Daniels | Around the area high school football scene
Aug. 16—CHAMPAIGN — George Rouse and his Champaign Central football teammates have never experienced getting ready for a playoff game.
The Maroons, coming off a 3-6 season a year ago, want to flip the perception of the program around this fall. Making sure coach Tim Turner's team is in a postseason game for the first time since 2018 is vital in doing just that.
Central opens its season with a tough test by facing reigning Big 12 champion Normal West at 7 p.m. on Aug. 25 at Tommy Stewart Field in Champaign.
The Maroons will want to have a better showing than they did a year ago in their season opener against the Wildcats, with Normal West cruising to a 42-0 win in Normal.
Having the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Rouse progress this offseason after going through his first season as Central's starting quarterback last year as a sophomore is vital to the Maroons' chances. Turner has liked what he's seen from his returning starting quarterback, too, in the months leading up to Central's season opener.
"George has worked his tail off since last season ended," Turner said. "He played some basketball, but even then, he was working on his craft. George has changed from the quarterback he was last year that I hoped could help facilitate to now a quarterback who can actually help us win games. He's put on 30 pounds of muscle.
"He's been to camp after camp and he's digesting our offense in a way I haven't seen in quite some time. He had some workouts over the summer where I just let him loose, and he commands our offense. I'm excited about our team as a whole, but one of the reasons I know we're going to be competitive and have an opportunity to be in every football game is George Rouse."
Fresh faces
Centennial has realistic aspirations to reach the playoffs for the third straight season. Especially since numbers are approaching 100 for coach Kyle Jackson's Chargers before they kick off the season against Urbana at 2 p.m. on Aug. 26 at Tommy Stewart Field.
Aside from the returns of junior quarterback Kellen Davis and senior defensive end Jack Barnhart, what's one other key reason why 2023 and beyond could likely have Centennial competing not only for playoff spots in Class 6A, but Big 12 titles? Those roster numbers. And promising talents who are just entering the high school located off Crescent Drive.
"This crop of freshmen we've got coming in, there's some pretty impressive athletes in the bunch," Jackson said. "If they all come out, we'll have around 50 freshmen."
Speaking of quarterbacks
Former Illinois linebacker Matt Sinclair gets his first game as a head coach in less than two weeks when Fisher makes the three-hour trek north to kick off its season at Dakota at 1 p.m. on Aug. 26.
Making the trip with the Bunnies, who are back playing varsity football after not doing so last fall, are two former notable area quarterbacks on Sinclair's first coaching staff. Caleb Hanson, The News-Gazette's 2016 Player of the Year after leading Monticello to a Class 3A state semifinal appearance as the Sages' quarterback, is the Bunnies' offensive coordinator who will also coach Fisher's quarterbacks and safeties. Brady Boatright, a 2022 Centennial graduate who led the Chargers to the second round of the 6A playoffs in 2021, is the Bunnies' wide receivers coach and cornerbacks coach.
The advice and recent playing experience the duo have are two traits Sinclair hopes they can pass on to Fisher junior quarterback Ryan Hopkins this season.
"The reason I love Caleb is he's a neurotic psycho and loves football, but I told Ryan this, 'Coach Hanson made himself into a player more than anyone I've ever seen,'" said Sinclair, who worked with Hanson in high school when Hanson was a linebacker at Monticello and Sinclair was the Sages' defensive coordinator. "Ryan sees the field better in three weeks than Coach Hanson ever saw it. In the offense we're going to be running, that's a big thing."
The connection with Sinclair and Hanson extended to Carthage College, a Division III school in Wisconsin where Sinclair worked at for two seasons in 2020 and 2021 and where Hanson, who played in college at Wisconsin-Platteville, was a graduate assistant at Carthage the same time.
The relationship between Boatright and Sinclair developed in Champaign, with Sinclair working at the YMCA.
"I got to know him when I was at the Y. We recruited him to Carthage as a quarterback," Sinclair said. "I train at the Y every day, and when I got the job, he said, 'Hey, do you need any help over there?' He's a mature kid in that he understands when it's time to work and it's time to have fun. I think it's important to have young guys on the staff who these guys can have different conversations with."
Back for another year
The News-Gazette sports staff decided to debut a new weekly feature dubbed, 'The Program,' that ran throughout the course of the high school football season last fall in these pages.
We highlighted Mahomet-Seymour last fall and with the help of M-S coach Jon Adkins and his entire program, we were able to pull off a behind-the-scenes look at the Bulldogs' 11-1 season that reached the Class 5A state quarterfinals.
The idea and concept is making a return this fall with another tradition-rich, successful Champaign County program in the headlines: Unity.
The Rockets, who open the season at 7 p.m. on Aug. 25 with a home game against Prairie Central at Hicks Field in Tolono, are led by Hall of Fame coach Scott Hamilton. Entering his 30th season in charge at Unity that has seen Hamilton compile a 273-67 record and reach the playoffs 27 times, we'll take you inside his program, telling their stories and how they go about a high school football season.
