Driscoll goes for unprecedented 7th state football title

It's late at night on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and Driscoll Catholic High School football coach Mike Burzawa is locked in his office with his staff planning their next win.

Coaches spend the evening running and re-running game film of Bloomington Central Catholic High School, the team's next foe.

In a week that has most families focused on preparing feasts and lounging around just casually watching football, Burzawa and his colleagues will spend roughly 60 hours this week getting their team ready to win yet another state football title.

Oh, and that prep work the coaches spend breaking down film doesn't include team practices or their respective day jobs.

"It's kind of turned into a regular routine for us," Burzawa said of the long nights. "First and foremost are the football matters."

Indeed, the tiny football powerhouse from Addison will be vying for an unprecedented seventh straight state crown Friday in Champaign.

While the school of roughly 380 students plays in a smaller conference and may not have the same student-power as area football programs at Wheaton Warrenville South and Naperville North high schools, teams also in the finals this weekend, Driscoll's accomplishment is no small feat.

Only three other high schools in Illinois have more state titles. And nearly one-third of the boys in the school play football, a testament to the tradition of excellence on the gridiron developed at Driscoll in the past decade.

Coaches, school administrators and even admirers from outside the school point to Driscoll's strong sense of community and dedication among its student population as contributing factors that have led to their success.

"This year has been rather low-key because the football team has been rather businesslike about their work," school Principal Fred Muehleman said.

The attitude is reflected in the long hours logged by the football coaches, the expectations for winning varsity students model for their junior peers and the parental support reflected both in the stands and on the sidelines.

"The parents are extremely involved," Muehleman said. "They handle the field, handle the concessions and do the crowd control -- basically all the things to make sure our coaches are focused on coaching."

That dedication to winning is perhaps a polar opposite of what Driscoll Athletic Director Bob Carlson experienced while working at Weber High School, a small Catholic all-boys school on Chicago's Northwest Side.

"I saw four varsity football wins in nine years," Carlson said. "When I came here, we lost our first two games of the season by a combined four points, and friends were telling me I must have been the jinx."

Carlson wasn't the jinx. But the football team has made sure to keep away other sources of bad luck so as to not kill its winning ways.

While the school already has a pep rally scheduled for next Monday, win or lose, no such send-off was planned this week.

The only nods given to the team this week were posters adorning the school cafeteria with final scores of each of the school's 13 wins. A ladder also sits outside the school chapel with the names of each of the four playoff teams Driscoll beat on its way to Friday's game.

Should they win, there's one more eccentricity the team plans to keep.

After players accidentally broke the school's first two trophies, the team adopted the ritual of purposely breaking a figurine off their prize.

"They like to follow the same thing they've done the last seven years," Muehleman said. "Businesslike."

Driscoll by the numbers …

7 -- Number of consecutive state titles, if Driscoll wins Friday

34 -- Consecutive playoff wins (current)

29 -- Consecutive wins (2002 to 2004)

34-14 -- Last playoff loss (against Oregon High School in 2000 3A state playoffs)

40-1 -- Head coach Mike Burzawa's record at Driscoll

Source: Illinois High School Association