Kaneland's Camiliere among state's best

The quarterback, at his best, spreads the wealth.

The great ones are not merely charged with filling a stat line with impressive numbers except for that bottom line the number of wins.

The best quarterbacks elevate the play of their entire team, even those not on the field, the defensive players resting and watching a master at work.

Kaneland has been an incubator of such mastery. This season the Knights were elevated by the play of senior three-year starter Joe Camiliere, who ranks not only among the Boone Thorgesens and Eric Delaneys who preceded him on windswept Bruce Peterson Field, but among the best in state history.

Capping a three-year progression of excellence this fall in terms of victories, production and leadership, Camiliere's 7,615 career passing yards rank fourth all-time according to Illinois High School Association records, his 549 completions fifth and his 75 career touchdowns tied for ninth.

Top-ten lists and lifetime achievements, however, are not the sole reasons why Camiliere is the honorary captain of the Daily Herald 2010 Tri-Cities All-Area Football Team.

“You have to be a real dedicated person to play quarterback here,” said Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly. “You have to do all the extra work just to understand what we're trying to do, and all those (past quarterbacks) have done that. That just is something that is expected here at Kaneland, and Joe did everything we asked him to do.”

From Week 1 until he left the field four months later in the Knights' only loss of the season, to eventual Class 5A state champion Montini in the semifinals, the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association All-State quarterback was captain in the fullest sense of the word. He made everyone around him better.

“To me, the special quarterbacks are the ones who raise the level of play of the entire team. And I think Joe did that this year,” said Kaneland defensive coordinator Joe Thorgesen, the Hall of Fame coach who directed his son, Boone, and led the Knights to 1997 and 1998 3A titles with Delaney under center.

“I think sometimes stats can be misleading. Joe certainly has great stats but what really makes me proud of Joe is the leader he developed into this year,” Thorgesen said.

“Any football coach will tell you that at that position, any time he's in the huddle there's ten other pair of eyes on him. I just think Joe's done a great job this year being a leader on our offense. The kids had confidence in him.”

Since winning Kaneland's starting quarterback spot his sophomore season, showing Fedderly the requisite competitive drive and willingness to learn, Camiliere's greatest progression transcends simple mechanics of the position.

Yes, quarterbacks coach and mentor Delaney said his footwork and a “funky release” initially needed work.

Improvement mainly came between the ears, where Camiliere arrived already well-equipped.

“His best attribute might be that he's just a real smart kid, and it's real tough to get him fooled or rattled,” Delaney said.

“He does see a lot of what's going on, on the field. And he definitely has the arm that, when he does need to put the ball on a line 20 yards downfield, he does that as well.”

Camiliere's junior season, in which he completed 60.6 percent of his passes for 2,208 yards, 20 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions, was an indication of better things to come.

“An absolute leap,” Delaney called it.

This season the 5-foot-11, 195-pound senior Camiliere's lack of stature being the sole drawback in search of a college spot completed 194 of 299 passes (64.9 percent) for 2,955 yards, 36 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He ran for a team-high 687 yards and 9 more touchdowns.

Three interceptions came in the 5A quarterfinal win over Vernon Hills. Camiliere repented for that with 4 touchdown passes including the 10-yarder to Tyler Callaghan with 9 seconds left to win 27-21.

“I'll remember that,” Fedderly said. “Into the wind with 2 minutes, 8 seconds left we had to go 80 yards and he put together some great plays, especially that last throw he made.”

Throws and defensive reads came easier for Camiliere because of Delaney's morning training sessions, Fedderly's way of simplifying Kaneland's complicated spread offense and Camiliere himself, taking the bull by the horns to lead after-practice drills.

Delaney, who also coaches linebackers, often caught the coach and quarterback “chit-chatting away, looking over a pad of paper.” It contained all the X's and O's an upcoming opponent presented, and how Kaneland could counter.

That meant everyone had to be on board.

“It started in practice with him being a leader,” said honorable-mention All-Stater Blake Serpa. “You'd have people start goofing off. You want to be a loose team but you don't want be messing around all the time. He got that under control.”

And at game time, practice made perfect.

“He was the eyes out there on the field,” Fedderly said. “He knows exactly what we're trying to accomplish and what we're looking for out there with the different coverages, and if he saw some kind of play he thought we'd be good at we'd run it, and he had the green light to do that.

“It just has a lot to do with preparation and really knowing your stuff, and Joe was really good at that.”

“I was comfortable with the whole offense, just knowing what I had to do and where I had to throw the ball, what my reads were,” said Camiliere, who moved to Sugar Grove from Villa Park before fifth grade.

Camiliere loved the Vernon Hills outcome, obviously, and relished the atmosphere surrounding the 30-13 win over Sycamore in Week 8. That gave the Knights the Northern Illinois Big 12 East title, Kaneland's first conference crown since 2006.

“It was the most people I've ever seen, personally, playing in a game,” he said. “The whole week was exciting, that whole day was exciting, and playing probably one of our best games the whole year. It was 7-0 versus 7-0.”

Camiliere was an efficient 13-of-19 passing that day with a touchdown pass to Callaghan and a rushing touchdown himself.

Kaneland was crowded with quality individuals, of which Camiliere had no illusions. Part of being a captain and a leader is giving credit where it's due.

“Being the quarterback, you can't complete the pass if nobody's there to catch them,” he said of receivers Callaghan, Taylor Andrews, Quinn Buschbacher, Sean Carter, Dan Helms and honorable-mention all-stater Serpa.

“Having those guys have such great years, that makes my numbers look all that much better, and a lot of that has to go to them,” Camiliere said.

“Same thing with the linemen. We only had one senior (Sam Komel) on the line. We had all those young guys (freshman Alex Snyder, sophomore Nick Sharp, juniors Ben Kovalick and Ryan Noel). They really were the ones who got the offense going the run game, the pass game, everything started with them.”

Delaney, with his two state titles, has been there, done that and then some. He knows quality when he sees it.

“I told him he's the best quarterback I know who has gone through Kaneland,” Delaney said.

To Camiliere, this season boiled down to one thing.

“Confidence was by far the biggest thing, just being confident in myself and my teammates,” he said. “When you know the other guy's confident it just boosts the other guys up, it's contagious. I think that's one of the best things that you can bring, just knowing that you can do your job and he's going to do the same thing.”