West Carroll thrilled to be back for 2022 season

The West Carroll football players are counting down the days until their Week 2 game on Sept. 2 against Fulton.

After a shortened 2021 spring season and a 2021 fall season spent playing JV games, the Thunder are poised to play varsity football for the first time in three years.

And with that comes the team’s first home game since Week 7 of the 2019 season, on Oct. 11, 2019 – a 22-0 win over Milledgeville that made them playoff-eligible at 5-2.

“We’re very excited. This is the first season to be hosting a home football game for a varsity team in three years for us,” coach Teo Clark said. “My first year in the spring of COVID, we couldn’t play on our field because of three feet of snow that melted on the field.”

It will also be the first full varsity season for Clark as head coach, since he was hired before the COVID year. He came to the area from northern Mississippi, and has coached just three varsity games in his first two seasons.

But the upside of that is the bond he’s been able to build with his players as they went through a couple of less-than-ideal seasons, and that will put the Thunder ahead of most teams looking at their first varsity season under a new head coach.

“It’s a good relationship, getting better with Clark being here as the new head coach,” junior co-captain Laith Al-Saidi said. “Usually teams take time to get a strong season with a new coach, but having the past couple of years together, and this year getting more players in, it’s going to be a lot better. We’re getting familiar with him and his plays and what he wants us to do.”

That relationship was the first thing on Clark’s to-do list when he got to Savanna. Coming from a much larger school, it was a bit of an adjustment, but after growing up in a small town, he knew it was of utmost importance if he wanted to rebuild the program.

“Building the relationships, that’s one of the joys of coaching, getting to know these players, the parents, the community, it definitely makes it a lot easier as a coach to be able to build those relationships,” he said. “When I first came in, it was a big adjustment. I came from a 6A school in Mississippi, just south of Memphis, 1,850 students, and I come here to a much smaller school.

“I grew up in a small town, and I know getting that familiarity, getting to know the players, building that relationship, that takes years. You start that when they’re sixth, seventh, eighth graders with the youth program. You’re there, you try to be around them, you offer those opportunities for them to lift weights and grow together as a team. We’re trying to build that now.”

Last year, a lack of upperclassmen playing football forced West Carroll to play a JV schedule with a team full of sophomores and freshmen. Despite playing against opponents their own age, it was a step down for the sophomores, who had played roles on the varsity team during the delayed and shortened COVID season in the spring.

“When a lot of these juniors – our main contributors – were freshmen, they had opportunities to play in that spring, so to ask them to go down and play fresh-soph last year wasn’t an easy decision, by any means,” Clark said. “But we’re excited to be back this season. And not just the players, but the community really wants this and really needs this. Everybody I talk to, they ask me ‘Are we going to have a team this year?’ I think everybody around here is excited.”

Junior co-captain AJ Boardman said is was tough not playing varsity football last year after taking some lumps as a freshman starting linebacker in the spring of 2021, but he also realizes that it was a good opportunity for the team to gel and learn against more evenly matched competition.

“Getting some reps as a team down at our own age level again was really nice. We could work as a team, understand that we weren’t going to get pushed around as much as we would have if we were playing varsity,” he said. “We were at our own level and doing the things we needed to do, learning the system and how we needed to play the game. It really was a bounce-back year to understand the new offense with Clark, let him set his tone here, as well as the new coaching staff.”

Boardman will start at quarterback for the Thunder, and Clark classifies him as a “strong passer and hard runner.” Both QB and coach are confident in the receivers and running backs around Boardman, and also believe the line will grow together and mesh well as the season goes on.

“We’re excited to be able to pass and run. I think we’ll be able to attack with everything,” Boardman said. “We want to move the offense around, give the defense a non-traditional look, something they’re not used to, and just go out and give it our all, run hard, following our blocks. We can’t do that without the guys up front. Staying on our blocks is a big thing; we’ve got a lot of new linemen, big linemen, and it’ll be important just working as a team together.”

Defensively, the Thunder know they’ll have their hands full in the NUIC, one of the best small-school conferences in the state. But as happy as they are to be playing varsity football again, there likely won’t be any fear handling the strong offensive attacks in the league.

“We want to be quick, read the offense and know how to react to it,” Al-Saidi said. “We just want to give it our all, go full speed and don’t be afraid.”

West Carroll starts the season running the gauntlet, opening against defending NUIC champ Durand-Pecatonica, then hosting Fulton – who advanced to the 1A quarterfinals last season – in Week 2. Lincoln Trail champ Abingdon-Avon, another 1A quarterfinalist, visits in Week 3, then it’s defending 1A state champion Lena-Winslow in Savanna for Week 4.

“It’s a challenging conference. I believe we have one of the hardest four-game stretches in the state in 1A to start the season, comparatively: four teams with about 40 wins on their résumé from last year, two conference champions and a state champion,” Clark said. “We’ve only got two or three seniors, so we’re always going to be the youngest team on the field. Knowing what we’re up against with these schools in this conference, we’re going to have to be creative, we’re going to have to match the speed and intensity.

“I’m excited as a coach because you always want to go up against the best, because that shows you where you are and where you need to be. So I’m grateful to be able to provide this for our players.”

No matter what happens as the Thunder try to find their footing again, the players understand and appreciate what it means to be back at the varsity ranks, and it’s not something they take for granted.

And they’re ready to embrace whatever 2022 has in store for them.

“We’re a lot more excited to come into this year, be back on varsity and keep going forward as a team,” Al-Saidi said. “I feel like being able to play Friday nights under the lights, and having a lot more players, we have a lot more we can do for the season and give our fans a good show.”