Lincoln-Way West confident after 5-win spring, ready to face tough schedule

Lincoln-Way West, just like the other 500-plus football teams in the state, opened practice Monday with a lot of questions to answer.

Stress usually comes with that, but it was hard for Warriors coach Luke Lokanc to contain the wry smile creeping up on his face when discussing not only his football team, which he has high hopes for, but also simply the fact that the Warriors, and all other teams, are going through the paces for preparing for a fall season.

“One of our coaches said it to the kids today after practice about how great it feels to be out here in the fall,” Lokanc said. “Yeah, it was great last spring to have a season and play six games. And we treated it like it was a fall season, but it was just a different feel being out here in the fall.”

The 2020 fall season was supposed to be Lokanc’s first at the helm of his own program after assuming the post from former head coach Dave Ernst after the 2019 season. Ernst remains on staff as an assistant to Lokanc, who used the spring season as an opportunity to lay his foundation.

“We’re very excited from how the summer went,” Lokanc said. “The kids are mentally farther ahead because the spring season was only about two months away instead of a full year.”

The tools are in place for the Warriors to be a force to be reckoned with. Lincoln-Way West has six returning starters on both sides of the football and several impact players to boot. The quarterback position isn’t settled, with an open duel between senior Jason Harris and promising sophomore Cole Crafton ongoing, but even if Harris doesn’t win the battle, he’ll have a heavy hand in the Warriors’ offense in a different position.

Lincoln-Way West isn’t lacking for skill players. Eric Nowak, a talented two-way performer at wide receiver and defensive back, is a threat to make something happen anytime he touches the football. Justin Harris also gives the Warriors a dangerous threat out of the backfield.

“I love to compete, and it doesn’t matter what side of the ball I’m on,” the 6-foot-2 Nowak said. “We just have to keep working, and we want to put our school on the map for the kids below us.”

And while the offense looks stacked, the defense was sneaky good last season, as well. With those six returning starters and a better understanding of what needs to get done, the Warriors, who allowed only 62 points in the five games before the Lincoln-Way East loss, can’t wait for the season to begin.

“We’re fast,” defensive back Matthew Wallace said. “But it’s playing fast. We’ve got a lot of seniors out there, and they know where they need to be.”

The Warriors looked sharp in the spring season, racking up a 5-1 record that included the program’s first win over Homewood-Flossmoor. It ended on a bit of a sour note with a 27-7 loss to powerhouse Lincoln-Way East, but it was a loss the Warriors might have gained more from in the long run.

“I think the best thing about that is that we learned we can compete,” Lokanc said. “Physically and mentally we did a great job in that game, and I think the kids learned that we can compete with them. It takes so much hard work and preparation, and I think that’s what they got out of that season was how hard they had to work in six weeks to be as good as they want to be.”

That resonated with defensive lineman John Orrico.

“It was close early on, and it was electric,“ the senior said of the Lincoln-Way East game. “But we slowly let it slip away, and we can’t let that happen again.”

A reshuffling of Lincoln-Way West’s crossover schedule in the SouthWest Suburban Conference won’t allow for the Warriors to get another crack at taking down their district rivals, as they don’t play one another in this regular season. But that doesn’t mean Lincoln-Way West’s schedule is lacking for quality.

New nonconference opponents Hersey and Oswego East kick off the rigorous schedule, and then the Warriors travel to Bolingbrook for their first matchup with the talented Raiders.

“It’s a very difficult schedule, week in and week out,” Lokanc said. “The standard is the standard. If you don’t get better each day, you’re getting worse. If we don’t get better every day, we’re never going to reach our goal.”