Hoerster settles in at Oak Park

Updated: July 12, 2011 11:37AM

It didn’t take Matt McCormack long to notice the changes with new Oak Park-River Forest football coach John Hoerster. For example, McCormack is going to bed earlier this summer.

That’s because Huskies players are required to get up pretty early now that Hoerster is in charge.

“It’s very, very different,” said McCormack, a 5-foot-11, 205-pound senior linebacker. “The program is different. I guess we’re practicing earlier now.”

Players are expected to report to school for a daily 6:30 a.m. meeting and are on the field by 7 a.m. for summer workouts. After school ended in June, many other area football teams began summer workouts the next Monday.

Hoerster, a former assistant coach at Mount Carmel, gave his team an extra week off. Now players such as McCormack are finding out why. Hoerster is putting the Huskies to work.

“We’ve got a positive vibe going on now,” McCormack said. “It’s good. It started in the winter in the weight room. We had a long time to get to know (Hoerster). We all built camaraderie.”

Hoerster brought only one coach with him from Mount Carmel. Tim Fischer has moved over as an assistant coach and will work with linebackers such as McCormack.

Other coaches from former coach Jim Nudera’s staff, such as veteran assistant Al Allen, have returned.

“We have great coaches here,” said Hoerster, an Oak Park resident.

McCormack also is playing summer league baseball with the Huskies and is balancing the two sports this summer.

“It’s going fine,” McCormack said. “(The coaches) make it easy.”

McCormack and the rest of the Huskies participated in the first West Suburban Conference 7-on-7 passing tournament June 28 and June 30 at Addison Trail. OPRF played four games each day in the event, which featured 11 conference teams. Only Downers South and Proviso East and West did not attend and Hinsdale Central was a late entry.

Hoerster was one of four new coaches at the West Suburban 7-on-7, including Hinsdale Central’s Rich Tarka, Hinsdale South’s Mike Barry and Willowbrook’s Nick Hildreth.

Hoerster is bringing the run-oriented Mount Carmel option offense to OPRF, which doesn’t exactly cater to the pass-happy 7-on-7 format. While the Huskies were running rare plays without a running back, Barry was practicing his new passing offense at Hinsdale South – the no-huddle spread.

“We’re vanilla (now). We have a new offense and new defense. We’re just trying to get on the same page,” Hoerster said. “We’ll keep as balanced as we can. We’ll run the ball first, but to be successful you have to have the ability to pass. I think it begins with the running game. Football games are won by the guys up front.”

Some other conference teams will compete in several 7-on-7 sessions during their 25 contact days over the summer, but Hoerster has scheduled only one more for the Huskies. OPRF will host a small 7-on-7 at 6 p.m. July 14, which will also feature Fenwick.

At Addison Trail, many schools were in their third week of summer practice while the Huskies were in their second week.

“I see it as an opportunity for guys to compete against other schools and not just going against our defense,” Hoerster said.

The Huskies will look to improve on both sides of the ball from last season. OPRF’s 171 points were the fewest in the conference and the defense ranked sixth with 238 points allowed. OPRF was outscored 200-70 in conference play.

The IHSA officially released its football season schedules last week. The Huskies (2-7 last season, 0-6 conference) open at Glenbard North on Aug. 26.

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