Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland’s focus this summer on being stronger, more experienced

FLANAGAN – No matter what topic Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland head football coach Todd Reed was talking about Monday as his FCW Falcons began their final week of summer activities, the conversation inevitably turned back to two things.

An offseason of work in the weight room – two weight rooms, actually, at Flanagan-Cornell and Woodland – has his Falcons stronger. And last season’s 2-7 campaign playing a brutally tough Illinois 8-Man Football Association schedule with only a handful of seniors has his team wiser for last fall’s wear.

“Things are going really well,” the fifth-year FCW coach said. “After last year, when we had a lot of underclassmen, we said our experience coming back this year was going to be huge. We started a lot of sophomores and juniors last year. This year we have 13 seniors, 12 juniors, 10 sophomores and five freshmen, so having upperclassmen with experience is really big coming into the season.

“The biggest thing we worked on in the offseason as soon as football got over with, we got in the weight room. Several times last year I would talk at halftime: ‘The weight room is our biggest thing. If we don’t want to get embarrassed and pushed around, we have got to get stronger.’ They’ve really bought into it. Our assistant coaches have been key with that, running [two sessions a day] at Woodland and here at Flanagan.”

Forty Falcons have been in camp this summer, a promising sign for a program looking to recapture a strong tradition of hard-nosed and, more often than not, winning football.

“Our senior class hit the weight room pretty hard this summer, and that’s going to translate onto the field. Last year we were super young, but this year I hope we can hold up to that Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland tradition of winning and kicking butt.”

—  Kesler Collins, FCW football senior

Since the Flanagan and Woodland schools cooperative began in 2006 (then named FWC), the Falcons have posted 12 winning seasons and a dozen playoff appearances across Class 2A, Class 1A and the I8FA. Since moving to eight-man in 2019, FCW under Reed has gone 24-20.

“Our biggest thing is commitment to the weight room for our younger generation,” senior RB/TE/LB Kesler Collins said. “Our senior class hit the weight room pretty hard this summer, and that’s going to translate onto the field.

“Last year we were super young, but this year I hope we can hold up to that Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland tradition of winning and kicking butt.”

Monday’s practice opened with unified warmups, then players split by position and worked in groups.

The Falcons capped last week with a successful 3-0 showing at a 5-on-5 passing tournament – think a 7-on-7 passing scrimmage for eight-man teams – hosted by Blue Ridge in Farmer City as well as volunteering as a team at the Livingston County Ag Fair.

“It was good for our program to be out there and showing we’re helping out, and they had fun with it,” Reed said. “It’s about community. They were the ones out parking people in the parking lot, so they had to deal with a little bit of the rude side of people, but that’s OK.”

Camp will continue through this week before next week’s off week. The IHSA/I8FA seasons and official practices can begin Aug. 7.

Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland, expecting a bounce-back season, will open the regular season with three consecutive home games. The Falcons host West Central on Aug. 25 in Flanagan, St. Thomas More on Sept. 1 at the Woodland Wood Shed and Milford-Cissna Park on Sept. 8 back in Flanagan.

“Last year we had one of the toughest schedules in eight-man, probably the toughest,” Reed said. “When you look at your schedule and seven of the nine teams make the playoffs ... we didn’t get any favors. It’s not going to get any easier, eight-man gets tougher every year, but ultimately it’s saving small-school football.

“We just have to get ready for it.”