It was bittersweet Friday night for former Waubonsie Valley quarterback Joe Sweeney. He returned for the third time as a coach to the opposite sidelines at Dick Kerner Stadium in Aurora.
Sweeney, nowadays, is an assistant and defensive backs coach for the Oswego High School Panthers. He also is the special teams coordinator.
Lifelong Naperville resident Joe Sweeney began his football career at St. Raphael, in the first grade. He was the quarterback through eighth grade and often remembers the nostalgic journey traveling across town to games at Benet High School in Lisle.
Sweeney began taking snaps as the Waubonsie quarterback towards the end of the 1998 season and was the starting quarterback in 1999 and 2000. He was an Upstate Eight All-Conference Honorable Mention in 2000 and graduated in 2001.
Sweeney viewed the game from atop the press box, on the visitors side of the field, communicating with the defensive coordinator on the sidelines – via a headset – calling out formations, offensive sets and plays.
At halftime, while on the field at the twenty yard line, Sweeney coached members of the Oswego return team. He told them to take one back, get back the momentum and get the offense off to a good start. The Panther offense scored a touchdown on their first drive to start the second half making it a one score game. But, Waubonsie responded with a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to finish out the game.
After coming off a defeat to Naperville Central last week, Waubonsie defeated Oswego 41 to 20 in their home opener. Waubonsie improved to 1-1 and will host Streamwood at 7:30PM Friday, September 13.
Sweeney often reminisces about what the Waubonsie coaches told him more than a decade ago, “(always) cherish the moments because you’ll never get them back.” Sweeney now instills the same theme to the players he coaches today.
While playing in college, Sweeney moved to the defensive side of the ball, becoming a linebacker. Immediately after graduation he began coaching sophomores when he was hired as a business and marketing teacher at Oswego High School. In 2007, he became a dean and a varsity assistant coach. He also keeps busy as the student activity director at Oswego High School.
Sweeney commutes daily on Ogden Ave. (U.S. 34) to Oswego High School, driving past Waubonsie, but still resides in Naperville. He told PN, “Naperville’s an awesome community and great place to grow up.”
Sweeney grew up watching the growth of football in Naperville and School District 204. Waubonsie used to be the only high school in District 204 and the Warriors didn’t have any near-by rivals, perse (Waubonsie, before the construction of Neuqua and Metea, made frequent trips to St. Charles High School). Oswego even has a second high school today and in-town rival, Oswego East.
Before the IHSA expanded to eight classes from six, Waubonsie Valley, Naperville Central and Naperville North were all in 6A. Oswego was in 5A during Sweeney’s tenure at Waubonsie. Today, they’re all approaching 8A.
In recapping his return to Waubonsie, Sweeney said, “Anytime I walk on that field, it’s surreal … it evokes memories and re-occurrences of plays that I ran as a quarterback … and all the things that went right, (pause) and wrong.”
Oswego Ave., that begins at the west end of Naperville Central, once merged into Ogden Ave. (if the driver was willing to make an illegal turn). It was once a direct route to Waubonsie and downtown Oswego along the Fox River .
With all the glitz, glamour, big dreams and money associated with football at all levels in today’s game, Sweeney’s words of wisdom for young players is “(to) be positive, good to society, help others out and always do the right thing – there’s nothing better than Friday night lights. It’s where it all begins (in Naperville).”
