St. Charles North excited about its present, future with returning core of young talent

ST. CHARLES – Rob Pomazak fielded one of the youngest varsity football teams around last year at St. Charles North.

That would seem to bode well for the future.

The North Stars started six sophomores and a freshman quarterback last season. Pomazak said he has 13-14 starters back from a team that went 4-5 in 2021 and narrowly missed the playoffs.

“We are expecting to see a return on that investment,” Pomazak said.

Pomazak got a barometer on his team’s progress June 30 as St. Charles North hosted the Fox Valley 7-on-7. York beat Wheaton Warrenville South for the championship of the event that also featured Montini, Burlington Central, Harlem, Yorkville and Crystal Lake South.

“We learned how to compete a little bit as a unit,” Pomazak said. “We have a few new coaches, we have a lot of returning players and a few new guys that are looking to step into their shoes. It’s not so much about the wins and losses. It’s the internal competition and play the game within the game. How are kids competing with themselves and pushing themselves to get the mission done.”

Headlining the young returners is sophomore quarterback Ethan Plumb. Splitting time last season with Will Vaske, Plumb completed 51% of his passes for 750 yards with six touchdowns and seven interceptions in nine games.

“Ethan is a professional. He works so hard and diligently on his game,” Pomazak said. “His maturity in his own personal process is good in seeing how it translates. He is constantly working on his mechanics and his arm strength. Those things have all improved greatly. The exciting part is to see what that year of varsity football has done for him.”

Vaske, a senior, threw for 211 yards and a touchdown in six games last season as St. Charles North ran a two-quarterback system. Pomazak said the starting quarterback job at this point is up in the air. He would love to see the North Stars move to a situation where they name a starter while the backup also works at another position.

“It’s a difficult thing, a good situation but maybe not the best where a really good football player doesn’t play where they want to play,” Pomazak said. “On the positive side, usually your quarterback is one of your best players. I want the [quarterback] position to be solidified by one player and have a very qualified backup. I don’t want to go series by series. It’s not an easy decision. If they compete the right way, we will be a better team because of that.”

Whichever quarterback wins the job will have good experience around him.

Seniors Henry Warsaw and Richard Schertz are back on the line. On the perimeter. Anthony Taormina, Zach Priami and Jake Furtney all return. Drew Surges is back at running back and linebacker.

“There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle,” Pomazak said. “A lot of it is getting the pieces in the right place.”

The North Stars will continue to assemble the pieces during a busy July. They will have team camps every Thursday with teams such as Rochester and Willowbrook and they also will host a scrimmage. St. Charles North also goes to NIU for a two-day overnight camp.

“We want to take the next step in the evaluation process and sort out the platoon situation on offense and defense, gain a further grasp of the depth chart, look at how they’re competing with each other on the field,” Pomazak said. “That’s the goal for July. Maybe one or two decisions will be left to be made, but with our schedule, the longer we have to prepare for opponents the better, do our due diligence.”

Pomazak knows well the fine line between reaching the postseason and not making it. St. Charles North last year had two overtime losses, one to Geneva at midseason that was a swing game in Pomazak’s estimation and a double-overtime loss to Batavia in Week 9 that ended the North Stars’ season.

“The whole mantra this year is to level up, like a video game,” he said. “We took a chance last year to play some young kids and we’re asking for them to return on the investment. If that happens, we could be really, really good.”