CHAMPAIGN — The chance for Champaign Central to play a home football game at its McKinley Field in 2022 took on a circuitous route.
School board meetings had to take place. Same for Champaign City Council meetings.
All for the Maroons — who have played at Tommy Stewart Field at Centennial for decades — to have a single home game two years ago on a Saturday afternoon.
First-year Central coach Matt Leskis and his Maroons have five games in Champaign this season. But none at McKinley Field, a facility that received a $7.1 million renovation in the late 2010s and is surrounded by a residential neighborhood in central Champaign.
“I was asked earlier if I wanted to pursue a home game,” Leskis told The News-Gazette this week. “The problem with that is it has to be a Saturday day game, which would change what we’re trying to do. We want Friday night lights.”
The main objection among local residents two years ago was based on a 2018 intergovernmental agreement between the Unit 4 school district and the city of Champaign to address neighborhood concerns about lights, traffic and parking, essentially saying no to the possibility of Central playing Friday night varsity football games.
The Maroons play junior varsity and freshman football games at the facility and have hosted varsity track and field meets — that take place on a weeknight with the facility’s lights in use — in the past two years as well.
Central did end up getting a home game in 2022, losing 69-14 to Wheaton St. Francis in a game that kicked off at 1 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon.
“The hoops to go through to just get that one game on a Saturday didn’t seem like the benefits outweighed just having one game,” Leskis said. “I’m not really sure if this is something that can change over time. I’ve heard the area is a little more receptive to the field being there. They know what’s happening. For some reason, to get it through, Friday varsity football games were a no-no. I think when it’s broached again, they may say this doesn’t make sense.”
Central opens its season on Aug. 30 at Springfield before facing rival Centennial in Week 2 on Sept. 6 at Tommy Stewart Field. The Maroons’ other remaining games at Tommy Stewart Field are Sept. 20 against Urbana, Oct. 4 against Danville, Oct. 11 against Peoria and Oct. 25 against Peoria Manual.
All Friday night games.
Just the way the Maroons want it.
“We all feel the same way,” said George Rouse, Central’s senior quarterback who is back for his third season as the Maroons’ starter. “It’d be nice to play on our home field, but we’d rather have a game underneath the Friday night lights. Students aren’t going to wake up at 10 on a Saturday morning to go to a football game. The vibe is just different.”
Fellow senior David Hasenstab echoes the sentiment.
“The whole thing is just better on Friday and wearing your jersey at school, telling kids to come to the game,” said Hasenstab, who will start at wide receiver and defensive end for the Maroons. “It stinks going across town playing at Centennial, but I’m used to it. I don’t really think about it.”
Turf talk
Clinton and Danville are two area teams who will play home games on new synthetic turf surfaces this year for the first time.
The upgrades to Clinton and Danville ups the area’s count of teams playing home games on fake grass to 11, with the Maroons and Vikings joining Argenta-Oreana, Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin, Centennial, Champaign Central, Monticello, St. Joseph-Ogden, Unity, Urbana and Westville.
“We’ll still in the process of getting turf down,” Clinton coach Ron Bass said. “Our stadium is getting renovated over the course of the next couple years. We’re getting turf, a new track and new lights this year. Next year, we’ll get new stands.”
Bass and the Maroons, who finished 6-4 last season and reached the Class 3A playoffs, are still chasing the school’s first postseason victory. Their first opportunity to get back to possibly playing in late October is Aug. 30 with its season opener at home against East Alton-Wood River. On the new turf, no less.
“I think it’s another sign the community, the school board and the administration is invested,” Bass said. “It’s not just going to benefit football. It’s going to benefit every student in the school and the community.”
Clinton senior Keaton Graves, who is in the mix to start at quarterback for the Maroons this fall, is all for the switch from grass to turf.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “It’s faster to play on, and it looks cool.”
Scrimmages in the mix
A change made by the IHSA this offseason will allow teams to hold scrimmages against other teams before the season starts.
Several area teams are taking advantage of the new rule that will feature scrimmages on Aug. 23. Notable local matchups include Mahomet-Seymour at Centennial, Tuscola at St. Joseph-Ogden, Sullivan/Okaw Valley at Monticello, Hoopeston Area/Armstrong-Potomac at Paxton-Buckley-Loda and Arcola at LeRoy, among others.
“I think it’s a great opportunity,” said Shawn Skinner, SJ-O’s coach, who added the plan is for the Spartans to scrimmage at Tuscola before the 2025 season begins. “Tuscola is a great program, and we have a lot of the same desires as to what we want to get out of that night because we have a good relationship with their coaching staff. We’re aiming to get the same stuff done.”
The scrimmages won’t feature teams playing full games, but will be limited to 48 plays total by both teams, with teams essentially getting half of those plays in a controlled environment.
“I just think you get a better indication of who you are when you go against another team,” said Cully Welter, Monticello’s veteran coach about to start his 16th season with the Sages and the only active area coach who has won a state title after leading Monticello to a Class 3A state championship in 2018. “We’ve already been practicing against ourselves, and this will be a little more challenging, obviously, when you go against someone else’s varsity team.”
On the flip side, some programs are taking a wait and see approach to the new scrimmage format. Argenta-Oreana, Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond and Champaign Central, among others, are opting not to hold them against opposing teams this year.
“We’re seeing how it goes this year,” said Ryan Jefferson, the seventh-year ALAH coach and reigning N-G Coach of the Year after leading the Knights to an undefeated regular season and outright Lincoln Prairie Conference championship last fall. “Now that we’re getting closer to it, I do feel like a ton of teams are doing it, but to us, I think it’s a benefit to see how it goes. If it goes poorly, then we lucked out, and if it goes great, then maybe that’s something we can do next year.”
125 and counting
BJ Zeleznik knows his LeRoy football history. The veteran coach of the Panthers, who is about to start his 22nd season in charge at his alma mater and played for his dad, Jim Zeleznik, can attest to that.
But not many coaches in the state can bring up the fact their programs have been around for 125 years. Which LeRoy will celebrate this season as plans continue for an alumni reunion at L.A. McKean Field from 4-7 p.m. on Aug. 24.
“We’ve been blasting out messages to alumni from the 1960s all the way to the present to reach out to teammates to try and get back for that,” BJ said. “Nothing too big. Mainly just want to get them together and get some pictures taken at the field.”
LeRoy will recognize the 1974 team that went 9-1 and reached the Class 2A quarterfinals for a 50th reunion later this season. When the Panthers host Tuscola on Sept. 27 for their homecoming game, they’ll recognize the McKean family. L.A. McKean coached at LeRoy from 1920-36 and again from 1942-45.
Plus, LeRoy will have special helmet logos they’ll wear all season to celebrate the 125th anniversary, with LeRoy spelled out on one side of the helmet with a Panther head and 125 across it on the other side.
“Obviously it’s fantastic because you understand that the town understands you and what you go through,” said Bo Zeleznik, the Panthers’ returning starter at quarterback, BJ’s son and Jim’s grandson who had 1,700 all-purpose yards last year to go along with 100 tackles from his linebacker position. “That results in high expectations, but that also results in a massive support system that has a grasp on the things that go on in the town that’s outside of their own bubble that they can get behind.”
It’s in the game
A popular topic of conversation among the area football players this week at our third annual media days event?
The new EA Sports ‘College Football 25’ video game that came out in mid-July.
Mainly from the players. But second-year Ridgeview/Lexington coach Matt Barnes wasn’t shy about discussing the fun he’s having with the game that ended am 11-year drought of not having a college football video game.
“I play in dynasty mode, and I’m Coastal Carolina,” Barnes said with a grin. “We just won the natty. It took four years. Lost to Georgia the other night, and it was a terrible loss. We blocked a field goal on third down, they re-kicked it on fourth down, it hit the post and it went in.”
Two of the starting offensive linemen and linebackers he’ll count on this season, seniors Joe Cheever and Bryce Cloudt, enjoyed hearing their coach speak about the video game.
“Some people may think it’s a bad thing, but he’s more to our age,” Cheever said. “It’s easy to connect with him. We can joke around a little bit more.”
That being said, Barnes realizes there’s a time and place for when to keep the mood around the Mustangs loose and when to turn it up. The co-op program finished 2-7 last fall during Barnes’ first season in charge after making back-to-back Class 1A state semifinal appearances in 2021 and 2022.
“You see in the movies with the older coaches just barking at their players all the time,” Cloudt said. “Coach is a little more subtle about that.”
“My philosophy has always been if you have to yell all the time, it’s falling on deaf ears,” Barnes added. “If that’s your tone all the time, it’s never going to get the message across. I was in their shoes a decade ago, and it’s hard. They know they made a mistake, they messed up and then I pile on, that’s not helping anyone.”
Matt Daniels is the sports editor at The News-Gazette. His email is mdaniels@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on X (@mdaniels_NG).
