Speed, speed, speed and more speed. When Wilmington High School football coach Jeff Reents named his captains for the defense, seniors Tom Courtney, Steve Heino, Matt Russell and John Van Duyne were listed on a sheet of paper as lickety-split as lightning during a summer thunderstorm.
A transfer from Providence Catholic, the 6-foot, 186-pound Courtney came back for his second season as a starter at defensive end. Russell, a 6-0, 198-pound middle linebacker, solidified the inside foundation of the Wildcats' new 3-5 defense, while the 5-9, 158-pound Van Duyne returned for a third go-round as a cornerback regular.
Previously slotted as a linebacker, the 5-8, 154-pound Heino headed over to strong safety to complete the square deal. Reents, a Morris native who is now 126-39 in 15 years at Wilmington, continued to embrace change as a defensive coordinator by evolving from a 5-2 to a 4-4 to the 3-5, with his choice of captains fueling that hybrid.
They are quick.
They are swift.
They are fast.
"One thing we pride ourselves on defense here is using our speed," Reents said. "We went to a different scheme for this year, going from our even-man front to an odd-man front again, with our biggest emphasis on speed. And those guys, those four seniors, have done an outstanding job."
The standout foursome of Courtney, Heino, Russell and Van Duyne has the Wilmington defense running up the stairway of success. The Wildcats recorded their fifth shutout of the season, second in the past three weeks and first of the playoffs with a 6-0 victory over Sterling Newman Central Catholic last Saturday night.
That win whisked third-seeded Wilmington (11-0) into this Saturday's 1 p.m. kickoff in the Class 3A quarterfinals against second-seeded host Oregon (11-0). The Wildcats will enter with an offense averaging 32.3 points per page, but balanced that scoring ledger by holding Sterling Newman to zero or negative yardage on 17 plays.
Guess who? Russell landed 17 tackles, Van Duyne blocked a punt and intercepted a pass, Courtney notched a sack and Heino helped as the on-field coach.
"One thing about all these guys is their motor," Reents said. "With all good defensive guys, with all good defensive players, there's something about their motor. They're a little bit different. They have to be able to get after the ball, we want them to be physical, and those four guys are."
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At first, Matt Russell played quarterback, then fullback, then a little bit of linebacker. But unlike in basketball, where Russell resembles "The Natural" at point guard, Reents struggled with where to line him up. Courtney, meanwhile, plugged in from Providence at outside linebacker before finding his home on the defensive line.
One was a linebacker.
One became a linebacker.
"I think I'm in a position to make a lot of plays," Russell said. "Every week, everyone has to do their job, and I don't think my job is any different than anyone else's on the defense."
"I like the line a lot more," Courtney said. "It's more my stature, being aggressive and hitting up front. I'm usually on the end, and pretty much my job is to make sure the running back doesn't get outside, but I also take on the linemen and keep them off our linebackers like Russell so they can make the tackles and make big plays."
With Reents making the schematic move from four defensive linemen to three and from four linebackers to five, leaning on Courtney for experience on the line and finally settling on Russell as a linebacker brought the Wildcats' crew into a clearer focus.
"Matt always played football, but we weren't really sure where to put him," Reents said. "He started off at quarterback, we tried him at fullback and some linebacker, and he's a very good basketball player. He has come on this year as our inside linebacker and that has been a great surprise for us, too.
"When Tom came back here, came back to us, he had been an outside linebacker to begin with. But then we put him back down on the D-line and that's where he has stayed. He plays to our quick side, does a lot of slanting, a lot of stunting, and he has a very good motor. He has a motor that runs constantly."
For one, Russell's motor has been the Mesarati, pacing the Wilmington defense with 110 tackles and 55 solos.
"Our defense has played very well, we stepped up big last game, and I think we have great team chemistry," Russell said. "Everyone works hard together. We've played together since we were 5-years-old. We enjoy it and we all work hard. We all have one goal and that's to win, and the key is that everybody has worked hard for that goal."
It has been hard to top Courtney's line contribution. He has compiled 53 tackles (18 solos) and 4 sacks for a defense allowing only 6.1 points per game.
"We work pretty well together on the line, having to go inside and outside," Courtney said. "When we work together, it keeps the chemistry going.
"We played pretty good last week, and it showed that, yeah, our defense is as good as our offense. It showed that we could keep a tough team from scoring in a really tough game, and we almost held them for negative yards. We're on a pretty good roll right now."
Strong safeties in the 3-5 defense play as much like linebackers as they do like safeties, so Steve Heino had his heyday in Reents' plan. John Van Duyne, a wingback for offensive coordinator Barry Southall's high-powered attack, provided the type of experience at corner that allowed aggressiveness, and thus the dye was cast.
One was a defensive back.
One became a defensive back.
"Yeah, in this role, at times it's hard to judge between a pass and a run," Heino said. "You have to make the right read and get to your coverage or come up on the run and make a big stop, so you rely on the inside linebackers to play the run and you play the pass when it comes to you."
"We do a lot of one-on-one stuff," said Van Duyne, who teams up with junior Cort Scheel in the offensive backfield and the defensive secondary. "Coach Reents trusts us with that, and it's a big deal for me and Cort. Getting that trust from him puts us one-on-one and gives him the opportunity to send guys on blitzes."
Pressure to stop the run and pressure to hurry the pass has been the standard professed by the 3-5, and Reents believes he can bank on the athleticism of a projected all-state wrestler in Van Duyne plus the brains of Heino.
"John has been one of the best corners we've had here, and he has gotten better and better every year," Reents said. "As the defensive coordinator, one thing I'm blessed with is you look at their best receiver and then you look at John. It's like, you know, 'Hey, we'll see you on Friday night' because he'll do a great job on him.
"I have total faith in John, and we put a lot of pressure on him and Cort. They play a lot of man-to-man coverage, so we're able to turn the guys up front and our linebackers loose."
Turning those players free has sparked Van Duyne to deliver 46 tackles on 18 solos with 6 interceptions, while Heino has produced 43 tackles on 20 solos with 3 interceptions.
"Steve and John are both smaller guys, but they play with a ton of heart, and Steve is one of the smartest players I've had," Reents said. "He's great with adjustments. He had a real good night Saturday communicating with us about Sterling Newman was trying to do to us. It helps that Matt and Steve play only one side of the ball, so we can communicate on the sideline."
Because of that communication, Reents and Heino almost missed Van Duyne blocking a second-quarter punt. Junior linebacker Rich Heintz recovered it in the end zone like ketchup poured on a hamburger for the lone touchdown against Sterling Newman.
"I was kind of down because the ball hit me in the stomach," Van Duyne said. "It bounced into the end zone, I didn't even look down and I saw the fans go nuts, so I knew we scored. It's not only our defense, our special teams played great all night, and when you have two of the three playing better than the other team, that wins games."
When Courtney crashes in on the end, when the public-address announcer wears out his voice mentioning Russell for another tackle, when Van Duyne intercepts a pass and when Heino switches effortlessly between calling that pass or the run coverage, the theme of the Wilmington defense smacks the opponent like a face slap.
Speed.
Speed.
Speed.
And more speed.
But besides being quick, being swift and being fast, Courtney, Heino, Russell and Van Duyne share the burden and joys of leadership.
"Being a captain for this team is an honor itself," Heino said. "Just to be chosen to be a leader is a pretty prestigious role to play, and we have so many guys out there who are capable of leading and playing at a high level. Being able to lead them to make the plays that they do is a great honor."
Likewise, Van Duyne related the honor of wearing the Wildcat uniform, noting that "I've always felt comfortable playing football, but playing for Wilmington is a big deal." And with last week's defensive effort, Courtney confirmed that "we showed we're pretty much a balanced team. We can do offense, but we can also play defense."
Defensively, Wilmington has marked shutouts over Peotone (41-0), Reed-Custer (21-0), Lisle (24-0), Herscher (21-0) and last week's victim. As Russell said with a knowing nod, "our offense has scored so many points this season that our defense maybe has been overshadowed a little, but I think last game proved we have a good defense."
Having the goods, according to Reents, means the circles in circles and squares in squares. Courtney claimed the line, Russell revived at linebacker, Van Duyne rolled at corner and Heino slammed the hammer to the nail at strong safety -- all four mentioning the possibility of playing in the state title game for the first time since 2003.
"I'll tell you what, they have been great leaders for us all year long," Reents said. "Going into this year, I thought the key for us would be how our team came together, and when you talk about that, you look to your seniors for leadership. We have that.
"They have led us tremendously."
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