Byron, Lena-Winslow battle in preseason
The Rockford area's pair of state finalists in football, Byron and LenaWinslow, joined up with Sycamore and took part in a three-way scrimmage and practice session on Thursday, capping off the summer sessions and launching us ever-so-close to the start of official practices and regular season.
Byron, which won the Class 3A state championship for the second time in three seasons last year, hosted the two teams in one day for the second year in a row. Lena-Winslow, which took second and fell just short of a fourth straight state title last year, was a part of it for the second consecutive time as well.
Byron followed up its 2021 state title with last year's dominant, undefeated run, and the Tigers capped it all off as the highest-scoring team ever in the state of Illinois with 823 points. The Tigers also eclipsed the touchdown record that Lena-Winslow set the year before, punching it in 108 times. And the 56point margin of victory was the largest in IHSA championship game history, surpassing Stillman Valley's 52-point win in the 2009 title game.
Le-Win fell 14-0 in the 1A state title game last postseason but is still looking to build on making it to the state championship game in five of the past six years. They won four of those title games.
But for now, it's time to wipe the slate clean. This summer, both teams have prepared for another big season, but nobody knows what will happen when games kick off on Aug. 30. Byron opens at Rock Falls, and Le-Win is at Morrison.
On Thursday, with Sycamore included, they went head to head in 7-on-7 passing drills, and 11-on-11 running and passing scrimmages. All the coaches agreed on quick whistles and avoiding tackling to the ground as much as possible.
But it was still football. And the two local powerhouses at least got a little taste of what's coming.
Here's what we learned
Byron is young, but brings back a lot of talent: The Tigers were led by then-sophomore fullback and linebacker Caden Considine all season long last year, and late in the year thenfreshman quarterback Andrew Talbert really turned it on. They lead a pack of youngsters back to defend their title this year, but it will be a young and inexperienced group as well.
Byron has just six starters back on offense and only four starters returning on defense. They got that growth underway a little bit more on Thursday night.
"It's been a great thing for the schools in Illinois to get to work out together like this. It's just a chance to practice against somebody else," Byron head coach Jeff Boyer said. "We're focused on getting the work in on our own team, and getting ourselves ready, so that's what it's all about now."
Le-Win always rebuilds on the fly: Le-Win replaced 17 starters on either side of the ball last year and still made it to the state championship game. This is a program that knows how to reload, and rebuild, on the fly. On Thursday night, they looked like a team ready to do that again and will have to after graduating 15 starters from last year's squad.
"When we did this last year, we went down really not knowing what we had, and we saw we were pretty ready," LeWin head coach Ric Arand said. "This year we've had a great summer of preparation, with some really good attendance...and the kids have responded well."