Undefeated Kaneland earns No. 1 seed in 5A
Tom Fedderly admitted it.
"It feels pretty good to be king," the Kaneland football coach said Friday night, after the IHSA playoff pairings ranked the unbeaten Knights as a No. 1 seed in Class 5A.
"Coming into this year we thought we'd have a pretty good team, but you never could predict going 9-0. Things just came together for us," said Fedderly, whose squad is the first Northern Illinois Big 12 East Conference champion and enters the playoffs unblemished for the first time since 1998.
That season Kaneland won the second of two successive state titles. Is that foreshadowing?
Fedderly won't take that bait. It's good to be king but it's better to beat King, the Knights' first-round foe, a No. 16 seed from the Chicago Public League.
"We're concerned about next week and that's it," Fedderly said. "That's been our formula all season and we're not going to stop now."
Marmion, which took its first loss on Friday at Montini, is a No. 3 seed in the lower half of the Class 6A bracket, which also includes Batavia and Geneva in a quadrant format.
Marmion will host No. 6 Thornton Fractional North (6-3). If victorious Marmion could possibly host a second straight week against No. 2 seed TF South (8-1).
Coming off a 2-7 season that snapped a six-year playoff streak Batavia needed to win Saturday at Streamwood. The Bulldogs did, big, 50-0, allowing them to enter heads held high even as a 5-4 eight-seed against No. 1 Lemont (9-0).
"We're just very proud of our kids," said Batavia coach Mike Gaspari, who is on the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association All-State Committee with Lemont coach Eric Michaelsen, and knows Lemont athletic director John Young.
The Bulldogs themselves may know Lemont. Both schools were once in the Suburban Prairie Conference, and even after separating they played on the junior varsity level through 2008.
"Regardless of where we're at I think we're approaching things the same the season starts over for everybody" said Gaspari, 9-13 lifetime in the playoffs. "There's been a history of 5-4 teams being successful in the playoffs."
Aurora Christian can only hope. In Class 3A the sixth-seeded Eagles (5-4) open at No. 3 Oregon, and if they win that one and are fortunate enough to defeat unbeaten Wilmington in the second round they could play No. 5 seed Immaculate Conception (6-3).
The Knights entered the 2008 playoffs at 5-4 and ran the table, joining 2009 Montini as the only teams to do that.
Aurora Christian's eight straight playoff appearances is now the area's longest, after St. Charles North's string was snapped at eight on Friday.
On its heels is Geneva's seven straight playoff berths. In Class 6A the fourth-seeded Vikings (7-2) host No. 5 Oak Forest (6-3). It's one of those matchups Geneva coach Rob Wicinski likes.
"The playoffs are about playing somebody you haven't played," said Wicinski, who did note that like him, Oak Forest coach Brian McDonough has a daughter playing Division 1 volleyball.
Of course... if Geneva beats the Bengals and Batavia upsets Lemont it produces a renewal of one of the state's best football rivalries in the second round.
"I want our conference to do well," Wicinski said, "so if they show up at our doorstep that's fine."