Crystal Lake Central determined to be ‘disciplined, coachable, selfless’ under 1st-year coach Matt MacCrindle

Beads of sweat and sugary water from bites of watermelon trickled down the faces of Crystal Lake Central’s football players.

Sticky faces, happy faces.

“Nice and cold,” a smiling Logan Gough, Central’s 6-foot-3, 295-pound right tackle/nose tackle, said of the watermelon, which was supplied by teammate Tyler Porter’s mom, Renee, after the Tigers participated in a 7-on-7 competition on a sunny, 90-degree, mid-July morning at Richmond-Burton.

Central knows it has some cleaning up to do.

A couple of weeks after Matt MacCrindle was named head coach in January, replacing Dirk Stanger after a 3-6 season in 2024, the Tigers gathered in the school library and had dinner together.

MacCrindle and his staff gave the seniors a particular task.

“All of the seniors got together and we chose three things that we felt we should follow during the season,” Gough said.

“It’s just the three things we want to represent throughout the season as we play and practice,” said Porter, a 6-foot, 185-pound senior who will play linebacker and running back this fall. “We got to be those three things.”

The back of the Tigers’ bright orange T-shirts that they wore at Richmond-Burton spelled out the words that they plan to make an emphasis this season:

Disciplined.

Coachable.

Selfless.

“We have a leadership framework that we started to get everybody going in the same direction and making sure that we’re being good people on and off the field, and not just being football players,” MacCrindle said. “They rate themselves after every practice.”

Players who are exemplary will earn stickers to be placed on their helmets.

It’s one step for a team that had three two-game losing streaks in 2024, after making the Class 6A state playoffs with a 5-4 mark two years ago.

“I just want to see how it plays out,” Porter said. “I’m excited. I think we can do way better than we did last year.”

MacCrindle, who graduated from Central in 2003 and has been coaching at his alma mater for nearly 20 years, has brought in another former Central Tiger to coach the offensive linemen. Wyatt Blake (Class of 2018) earned a football scholarship to Northwestern and finished up his college career at Northern Colorado.

Blake replaces MacCrindle as the O-line coach.

“He’s got a wealth of knowledge,” MacCrindle said. “He’s excited, and he’s young. The kids gravitate toward him. Those are the guys you want at that spot.”

“Coach Blake, I really like him,” Gough said. “He knows what he’s doing.”

MacCrindle said his Tigers will run more of a Wing-T offense with former Crystal Lake South coach Bill Altmann, who joined Central’s staff last year. The Tigers featured primarily a shotgun spread last season.

Defensively, MacCrindle said the Tigers will have more of a “hybrid situation” with a 3-4 or 4-2 alignment, depending on their opponent’s look.

“We’re shuffling a little bit and trying to simplify it,” MacCrindle said.

One simple truth: MacCrindle and his staff value the input of their seniors. That already is on display.

“Our new coach is definitely holding to a higher standard,” Gough said, “and having the seniors represent more.”