Scouts Shorts: That's A Wrap On A Memorable Season
As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end.
We all would have preferred the end come a few weeks later. But what a season!
One more Scout Shorts for 2024.
Clean football. I talked about it quite a bit this season, how this season’s Lake Forest team did not beat themselves. That changed Saturday. The Scouts picked the worst moment to play their dirtiest game. Lake Forest gave Geneva seven extra possessions due to self-inflicted errors. You’re not winning playoff games with that statistic.
I don’t think the team ever recovered from the first quarter muffed kicks. There was a psychological impact from those miscues that permeated throughout the game. It was evident watching the offense, especially. They just didn’t look like the unit we were used to seeing most of the season. It was almost as if with every dropback, they were trying to make a 14 or 21-point play. Those don’t exist.
In the second quarter, there were stretches when the game could have shifted in the Scouts’ favor. Geneva led 21-7, the defense had just gotten a stop and the Scouts took over on their own 35-yard line. There was 8:19 remaining in the half, plenty of time for Lake Forest to get back into the game, especially with an offense that can put points up in a hurry. But on the ensuing drive, the Scouts went three and out (followed by an unsuccessful spread punt try). After the missed spread punt, Geneva took over on the Lake Forest 40-yard line and on the Vikings first play, senior safety Ryan Milliman intercepted Geneva quarterback Tony Chahino. Momentum, so critical in these games, swung back in the Scouts’ favor. But the Scouts turned the ball over on the drive after the Milliman pick, one of two turnovers on consecutive possessions. On four second quarter possessions, with the game still within reach, the offense managed just two first downs. Give Geneva some credit, the Vikings have a good defense. But 185 yards of total offense — 28 on the ground — were by far season lows. And in a season when we’ve seen the offensive unit score the team back into games, Saturday wasn’t its best day.
Saturday’s result is not all on the offense, of course. The team won nine games playing complementary football, each unit lifting the other up. I think the shock of the opening special teams gaffes never allowed them to get into a rhythm. The coaches were prepared for the pooch kicks. They repped it during the week. But as we’ve seen happen time and again in all levels of sports, coaches prepare teams as well as they can and then players have to make plays. Under pressure Saturday, Geneva played with more poise. We’ll never know what would have happened if we remove the muffed kicks. We never got good-on-good. I would have liked to have seen that game.
The game happened. Moving forward, it’s about this senior class and all they accomplished as a group. That reflection began soon after the final seconds ticked off. The guys gave their postgame senior speeches, then wandered out to Varsity Field for one final time as teammates. There’s a goalpost cleat-hanging tradition. Mostly, it was just about being together, sharing stories, and getting through the grieving process as brothers. Football is unlike any other sport in the amount of time invested vs. the output of competition (only nine games are guaranteed…the Scouts got 12 this season). There’s quite a bit of difficult, often lonely work that doesn’t see immediate returns. But the sport has a way of being its own spiritual guide in that players do get what they put in. The reward for a million drops of sweat is a lifetime of character. And man, did this senior class sweat.
Their large number — 40 — gave the team on-field depth. The coaching staff did an outstanding job utilizing the length of the roster, spreading out through all units. But depth in numbers doesn’t assure chemistry. Fractures and divides can happen within a locker room and that can bleed into performance. We didn’t see that with this group, their size only increased their bond. I was impressed with the student section turnout at home games — and on the road, especially at Libertyville for the playoffs — this season. That tells me that this group of guys is well-liked by their classmates. That matters. Winning, and how they won, had something to do with it, of course. They played an exciting, thrilling brand of football. Fans like to watch offenses that score points and a defense that plays an aggressive style, and the Scouts did both with regularity this fall. But I also sense that the student body, parents, alumni and fans came to the games in the numbers they did because they truly wanted to share in this team’s successes. That’s community, my friends. Football can be special that way.
Lake Forest faced four 6A all-state players this postseason — Libertyville’s Quinn Schambow and Geneva’s Talyn Taylor and Joe Pettit, first team; Blaise LaVista of Libertyville, second team — The Scouts did a good job on Schambow and LaVista in the second round of the playoffs, the best any team has defended them all season. As we witnessed up close Saturday, Taylor and Pettit are worthy of the all-state accolades.
A rough quarterfinal round for the North Suburban. Three teams participated; all three went down in one-sided fashion. Lake Forest, Warren and Stevenson lost by a combined score of 128-29. Stevenson and Warren both had to bus back to Lake County from New Lenox and Elmhurst after getting trounced. Chiefs was just a 10-minute drive from West Campus. I’ll take the latter scenario any day.
Replacing this senior class will be extremely hard. But there were at least a half-dozen juniors who were either key starters or contributors this year. We saw a glimpse of the future at the end of the Geneva game.
Finally, many thanks to all readers of the Scouts Football newsletter this season. Our subscribership grew this season — more so than any other year — and I do appreciate all of the support, not to mention the picked-up Chiefs bar tabs (special shout out, Andy Goodman). Many thanks to Marge Braun for her fabulous pictures. We won’t soon forget 2024. I’ll drop in periodically over the winter and next spring with updates. Until then…Go Scouts!
For story ideas, article comments/feedback, drop note to jonjkerr@gmail.com, or @scoutsfootball1 on Twitter.
Thank you, Jon, for your dedication to the LFHS football season. As a parent I am very grateful for your recap and support of our boys. Your recognition means a lot.
Thank you Jon for an exciting year of Scouts football coverage. Your support of our boys just added to the anticipation of each new week - learning about the matchups and even hearing from the players themselves. From the fields of Parkside to the stadium’s Friday Night lights, you were there to tell the story of this wonderful team! Thank you again.