Playoff run quickly pays dividends for Palatine
Palatine is enjoying the residuals from last year's run to the Class 8A football playoff quarterfinals.
Three extra weeks of experience for all of the returning players. Three weeks for underclassmen to get valuable exposure to a varsity football program with four straight 7-win seasons.
"You can't overstate that, it's a huge, huge advantage," Palatine coach Tyler Donnelly said of the school's deepest playoff run since 1997. "All of the kids who were up worked and saw what the varsity did.
"I feel like we're way ahead of where we normally are. Our kids are a lot farther along and that's definitely part of the reason."
The extra time should also help offset the loss of two-way all-area standouts Cody Bobbit, Dan Haze and Jim Smearman. The return of 6-foot-1, 221-pound junior running back John Serio won't hurt after he missed most of last season with shoulder and ankle njuries.
"He's a load," Donnelly said. "He has really good vision and can make a lot of downfield cuts and he's surprisingly fast.
"We're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping he will be as dominating as he could be."
There is experience up front with C.J. Machnik, Layne Kirch, Josh Baldus and Nathan Gerdes but they've been pushed by a group that includes senior center Dan Jeske. Junior Ethan Olles emerged from a competitive battle to win the quarterback job and is a capable runner.
Olles will also have a deep crew of targets in Taylor Hall (38 catches, 321 yards), Jesse Bobbit, Lucas Rago, Kurt Becker, Alex Nawrot, Cam Kuksa and speedy Louisiana transfer Kendrick Cornelius.
The hard-hitting Bobbit, who is healthy after suffering a shoulder injury early in the summer, returns for his third year on a defense that looks young on paper but now has plenty of experience. That includes Rago and Becker at linebacker, Dan Riddle and Jake Demars at the corners and Julian Turner and Nick Novelli up front.
"The mental part of it, they understand more than they did when they were sophomores coming up," Donnelly said. "The biggest thing is the maturity level and the amount of time you put in from sophomore compared to varsity football.
"To have that out of the way is huge for us and now they're some of our best players and leaders on our team."
And they would like to put in another three weeks or more of extra time again.
Pirates at a glance
Coach: Tyler Donnelly (34-27, seventh year)
Last year: 7-5, 3-2 (T3rd West, 8A quarterfinalist)
Probable starters
OFFENSE
Pos. Name Ht./Wt. Yr.
QB Ethan Olles 6-2/192 Jr.
TB John Serio 6-1/221 Jr.
FB Andrew Pecson 5-8/187 Sr.
LT Josh Baldus 6-5/240 Jr.
LG C.J. Machnik 6-1/206 Sr.
C Dan Jeske 6-0/206 Sr.
RG Layne Kirch 5-8/260 Sr.
RT Nathan Gerdes 6-1/270 Sr.
WR Taylor Hall 6-1/175 Sr.
WR Kurt Becker 6-0/180 Sr.
WR Alex Nawrot 5-10/154 Jr.
DEFENSE
Pos. Name Ht./Wt. Yr.
DE Andrew LaVeau 5-10/155 Sr.
DT Julian Turner 6-4/205 Sr.
NT Nick Novelli 5-7/166 Sr.
DE Peter Rachwalski 5-11/195 Jr.
WLB Kevin Riggs 6-0/170 Jr.
MLB Lucas Rago 6-2/180 Jr.
SLB Kurt Becker 6-0/180 Sr.
CB Jake Demars 5-7/157 Sr.
CB Dan Riddle 6-1/185 Jr.
S Jesse Bobbit 6-2/190 Jr.
S Cam Kuksa 5-11/160 Jr.