Glenbard South shows there is no substitute for experience

Glenbard South football coach Ryan Crissey has led the Raiders into the playoffs each of his 11 seasons at the helm.

Part of the recipe, which Crissey sees as necessary at his school of roughly 1,150 students, is to get select sophomores and even freshmen varsity reps.

Experience, which allows a player to act and react without overthinking, is a great thing to have on the football field. Glenbard South has it.

As Raiders three-year starting quarterback Tommy Bauman said after Monday’s practice, “I pretty much know the whole playbook, A through it all.”

He is not alone. Junior receiver Anthony Baldauf and junior running back Elijah Donahue, returning all-Upstate Eight Conference players like Bauman, already are three-year starters. Senior receiver-linebacker Kejuan Davis is a two-year starter on both sides of the ball.

“At a smaller school like this we have to be able to pull up our lower-level kids that are physically capable. Even if they’re mentally not there, if they have the physical ability we’ll get them where they need to be,” said Crissey, who lists on the varsity roster sophomores Angelo Beltran, Javonni Mitchell and Rayshawn Wooten, and freshman Max Hemesath.

“They may not always start, but they’re going to play and they’re going to practice with us and have an understanding of what it’s like and what it means to be a varsity player,” Crissey said.

That might mean getting their feet wet on special teams. Experience could come as a depth player. For example, Crissey said Raiders defensive line coach Bill Eufrasio has a rotation of “about eight guys that will play.”

Naturally, there is a learning curve. Donahue, also in his third year as a starting defensive back, felt it his freshman year.

“At first I was a little worried, I didn’t know if I was ready,” he said. “But I stuck it out, I had faith in myself and my coaches. They had faith in me, so I was like, ‘Why not?’ I’ve got to believe in myself.”

The game has slowed down for him. Bringing 4.41 speed, in 2025 Donahue ran for 1,321 yards and 20 touchdowns.

“I stuck it out, I grinded, I put my head down and just learned,” he said.

With the added weight of a quarterback’s responsibility, Bauman dug into the playbook as a freshman before getting his shot on varsity as a sophomore.

The varsity game moved pretty quickly for him, too — “I was in my head a lot,” he said — but Bauman made a jump between his sophomore and junior seasons.

“Now I feel like going into my senior year it’s just all there for me now. I’m just calm,” he said.

“Now it’s my offense. I can know what to do with everything — who goes where, help kids out with certain stuff, and just be the best I can be.”

The benefit of experience is not confined to game action. It may be even more important, Crissey suggested, in the weight room, studying film, in practice, in the locker room.

“In my opinion, your games are won and lost in the offseason and then Sunday through Thursday. These guys are super-consistent with their offseason workouts,” Crissey said.

“It just helps when these kids understand what the standard and the expectation is because then they pull the others around them with them,” he said.

Davis’ ego is not too big to learn from younger, more varsity-tested teammates like Donahue or Baldauf. Davis’ greatest area of improvement, he said Monday, was becoming a more vocal leader.

“Elijah, even though he’s younger than me, he’s a good example,” Davis said. “He’s a very hard worker, he’s a very good player. He’s a coach’s player, he listens, he never complains. So I try to take little things like that from him. I just try to take as much advice as I can from these guys.”

It also helps when the most experienced people on the team, the coaches, are on your side.

“I would say one thing the coaches really, really push is falling in love with the game,” Bauman said. “They want us to be here, they want us to love each other. It’s a family.”