Football: Polo’s Alston appreciates team, season during run to state title

For 20 months, the Polo Marcos had their sights set on a second straight Illinois 8-Man Football Association state championship.

After a senior-heavy team won the school’s first team state title in 2019, the sophomores and freshmen who spent that fall mostly watching from the sideline knew they wanted to do it again.

But the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the 2020 season into the spring of 2021, and forced the cancellation of the playoffs. So the dream of claiming another crown simmered through another offseason before they got the chance again.

The Marcos certainly seized the opportunity. They followed up a perfect regular season with a memorable playoff run, ending with a come-from-behind 12-7 win over Orangeville in a defensive slugfest in the I8FA state championship game to cap a perfect season.

And while he deflects a lot of the credit and praise to his players and coaching staff, Polo’s Ted Alston is the 2021 Football Coach of the Year.

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In 2019, Polo cruised to the I8FA state championship, in its first season in 8-man. That team scored 559 points and allowed only 124 over 12 games, an average margin of victory of 46.6-10.3 per game.

This year’s Marcos wanted to emulate the end result, but knew they had to be their own team. As dominant a season as 2019 was, these players knew if they wanted to add another trophy, they’d have to do things their own way.

That way was simple, actually: work hard and focus on the little things, and the rest will take care of itself. Throw in an even-keel attitude and the ability to roll with the punches, and that’s the formula the Marcos found for success.

“They were definitely a different team. They’ve just been able to adjust and do the things they needed to do. They rolled with the punches, that’s a great way of putting it,” Alston said. “They never got too worked up, either good or bad. The most excited I saw them was when we scored the second touchdown against Orangeville [in the state championship game].

“These kids didn’t get too high or too low. They were pretty even keel, so their ability to take things as they come, overcome them, and be willing to improve in areas where we said, ‘Hey, we’re not good at this,’ was key. Instead of pouting, they just said, ‘All right, let’s get better at it, then.’”

Alston points to a Week 3 win over Amboy-LaMoille as a key moment in the Marcos’ season. After scoring on four of its five first-half possessions and taking a 30-16 lead into halftime, Polo found itself in a dogfight when the Clippers came out red-hot in the third quarter and got within 30-28 with 1:59 remaining in the third quarter.

“That game was the turning point,” Alston said. “We kind of had the game in hand at halftime, and they came out and took it to us in the second half. The end of the third quarter, we got the ball back and we were up two points, and we just said, ‘Do you want to be good or do you want to be great?’ We told them exactly what they needed to do, and that was drive the ball, burn some clock – because they were killing us – and put the ball in the end zone.”

His players listened. The Marcos went on a 15-play drive that chewed up 8:28 off the clock, capping it with a 3-yard touchdown run by Brock Soltow on a 4th-and-inches play for a 36-28 lead. Soltow’s interception a few minutes later sealed the win.

“We had an eight- or nine-minute drive, and that was kind of when the whole thing started of us saying we’re a good team right now, but good teams don’t win championships,” Alston said. “Good teams get in the playoffs, and that’s all fine and well, but that was when we started asking do you want to be good or do you want to be great, and if you want to be great, you have to do these things. So after the Amboy game, that was really when we changed for the better.”

Senior center Cooper Blake says the Amboy game was just further proof of what he and his teammates started to discover in the first game of the season. Polo trailed to rival Milledgeville in the second half of a back-and-forth affair, but scored a late touchdown and two-point conversion to take a 40-38 lead, then held on with a defensive stop to start the season with a win.

“Winning another state title was the plan since the preseason, and how we played against Milledgeville in Week 1 was big,” Blake said. “That game really set the tone for the entire season and how we were able to just play hard and get in a battle and be able to come out on top.”

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Riding the momentum of that big win over Amboy just wasn’t in the cards for the Marcos. Polo’s opponents in Weeks 4 and 5 were forced to forfeit because of COVID issues, and Alston and assistant coaches Cliff Bardell, Jeff Barger, Jesse Culbertson and Matt Scholl found themselves trying to keep their team focused and energized after a momentum-building win turned into a waiting game.

But after three straight weeks of practice, the Marcos weren’t the least bit rusty for a Week 6 game against River Ridge. They completely dominated the Wildcats in a 66-6 win, then when Milledgeville defeated Orangeville 56-26 that same night, that’s when the players really felt they had something here in terms of a run to the trophy.

“After Week 6, us beating River Ridge and Milledgeville beating Orangeville, we knew then that we had as good a chance as anybody to win the state title,” senior quarterback Tyler Merdian said.”Those two weeks off really came in clutch for us. We worked on a lot of things we had struggled with through the first three weeks, so it helped us a lot.”

Looking back, Alston also said that two-week hiatus was a contributing factor to Polo’s season. The attitude of the players, and their ability to adapt to a less-than-desirable situation and come out more determined and focused on the other side, turned out to be exactly what they’d need later on in the season.

“We were a little nervous about that; getting the back-to-back COVID thing was rough in terms of trying to keep the kids focused and excited,” Alston said. “You can lose a team taking three weeks off between games.”

The approach was to go back to the basics. Alston and his coaches spent a big chunk of time in every practice during those three weeks going over a few things “we felt we just weren’t doing as well as we should be,” Alston said, and doing a few different things here and there to keep the kids entertained.

“The biggest thing with the kids was they were willing and able to recognize some self-improvement that needed to be done as a team, and we were kind of fortunate that we had those couple weeks with the COVID situation,” Alston said. “The kids knew there was a reason we were doing this every single night over and over and over again, and they responded well, I give them credit. We had to get creative with some of our practices, make them fun here and there to keep it more entertaining.

“When we came back against River Ridge, we were nervous, but man, we played really well those next couple of weeks, and the kids responded so well to that situation. It was a rough situation, but I think this year’s team has been so good at dealing with weird situations.”

That ability to respond in the face of adversity turned out to be a big deal. In the second round of the playoffs, Polo found itself trailing by two touchdowns against Milford-Cissna Park – the first time the Marcos had been behind in a couple of months – and the team refused to quit.

Then in the state championship game, Orangeville shut out the Marcos in the first half – the first time that had happened all season – and yet they still found a way to score twice in the second half to pull out the 12-7 win.

“I think the biggest thing was leadership,” Blake said. “Everyone that was able to step up and be a leader and get everyone rallied and ready to go, that was huge for everybody. You get that one person who everyone gets behind, and you’ll run through a wall for that guy.”

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If you ask Tyler Merdian – the guy who took on a lot of that leadership role as the season progressed – he’ll tell you it was Alston’s deft touch that was a key part of the way the season unfolded.

“He knew when to coach us, and he knew when to let us players take the lead,” Merdian said. “He had a good feel for that.”

Asked the secret to knowing when to push and when to let go of the reins, Alston wasn’t sure exactly how to describe it.

“I don’t know, you can’t really pinpoint it; you get a feel and you just sit back and say ‘All right, we’re going to let them take care of this,’ or ‘We’re going to take care of this,’” he said. “There are times as a coach when you just say, ‘You know what, they’re going to have to take care of this.’ Tyler kind of grew into that role of the leader of the team, and a couple of other kids as well, and they kind of knew, ‘All right, we need to say something now.’

“This year, we had a good group of leaders, and it worked. When we got on them, they responded, and there were times when we said we needed to step back and let the captains take care of it, and they responded then, too. They were just one of those groups who would just respond when they needed to, and it was kind of cool to watch.”

Some of that intuition may come with experience. Alston served as an assistant to hall-of-fame Amboy coach Gary Jones for four years, then took the head coaching job at Polo for 11 years until stepping aside in the spring of 2011 to take over as Polo’s athletic director.

After Jeff Bumsted retired following the 2019 state title run, Alston decided to return to the sideline. He did so with a renewed energy and a different perspective, and it’s reflected in his current coaching style.

“You do mellow a little bit as you get older. I don’t yell probably as much as I used to – I mean, I still yell here and there – but I just focus more on the teaching aspect of it as opposed to the screaming and yelling part of it,” Alston said. “Scholl says I’m easier now than I used to be. Matt says I was a lot harder and tougher on the kids back when he played; I’m sure there is some truth to that, I’ve eased up a lot.

“I don’t get worked up with the officials anymore, it’s just not worth it. Sitting back as an AD for all these years, I look at it and see most of the time, they make the right call, and they’re not out trying to screw anybody. I guess I let some of the smaller things roll off me a little bit easier now. I’m a lot more focused on making the kids better just as a team instead of focusing so much on the opponent. And I’m probably a little bit easier-going than I used to be.”

While he still loves the game-planning aspect of the game, he says the focus on self-improvement as a coach and a team has become a much larger part of his day-to-day operation.

Merdian still credits his coach’s game-planning as a key to the Marcos’ success.

“Strategically, he’s probably the best coach in the state,” he said. “We always had the better game plan than the other team every single game. That’s one of the main reasons we were undefeated.”

It was Alston’s ability to call plays in a way so they built upon each other as the game went along, always looking ahead at what might be open later on when deciding his play calls earlier, that left his quarterback so impressed.

In fact, Alston and Merdian talked about that exact scenario after the season had ended.

“I remember Tyler said, we ran a play against Milledgeville when we were down and scored the touchdown to go ahead, and he said to me after the season, ‘I really questioned that call. That’s the only time I’ve ever questioned something you’ve called.’ But then he said looking back, he could tell that we’d been waiting to run that play,” Alston said. “I really just think I was fortunate that we had kids that also understood that this play is leading to something that’s going to be big for us.”

As with everything, Alston said it was a group effort.

“The great thing about the situation I’m in right now is I have assistant coaches who are knowledgeable, they’re passionate, they understand the system,” Alston said. “Some of them were with me before, and they went through Jeff, who was my assistant, so nothing has really changed in the way we do things. We like to focus on a small number of things and try to do them really, really well.”

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Like his players, Alston isn’t one to get too high when things are good or too low when they aren’t working out. It might be that experience again, or the more mellow attitude this time around, but he understands that seasons like this one don’t come around very often.

A state championship has to be the perfect mix of several things coming together at the perfect time. It’s not just play calls by coaches, it’s the execution by the players. It’s not just scoring points on offense, but limiting them on defense. It’s not just being the better team, it’s also getting a few breaks here and there and taking advantage of them.

And because of all the things that go into a season like the Polo Marcos had in 2021, Ted Alston has appreciated the ride so much more.

“In a season like this, you have those play calls that work and everyone thinks you’re a genius. There are other years you run that same play and you’re an idiot because it didn’t work,” Alston said with a chuckle. “That’s what makes seasons like this so special. We had a lot of things work for us this year; I’ve coached plenty of years where they didn’t work.

“This year, we were good at executing the things we did, and the kids had a belief in what we do, which is not real fancy – we are one of the least fancy, least exotic football teams in the state. Those calls worked because of the kids, not because of me. There were plenty of times where I didn’t call more than 10 different plays in the whole game.

“What Tyler said, that’s a nice compliment from one of your players – but he probably needs to give himself and his teammates a lot more credit for that, and less to me. They’re the reason we won this year, and they’re what made it so special for me and the coaches and fans.”