BY NICK ALBANO, Editor
Two conference championships, two regional titles, one Super 16 appearance, 13th and 10th in respective state finals and one all-state athlete. These are the accomplishments of Kaneland’s 2012 fall boys sports teams. Kaneland athletic director Leigh Jaffke best described the amount of success when she said “This is the most successful fall season in Kaneland history”.
No other time in Kaneland history has every single fall sport made it either into the playoffs or past regionals.
Going into this season, the Kaneland golf team had been two-time defending Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference champions but had only reached the State finals once (1996). Yet, when this season was over, they had won a third straight conference championship, the school’s first regional championship and placed tenth in 2A State finals. Last year, the Knights failed to make it out of their regional but following that disappointment the team banded together in the offseason.
“The entire team, especially one through ten on varsity, did a lot of extra work in the offseason which was why it wasn’t surprising to see our successes this year. We had a lot of depth and a tight knit group of players,” coach Mark Meyer said.
Last year the Kaneland cross country team finished 15th at the Class 2A IHSA State meet. This year they returned five of last year’s top seven and ran the fastest combined team time in school history to earn 13th place at the state meet.
“We have had 16 teams compete in the IHSA State Finals. This year, our Top seven that qualified for the Finals broke a school record for fastest team. Our 1987 state champions ran a combined 78:43 for the first through fifth runners,” coach Chad Clarey said.
This year, our top five raced to a combined 78:34. Before the state meet the school record at the IHSA State course was held by 2010 graduate Trevor Holm who ran 15:25. After the meet, senior Connor Johnson and junior Kyle Carter both beat that time to set new school records. Johnson ran 15:18 and Carter ran 15:22.
Kaneland had 750 kids in 2000, the first year current soccer coach Scott Parillo started at Kaneland.
“We would get destroyed every game; we didn’t win a game in conference many years,” Parillo said.
The program struggled and never went any farther than a regional championship game. Over the past few years, however, the program got stronger, and this year, the team finally won regionals but also a slot in the Super 16.
“This team was largely successful because of how much time they’ve played together. A lot of them have been on varsity since freshman year or have been on the same team since seventh or eighth grade,” Parillo said.
This year’s soccer team went farther in the playoffs then any other team before them, a common theme for this fall. The Knights were second in conference behind DeKalb and went on to beat IMSA, 5-1, Burlington Central, 2-1 in the Regional Championship then Freeport, 1-0. The Knights lost to United Township in a nail-biter in double overtime 3-2. Another accomplishment for the program was for the first time Kaneland soccer had an all-state athlete, Anthony Parillo. Parillo had 19 goals on the year.
It’s been over three years since the Varsity Football team lost a regular season game. The Knights once again captured the Big Northern 12 Conference title by defeating Morris, 33-30 on Oct. 19th at Peterson Field. The Knights would end their season in a loss to Lincoln Way West, 31-15 in the second round of the IHSA playoffs. The season ended in a disappointing fashion but the Knights still finished 10–1, outscored their opponents 441 to 156, ran for more yards (2,268-1,247) and passed for more yards (1,969–827).
It was a season of significant accomplishments for Kaneland sports. It’s hard for any school that has 50 years of rich sports history to say that one fall season was the best in school history.
As the season wraps up, these athletes will forever be known as Kaneland’s best boys of fall.