OP_080819

46 | August 8, 2019 | the orland Park Prairie sports
OPPrairie.com
Sandburg continues to schedule strong football programs
JEFF VORVA, Sports Editor
A strange thing happened
with Sandburg’s
football schedule last year.
The two nonconference
opponents the Eagles
played — Lyons Township
and Curie — had down
years.
Lyons went 1-8 for its
first losing season since
2008. It snapped a streak
of nine straight Illinois
High School Association
playoff appearances.
Curie was 4-7, and it
marked the first losing season
for the Condors since
2013 and snapped a fourseason
streak of playoff
appearances.
The Eagles caught a
break with the fact that
two schools with recent
success had their worst
seasons in a while, and
they picked up a pair of
victories. They beat Lyons
24-13 on a misty, rainy
night in Orland Park, and
Curie 14-9 in a home game
delayed by storms that was
not decided until the final
play and ended around
midnight.
But the bottom line is
that the coaches and athletic
department officials
have been stacking the
nonconference schedule
with tradition-rich programs
and have not been
scheduling so-called cupcake
programs.
That continues this year
when the Eagles open up
the season with two road
games against Morgan
Park and Hillcrest.
The Eagles open the
season versus Morgan
Park at 7 p.m. on Aug. 30
at Gately Stadium in Chicago.
The Mustangs had a
down year in 2018, going
3-6. But before that, they
racked up 18 straight seasons
in which they made it
to the playoffs, and playing
the team at its home
stadium likely will not be
easy.
“When I coached at
Providence, Morgan Park
got the better of us in a
game,” Sandburg coach
Scott Peters said. “They
are not to be taken lightly
by any stretch of the
imagination. They are one
of the top Chicago Public
League schools.”
The following week, the
Eagles face Hillcrest in
Country Club Hills. The
Hawks are 29-7 the past
three seasons and made it
to the Class 5A semifinals
in 2018. They beat six opponents
by 40 or more
points, and racked up 516
points in 13 games.
This all comes before
the Eagles dive into the
SouthWest Suburban Conference,
which features
perennial powers Lincoln-
Way East, Bolingbrook
and Homewood-Flossmoor.
“We arguably play in
one of the top two conferences
in the state,” Peters
said. “With the DuPage
Valley Conference breaking
up, you have our conference
and the Chicago
Catholic League.”
The Eagles have not
been to the playoffs since
2015, and until the IHSA
changes the landmark
of football from conferences
to districts in 2021,
noconference games will
count for playoff criteria.
Two wins over easy teams
weigh more than two losses
against tough teams.
But Peters, who is scheduled
to start his fourth year
as the Eagles’ boss, said he
wants his team to be challenged
week in and week
out.
Nothing comes easy for Sandburg’s football team during the nonconference season, as the Eagles are shown
battling in a 14-9 victory over Curie that was not decided until the final play. PHOTOS BY JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
“High school football
is a special time,” Peters
said. “You want to play
games every Friday night
that matter. We don’t look
for games that we will
win 40-0. Look at who
we have had over the last
couple of years. All good
programs who do good
things. We’re definitely
not getting any cupcakes
on the schedule.
“You are going to compete
every week. You only
get to play so many high
school football games.
You want to compete every
week. But the bad
thing is that you are not
guaranteed a playoff spot.
If we happen to get in, we
get in. That’s the way our
conference is. There is
nothing you can do about
it, so we try to talk to the
kids about relishing every
opportunity to be able to
play a strong team every
week.”
Even if the Eagles decided
to go shopping for
cupcakes, they might not
be found on the shelves.
“Let’s be honest, they
are not going to play us,”
Peters said. “They look at
us and say, ‘Oh, you have
3,000 kids; we’re not going
to play you.’”
The Eagles are coming
off a 3-6 campaign, but
senior quarterback Jack
Shelton liked what he has
seen during summer drills.
When the Eagles open
preseason camp on Monday,
Aug. 12, he thinks the
squad will be ready for a
turnaround season.
“We have a lot of juniors
who were on a sophomore
team that lost just two
games last year,” Shelton
said. “And we had 78 kids
on the team in the summer.”
He said the Eagles goal
is making it back to the
playoffs, even facing a
schedule with some power-packed
teams that have
beaten his program convincingly
in recent years.
Jalen Austin, who is a returning running back this
season, takes a quick breather in a rainy win over
Lyons last year.
He looks at the schedule
with respect but not fear.
“I think we’re going
to be ready for those big
teams,” he said. “Anyone
who faces us ... it’s going
to be a good game. The
coaches and my teammates
will be ready for them,
and I think we’re going to
shock a lot of people.”
The nine teams on the
Eagles’ schedule combined
to go 58-37 last
season — a .611 winning
percentage.