Athletes don't come with more heart than Ardiente

Life's not always fair.

Example: the player in this area who arguably loves football the most has been rewarded for his efforts the least.

Matt Ardiente is a running back and outside linebacker at St. Edward, a program that has lost 26 straight games overall and 20 in a row in the Suburban Catholic Conference dating back to 2004, when Ardiente was still a member of the freshman team.

Since his sophomore year Ardiente has started 23 varsity contests in three seasons, missing just one game due to a 103-degree fever.

He has yet to feel what it's like to win a varsity football game.

Most players wouldn't be able to find the motivation to engage in another grueling football practice after failing to be rewarded for that work 24 weeks in a row.

That's why Matt Ardiente isn't most players. The fireplug keeps coming back for more, even though he's always been up against it in a sport where big boys dominate. A senior in high school, Ardiente stands 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds.

"But he plays like he's 6-4, not 5-4," said Green Wave quarterback Ryan Gilbert.

SCC coaches agree. They voted Ardiente to the all-conference team last year after the Bartlett resident led the St. Edward offense in rushing yards and led the defense in tackles.

You can't even call this kid a two-way player; He's actually a three-way player. Ardiente is on the field for every defensive, offensive, and special teams play. Last week against Driscoll he logged an amazing 117 plays.

"He's got some size challenges, but pound for pound he's the best player I've ever coached and probably ever will coach," said St. Edward coach Mike Rolando.

"People leave our games and they say to me, Ȣ₈¬Ã‹Å“Wow, that No. 20 was something else.' Friends of mine, relatives, they all say he plays so much bigger than his size. People who don't know him worry he might get hurt on the field, but he'll go toe-to-toe with guys twice his size and he wins most of those battles."

Rolando's not spouting a line of baloney.

During St. Edward's season-opening, 46-41 loss to Hampshire, I stood 30 feet away as Ardiente stepped up from his outside linebacker position and delivered a pad-popping hit on Hampshire running back Joe Moore, stopping the 5-10, 195-pound rusher in his tracks. The perfectly executed form tackle not only saddled Moore for a loss, it drew an "oooooh," from the crowd.

Ardiente can execute such plays because he has never stopped working hard despite his team's record. He benches around 200 pounds, can squat over 400 and has run the 40-yard dash as quickly as 4.5 seconds.

And if they could measure heart, loyalty and courage, Ardiente would score off the charts in each, namely because he, Gilbert and Nevin Bens are among the only seniors who chose to stick it out at St. Edward through what will go down as the leanest period in the program's history.

Life threw Ardiente and the rest of the St. Edward football community a curveball in July of 2005 when longtime coach Rich Sanders resigned abruptly due to a dispute with the boys basketball coach over sharing players. The football program has yet to fully recover.

Sanders said at the time he was tired of fighting the same old battle for players at a school of less than 500 students, one that needs multi-sport athletes in order to compete in a sport like football.

When Sanders stepped away a scant few weeks before two-a-days were scheduled to begin, many St. Edward upperclassmen bolted for greener football pastures. Others just plain quit.

Ardiente's freshman team in 2004 had gone 7-2, beating teams like St. Francis and Marmion by 50 points. But after Sanders resigned the school lost valuable prospects from the Class of 2008, like then-varsity quarterback Pete Scaffidi, who this season has thrown 13 touchdowns for South Elgin High School.

Other original members of the St. Edward Class of 2008 scattered like dandelion seeds: Dillon Smith is now the starting running back at Larkin; receiver Travis Eubanks and linemen Wayne Smith and Josh Kaminski joined Scaffidi at South Elgin; lineman Mike Knox plays at Dundee-Crown; and Sanders' youngest son, Kyle, transferred to state power Driscoll.

"We had everyone you could have imagined on that team," Bens said. "We might be a 7-2 team if we had everyone still.

"The rest of us felt a bond and it was really strong. We didn't want to abandon St. Edward. I felt everyone who left did abandon us whether they intended to or not. That's what they did. I mean, who wouldn't want to rebuild an entire program and have your name, your class, your team be the one that changed things around?

"This year that's what we thought we'd do. But getting our wins hasn't happened."

The players hoped to win 5 games this season but they've come up winless in six tries, though they've undoubtedly developed into a more competitive football team this year than in 2006.

In its first six losses last year, St. Edward was outscored 273-79. Through six games in 2007, that margin has shrunk to 226-146.

The hard-luck Green Wave lost the season opener to Hampshire (4-2) by 5 points, lost to Aurora Christian (6-0) by 2 points and were beaten by one lousy point by Immaculate Conception (2-4). In that game a potential game-winning 2-point conversion failed in the final moments.

St. Edward also led late against Aurora Central Catholic (1-5) before failures in the kicking game and numerous fumbles kept the dubious streak intact with a 52-36 loss.

After back-to-back defeats the past two weeks against state championship quality competition in Marian Central and Driscoll, team morale is admittedly low. Key injuries have taken a toll. A couple of players were ruled ineligible this week due to grades, another was suspended. Rolando had to call up five sophomores recently to plug all the holes.

But hope never dies in kids like Matt Ardiente, whose very name translates to passionate. "It's about believing," Ardiente said of his teams' prospects of knocking off St. Francis (2-4) in tonight's homecoming game.

No one wants to see Ardiente or the other seniors walk off the field winners more than their coach.

"I'm just very proud of his efforts and we really want to get a win for him," Rolando said of his two-time team captain. "He's put in too much work and too much dedication to not get one win."

So whaddya think, Mr. Ardiente? Is this the week the skid comes to an end?

"Every team in our conference is tough, but I definitely believe we can win this weekend," Ardiente said. "I'm just trying to inspire all the guys so they can believe, too."

Inspire them?

You already have, Matt.

jfitzpatrick@dailyherald.com