Prep Football: Wauconda looking for break-out year

WAUCONDA – The Wauconda Bulldogs believe this is a break-out year of sorts.

It’s not necessarily pressure that second-year head coach Dave Mills has put on his team to succeed, but rather high expectations his players have for themselves that has made the air thick with intensity this preseason.

“I just want to make Wauconda a well-known program,” junior receiver Jake Ziolkowski (6-foot, 170-pounds) said. “We’ve been known for losing all the time and being OK with that, and I just want to change that.”

Three of the last four years, Wauconda has gone 4-5 on the season, with a bright spot in 2007 when the team won seven and lost only two, Mills said.

However, being one game shy of the playoffs so many times – including the last two years – is wearing thin on some of his players, he said.

“People talk about you if you’re a playoff team four years in a row,” Mills said. “[The guys] don’t want to be a game short [again].”

Senior tight end/defensive end Colton Rodgers (6-foot-4, 225) said the season opener against Huntley would be a good way to jump start the Bulldogs season by continuing the two-game win streak the team ended with last season.

“We started out slow, but really jumped on the horse in games 8 and 9 last year,” Rodgers said, referencing the team’s last two wins against North Chicago and Lakes.

Plus, the opening game against Huntley has come to be a solid predictor for the outcome of the season, he said.

“The team that’s won that game has made the playoffs,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers and Ziolkowski are co-captains along with senior quarterback Brian Kent (6-foot-1, 200) and senior linebacker/lineman Max Agrella (5-foot-11, 190), and the four agreed that this season was the best chance Wauconda would have to post a five-game winning season.

“We’re definitely the strongest and fastest team we’ve had in a while,” Kent said.

The team learned Mills’ spread offense last year and is more comfortable with the passing formations this year, the players said.

More work also has gone into special teams – punt blocking, extra points, etc. – which will aid the offense led by Kent.

Mills was surprised, even agitated, to read a recent review of top area quarterbacks and not find Kent among those listed, he said. Kent threw just under 1,600 yards last season and ran just under 500 yards – all while learning a new offense, Mills said.

“He has a legitimate Division 1 arm,” Mills said. “He can throw a 70-yard pass on a rope; he’s the third strongest kid on the team.”

The Bulldogs put in a lot of extra work in the weight room during the off season and have really come together as a team, which makes them believe this is the season they’ve been waiting for, the co-captains said.

“They expect a lot of themselves,” Mills said. “With that kind of intrinsic outlook, who knows what we’re going to do.”

Breaking it down

Last season: 4-5, no postseason appearance

Schedule:
Aug. 27 – Huntley
Sept. 3 – at Stillman Valley
Sept. 10 – Antioch
Sept. 16 – Warren
Sept. 24 – at Grant
Oct. 2 – Vernon Hills
Oct. 8 – North Chicago
Oct. 15 – at Lakes
Oct. 22 – at Round Lake