Finding out once again how hard that last hurdle can be
CHAMPAIGN -- Saturday might have been a first for Marmion, playing for a state football championship, but it was déjà vu for me.
Standing in the same corner of Illinois' north end zone as I was in 2008, and running into Ted Monken again, only this time as the final seconds ticked away in the Cadets' Class 6A state championship loss instead of Geneva's Class 7A state title defeat in 2008.
“So you think we'll see the day a Tri-Cities team wins one of these?” I asked Monken back then.
Two years later, the same question. OK, Marmion is located in Aurora but look at the hometowns for many of the players and it certainly has strong Tri-Cities ties.
Seems some things never change. Batavia in 2006, Geneva and Aurora Christian in 2008 and now Marmion, all bringing scores of fans making the trip south down I-57 or Route 47, all turning out in mass to see their school play for their first state title, all seeing their team lose.
(And I realize St. Francis with all its Tri-Cities connections did break through and win a 2008 state title; for us they are a school covered by our excellent DuPage County staff.)
Except of course things do change. Monken's attire proved that the Black and Gold of Metea Valley he wore Saturday instead of the Orange and Black he sported in 2008 when he was still at St. Charles East.
And unfortunately, the wrong things changed for Marmion Saturday. The team that had been so opportunistic with turnovers, plus-21 on the year, turned it over six times.
“Our heads weren't screwed on straight. We played a bad first half and a worse second half,” said Marmion senior Mike Carbonara before getting to the key point on this topic, “but we never stopped fighting.”
It certainly wasn't an easy day to throw or catch the ball with 37 degree temperatures, 12-18 mile per hour winds and a 29 degree windchill announced at kickoff. And it only got colder.
“It was probably the coldest game we had all year, it probably had something to do with it,” Marmion quarterback Bobby Peters said. “We practiced in it all week. I don't know how to explain it.”
The Cadets just couldn't hold onto the ball. And a defense that had been so dominant early this season had its hands full, very much like it did holding off Danville last week.
But back to the question Monken and I couldn't answer.
It sounds easy to say sure, that a fine coach like Marmion's Dan Thorpe will do it sooner than later. I'm certainly a Thorpe fan, not only for all the energy he pours into the Cadet program, but the positive way he supports all Marmion's students. For example, he's the only football coach I saw making the early wake-up calls on a Saturday morning to watch his school's cross country team, and I saw him do that multiple times this fall.
But a Tri-Cities state football champion? I can't wait for that day. I've learned from watching all the seniors who led Batavia, Aurora Christian and Geneva to state that once they are gone those shoes are hard to fill. Marmion, with seven junior starters on defense and three on offense Saturday, has a great returning nucleus, yet surely knows how much they are losing in T.J. Lally, Nick Scoliere and company.
Here's hoping to hang out in that Illinois end zone again soon, this time watching our team pose with the championship trophy.
jlemon@dailyherald.com