Player journal: Richmond-Burton's Steven Stientjes

The Northwest Herald began a tradition in 2009, when Cary-Grove won the Class 6A state championship, of having players from local teams preparing for the title game share their thoughts about the season. Each day until Friday’s Class 4A championship game against Murphysboro, a Richmond-Burton player’s state journal will be printed.

First up is linebacker Steven Stientjes.

Ever since I moved to Spring Grove from Des Plaines, and transferred from Elk Grove to Richmond-Burton, it has been a memorable ride.

I became a part of the Richmond-Burton football team during my sophomore year, and I’ve made countless friendships that will last me a lifetime.

My final year as a Rocket has been one for the books. It began with countless hours in the weight room during the offseason to the beginning of summer camp. This summer has been the start of something great. The entire team bought into the concept of giving our best effort every practice and to use our time wisely and effectively.

I’ll never forget our time as a team at Augustana College and the lock-in we held at the school to help build us closer as a whole.

This season has been great. Every single practice we’ve worked extremely hard to be successful for the upcoming game. We’ve had tremendous support from the fans, the parents, the community, the school, the grounds crew and the booster club. The entire football program appreciates your endless support.

I would like to say “Thank you” to my twin brother, Jason, who’s been there right next to me throughout this entire journey. Also, to my parents, Erika and Michael, who’ve never stopped endlessly supporting me in everything I’ve done, from Week 1 to the upcoming state championship.

The mind-set of winning each day has never changed. This football team is extremely blessed to have a second-to-none coachinng staff in head coach Mike Noll and his assistants, Brandon Benda, Brian Johnson, Dennis Hutchinson, Steve Wood, Tylar Stanton, Bob Satkiewicz and Josh Kuthe. They’ve worked an endless amount of hours just to set up this program for success. Throughout the season they were passionate about getting better each and every day. The coaching staff has put up amazing game plans every week to help set us up for success. They’ve taught this team to always remain humble and to be motivated through every single day.

I would like to especially thank Coach Noll, who’s taught me responsibility and time management. I am very thankful for having him as our head coach, and he always continues to amaze me with his phenomenal work ethic.

Now that we are approaching our final game of the season, we have one goal. The mind-set won’t be any different from Week 1: That’s winning each day.

I am extremely thankful for one last week of football practice and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity among this team. All in all, I have no regrets with my time in this program, and I wouldn’t change one thing.

I know that my teammates will do great things after football is over, and I’ll always have the backs of every single one of them, since they’ve always had mine.

Thank you for everything, Richmond-Burton. Go Rockets!