Morris ready to start ‘real’ football season

MORRIS – After finishing the previous school year’s football season with a 3-2 record, including going 1-2 on their own brand-new artificial turf field, the Morris football team officially began the 2021 season Monday with its first practice.

“It’s finally for real,” said Morris coach Alan Thorson, who enters his 12th season with a 76-40 overall record. “With everything that happened last year, having to play in the spring, only having six games scheduled and losing the last game of the year to COVID, it feels really good to be out here in August and get somewhat back to normal.”

Motivation will not be a problem for Morris this year, as the Redskins will open their season with a road game at Coal City, which won the matchup between the two teams when they last played in 2019. Three of the Morris captains – seniors Jorge Loza and Zach Romak and junior Justin Hemmersbach – were on the field for that game. The other captain, senior Myles Johnston, did not play football that season but was on the team last year when the Redskins dropped home games to Sycamore and La Salle-Peru, which are also in the schedule as members of the Kiswaukee River/Interstate 8 White Division.

“It’s nice to actually be football season,” Johnston said. “We feel like we have a lot to prove. We’ve waited a long time for this season, and we’ve put in a lot of hard work. Now, we hope all that hard work transfers over into a good season.”

In their other nonconference game, Morris will host Antioch in Week 2. Then, they will start conference play with a road game at Woodstock before hosting Woodstock North. Next comes a crossover game at home against Kishwaukee River/Interstate 8 Blue Division member Marengo before Morris finishes with regular season conference games at Kaneland, at home against Ottawa, at L-P, and at home against Sycamore. L-P and Sycamore shared the Interstate 8 title last year, as each was 6-0.

The Redskins were happy to be back together as a unit on the field. The summer was spent doing weightlifting and conditioning together, but the offensive and defensive lines did not take part in the 7-on-7 competitions throughout the summer.

“It’s nice to have everyone back as one group,” said Justin Hemmersbach, an offensive and defensive lineman. “The linemen came out and watched the other guys throw and catch the ball in 7-on-7s this summer, but now we’re all on the field together.”

For the first practices, the players will be in helmets only. Then, for three days, they will be in helmets and shoulder pads. On Saturday, they will wear full pads and have full contact for the first time.

“It’s great to have everyone back on the field together,” said Jorge Loza, a running back/linebacker. “Once the pads come on, we will be able to see who the real football players are.”

Morris is aiming for a return to a deep run in the playoffs and to be the next in a long line of Redskins teams that have played for a state title. Morris won state championships in 1980 (Class 3A), 1984 (4A) and 2005 (6A), and have runner-up finishes in 1979 (3A), 1989 (4A), 1994 (4A), 2001 (5A), 2004 (5A), 2007 (5A), 2012 (5A) and 2017 (4A).

“It helps to have a little chip on our shoulder,” quarterback Zach Romak said. “It’s fun to be back and have a full season ahead of us, but we have a bad taste in our mouth from last year and we want to make up for that.”