Football: Horeni coming home to coach Downers Grove North

Joe Horeni is coming home to Downers Grove.

He'll just be wearing different colors.

Horeni, a starting center on Downers Grove South's 2001 Class 8A state championship team, has been hired as the next head coach at Downers Grove North.

"We'll have to see about the purple," Horeni said with a laugh. "Maybe we'll add a touch black."

Horeni, head coach at Highland Park for the last three seasons, takes over for long-time Trojans coach Jon Wander. Wander stepped down after 16 seasons as head coach.

Horeni actually grew up on the north side of town until he was five or six years old. The 2002 Downers South graduate is a Hall of Famer at that school.

"Downers Grove is home to me, and I'm excited about the opportunity," Horeni said. "I'm excited to coach a great program in a great conference. There is great potential in the building and I'm looking forward to gettting started."

Horeni went 15-14 in three seasons at Highland Park, leading the Giants to the playoffs the last two years.

Prior to that he was defensive coordinator at St. Francis for five seasons. He also was on the Downers Grove South staff for two years and at Morris, and student-taught at Illinois College, where he played.

Reflecting on his coaching philosophy, Horeni started by saying "you have to be able to run the ball when they know you're going to run the ball."

"We need to be balanced on offense," Horeni said. "Defensively I like to run a three-man front similar to what Downers Grove North has done in the past. We want to fly to the football on defense and create turnovers."

Horeni plans to maintain a degree of stability in his coaching staff. Keith Lichtenberg is expected to continue to be involved with the defense, as will Bill Kleckner.

"Coach Kleckner's been there since 1975. That's insane. He's had great success," Horeni said. "It would be foolish of me to try to reinvent the wheel in terms of their staff."

Horeni plans to be at Downers Grove North as much as he can, while he finishes the school year at Highland Park.

Horeni, a Darien resident, looks forward to a much friendlier commute.

"I'm looking forward to being closer and not spending so much time on Route 294," he said with a laugh. "We're going to be busy, but it's a fun time."