The Wing-T — and a ‘Wing-T guru’ — improve Conant’s prospects

The evidence was all around them — at the professional, collegiate, and high school levels, in 7-on-7s, on television and social media.

You’ve got to throw the football.

Except it wasn’t working for Conant.

After an 0-9 season in 2024, Cougars coach Anthony Donatucci made a switch to a throwback offense, the ground-based Wing-T scheme.

Following some initial resistance — “They want you to throw the ball,” Donatucci said — came buy-in, and results. The Wing-T didn’t turn the program around, but helped get it headed in the right direction.

In 2025 Conant showed an improved ability to establish offensive drives and control the clock and field position.

The Cougars scored 62 more points than in the 2024 season. After being held under 20 points every game in 2024, Conant scored at least 21 points in three games, all victories.

“We run the Wing-T because we went ahead and thought, what fits our kids the best, the type of kids that we have,” Donatucci said at Monday’s practice in Hoffman Estates.

“We don’t have the big kids that run spread. This kind of helps us out because our running backs are a little bit smaller, up front we’re a little bit smaller.”

Conant is formidable at tackle in junior Myles Harris, 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds, and senior Nicolas Portilla Palos, 6-4, 280. Otherwise …

“We have linebacker-guards,” said one of them, junior Josh Choe, a 5-11, 230-pound junior. He’s about as big as it gets among the rest of the Cougars’ main offensive line rotation.

“We’re undersized but we’re built to run the Wing-T because we can get guys moving and use our speed,” said three-year starting quarterback, senior Tyler Marchese.

“Our guards use their speed to our advantage. Our skills are good. We can get a lot of different people involved, so that’s what the Wing-T allows us to do,” he said.

To fortify their understanding of the offense, in the offseason Donatucci met in earnest with “Wing-T guru” Paul Connor, former head coach at North Central College and Fenwick, who has taught the scheme for decades.

A year removed from teaching and assisting at Wheaton North, Connor came out of retirement to work with Conant over the summer. He will continue, unpaid, throughout the season.

“He’s just a Godsend,” Donatucci said. “He’s a servant leader.”

“When a guy asks you to come work with his kids, that is an honor, and I am thrilled that he would think that maybe I could come and do something for them,” Connor said.

The feeling is mutual.

“He volunteers here, and he ended up being so committed to us that instead of just staying this summer he’s decided to see the whole season through,” said senior fullback Jackson Spizzirri.

“As players we really appreciate that, because having a coach with that much experience and that much passion really makes us feel special.”

At 200 pounds and returning 619 yards rushing and 6 touchdowns, Spizzirri relishes taking the handoff, surging forward, and lowering the boom. It’s just one aspect of the Wing-T.

“It involves a lot of misdirection,” Connor said. “It’s an awful lot of ‘where did they go?’

“It’s a lot of angle blocking so you’re not asking people to be beasts and come off the ball and out-man people right in front of them all the time. There’s down-blocking, there’s trapping,” Connor said.

There’s smarts.

“You really have to study the playbook,” Choe said.

Conant’s confidence running the offense, bolstered by Connor’s assistance under offensive coordinator Aaron Essex, is coming around.

“Last year we were just kind of getting used to it,” Marchese said. “It was pretty slow getting all the plays in, but this summer we pretty much had all the plays in already and we’ve started to install stuff that we didn’t have before.

“All these people know the offense, and we’re ready to run it to perfection on game day.”

As far as throwing the football? It depends.

“We run the ball the majority of the time,” Choe said. “If you don’t stop it, then we’re going to keep doing it.”