Cary-Grove football ready to come back strong in 2023 after tough 2022 season

CARY – Cary-Grove has spent its offseason trying to turn a negative into a positive.

For the first time in all of the current players’ lives, the Trojans missed the playoffs at 3-6. The combination of inexperience – all but three starters graduating from the 2021 Class 6A state championship team – key injuries, particularly at running back, and playing in the challenging Fox Valley Conference was too much.

“It was a good experience for us, it’s not always given that we’re going to make the playoffs,” said linebacker Connor Anderson, the lone starter left from the state champs. “It’s great now that we have that as motivation for this year. We haven’t had that in a long time. It’s interesting to see where that’s going to go.

“I think, definitely it has (motivated us). For me, it stuck with me a lot. It’s unfortunate that it happened, but we have a lot to look forward to.”

C-G coach Brad Seaburg feels like this team’s learning curve is well ahead of last year’s group.

“What we’ve seen so far this summer is we’ve started off with a higher IQ because of the experience they had from last year,” Seaburg said. “Last year when we brought in a lot of new guys, there were so many things we were teaching them on Day 1 that we didn’t even address on our Day 1 because they already knew it.”

We want to be able to crush the opponents’ will. We respect them, but our goal is we want to be the best team in the entire state, that’s our goal.”

—  Will Barcy, Cary-Grove linebacker

It was an odd feeling when the playoffs started and C-G was turning in equipment instead of game-planning for a first-round opponent. The Trojans had been to the playoffs for 17 consecutive seasons, and not once in that stretch did they lose a playoff opener.

“We got off to the offseason a lot earlier. We had five extra weeks of lifting,” Seaburg said. “So you turn negatives into positives if you look at it that way.

“I had more free time. I felt like I needed to give some money back to the district because I wasn’t working as much. I was able to really get organized. We really got (offseason) things rolling quickly.”

Will Barcy, who started at middle linebacker and will also play offensive tackle this year, is hungry to get going.

“We want to be able to crush the opponents’ will,” Barcy said. “We respect them, but our goal is we want to be the best team in the entire state, that’s our goal. We realize we weren’t there last year and we’re going to try to get back this year.

“Throughout the season, we know injuries can happen. We didn’t see that as a problem, we saw it as we weren’t focused. We never would blame the injuries, that’s the game of football.”

Fullback-linebacker Collin Desmet was the leading rusher when he suffered a season-ending knee injury. Anderson suffered a broken left fibula and just recently returned to running. After four months, it was not healed and required surgery, which set him back another four months.

Mykal Kanellakis, Alex Schuppe and Hayden Dieschbourg were other key players who were injured.

Jack Rocen played free safety and could see time at fullback as well this season.

“We had a lot of younger guys playing up,” Rocen said. “Hopefully this year we’ll have more experience and know better what we’re doing this year. I feel like our team has been more motivated in the weight room and on the field.

“It can go either way. I played on the state team and then we had what happened last year. We don’t really know, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to be right back up there where we used to be.”

Seaburg’s winning percentage in 12 seasons at C-G is .813 (113-26). The most the Trojans previously lost under Seaburg was four games, in 2013 and 2017. Both times they played for a state title the next year.

Even with everything that worked against the Trojans, they owned that there was more they could have done. This fall they will get the opportunity to show that.

“It kind of all depends on how much we want it and how much we pay attention to the details and the little things,” Anderson said. “There really are no little things. Certain assignments we have to pick up on and execute. Last year we missed a lot of those and we ended up losing a lot of close games when we could have won them if we fixed one little thing.

“If we focus on every little detail, assignments you may not think are that important, like a back-side block, that could be make or break for a play. Last year we had a lot of those and we’re making an emphasis on that.”

Seaburg expects his team will be back in the thick of the FVC race.

“I sure hope we are. We have a great group of guys,” Seaburg said. “When it comes down to great seasons, you have to have talent, you have to stay healthy and have the ball bounce your way sometimes.”