After 0-5 spring season, Austin Barrett and St. Charles East eager to prove themselves this fall

ST. CHARLES – After a rocky, winless spring season, the St. Charles East football program is ready to show the rest of the DuKane Conference the collective chip on its shoulder.

“It’s been crucial to the energy of our practice,” junior offensive lineman Austin Barrett said. “We have something to prove. We have a chip on our shoulder.”

The Saints, along with the rest of Illinois high school teams, had their first official fall practice Aug. 9.

The Illinois High School Association sports calendar has been restored to its traditional timeline after the COVID-19 pandemic forced adjustments across all sports during the 2020-21 school year. Football competed in the spring in a six-game regular season, a far cry from the traditional nine-game slate plus playoffs. There were no playoffs and no state champion was crowned.

“Our program, we’re pretty solid,” Barrett said. “We’ve made the playoffs, I think, the last three or four years in a row. When we broke that last year and we went 0-5, it was a tough season for us. But we definitely all have a chip on our shoulder and have something to prove.

“For me, there’s kind of a stigma [about us] between our [DuKane] Conference [foes] now because we were so low last [spring],” Barrett continued. “Everyone is going to think they’re going to run through us this year and that’s just not going to be the case.

“I’m excited to punch everyone in their mouth.”

Barrett is expected to start at left tackle and will be in the mix at nose guard on the defensive line. Barrett has worked this offseason on perfecting his techniques and in the weight room.

He’s now itching to put it all together on the field and pave the way for North Dakota State commit and senior quarterback Nathan Hayes.

Including Barrett, the Saints return three starters on the offensive line. Ty Risberg and Logan Hammer are the other two starters.

“[Hayes] has been a really good leader as far as I’ve seen this year,” Barrett said. “This year, he’s really taken a handle on the team. He’s been doing a lot of good stuff, and we have an offensive line ready to block for him this year, so I’m excited for that.”

Just a few miles up the road, Geneva was conducting its first practice at Burgess Field.

The first-day energy was “a different intensity” for senior quarterback Alex Porter.

“The guys, they were thrilled to be out there,” Porter said. “For us seniors, I think there’s a lot of ‘this is it’. There’s that energy [that says] these are the last nine games we have so we want to make the most of every day.

“We’re practicing with the sophomores, too, so when we do that, I think it sprinkles to the juniors and sophomores,” Porter continued. “It makes for a good practice. We all want to be there and it’s fun. [It’s] a good environment.”

After earning extensive playing time in the spring, Batavia senior defensive back Vincent Solano will help headline an experienced secondary.

Solano, who put on 10 pounds this offseason, will be complemented by Jalen Buckley and Indiana State commit Tony Roberts.

“Our defense just flies around and it’s kind of fun to see on film how we’re all just flying around and hitting each other, getting hyped up on that,” Solano said.

“This kid [Solano] works,” senior lineman Spencer Prats said. “He’s one of the hardest workers on the team, for sure. From my vantage point, he works harder in the weight room than anybody else.”

Prats has observed Solano finishing a workout. Some teammates then stand around and talk. Apparently not Solano.

“This man finishes his workout, he’ll [then] find something else to do,” Prats said.

It’s caught the eyes of coaches, too.

“[They’d] come up to me and compliment Vincie to me,” Prats said. “Just be like: ‘He’s really working hard.’ ”