Geneva, St. Charles meet for 1st time since 1978

It has been nearly 30 years (1978) since Geneva and St. Charles East last met on the football field.

Thanks to their first-round playoff victories last weekend, and in large part to the Illinois High School Association postseason pairings, the neighboring schools will get an opportunity to meet again Friday night at Burgess Field with plenty at stake in the second round of the Class 7A state playoffs.

Since the two teams are scheduled to play in the 2008 regular season next August in Geneva, they'll meet twice over the next 10 months after not lining up across from one another for the last 348 months.

But they are not strangers.

"I played Little League (football) with Michael Ratay, Brennan Quinn and Jake Conforti," St. Charles East junior linebacker Pat Friel said of the trio now playing starring roles at Geneva. "I played with them for a long time so I know them well. They're great players."

If you ask Geneva resident Jeff Conforti, who also happens to be the father of Vikings starting safety Jake, great may be an understatement of sorts.

The elder Conforti served as head coach of the Tri-City Chargers' youth football team for 4 seasons and helped guide the 130-pound-and-under squad to the state championship in 2003.

That 17-member roster included current Saints Mike Hoscheit and Friel, along with Geneva's Mike Mayszak, Ratay and Conforti.

Other team members were Tim Ohlrich, Tim Janeway, Kyle Priest, Vince Ursini, Jim Vojahosky (St. Charles North), Dan Leibforth (St. Charles East), Nick Zuccarini (Marmion), Mitch Lyons (Geneva) and Jim East (Benet Academy).

"The unique thing was that the core group stayed together three or four years," said Jeff Conforti, who also coached current Vikings Peter Stuewe, Steve Diemand and the Saints' Tom Kuebel and Tom Lollino. "A lot of kids just played middle school football when they reached that age, but these guys decided to stay together (on the Tri-City team)."

Their cohesiveness paid dividends on the field.

"The team lost just one regular-season game in all four years (2000-03)," said Conforti. "The loss was to Wheaton, but we made up for it by beating them our last year. We went on to beat Glen Ellyn 30-0 in the state championship at Northern Illinois University."

Conforti had a hunch that his 2003 team might be something special during the preseason.

"Our first preseason game was against a Crystal Lake team that was the defending Pop Warner national champions and unbeaten over a five-year span," recalled Conforti, who grew up in Wheaton and played football at Wheaton Central. "Right before the kickoff, one of their coaches came over to our bench and said, 'We hope you give us a game.'

"At halftime, the same guy asked us to 'Take the dogs off' because we already led 28-0."

Conforti, who wasn't the type to run up scores, sometimes had to write letters to the Tri-City board explaining why his team was winning by such big numbers.

"There was a game where we scored three touchdowns in less than a minute," he said. "We put Pat Friel, who was our center at the time, in the backfield and he scored on a 70-yard run.

"They're all great football players. We also had tremendous coaches like Mike Mayszak, Bob Zuccarini, Tom Friel, Scott Stuewe, Jeff Jones and Jim East."

Conforti's coaching style was one that stressed the basics.

"I'm a big fundamental guy," he said. "We'd work on the proper stance, blocking and tackling at practice all day, every day. Since we only had 17-20 players on the team, all of the kids played and they all played different positions."

Undoubtedly, Conforti's early influence has played a role in the players' current success.

"These guys are awfully lucky because of the youth program in place, plus they've got some of the best high school coaches and facilities around," he said. "I hope I touched them a little bit."

In some ways, Conforti will have two teams to root for Friday night.

"I'll be cheering for Geneva but I'm so proud of the St. Charles (East) guys and respectful of their program," Conforti said. "They're great kids and the guys are still friends. They respect each other.

"Certainly, they'll line up and hit the snot of each other Friday night but there will be no bitter feelings. If St. Charles East wins, I truly hope they go on to win the state championship."

Burgess Field will definitely be the destination of choice for Conforti Friday night.

"I'm excited about it," he said. "I'll be a proud papa.

"But it's like Mike Mayszak (senior) said to me the other day, 'I think we probably coached them too well.'"