York’s Jimmy Conners embraces challenge as two-way standout, leads team to Class 8A championship game

York coach Don Gelsomino’s blueprint for Jimmy Conners’ workload management this season had long-term vision that worked to perfection.

As for Conners?

He just wants to be on the field, helping his team.

York’s senior running back/linebacker is a key reason why the Dukes are in the state championship game for the first time in school history, taking on two-time defending champion Loyola in Saturday’s 7 p.m. Class 8A final.

“I love playing football. Whether it’s running back or linebacker, I want to be on the field,” Conners said. “There were a few times I was held back. But now that we’re in the playoffs we realize that this could be our last week. I got to be on the field as much as I possibly can.”

Gelsomino, York’s first-year head coach and former defensive coordinator, had a plan to keep Conners relatively fresh for a playoff run.

First game of the season, Gelsomino told Conners that Henry Duda would get most of the carries at running back, and Conners would be used in short yardage and full-time on defense.

Conners wasn’t completely convinced, but there was method to that mindset.

“I told him we know what you can do, but we need you in November. If there’s going to be a playoff run we need you,” Gelsomino said. “There was a lot of angry looks at me when I would talk to him. But I told him understand there will be a time where I’m not going to take you out.”

Indeed, Conners has emerged as quite a valuable, and busy, cog in York’s historic playoff run. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound senior is the Dukes’ second-leading tackler at inside linebacker, and the third-leading rusher for a dynamic running game piloted by senior quarterback Bruno Massel that’s gone to another level in the postseason.

Conners and two-way lineman Joe Reiff, a Notre Dame recruit, have played two ways as much as any York player, for Conners some 100 plays per game during the postseason.

That’s fine with Conners, even while acknowledging the physical toll.

“It’s challenging, no doubt about it, at least during the game, but I don’t think about it too much,” Conners said. “During the game, not too worried about it. It’s a lot mentally and physically but our coaches are great at managing it and not beating us into the ground. The Sundays after are not particularly fun, but whatever is asked I’ll give.”

No surprise to Gelsomino, who can’t say enough about a kid who carries a 5.0 GPA and 35 ACT in the classroom.

“He’s a tough kid, does everything right, extremely smart, lead by example, first in the weight room, works the hardest, showing everybody,” Gelsomino said. “He takes coaching as well as anybody I’ve ever coached. You see kids like Jimmy doing things the right way and you think we should be just like him, following in his footsteps.”

Conners started at outside linebacker last season during York’s run to the Class 8A semifinals, and scored a handful of touchdowns at running back backing up Jake Melion.

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound senior moved to inside linebacker this season, and has 77 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and 3 interceptions.

“He is just a student of the game, very in tune to what others are doing,” Gelsomino said. “In our position sometimes he’s in the box, sometimes he is playing in space. He has the perfect ability to do both. He can cover sideline to sideline, play in the box when we need him to. To make a run like this every team needs to have a player like this. We’re fortunate to have him and it starts with his football IQ.”

Gelsomino understands that when it comes to playoff time, close games, it’s imperative to have his best players on the field as much as possible.

But he’s been judicious about his stars’ usage.

Conners has 130 carries over 13 games, for 727 yards and 12 touchdowns. Massel, the central figure of York’s offense, has been busy carrying the ball during the playoff run, but has just 132 carries on the season for 1,097 yards and 17 TDs. Duda, York’s leading rusher, is at 191 carries for 1,037 yards and seven TDs.

That three-pronged rushing attack helped York blitz its first three playoff opponents for a combined 106 points.

“If I would have wrote a plan for Jimmy Conners’ workload, it played out exactly the way I wanted and that almost never happens,” Gelsomino said. “It’s the same thing with Bruno. We tracked it. Bruno is a fast, incredible kid, but he is not a kid that will be able to take 15 hits a game. Now come playoff time we might need that. It’s tough to tell kids that this is our plan, it takes a tremendous amount of game management and getting feedback from kids.”

York’s playoff success shouldn’t surprise, given its track record, three consecutive semifinals.

But there was reason to doubt the Dukes after they lost two games in three weeks’ time to Downers Grove North and Lyons by a combined 38 points, scoring just 21 points total.

“There’s no denying those were tough games,” Conners said. “But we always believed in the players and coaches in the program. Those losses helped us realize that we needed to change things up as a team and as a program. Nobody had a doubt, even then. We always knew that when we were on and playing as well as we can, that there’s not a team that can beat us.”

Massel, Duda and Conners all went over 100 yards in the 35-17 second-round win over Oswego, Massel and Conners both broke 100 in the 34-15 quarterfinal win over Warren. Conners the inside runner is the ideal complement to the speed and shiftiness of Massel and Duda.

“When you have that change of pace, and I know coaching defense, now the subs are in and you start going down the list, it becomes difficult to defend,” Gelsomino said. “When you look at Jimmy’s leadership, Henry’s got the most carries but it was never a doubt. The way Jimmy has led has been awesome.”

And now Conners leads York into its first-ever state championship game, an achievement not lost on him, the team or the community.

When Conners and the York seniors played their first high school game, the program hadn’t even been to the playoffs in a decade. Their last game will be in the state championship game.

“I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet, and won’t for a moment,” Gelsomino said. “Looking back, I remember when we had the playoff drought, when we got to five wins [former York coach Mike] Fitz[gerald] got the water bath dumped on him and we were celebrating it.

“Now you look, conference championship, semis, watching that growth of a program, watching how these kids committed to it and listened to the messages and did all the work, watched them believe and break the door down, it’s been incredible and special to see.”