Chase Duerson was too young to remember his father’s exploits with the Bears. So sometimes he pops a tape into the VCR and checks out the way his old man used to play.
One play in particular stuck in Chase’s memory. It was in the Bears’ Super Bowl season of 1985 against the Minnesota Vikings. The announcers were talking about Dave Duerson, who had just deflected a pass.
“And the very next play, he like, when the offensive line kind of chop-blocked the defensive line, and people went down, my dad jumped over them and sacked the quarterback,” 16-year-old Chase recalled. “It was crazy. He just killed the quarterback.”
Fast-forward 15 years and Chase, a sophomore at Lake Forest Academy, talks with the same verve about his favorite play of the 2000 season.
“It was against Williams Bay and they sent me on a blitz,” Chase said. “And I did exactly what my dad did. When the line was chop-blocked, I jumped over the line and was coming from the backside and I nailed the quarterback. Everybody said it was the loudest noise on the field. I nailed him so bad.”
Like father, like son. Actually, it’s like sons. Chase’s younger brother, Tregg, a freshman, also starts for Lake Forest Academy.
Only difference is Dave Duerson did it on a national level, first at Notre Dame, then in the NFL for 11 seasons. His sons are doing it at Lake Forest Academy, a college preparatory boarding school known for its academics, not its athletics.
Dave Duerson, a resident of Highland Park, could have sent his kids to Deerfield or Highland Park, or to a private school like football powerhouse Mt. Carmel. But Duerson chose Lake Forest Academy, all of 290 students, instead.
“I was looking for a more diverse environment, a place where they place a premium on academics,” said Duerson, a hard-hitting cornerback who won two Super Bowls, one with the Bears and one with the New York Giants in 1990. “I was looking for a school with some balance. Athletics have never been at the forefront for us. If the academics are not there, sports won’t be either.
“If they produce, believe me, the scouts will know.”
So far the two underclassmen have done just that. Chase, a 5-foot-61/2-inch, 175-pound linebacker/fullback, and Tregg, a 5-7, 140-pound cornerback/wide receiver, have made an immediate impact in their first year at the school. Lake Forest is off to 7-0 start, with much thanks to Chase’s game-saving tackle on a two-point conversion attempt in the waning seconds of a 21-20 victory over Maranatha Baptist two weeks ago. Chase recorded a sack for a safety in 14-8 win over University School of Milwaukee on Saturday.
Chase also rushed for a touchdown, his second of the season, in the victory. On defense he’s averaging nearly 10 tackles per game, has three sacks and an interception that he returned for a TD. And this is someone just learning to play fullback and linebacker.
“I’m not used to these positions,” Chase said. “Last year I played cornerback and halfback. I’ve had to adjust myself. Before I came here I wasn’t much of a tackler, and now I love to tackle. I didn’t really like to power run, but now I love to do it. I’ve just adapted.”
Tregg, on the other hand, is simply adjusting to playing varsity football. He starts on both sides of the ball and has one interception and three touchdowns. Last week against North Shore Country Day, he broke the game open with two fourth-quarter touchdowns, one receiving and one rushing.
“I try not to do less because everybody expects me not to do as well because I’m a freshman,” Tregg said. “I don’t think about it. I just play the game. I try not to say, if I get beat by a wide receiver, `Well, he’s a senior and I’m only a freshman.’ I think I’m doing all right.”
His coach, Matt Less, agreed.
“They’re both very athletic,” Less said. “Tregg is smart enough to use his athletic ability–nobody beats him deep. He gets a good jump on the ball. They’re quite different players. Chase, he can run, and he can run over you.”
Dave Duerson, trying not to sound like a typical proud father, perhaps paid his sons the ultimate compliment.
“At this stage of the game, they’re displaying more athletic ability than I ever did,” he said.
The Duersons, however, aren’t the only reason why Lake Forest Academy is having so much success. The Caxys boast one of the state’s leading rushers in Olufemi Adetiba, who has totaled 889 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“He’s a Division I talent,” Dave Duerson said of Adetiba. “The team is an impressive group of young men. They are not built around a group of individuals.”
The team, however, is perceived much differently. While the school gives out more than $1 million a year in financial aid, it is looked at as a high-brow, affluent school known for its academics.
“The teams we play, they say we’re not very good and we’re just a bunch of rich kids that don’t know how to play football,” said Chase, who attended Cushing boarding school in Massachusetts last year. “We don’t say anything on the field, we just kick their butts. That’s all we do is kick their butts, and I’m loving it.”
It’s hard to argue against Chase’s sentiments. His team has defeated its opponents by a 195-66 margin, including a 43-0 pasting of four-time defending Indian Trails Conference champion Williams Bay. Although the Caxys don’t necessarily play in a grueling conference, which includes Wisconsin School of the Deaf, Ethan Allen (a juvenile delinquent school in Wisconsin), Mooseheart, Maranatha Baptist and North Shore Country Day, they are well on their way to winning their first league championship since 1989.
But as well as Lake Forest Academy is doing, it won’t make a difference come November.
The Caxys are an associate member of the IHSA, which means they are not permitted to compete in the playoffs. The fact the school won’t compete in the postseason is a point of contention for many of the players, but Less said that’s the way it has to be. The school has the option to become a full member of the IHSA, which would mean it ultimately could compete in the playoffs. But that would come at too stiff of a price, Less said.
Because the academy is a boarding school, many of the transfer students would have to sit out a full year of athletics.
“It would be a great opportunity to play in the playoffs,” Less said. “But with it would come a lot more headaches. We put sports on a level here. We want kids to see what sports are all about, but that’s not all what we’re about. Just the idea of having so many transfers, and then they would have to wait a year to play.”
Sports are required at Lake Forest Academy. Freshmen and sophomores have to compete in three seasons of athletics (physical education is considered a sport) and juniors and seniors have to do two seasons. Having students sit out a year would defeat that purpose, Less said.
“I like the emphasis we have on sports and the emphasis we have on academics,” said Less, who played football at Columbia University. “We want athletics to be part of their life, but not all of it.”
Even so, Lake Forest Academy may be among the best small-school football teams not to compete in the playoffs.
“It bothers me that we can’t compete in state,” Chase Duerson said. “You can’t get recognition if you don’t go to state. The seniors on the team deserve a lot more.”
The thing is, there are only five seniors on the team.
“I didn’t expect this,” Chase Duerson said. “I thought this school would kind of be a school full of geeky kids. But it’s like, `Wow.’ We have great players here. For a long time we’ll be kicking butt.”
Duerson works with his sons on their footwork and how to tackle, but he said he tries not to be too hands-on. Chase and Tregg know to listen when he speaks, because they’re fully aware of what type of player he was.
“I’ve seen some tape,” Tregg said with a laugh. “I’ll give him his props–he was pretty good. He could hit–he could hit really hard. I hope I’m good enough to follow in his footsteps.”
“I was in awe all the time,” Chase said. “He was brutal–he could really hit. He teaches me how to hit properly. He teaches me where to hit, the basic fundamentals of hitting and beyond.”
The sons have also made an impression on their dad. Especially Chase, because at linebacker, he’s involved in a lot more plays.
“Some plays Chase made were amazing,” Duerson said. “You can see the aggressiveness, the way he gets there at impact.”
Must be hereditary, right?
“He gets it from his mom,” Duerson said.
