1. What happened to the Crete Dome?.... The Crete Dome? Anyone who's ever been to a game at Crete knows what I''m talking about....right next to the football field was an old dome gym that I believe was used as a middle school gym after Crete-Monee built it's current campus (which is a great looking high school campus FYI). The Dome has been leveled along with every other standing building surrounding the football field, leaving a bunch of empty land. Crete sure looks like a school that is gearing up for maybe some additional building and/or selling off some of that land perhaps? The one thing Crete has is land and they can pretty much move the football field all over the big campus.
2. Crete deserves a new turf football field and stadium- Crete-Monee can make a pretty strong case as being one of the most successful programs in the South burbs over the past decade plus...and yet they are still playing it's home games on basically a 3A-4A sized football field on grass (yes it's grass for now.....won't be for long tho). Crete has a relatively new high school campus....great gym and weight rooms and pretty much everything else you'd want....but they have zero curb appeal when it comes to it's biggest and most successful sports programs in football. Ironically....Crete's home field was hit by a tornado a few years back forcing them to buy and in stall a brand new digital lights system which is amazing FYI and that system can be picked up and moved to wherever Crete wants them. Again Cretian (?) or Moneeans (?) start telling the school board you want a few football field with turf....and at least try to keep up with the Jones.
3. Oh Yeah Almost Forgot.....Football- Huge 48-42 win for Crete Monee over JCA. This game went down pretty much how I expected....and while it took a half for both teams to get really rolling it did not disappoint. The Warriors offense is as explosive as ever as QB Cory Stennis a transfer in from Rich Township threw the football well and has maybe two of the state's most dangerous targets in WR Joshua Franklin (WMU) and WR Lynel Billips Williams (Miami OH). I'll get more into other names and such in the 2022 Breakdown series later next week but this Crete team will be very dangerous in 6A
4. JC Ehhhh? No question a tough loss for the Hillmen here on the road in Crete...but I still feel this is one of the top teams in Chicagoland and will also be one of a handful of favorites in 4A come state playoff time. JCA offensively struggled to run the football consistently....which for a team with such strong power running DNA is a concern. However, the passing game is really impressive and also pretty creative led by senior QB TJ Schlageter and he has more than enough capable backs and receivers as targets. The defense struggled trying to slow down the Crete speedy receivers....and to be honest every team in Illinois will struggle to defend Billips-Williams and Franklin this season. Yes this is a different team compared to a year ago in many ways....and the Hillmen have issues to fix. Yet once the get out of the regular season and into the post-season....they will not see anyone in 4A with the sheer amount of overall speed and athleticism that Crete had in this game. And yes I'm also including SHG in that equation. This is also a very impressive JCA staff that will get this team ready and will make several adjustments from here on out. JCA will be just fine Hilltopper Nation.
5. Playing up in competition helps Crete has always played up when it comes to it's non conference schedule mainly because the Southland conference outside of Kankakee and 1-2 others is really down (see TWood/TRidge/TT) and go check out the postgame comments from Crete's John Konecki when I asked him about why play a JCA or a LWE. Also JCA could have also found a much lesser opponent I'm sure if they tried.....but again this is a game that both will learn from and get better for have playing. Don't be afraid to play "up" people.
2. Crete deserves a new turf football field and stadium- Crete-Monee can make a pretty strong case as being one of the most successful programs in the South burbs over the past decade plus...and yet they are still playing it's home games on basically a 3A-4A sized football field on grass (yes it's grass for now.....won't be for long tho). Crete has a relatively new high school campus....great gym and weight rooms and pretty much everything else you'd want....but they have zero curb appeal when it comes to it's biggest and most successful sports programs in football. Ironically....Crete's home field was hit by a tornado a few years back forcing them to buy and in stall a brand new digital lights system which is amazing FYI and that system can be picked up and moved to wherever Crete wants them. Again Cretian (?) or Moneeans (?) start telling the school board you want a few football field with turf....and at least try to keep up with the Jones.
3. Oh Yeah Almost Forgot.....Football- Huge 48-42 win for Crete Monee over JCA. This game went down pretty much how I expected....and while it took a half for both teams to get really rolling it did not disappoint. The Warriors offense is as explosive as ever as QB Cory Stennis a transfer in from Rich Township threw the football well and has maybe two of the state's most dangerous targets in WR Joshua Franklin (WMU) and WR Lynel Billips Williams (Miami OH). I'll get more into other names and such in the 2022 Breakdown series later next week but this Crete team will be very dangerous in 6A
4. JC Ehhhh? No question a tough loss for the Hillmen here on the road in Crete...but I still feel this is one of the top teams in Chicagoland and will also be one of a handful of favorites in 4A come state playoff time. JCA offensively struggled to run the football consistently....which for a team with such strong power running DNA is a concern. However, the passing game is really impressive and also pretty creative led by senior QB TJ Schlageter and he has more than enough capable backs and receivers as targets. The defense struggled trying to slow down the Crete speedy receivers....and to be honest every team in Illinois will struggle to defend Billips-Williams and Franklin this season. Yes this is a different team compared to a year ago in many ways....and the Hillmen have issues to fix. Yet once the get out of the regular season and into the post-season....they will not see anyone in 4A with the sheer amount of overall speed and athleticism that Crete had in this game. And yes I'm also including SHG in that equation. This is also a very impressive JCA staff that will get this team ready and will make several adjustments from here on out. JCA will be just fine Hilltopper Nation.
5. Playing up in competition helps Crete has always played up when it comes to it's non conference schedule mainly because the Southland conference outside of Kankakee and 1-2 others is really down (see TWood/TRidge/TT) and go check out the postgame comments from Crete's John Konecki when I asked him about why play a JCA or a LWE. Also JCA could have also found a much lesser opponent I'm sure if they tried.....but again this is a game that both will learn from and get better for have playing. Don't be afraid to play "up" people.
