Bartlett enjoying turnaround season

Bartlett's football season reached a fork in the road after Week 3.

The players and coaching staff wholeheartedly believed the 2010 Hawks were talented, but they were saddled with a record of 1-2 through three games. It wasn't a comfortable spot considering the program was attempting to rebound from a 3-6 season in 2009, when Bartlett missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years.

“We started out slow and everyone was a little edgy,” junior receiver Zach Karys said.

Turnovers were the source of the tension. After beating Hoffman Estates in the opener, 25-3, the Hawks turned the ball over twice at Crystal Lake South in Week 2, a game Bartlett lost in the final minute, 10-9, when a 2-point conversion run came up a yard short.

The loss had a silver lining for the Hawks, though. The Gators had blown out Bartlett the year before, 40-0, so having a chance to win in the final minute on the road was technically a sign of improvement. It turned out to be the closest call of the season for unbeaten Crystal Lake South (10-0).

But any momentum from playing the Gators tough dissipated in the second half of Bartlett's Week 3 contest at Waubonsie Valley. The Hawks turned the ball over 4 times in the second half, 5 times overall, and lost the game, 16-7.

The season had reached the crossroads. Would the Hawks continue to stumble and lose the close games as they had the year before? Or would they maximize their talents like the 2008 team, which went 12-1 and reached a Class 8A semifinal?

Senior defensive end Brian Polubinski, who started on the state semifinal team as a sophomore, addressed his teammates after the Waubonsie Valley loss.

“He just really inspired us to try not to lose another game all year,” senior tight end/cornerback Russell Martin said. “What he said really stuck.”

Polubinski reminded the Hawks they were better than the squad that had turned the ball over eight times in their first three games.

“Basically, after that game I knew and the whole team knew that was not Bartlett football,” Polubinski said. “We made a promise to ourselves that we were going to win every game from that point on and make that trip down to U of I, playing for that state title.”

The Hawks have achieved Part I of Polubinski's promise. Since Week 3, Bartlett (8-2) has won 7 straight football games, highlighted by a convincing Week 6 victory over then-unbeaten South Elgin (7-3) and a 2-point win over Neuqua Valley (7-3).

Bartlett finished tied with Waubonsie Valley in the Valley Division to earn a share of its fifth Upstate Eight Conference title in 10 seasons. And the Hawks restored the program to its familiar place in the Class 8A playoff bracket.

Limiting turnovers sparked the turnaround. The Hawks have turned the ball over only five times in their last seven games, all wins.

“We knew that wasn't us turning the ball over like that,” Polubinski said of the slow start. “We rep everything over and over again and we're coached not to do that. From that Waubonsie game on everything has been clicking and going our way. We just have to keep at it.”

Another spark came from the determined rushing of senior running back Andrew Puccini. He has gained 1,160 yards and scored 15 touchdowns on 156 carries.

“I think a lot of us coaches agree that Puccini started the whole thing by him just coming out gangbusters and working so hard,” Bartlett coach Tom Meaney said. “He's relentless in practice. He's real quiet, but on the field he runs hard. He's what makes our offense go.”

In order to fulfill Part II of Polubinski's promise a trip to Illinois' Memorial Field the Hawks have to do something Saturday no other football team in Illinois has accomplished since 2007: knock Maine South out of the playoffs.

Maine South (8-2) is the two-time defending Class 8A champion and has won 11 straight playoff games, including a 23-6 victory over Bartlett in the 2008 semifinals. Can Bartlett join the ranks of Schaumburg and Wheaton Warrenville South teams that have knocked off the defending champs this season?

“They are a good team, there's no doubt about that,” Meaney said of Maine South. “They've got some receivers that are just as good as when we played them in 2008. And they were state champs the last couple of years so they've got it going on, that's for sure.

“The whole key is we have to convince our kids that they can do it,” Meaney said. “When these kids believe they can really get things done. A couple of times this season we've had to tell them how good they actually can be.”