Plainfield East Bengals trying to build a foundation

Plainfield East’s new football coach, Brad Kunz, is a big believer in brand messaging.

So it wasn’t surprising to see the Bengals’ 7-on-7 squad at the West Aurora Tournament adorned in T-shirts that read, “We Are The New East,” with the signature “East” logo displayed on each letter “E” on the shirt.

“We’re just looking for a new starting point,” Kunz said. “We just kind of want to set the tone and find our identity. It’s just an attitude, and we’re trying to get confidence.

“The first shirt I gave them said, ‘Swagger,’” Kunz added with a laugh.

Kunz is charged with trying to lay down some stability for a program whose seniors now are adapting to their third head coach in four seasons with the Bengals.

“There’s a lot of change,” Kunz said. “It’s getting them to realize that they are going to leave a legacy behind this year for the next group to follow. We want them to embrace that challenge.”

The program has qualified for the playoffs twice in 10 seasons. They’ve never won a playoff game. But Kunz is quick to not put the cart in front of the horse.

Building the foundation will take patience and flexibility, and Kunz knows that. In fact, nearly 20 members of his team weren’t with the team Friday, as they were at a wrestling camp. Kunz embraces the notion that his athletes are playing other sports, even if that means his team gets a bit of a late start on the summer season.

“We have a lot of three-sport athletes in the program,” Kunz said. “So we give them most of June to work with other sports. There might be other teams here that are at the end of the summer with football, but we’re sort of just getting started.”

As such, some critical player personnel decisions have yet to be made. The Bengals must replace a very experienced signal caller in Ben Mazurkiewicz, who graduated in the spring. Vying for the job currently are senior Joey Morgan and junior Brett Winiecki.

“We’re still looking right now,” Kunz said. “Those two are both really good, and they both bring different things.”

Defensively, Kunz will look to an experienced core early on for stability.

“We’ve got quite a few guys coming back on defense. We know at times we’re going to need them to carry us,” Kunz said.

Kunz cited players such as Brian Tape, Dale Dambek and Sam Aponsah as anchors the team will rely on and several players who might be asked to shoulder a heavier burden at times because Kunz might have a hard time taking them off the field.

“There’s going to be a few of them that [are] going to be hard to keep them off the field,” Kunz said. “Our numbers are a little down, so right now my philosophy is mostly if you’re an offensive starter, you’re a defensive backup, and vice versa.”

The Bengals were placed in what is on paper the easier of the two Southwest Prairie Divisions. The East, of which Plainfield East is a member, has only one team that made the playoffs last season in Plainfield South. Five of the six teams in the West Division made the playoffs last year, and Plainfield East will have three of them on its schedule in crossover games (Minooka, Oswego and West Aurora).

“We play a lot of really great teams,” Kunz said. “So for us, we need to believe and know we can compete on that level.”

Morris shows some new wrinkles

One might think a team that is run-dominant might have a hard time thriving in the pass-happy playstyle required in the 7-on-7 format.

Morris bucked that trend Friday, showing a more-than-capable passing attack that allowed them to win three pool games and a quarterfinal matchup before taking a narrow loss to Yorkville in the semifinals of the top-10 event.

Sycamore would go on to beat Yorkville for the tournament title.

“I don’t put a ton into records at 7-on-7s,” Morris coach Alan Thorson said. “It’s more about judging how our kids are playing. For being a young team, I’m actually very happy with how we look and how we are handling the athleticism of obviously bigger schools.”