HOOPESTON — With an open game for its first game of the season, the Hoopeston Area/Armstrong-Potomac football team was looking for a challenge.
They got that challenge when Lombard Montini called.
The IHSA Class 4A defending champions were also looking for a team to play on Friday and HAAP was looking for an opportunity with Watseka cancelling their season.
“When I moved to Illinois, the only high school I heard about was Mount Carmel, who is like a national brand,” HAAP head coach Chip Glass said. “When they have a quarterback going to Miami and a linemen going to Illinois, you know they have some players. I had a conversation with their head coach and he’s a great man.
Glass said there can be a lot learned from playing a team like the Broncos.
“It became more now to me that this is a game that I want my boys to experience,” Glass said. “ I want them to see what a championship team looks like in person. The way they execute, perform and pay attention to detail. I have gotten a lot of pushback but I am trying to build something here and I believe in my players and we can be successful and can be a championship team.”
To become a championship team, Glass needs experience and he is not going to get with the high number of young players.
“We are very young, we have 30 kids and 20 of them are freshmen and sophomores,” Glass said. “It will be challenging, but this group of players have put on a lot of hard work and they have bought into what we are trying to build at Hoopeston.
“I have been proud of the boys’ efforts and what they are trying to do. It will be demanding because we will have at least seven players play both ways and a majority of their backups are underclassmen, so it will be a big jump to them.”
With that, there will be no JV games for the team so Glass can avoid playing players twice in a week.
With the players old and new, Glass said he can focus on going to the attack he always wanted.
“I have the personnel now to run the offense that I want to run. The players last year had to athletic ability didn’t fit that,” Glass said. “We have some new additions and the linemen have developed and we are going to be a run-oriented offense. We have our senior offensive lineman Dom Simpson. He has done a good job working hard and being a good example. We have another senior athlete in Nick Cardenas. He might be the best athlete in the school and will be our key running back an mike linebacker. He is a very intelligent player and knows the game of football.
“We have Earl Kelnhofer, who has been with the program for three years. He is a very devoted young man and works hard and stays in great shape. We have an incoming junior in Rayden Montez .He played when he was younger and was involved in baseball, but he came out to play football and he is our starting quarterback. He is a very athletic young man and a hard worker. He has great leadership skills. It is his first year and he is learning the system, but his attitude and work ethic would be great.”
After Montini, the Cornjerkers will not have it any more easier when they come back to Vermilion County with a tough Vermilion Valley Conference. But Glass said it is a matter of confidence that he hopes his team can get, especially when the going gets tough.
“There is not a lot separating our teams in the conference, but what separates the top teams is their belief in themselves and they expect to go out and win,” Glass said. “Last year, if you looked at the scores, they were lopsided but didn’t tell the story. In seven games, it was close going into halftime. In the second half, the other team would score and then we would fall apart.
“When I got here, it was a top-heavy conference where everyone knew about Westville, Bismarck and Salt Fork, but now here is Oakwood with a lot of returning starters. Also, Clifton Central has a lot of returners and Georgetown has really improved. The improvement in the conference from top to bottom, it is the strongest.”
But the first focus is the trip to Lombard, where the Cornjerkers will try to build up confidence and lack of fear in going against the best in the VVC.
“A lot of my boys have never been out of Hoopeston, so they get a trip to Chicago and play in front of a big crowds and experience. When the game comes and goes, there will not be a better team than this,” Glass said. “So there is no way to be afraid of Westville and Bismarck. We have faced our Goliath, so we want to stop being afraid and face those demons and when the game is over, realize that you have abilities and not be afraid of anything.
“We understand the task ahead. I have been doing this a long time and I would never do anything that would jeopardize my players. It is about what we can gain from being in games like this.”