SAVANNA – With struggle comes change, and change is in the air with the football and boys basketball programs at West Carroll.
Matt Leitzen has been named the head coach of the Thunder football program, one that has gone 19-45 since its last playoff appearance in 2007. Stephen Rudnicki has been tapped to serve as head coach of the boys basketball program, one that has not won a regional championship since 2008.
Leitzen was approved by the West Carroll school board last month, and Rudnicki was approved in April.
Both coaches have been a part of the high school state final experience. Leitzen, a 1996 Stockton graduate, was a volunteer assistant coach during the Blackhawk’s 1A runner-up finish in 2012. Rudnicki, a 2008 graduate of Evanston Township in suburban Chicago, was co-captain of a Wildkit team that went 30-4 in his senior year en route to the 4A third-place trophy.
Leitzen and Rudnicki look to utilize their big-game experiences in helping their respective teams become competitive once more in the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference.
“We’re trying to make everything a competition,” Leitzen said. “We try to end camp every day with a 7-on-7 segment, or even an 11-on-11 segment, forcing the kids to compete and put ourselves in positions to succeed. We want our kids to compete. We were not horribly competitive last year.”
“The effort is there,” Rudnicki said about his team. “We’ve had guys put in extra work before practice and after practice. We’ve improved every day, and that’s been our main goal. It’s a big change from what they’ve been doing before, but they’ve been handling it real well.”
Leitzen came to West Carroll last year and served as the Thunder’s fresh-soph coach. While there will be some sort of familiarity in the program, the playbook will undergo a complete overhaul.
Last year, under former coach Mike Bicksler, the Thunder ran a shotgun for almost all of its offensive plays. That won’t be the case now.
“We want to be able to establish a run game, and we think the best way to do that is under center,” Leitzen said. “We’re going to add that aspect to our offense. At the same time, we’re going to take that same group of 11 and go to shotgun and still be able to run the ball. That’s something we’re hoping to install, and our kids have picked up on it rather quickly.”
Leitzen inherits a defense that averaged just more than 49 points allowed per game last year, as the Thunder’s first five games saw opponents put up more than 50.
“We’ve got to be able to switch our defenses and put more guys in the box to still be able to cover more people,” Leitzen said. “We’re looking at some ways to switch that up a bit. If you want to be successful in this conference – I don’t want to say you got to force teams to pass – but if you don’t stop the run, it’s going to be a long Friday night.
“The days of us losing by 50 have got to come to an end.”
Rudnicki will also revise the playbooks for his team.
After graduating from, and playing basketball at Illinois Wesleyan, Rudnicki spent 2 years at DePue as an assistant coach. He was a middle school teacher at DePue, but when a high school social studies position opened up at West Carroll, Rudnicki took the challenge.
So far, his kids have responded well.
“We want to be in transition more, and be an up-tempo team,” said Rudnicki, who added that his defense will be a pressuring man-to-man. “After that, when we’re in the halfcourt, we’re a four-out, one-in motion. It’s what we’re looking at, and every level will learn that. It can kind of be our program staple.”
Leitzen replaces Bicksler as football coach, while Rudnicki replaces Kyle Tutt as boys basketball coach. Both Bicksler and Tutt resigned their positions before the end of the school year. Leitzen will also continue to serve as Warren’s head boys basketball coach, a position he held last year.
“These are teachers that are going to both be at the high school,” West Carroll athletic director Joseph Hansen said. “I’m very excited about this upcoming year to see two new head coaches take over two high-profile positions at West Carroll.”
The Thunder will also have a new cross country coach, as Travis Findlay takes over the boys and girls squads.