And while the journey might have been a little bit longer and the road winded possibly a little bit farther than he originally anticipated, he’s going to get that chance as he was recently approved to be the next head coach of the Plainfield South football program.

Szudarski replaces Jake Brosman at the helm of the program. Brosman led the Cougars for three seasons, compiling a 13-15 record with one playoff appearance in 2024.

Szudarski’s journey to the head coaching position took something of a winding path. The veteran coach began his football experience at Berwyn-Cicero Morton, when the district was split into two schools, Morton East and Morton West. Szudarski played at Morton West in the final year prior to the merger of the two schools into one.

After his high school career, Szudarski played at Moraine Valley before returning to getting a job at the now consolidated Berwyn-Cicero Morton working for the buildings and grounds crew at the school, eventually becoming the supervisor of that crew as well as working as an assistant coach for the football program at Morton.

In 2011, Szudarski switched locations for his coaching career, moving to Plainfield South while retaining his day job at Morton, serving in a few different roles at Plainfield South before settling as the school’s defensive coordinator for 13 years.

Szudarski admitted to always aspiring to running his own program, but the stars didn’t align quite right at any time for that to happen until now.

Part of the reason for that was a concern of trying to be the head coach of a program he wasn’t working in, but that problem will be rectified as Szudarski will be retiring from his post at Morton at the end of March, giving him the freedom to apply his full-time attention to his coaching post.

“It was always a goal to be a head coach at some point in my career. Being a non-teacher sometimes worked against me a little bit,” Szudarski said. “I had an opportunity to take the job at Morton at one point. but at that point I was looking to move on. The commute was too much. ...

“The timing couldn’t have been more right for this opportunity, though.”

Plainfeld South has made the playoffs in four of the last eight seasons but hasn’t won a playoff game since 2011. While Szudarski admits he’s hoping to change that trend sooner rather than later, his first steps in program-building are a little bit more overarching.

“I think I bring more than just a football coach. I think I bring somebody who is a great role model and mentor for these young players,” Szudarski said. “That’s something I take pride in.

He’s also enlisted the help of some former Plainfield South players to help him build a foundation.

“I currently have four of my former players back coaching with me, and that’s really the most exciting thing about this for me,” Szudarski said. “When you get former players that want to come back and coach with you, you know you’ve done something right.”

Szudarski’s time as an assistant gives him a lot of insight into exactly what he has to work with heading into the 2026 season, and he likes what he sees.

“I think we have a great foundation,” Szudarski said. “And from what I know, we’ve got some talent coming in, so I think we are in a good spot at all levels.”

But there is little doubt that Bolingbrook accomplished that during play in the Class 4A Bolingbrook Sectional championship.

And while the Redwings were shaken at times, the poise that has carried it to great heights showed up when it needed it most as Benet ultimately collected a 51-44 victory over Bolingbrook.

The win lifts Benet (34-1) into the Northern Illinois University Supersectional where it will face Rockford Auburn, a 74-68 winner over Rockford Guilford at the Hononegah Sectional, at 7:30 p.m. Monday. Bolingbrook closes its season with a 25-8 record.

“We were,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said of his team being a bit rattled by Bolingbrook’s effort. “And you know why? It was because of their defense. So give credit where it is due.

“Our kids have played in every game you can play and I was happy we were able to pull it out down the stretch. I thought our kids kept their poise. It was a game of runs like we knew it would be.”

Those runs in the second half proved to be very small ones as neither team could establish much of a foothold. The two teams passed a lead back and forth for much of the third quarter and neither team had an advantage larger than two points until the final seconds of the third quarter.

Then, Colin Stack (14 points) got free for a 3-pointer that rattled in as the quarter horn sounded. It gave Benet it a 38-33 lead and really for the first time, a little room to breathe.

“I felt like that gave us a giant momentum swing,” Stack said. “And I felt like if we picked up our defense we’d be fine.”

That momentum seemed to carry over into the first few minutes of the final quarter.

After Trey Brost opened the quarter with a basket, Benet scored the game’s next six points with four points from Edvardas Stasys, who snapped into action after a less than impactful first half, and two more from Stack. That run gave Benet a 44-35 lead.

“The first half, I wasn’t playing like myself, I’m not going to lie,” Stasys said. “Then I picked it up and I’ve got my teammates to support me and I came out and did what I had to.

“It was kind of the idea that there’s no way we can lose and we we got to do what we got to do.”

But Bolingbrook wasn’t finished.

The Raiders got back-to-back 3-pointers from TJ Williams and Brost to once again whittle the lead down to a possession and it appeared the Raiders might get even closer when Brady Pettigrew (14 points) was fouled on a shot attempt that just rattled out from being a potential three-point play.

Pettigrew made just one of the two free throws though and Stasys and Perry Tchiegne (13 points) put the win on ice by putting more points on the board for Benet over the game’s next few possessions.

And it was Tchiegne who put the exclamation point on things after corralling a late loose ball and taking in the length of the court for a slam dunk.

It wasn’t the ending that Rob Brost was hoping for from his Raiders, but he had nothing but appreciation for his team’s ability to give Benet all it wanted until the end.

“They are the No. 1 team in the state for a reason and they made some plays down the stretch and we had a couple of opportunities that we missed,” Rob Brost said. “I thought we did a good job overall executing the game plan. I heard no less than 10 times coming through the handshake line that this is the best team they’ve played from them.

“I’m just proud of our team. What we were able to do when we put the schedule together we knew we were going to take some on the chin, but we fought through all of that, through injuries and you can see from tonight that we’re one of the best teams in the state.”

Elijah Anderson added 11 points for Bolingbrook.

But other times, it doesn’t take much to tell the difference.

Lockport missed its first 16 field goals and didn’t score its first point until 5:53 remained in the second quarter, digging itself a huge early hole it could never climb out of in a 59-33 loss to Marist in the Class 4A Joliet West Sectional semifinal on Wednesday.

Marist (29-5) faces Homewood-Flossmoor in the sectional championship Friday night. Lockport finished its season 27-6.

The Redhawks had a size and experience advantage over the Porters and wasted little time in asserting it. It was particularly evident on the glass, where Marist routinely was getting second, and sometimes third and fourth chances at the basket, and the lion’s share of its points came in the low post.

“We knew that they were smaller,” Marist forward Stephen Brown said. “We knew that we had the advantage there, so we just went out there and did what we had to do.”

Brown was one of two Marist players with double-digit rebounds as he grabbed 13, and Chuck Barnes finished with 10. Marist held a 23-7 rebounding advantage at the break and finished plus-25 in the category for the game.

“You combine the physicality that they have with the guards being able to make plays, and that put us in the situation that we were in,” Lockport coach Dave Wilson said.

The problems started early and quickly compounded.

Marist took a 10-0 lead after a quarter as Lockport missed all 10 of its field goal attempts. The Redhawks were also setting a template for themselves, taking open perimeter shots when given to them, but otherwise hammering the ball into the low post, where multiple players seemed to be lurking and waiting for their turn.

Brown set the tone early and finished with 17 points, but Barnes and Kendall Myers also caused problems for the Porters.

Grady Ruane finally broke the Lockport scoring drought by splitting a pair of free throws at the 5:53 mark of the second quarter, but the Porters didn’t get their first field goal until their 17th attempt from the floor when Trace Schaaf knocked down a 3-pointer.

When that finally happened, Lockport found itself trailing 26-4.

Lockport got two quick buckets just before halftime, but still shot just 15% (3 of 20) from the floor before the break and found itself with a 30-9 halftime deficit.

To its credit, Lockport showed considerably more life in the third quarter, outscoring Marist 19-12, but the steady play of Redhawks’ guards TJ Tate and Adoni Vassilakis, who reside in Lockport and had four older brothers play for the team, was challenging Wednesday, keeping Lockport at bay.

Marist scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to put an end to any thoughts of a miracle rally for Lockport.

Nedas Venckus led Lockport with eight points. And despite the outcome, the future looks bright for Lockport, which started three juniors and a sophomore.

“I was able to talk to our returners. This is the blueprint,” Wilson said. “They played physical, strong man-to-man, and they had guards getting them in and out of possessions, and they didn’t turn the ball over.

“That’s the template that works. We’re not there yet. And that gives a blueprint how to attack that moving forward, and that’s exciting.”

And that mantra was put into full practice on Friday night as an inspired first half effort set the stage for a comfortable 58-30 victory over Joliet West in the title game of the Lockport Class 4A Regional.

Lockport advances to the Joliet West Class 4A Sectional, in which it will face Marist on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Marist defeated Rich Township 82-54 in the Rich Township Regional.

The two teams traded punches early and Joliet West started the game by making two 3-pointers and led 8-4.

But that would truly be the only fleeting moments of success which Joliet West would have as Lockport completely put down the clamps on defense and began scoring seemingly at will.

The Porters (27-5) scored the final nine points of the first quarter and then ripped off the first 13 points of the second quarter.

Joliet West was held without a field goal for the final 11 minutes of the first half, scoring just a solitary point, a Ryan Lipke free throw with 1:53 to play in the half, in the entire second quarter.

When the dust cleared, a 27-1 scoring run had given Lockport a 31-9 lead at the half.

“Before the game started coach said intensity is our competitive advantage,” Lockport’s Nojus Venckus said. “And straight from the jump of the ball we knew that we’ve got to be more intense, more competitive and more aggressive than them.”

The Porters didn’t have much problem following through on that mission.

After allowing the two early 3-pointers, that intensity came to full fruition on the defensive end for Lockport. Its zone defense extended high in the backcourt forcing Joliet West (21-11) into labored possessions and at times took well over 30 seconds for the Tigers to even get a clean look.

And when those clean looks very infrequently came, Joliet West wasn’t able to knock them down. After the two early makes from Brockton Goehrke and Josh Calvert, Joliet West made just one of their last 16 shots in the first half.

“I was groomed as a man-to-man guy, and I still love to man-to-man, but part of my responsibility is to use the pieces that I have,” Lockport coach Dave Wilson said. “So we have pieces that are really good in the zone. And when you can pick up your opponent’s tendencies, and then we drill those tendencies so that we can be at those spots before they are.”

Lockport got to those spots all night and the Tigers never found their rhythm falling behind by nearly 30 points after three quarters.

The Porters, on the other hand, were having no such trouble finding their offensive vibe. Lockport was relentless in attacking the basket and nearly everyone was getting involved. Nedas Venckas led the Porters with 15, Nojus Venckus added 14 and Trace Schaaf chipped in 12 for a Lockport team that put team goals in front of individual ones all game long.

“I think we just wanted it more,” Lockport’s Nedas Venckus said. “We came out more ready and we were willing to die on the court.”

Those extremes weren’t necessary for the Porters but the all-around effort wasn’t lost on Wilson, whose program captured its first regional title since 2011 with the win.

“I was reminded a few times of the drought,” Wilson said. “And this has been a goal of ours as a program. And we were able to stack days and then months and then years and I knew we had a special squad because of their motor.”

Joliet West’s strong second half of the season came to an abrupt halt as they didn’t score in double digits until the fourth quarter. No Tigers scored in double figures as Calvert led them with eight points.

“We wanted a great game. But respectfully, that’s why you can’t expect things, you’ve got to go earn them,” Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “It’s a credit to Coach Wilson and what they’ve done and what he’s built in a short time here.

“They played well all year and they earned the right to cut down their nets down on their home court.”