Joliet Central eyes growth spurt

Updated: June 14, 2011 10:40AM

Joliet Central football coach Mike Maloney hopes the growing pains in 2011 are a little less severe than they were in 2010.

The Steelmen battled their way through an 0-9 season in their first campaign after Joliet Township split its athletic programs for the first time since the mid-1990s. Joliet Central faced not only a strong learning curve with an inexperienced team but a demanding schedule in the rugged SouthWest Suburban Blue.

“It was very frustrating last year,” Maloney said. “We faced a relentless schedule and that was certainly not conducive to building a program. We took our lumps, but we also learned a lot about ourselves and what it takes to be more competitive.”

That learning continues as the Steelmen began their summer workouts with an appearance Saturday at the annual 7-on-7 Passing Jamboree hosted by the University of St. Francis at Memorial Stadium. Joliet Central was one of 12 schools that participated, seven of which are from the Herald-News area.

“We approached this today with more of a defensive focus,” Maloney said, “since we employ a run-oriented offense. But it still gave all of our skill-position players a chance to show what they can do against outside competition. Events like this help to raise our competitive level. They give us a chance to play against some other schemes, and they certainly help break the monotony of summer workouts.

“We made some mistakes out there today, and I was perfectly fine with that. We’ve only been in summer workouts for a week and I stressed to the kids that they should not be afraid to make mistakes. This is a learning process and events like this give us a great chance to see what we can do and find out what different players can do in different situations.”

Maloney, who is looking for more consistency from his team this season, is happy he has some good leaders returning.

Senior cornerback K.T. Carpenter and senior linebacker Drakkar Williams will lead the defensive group.

“Carpenter missed this workout today because he was standing up in his brother’s wedding,” Maloney said. “Williams is coming off a knee injury, but I am excited to see them both on the field as we continue our summer workouts.”

The offense also returns key players, most notably quarterback Carlos Curry and junior running back Malik Neal. Curry was the second-leading rusher for the Steelmen last season (337 yards on 104 carries), trailing only Neal, who ran for 522 yards on 117 attempts.

Curry will have some competition. Maloney expects sophomore Booz Phillips to make a hard push for the starting quarterback position.

“Whoever emerges as the best leader will likely get the quarterback job,” Maloney said. “I am really excited about our personnel on offense. It is nice to see the skill level that we have at the key positions.

“Neal will be our featured back. He is the heart and soul of what we are doing from an offensive standpoint.”

Maloney and his team are eager to get the season started.

“We start off with Lincoln-Way West and that is all we are focused on right now,” Maloney said. “They took it to us pretty good last year in our first game and we’re looking forward to a better effort this year.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.