In his fifth season as head coach of the Lake Zurich Bears football team, coach Bryan Stortz inherited a solid program that has made the IHSA playoffs four consecutive years, which at the time accounted for almost half of the playoff appearances in the school's history.
That was quite a legacy to look up to, as there's always concern when a new coach steps in regarding what sort of changes will be implemented. But in just his second year, in 2007, he took the Bears all the way by winning the Class 7A crown, the first time in the school's history that was achieved.
Former quarterback Matt Blanchard, who played for both coach Stortz as well as the previous coach, Mike DiMatteo, commented that while discipline was never lacking on the team, it was definitely ratcheted up a few notches after the latter coach's arrival. "He definitely had a huge impact," said Blanchard.
Find out what's happening in Lake Zurichfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
While the Bears haven't yet achieved an encore championship, they've made it to the playoffs every year during his tenure. When you add up the four straight years that the Bears have made the playoffs under coach Stortz and the four consecutive playoff appearances by coach DiMatteo before that, the team has made the playoffs eight years in a row.
The Bears are off to another promising start this year, with a 3-0 record, including a 36-0 blowout over North Chicago on September 10.
Find out what's happening in Lake Zurichfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"We cut back on penalties from the previous two games, that was the big difference," Stortz said. "We were doing better alignment-wise. Hopefully the issues we had will be settled."
He already knew that the Bears would have a rough road over the long haul of the season, with games against four different teams that had at least eight victories last year. "We haven't even played any conference teams yet," he observed.
When asked what the difference was in the game against North Chicago as opposed to the much tighter contests the previous two weeks, coach Stortz cited better cohesiveness on the field.
"Our guys really understood. Our kids on offense responded." He credited his defense with consistently good play throughout the season, especially from Kyle McQueen, Mark Tabaka, Cody Cameron and Will Hussey. "Our defense is basically 3-5, slant and angle, Cover Three. These guys have executed really well. Our d-line is steady."
Stortz said that his quarterback, Zach Till will be calling a lot more plays in the weeks to come, settling into a double-wing set and using a jet-and-rocket formation.
"I wish I would have been where I am now comfort-wise when I started five years ago. I wish I would have trusted my quarterback more. I wish I would have been at a better place comfort-wise with Matt (Blanchard)," he said.
Reiterating several times that getting to the point where you trust your players to do the right thing in certain key situations, Stortz mentioned Mitch Dudek's 36-yard pass reception that put the team on track to defeat Fremd 20-10 in the season opener. At the time of Dudek's big catch, the team was down 10-0 with 7:46 left to play.
"That was a back-pocket play that we worked on all summer," he said. The following week, the Bears star running back Jacob Brinlee ran a reverse play late in the game, a play referred to as "the gun." It broke a 3-3 deadlock and gave the Bears a 10-3 victory. "You just want to be in a situation where you can say 'let's get the ball in the best player's hands.'"
In spite of the wide margin of victory against North Chicago, coach Stortz said it's the the tight contests that are more satisfying. "It's the close games that test the kids a lot more. That's when you get to really know what you've got."
