The Warriors will hit the ground running
Steve Winiecki enters his 24th season as Deerfield's head football coach hot off his induction this spring into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
He joined his high school coach and father, Tom, a 1990 IHSFCA inductee for his decades of work at Gordon Tech, now known as DePaul Prep.
To reach this level one must be a master of teaching fundamentals. And executing fundamentals is what Steve Winiecki sees being among the strengths of the 2022 Deerfield Warriors.
"We're going to be running the ball and stopping the run," he said.
"If you ask me right now, I think we'll be able to run the ball, and I know we'll be able to stop the run. I'm kind of old-school that way. I think if you can do those two things you have a good chance of winning football games."
The Warriors have proved that.
Including a 5-1 record in the spring of 2021, Deerfield has gone 24-6 the last three seasons, winning the Central Suburban League North title last fall and reaching the Class 6A semifinals in 2019.
This year's squad may take some time to gel. Winiecki's preliminary varsity roster listed 24 sophomores, and he returns three starters on both offense and defense, though other returners did get significant reps, the coach said.
The 2021 team also graduated veterans such as CSL North player of the year Luke Woodson, now at Drake, who ran for 1,425 yards and 20 touchdowns and made 101 tackles on his way to IHSFCA Class 6A All-State honors.
"The big thing is, as you saw from our sophomores, we're a very talented, young team. My biggest concern going into it is our inexperience. We're going to have to keep things very simple and straightforward early in the season because we're going to be a very football-young team," Winiecki said.
With players still vying last week for the starting quarterback position that graduated Austin Layette left behind, whomever gets the nod has a good start up front. Center Bryce Berger and left tackle Brady Sterzik both return.
So too does fellow senior Luke Pollack, a receiver whose size - 6-foot-4, 195 pounds - is drawing college interest.
The Warriors' base 3-3 defense will be led by returning nose tackle Joey Kliebard, the team's stoutest lineman at 6-0, 235; cornerback Alex Fern; and all-conference linebacker Vince Sciarrone, who like the graduated Woodson will turn right around to also play running back.
Other players to watch include cornerback Zach Chalmers and slot receiver Miles Cohan, both seniors.
Deerfield's offensive line is not huge, topping out around the 230-, 235-pound range. This does not concern Winiecki in the least. In fact, he's excited by their makeup.
After one of the "greatest offseasons we've had," he said, it's a crew that is lean, strong and fleet, potentially able to get defenses on roller skates, zone-blocking in the Warriors' run-pass option offense.
"I think we're going to be a very good team running the ball," Winiecki said.
"Vince (Sciarrone) has done a great job, the offensive line is coming together, we're making good decisions at the quarterback position with the RPO offense. That'll take some of the pressure off," he said.
"We've been very good on defense, one of the top defenses in Lake County, but we've got to kind of reload on that, establish a new identity on defense."