It’s hard to pick a low point in Waukegan’s miserable 2005 football season.
When you finish 0-9 while scoring 38 points and allowing 376, it truly is one long skid across the ocean floor.
But if one moment symbolizes that futility, it took place during the season finale when two offensive players were thrown out of the game for fighting.
Their opponents were each other.
“I’ve never seen that before in my life,” Waukegan coach Pat Jennings said Monday.
The incident seemed all too fitting for a team that fulfilled the stereotype of Waukegan as a program long on athleticism but short on discipline, and it drove Jennings nuts.
He played on Gordon Tech’s 1980 Class 6A state championship team and had arrived at Waukegan in 2005 determined to establish a Chicago Catholic League-style program. That, above all, meant discipline and commitment, and he had a hard time finding either.
“After that first year I thought I was the worst coach in the history of Earth,” he said.
It takes a while, but history changes, and last Friday night Waukegan defeated host Maine East 43-0 to improve to 3-0, its best start since 1996.
It faces a tough four-game stretch that begins Saturday against Glenbrook North, but Waukegan has a decent shot at finishing at least 5-4 and earning its first playoff berth since 2001. Its players, aware their school is 0-4 in playoff games, are interested in more than showing up.
“We already made history,” said senior linebacker/center Mark Bon, referring to his team’s fast start. “We want to make bigger history.”
Jennings, who had coached against Waukegan in 2004 as an assistant at Central Suburban League South rival Evanston, knew he was taking on a big task in his first varsity head coaching job but soon realized he had underestimated the challenge. He would go through five quarterbacks and three offensive systems that first year, at one point adopting a run-oriented attack to keep the clock moving and scores less lopsided.
“It was a shock,” said senior receiver Roman Edingburg, who had played on a 7-1-1 freshman team before joining the varsity in 2005. “I wasn’t used to losing.”
After the season Jennings put an all-out blitz on failure. He ran team breakfasts, stepped up the off-season program and demanded better grades and attitudes.
Players would have to sign a 14-page contract committing them to being role models in the school and community, and Jennings brought in assistant coaches Nick Browder and Jermaine Lewis, Waukegan players who had succeeded in college and therefore were the best kind of role models.
Most players bought into the new approach. Those who didn’t, including a few talented performers, didn’t last long.
Jennings also lightened his non-conference schedule, opening last season with two games that figured to be — and ultimately were — victories. He wanted his athletes to taste winning because he believed that would make it harder to accept losing.
“The hardest thing to teach a high school kid is how to win,” said the jut-jawed Jennings, who coaches with an almost perpetual bark, as if he fears letting up for a moment might allow 2005 to catch up with him.
He also had to convince his players they could win in the Central Suburban League. Seven straight losses to CSL opponents followed last year’s 2-0 start, and while most of those defeats were closer than they had been in 2005, much work clearly remained.
Fortunately, Jennings would be doing it with about two dozen seniors, many of them good students and leaders. His top senior players include Edingburg, Bon, running back/linebacker Montral Barnes, receiver/defensive back Rashaan Melvin, running back/defensive back Melvin McBride, linebacker/running back Luis Santana and lineman De’Tuan Inmon. Most have a shot to play in college.
They helped beat Mather 34-0 in this year’s opener and Mundelein 19-7 before routing Maine East of the CSL North, breaking a 19-game losing streak against league opponents. Waukegan is excelling while using a no-huddle, shotgun, spread offense that exploits junior quarterback Mar’Quezie Edmonds’ running and passing ability and talent at wide receiver and defies those who believed its players were too undisciplined to succeed without a huddle.
Other keys include a quick, aggressive defense and improved depth, the latter including junior backup QB Burke Morrill. He performed well in place of Edmonds, who broke a small bone in his left hand against Mundelein but may return against Maine South in two weeks.
The question now is whether Waukegan will slide like last year. The answer, Jennings said, rests in how well his players handle the pressure and expectations that come with success.
“This team in its heart of hearts has to believe it’s good enough to play with these guys,” said Jennings, who was still working on his players’ confidence in his postgame talk last Friday.
The Bulldogs, their confidence especially boosted by the victory over a solid Mundelein team, swear they believe.
“We have a new mind-set,” Bon said.
“Now,” Edingburg added, “we expect to win.”
Jennings expects to win for a while, thanks to some talented juniors and a loaded freshman class.
His seniors want to leave a legacy for them.
“It’s our last year,” Barnes said. “We want to make a difference.”
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btemkin@tribune.com
