sporting new t-shirts.

The blue shirts with "50" emblazoned on the back were quickly handed out by offensive coordinator Mark Williams in honor of head coach Tom Meaney's 50th career victory, all at Bartlett. No one was more surprised by the quick change than Meaney.

"They got the shirts and everything behind my back, but that was kind of neat," the eighth-year coach said.

Formerly an assistant coach under Dick Stephens at Elgin and Bartlett, Meaney took the reins in 2003. The Hawks are on track to reach the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years under his leadership. There's no place he'd rather enjoy such success.

"I'm really happy working at this school," Meaney said. "It's a great school. I enjoy the people I work with and the coaches I coach with. And the kids are extremely hard working. They do anything we ask, whether it's the weight room or conditioning or staying after practice or just working hard, whatever. I mean, we run the heck out of these kids.

"Hopefully, our conditioning was a little better (than South Elgin's). We needed to be better conditioned because we had more guys playing both ways."

Strength of schedule: Burlington Central had the state's toughest schedule based on win totals as its first five opponents went into Week 6 at 5-0. The Rockets finally got their first win Friday over winless Hampshire.