2025 Outlook

Coach: Jeff Perzee (1st season)

Career Record: 0-0

Conference: Vermilion Valley

Last Playoff: Class 1A First Round, 2024

Best Playoff: Class 2A Semifinalists, 2012

2024 record: 5-5 (5-4)

The Clifton Central football team is in new hands this season, but they’re not wholly unfamiliar hands. Jeff Perzee, a 1994 Central grad and former assistant coach with the Comets, took over the head coaching reins from Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Famer Brian Spooner, who retired following the 2024 season after 27 years in the role.

But while the Comets may have a new head coach manning the sidelines for the first time in nearly three decades, there is plenty of carryover on the roster. Nearly all of Central’s top contributors from last season’s 5-5 team are back, with quarterback and offensive Swiss Army knife Aiden Podowicz being the one key departure after a Daily Journal All-Area, All-Vermilion Valley Conference and All-Iroquois County senior season.

“We’ve got an experienced group, so they’re getting after it and we’re just trying to bring up our JV kids slowly,” Perzee said. “We’ve got decent depth, not great depth, and just having those older, experienced kids is a godsend because we’re actually moving a lot faster than we normally would.”

Senior Brady Shule will return under center, a position he was at early in the season until a season-ending injury. Senior Brody O’Connor and juniors Jake Thompson and Kaedyn Meents will give the Comets’ offensive line plenty of experience in front of Shule. Seniors Evan Cox and Derrek Rodriguez will bring their experience to the run game and also on the defensive side at the linebacker position. A trio of returning junior receivers in Kaden Neveu, Andrew Rohlwing and Derek Meier will give Shule plenty of targets on Friday nights.

Fellow juniors Owen Palmateer and Everett Bailey are shaping up to make an impact on both sides of the ball as well. Senior basketball and baseball standout Blake Chandler will also be back on the gridiron for the first time since his freshman year, where he figures to be a contributor in yet another sport.

Perzee said his experienced coaching staff is helping him settle in as head coach while also helping to establish that culture he is trying to set with the Comets. With most of the staff in place from last season and almost all of last year’s team back, the Comets are much further along than most programs with first-year head coaches and are eager to get back to the top of the VVC.

“We have an all-in approach,” Perzee said. “Kolton Koch, it’s his first year as offensive coordinator but he’s been in the program for many years. And then Matt Sertich has been the defensive coordinator forever, 20-some years, and he’s back. I’m just blessed with great coaches. We really get along and we really work hard together.”