When it comes to Naperville North football, no one will question the impact the double-wing offense has had on the program throughout the years.
The scheme that relies heavily on the running game, whether it be from the quarterback or one of three running backs, spurred Naperville North to state titles in both 1992 and 2007.
As Sean Drendel enters his sixth year at the helm of his alma mater in August, he won’t play his hand in regards to whether or not he intends to shift from a spread offense back to the double-wing.
“We’re going to—offensively—be what we need to be to be successful,” Drendel said.
A trio of quarterbacks—senior Vic Slopecki and juniors Luke Cegles and Dylan Fadden—have been taking snaps thus far during the summer.
Mikey Caldarrazo is the team’s leading returning rusher with 220 yards and three TDs on 48 carries.
The Huskies’ top five receivers from last season have all graduated and whoever is under center come Aug. 28 when they open the season with Sandburg will be surrounded by an inexperienced group.
But the juniors will bring some new life and vigor to the program, evidenced by their 7-2 record as sophomores last year.
“For a lot of them, they’re like, ‘that wasn’t our team last year’ because they weren’t either on it or they didn’t have an important part of it,” Drendel said. “So I think they know what we need to do. Our junior group was pretty successful as sophomores, so we’re trying to build on that momentum and keep getting better.”
Anthony Silvestri’s defensive charges have lost their top four tacklers from 2014, with defensive lineman Tom Rizzi back to lead the defense after recording 27 tackles and three TFLs.
While inexperienced, Drendel believes his team will be faster on both sides of the ball than they’ve been recently.
“We might be a little bit more aggressive defensively because our team speed is a little bit better,” he said. When you have team speed, it allows you to do a few more things than when you don’t.”
Seven straight losses to finish 2014 brought an end to the program’s streak of 17 consecutive years reaching the postseason.
Naperville North finished under .500 for the first time since Larry McKeon’s first year in 1983 and ended a year at 2-7 for the first time since 1982.
Asked if he’ll do things much differently when the season begins in August, Drendel doesn’t anticipate much change from a coaching standpoint.
“I guess we just went back through and reevaluated everything we did,” Drendel said. “You reevaluate the films, you reevaluate how you train. You reevaluate all that type of stuff and you try to make sure you get it right. I don’t think we’re going to coach any differently. I think, for the most part, we’ll just go with coaches that have won a lot of playoff games, been around for team state titles and stuff like that. I think, when we go back and look at it, you might tweak a few things. But I don’t think we’re going to change how we coach, per se.”
