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The biggest surprise of Week 1: WW South's Olsen

Week 1 of the football season always catches me a little off guard but in no way, shape or form did I see Jack Olsen coming.

I knew about the Wheaton Warrenville South junior kicker after watching him play for the Tigers as a freshman and sophomore. Now everyone knows about him.

This week's Eyes on Five column looks at Olsen's record-breaking performance and other tidbits from a wild opening week of prep football in DuPage County.

1: What a kick ...:

Someone came up to Jack Olsen on the sideline Friday night and told him he'd broken the IHSA record for field goals made in a game.

It was only the third quarter.

Olsen finished the game with 8 field goals to shatter the previous IHSA record of five set 27 years ago. And he did it in style, connecting from 48, 39, 28, 44, 24, 45, 44 and 21 yards while providing 24 of the team's 26 points in a shutout win over Metea Valley.

That's an average of about 37 yards a field goal. Not too shabby, and just shy of the national record of 9 field goals - a record set in 1990 with only a 22-yard average.

The only thing separating Olsen from tying the national record was a missed 52-yarder that bounced off the crossbar and nearly made it through.

In the wake of a monumental performance, Olsen appreciated the attention while remaining humble about the accomplishment.

"(Holder) Joe (Ives) has great hands and Brad (George) is one of the best snappers in the country," he said. "Getting nine field-goal opportunities in a game is just unheard of, so I don't consider this as Jack Olsen's kicking record. I consider it as more of a Wheaton Warrenville South team record. They gave me the opportunity to kick that many times."

Tigers coach Ron Muhitch awarded Olsen the program's offensive player of the week award, which left a mystery as to who would receive the special teams honor. George for eight perfect snaps? Ives for eight perfect holds?

Muhitch surprised the Tigers by naming every member of the field-goal unit as special teams player of the week.

If you haven't seen the video of Olsen's night made by Tigers videographer Bob Barista, you'll want to check it out on YouTube.

And if you're a Power Five college program looking for a kicker, Olsen has some pretty impressive film for you.

2. DuKaning:

We're still a week away from league play, but I can't wait to see how the first season of the DuKane Conference turns out. Week 1 wasn't much of an indication, just a mixed bag of the unknown.

Half the DKC won its opener and half lost. Batavia, St. Charles East, St. Charles North and Wheaton Warrenville South all won, while Geneva, Glenbard North, Lake Park and Wheaton North lost.

The state's best conferences typically dominate nonconference play, which isn't the best sign for the DKC. This season, though, many of the top area conferences had a mixed bag of success.

Three of the five DuPage Valley Conference teams lost nonconference games, with only Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley winning. Even more stunning, Hinsdale Central was the only one of seven West Suburban Silver teams to win last week.

Everyone roots for their conference rivals in Week 1 because a win in a nonconference game means an extra playoff point for everyone in the league. And it's never too early to start banking playoff points.

Most conferences still have a Week 2 nonconference game, so we'll see if it gets any better this weekend.

3. Numbers game:

The National Federation of State High School Associations released its annual participation survey, and the news wasn't great for those worried about shrinking football numbers.

At the most optimistic it's a glass half full.

The NFHS reports prep football participation decreased for a second straight year in 2017, although the 2 percent drop wasn't as steep as the 2.5 percent drop the year before. Twenty schools nationwide eliminated football.

With more than 14,000 schools participating in football, the 2 percent drop equates to 1.5 players per team. And this is where I'm curious about the numbers.

Talking to football coaches around here, the loss of players is much more than 1.5 per team. Each freshman class is getting smaller and smaller.

Makes me wonder if the Illinois decrease is steeper than Texas, for example. Or Florida and Ohio.

Regardless, while the NFHS finds it encourages that the rate of decrease has improved, I'm not so sure. It still seems like the sport is bleeding numbers around here.

I've got thoughts on all of that, but it's a topic for another day. Soon.

4. Dinosaur school:

I have to take a moment to drift away from football.

The local baseball community is in mourning after the passing on Monday of Denny Short. As someone I knew, admired and respected for 20 years, Denny's loss hit me as well.

Friends and family will celebrate Denny's life from 4-7 p.m. on Sunday at Aurora's Prisco Community Center.

A member of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame, Denny spent more than 40 years as an assistant coach. Most recently he coached at Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley, but before that he was at East Aurora, Aurora Central Catholic and Aurora University.

Every time I covered a game Denny coached, I made sure to get there early so I could spend some time talking to him. Not always about baseball, but mostly about baseball.

The thing you learned right away about Denny was that he went beyond Old School ... he was Dinosaur School. In recent years I'd hear him in the dugout yelling for the idiot box ... the team tablet ... to score a play or change the lineup.

I could go on and on about Denny, like his penchant for getting hit by the ball ... uncanny. And his many, many sayings.

If ever again I hear "eyes down the barrel" or "one and a chance," I'll think of him.

And miss him.

5. Stat time:

Let's take another look at those NFHS participation numbers.

Football remains by far the top participation sport in high school with more than a million players. Outdoor track and field has the highest participation numbers for girls with nearly 500,000 athletes.

Total national participation numbers reached a record high in 2017 with 7,979,986 athletes.

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@kevin_schmit

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