Romeoville looking to move up Southwest Prairie East ranks

Romeoville finished 1-8 last season, but the Spartans are looking for much bigger things this fall.

That’s what happens when you have 30 seniors returning from last year’s team, most of which got plenty of game experience.

They hope that experience translates into victories. In a conference that is as competitively balanced as the Southwest Prairie East, sometimes experience can make all the difference.

The Spartans dropped 21-14 decisions in the first two weeks last season to nonconference opponents Oak Lawn and Tinley Park and lost 27-14 to Plainfield South and 17-6 to Plainfield Central during conference play.

“Two of our games were one-score games, and two of them were within a score until the final minutes,” Romeoville coach Justin Trovato said. “We are hoping that the experience we got in playing tight games last year carries over into this year and we can get over that hump.

“Last year, we played a lot of juniors and they had us in a lot of close games. We didn’t have that senior leadership that we needed. This year, we have a lot of that.”

Romeoville returns starting quarterback Richard Conley, a junior, as well as senior receivers Ty English, Cam Jurgens and Caron Johnson. That quartet, along with offensive tackle Tony Galloway, will form the core of what the Spartans feel will be a dynamic offense capable of putting up more than enough points to accumulate victories.

“We have a big senior class,” English said. “We are excited about this year. Things have been looking good so far. We have been working hard at practice. We have a quarterback that played all of last year, and three receivers coming back. We have some good running backs, too.

“We will probably be a little more pass-heavy this year with what we have coming back.”

If anything is certain the Southwest Prairie East, it’s that nothing is certain. The competitive balance has been pretty even, with four different conference champions in the last six seasons. The Spartans feel like it could be their turn at the top this year.

“Everyone is pretty even on our side of the conference,” English said. “We are tired of seeing the ‘Ville at the bottom of the standings and we think we can turn it around and take our turn at the top. A lot of us have been putting work in on our own, and that will help, too.”

Trovato also thinks that this could be a year for a turnaround and perhaps a playoff appearance for the Spartans, something that hasn’t happened since 2013.

“Not only do we have 30 seniors this year, but our numbers in the entire program have been up this summer,” Trovato said. “Kids are excited to come out and play football, and that’s good to see. We have a really good mix of seniors and underclassmen. Richard Conley throws the ball very well, and he is also athletic and mobile, so he can run it if he has to, as well. We have a lot of talented receivers, and we want to take advantage of their skills.

“We’ve been playing in a 7-on-7 league at Westmont and have done very well there. We want to build on what we did last year and use the experience we got from last year to take us from being close in games to winning those games.”