Yoga, a farewell and a title hunt: Peoria-area high school football begins with stories to tell

PEORIA — It's the beginning of the end for Darrell Crouch. Unfinished business for Tim Thornton. A whole new surface beneath their feet for Jared Grebner and his team, a trio of transfers coming to Dennis Bailey and his Manual Rams and high expectations on the season for Todd Hollis.

Five area teams with strong expectations, and five different stories to tell.

But they shared one thing in common Monday: The first official practice of the 2023 Illinois High School Association football season.

It's all about one point and a state title

Peoria High School came up one point short of a state championship last November.

"And we haven't forgotten it," Lions coach Tim Thornton said Monday. "We spent a lot of time this offseason about coming up one point short. The goal is to get back there and finish it. We focused inwards, take that mentality."

On the field, part of that mentality will be established by linebacker Gary Rutherford, the headliner on a defensive unit that returns several starters.

23 questions for the 2023 season: High school football has arrived in Peoria

"He can go sideline to sideline," Thornton said. "He's one of the premier defensive players in central Illinois."

Maliek Ross takes over for departed Malachi Washington as the featured running back.

Tino Gist is one of the most experienced starting quarterbacks in the area, a senior heading into his third year at Peoria High's helm and coming off a season in which he piled up 2,364 yards and 24 touchdowns. He pulled down Journal Star all-area and Big 12 first-team all-conference honors.

"Ross has a similar running style to Malachi, a tad bit shiftier," Thornton said. "We're going to keep him in that same mold Malachi ran in. We'll be more spread out this year than last year. I really like the receiver core we have this year. And anytime you have a third-year QB it's exciting, you can really do some things.

"We push tempo and transition, even in our drills, we simulate in-game feel. We want to see right away if all the stuff we worked on over the summer paid off."

Peoria High beats uphill challenges with Downward Dog

Part of that summer work put in by Peoria High players was in the form of hot yoga sessions in a space in Peoria Heights known as The Yoga Projekt.

Those sessions were a reward earned by players for doing good deeds in the community during the summer, through a non-profit program called Make Your Marq put together by Lions new offensive coordinator, Asa Lewis, to supplement training from team strength and conditioning coach Chip Bates.

"Chip does a great job with stretching and injury prevention and conditioning," Thornton said. "And Asa goes and does the yoga with the kids, uses it as a reward for them and they really enjoy it."

They sweat and twist and stretch and run through the yoga disciplines. Deuce Thornton goes. So does Tino Gist and others central to the team. It became a whole team thing, supplementing workouts this summer.

"They loved it," Thornton said.

One last time for Washington coach

Darrell Crouch has been a prominent and successful head coach in central Illinois for 19 years at the helm of the Washington Panthers.

On Monday, Crouch — who will retire at the end of this season — walked onto Babcook Field in what was a moment equal parts melancholy and exciting.

"My last first day of practice," said Crouch, 59. "There have been a lot of emotions. We had a golf outing (hosted by Washington Panthers 12th Man) and I saw a ton of kids who played for me there. And I got this tremendous gift, a table for my deck that is wrapped with signatures from all my players.

"It just seems like the right time — the 100th anniversary season of Washington football. I won't say I'll never coach again, but I know I won't be coaching here."

Crouch said the team's goals are the same, that they want a conference championship, a playoff run in his last campaign.

"Standing here right now, it takes me back to the first year, when we had kids lined up along the fence trying to teach kids how to throw or catch," Crouch said. "It seems like yesterday.

"Where will I be a year from now? I hope Marco Island (Fla.), on Tigertail Beach. My mother-in-law has a place there, but we didn't get a chance to go this year. Next year, that's where I'll be."

Washington senior linebacker-fullback Jase Harlan has been playing for Crouch since he was a sophomore. The significance of the end of an era is not lost on him.

"It's a big thing to all of us here," said Harlan, the Panthers leading tackler last season. "We are determined to do something for him. We want to win a conference championship for him."

And years from now, what would he tell anyone asking what it was like to play for Darrell Crouch?

"He tests you mentally," Harlan said. "Darrell Crouch makes you tough for life. But he's also a fun dude to be around."

Washington's leg, a kick machine and a prayer

Washington had a machine lobbing footballs up in the air, simulating kickoffs and punts, with players lined up catching them.

"We're looking for our next kick returner," said Crouch, watching the candidates and chuckling. "So far, all I'm seeing are guys who are not going to be my kick returner."

But speaking of the Panthers kicking game, last year's backup, senior Garrett Cox, was hitting field goals from 42 yards during the opening practice.

And there was a new candidate, Devin Miller, making his football debut. A goalkeeper on the soccer team, the 6-foot-2, 160-pound Miller was impressive, considering he's never played football — or kicked one in a game.

"He's figuring it out," Crouch said. "I ran into his mom in church and she told me he was practicing kicking footballs. I told her to send him over here, and he showed up."

Metamora is good on the surface

The Metamora Redbirds want to win their first outright Mid-Illini Conference title since 2014, and they have a promising team under coach Jared Grebner.

They practiced in the rain Monday morning, on grass, while their new turf field continues construction.

Grebner said the actual carpet is laid, but numbers and endzone letters, hashmarks and the Redbirds logo still have to be added. After that, the workers will add a mixture of sand and ground-down rubber for fill.

"Today we were hoping for it, but it's not ready yet," Grebner said, " ... Hopefully, we'll be on there in a week.

"We'd have loved to be on there on a rainy day like today. My first thought on this project was, 'We're really going to go to turf?' But I like it, and it's a good thing for the community."

Metamora's schedule will put them on turf for eight of their nine games this season, although Grebner said it won't really impact how they play.

"We'll play Metamora football," he said. "We'll have some wrinkles, but that's because of the personnel we have, not the field surface. The kids, though, are chomping at the bit to get on that field. Everyone is excited."

The Metamora lineup

The first two days of official practice are without pads, which tends to feel like a setback because most teams have been working out in pads during the summer.

IHSA allows pads to be added on Wednesday.

Grebner says he expects junior defensive end/guard Ty Dykes — an all-conference lineman as a sophomore last season — to set the tone for the team on both sides of the ball.

"He's going to be important," Grebner said. "And our tight end, (senior) Sam Begole, is moving to defensive end and he's come a long way, exceeded our expectations.

"Our leading returning rusher, (junior) Mark Frederick, will be part of a running backs group that has a lot of young runners trying to find their place in the offense. Cam Nickel (who started as a linebacker as a sophomore last year) is among those."

Manual transmission

Manual coach Dennis Bailey got some unexpected gifts for his football team this season in the form of three players. The Rams picked up the trio as transfers, one from Richwoods and two from Notre Dame.

Sean Smith, a defensive end, comes over from Richwoods, but he's not quite the same kid who played for the Knights.

"He's 6-3, 250," Bailey said. "When we got news he was coming to us, I didn't realize he was different than the player we faced last season. He was 6-0, 270 over there.

"He hit an incredible growth spurt and now he's three inches taller and about 20-25 pounds less. He has a whole different body."

From Notre Dame came senior running back Melo Gilbert and 6-foot-4 junior receiver Amaree Breedlove.

"They played a lot at Notre Dame," Bailey said. "Breedlove is a long-legged athletic kid. Gilbert was a surprise, he literally just popped up on our doorstep a week ago."

What's not a surprise is Nas King, a 5-foot-11, 250-pound defensive end/linebacker hybrid who will be playing his third varsity season.

"Nas is a leader, and he just has a motor, doesn't take a play off, helps on special teams. He is a 3.8 in the classroom, scored the highest SAT in his class and he's at the heart of the team."

King's younger brother, Namolos Thompson, is slotted as Manual's No. 1 running back.

And London Tolliver — a first-team all-conference receiver last year — is a dynamic running quarterback who remains under center after stepping in last season for three games when the Rams' starter broke his foot.

"Bottom line," Bailey said, "is we gave up 48 points per game last season. If we can get that down into the 20s we could have some fun games."

Elmwood/Brimfield's un-toad story

Elmwood/Brimfield coach Todd Hollis is in his 31st year of coaching and 25th as a head coach at multiple programs. He knows his way around opening day of official practices, but his longevity is pause for some reflection, too.

"The end is out there, I suppose, but it's not close enough yet," Hollis said. "I am coaching a kid here (senior tight end/corner) Jimmy Babcock … whose father, Nick Babcock, I coached when I was a volunteer on Richwoods' staff in 1995.

"One of my (assistant) coach's kids is on our team, and I coached the coach when he played. There are certain things I used to get really worked up about that I don't anymore. But it's still fun to blow that whistle on the first day."

Hollis says the Trojans are young, in terms of starts on the field. And sprint data collected shows the team is fast.

"We have a pair of three-year starters back at offensive tackle," he said. "That's a great foundation for any offense. We have guys with a whole bunch of games under their belts."

The tackles are 6-0, 265-pound senior Elijah Davis and 6-2, 300-pound junior Aaron Brown. Bo Windish is a three-year starter at linebacker.

Team-building and Dairy Queen

Hollis starts his team-building in an annual summer weekend camp at Monmouth College. It's a proven foundational exercise.

"No parents, no friends, no girlfriends," Hollis said. "Just you and your teammates. There's not even that much football. It's mostly a lot of time to be together. We're literally the only people on the campus.

"You know it's working when you see random groups of players — guys who don't normally hang out together — walking together from the campus to Dairy Queen."

One important member of the team is on permanent IR. The players started carrying around a ceramic frog with them to road games a few years ago.

"It's been down for a couple years now, it got put in the wrong box or something and busted up," Hollis said. "I don't think there's enough Super Glue in the world to fix it."

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA football: Practice opens with stories of yoga, a farewell, title hunt