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Curie eyes end to playoff drought
Updated: September 8, 2011 6:40PM
Curie’s football coaches and players are well aware of their history and are determined not to repeat it.
The Condors cemented their status as one of the Public League’s top programs by playing in their first Prep Bowl last season. But that run in the city playoffs was possible only because Curie fell to 0-17 all-time in IHSA postseason play with a Class 8A first-round loss to Homewood-Flossmoor,
Mention that record of futility to the Condors’ best player, Iowa-bound Maurice Fleming, or to fifth-year coach Tyson LeBlanc, and the response is a grim smile and a pained laugh. The Condors, who like the state’s other high school football teams begin preseason workouts on Wednesday, want to make their mark on a larger stage this fall.
“Don’t worry about that,” Fleming said of the lack of IHSA postseason success. “We’re going to fix that one. We made history last year; we’re going to make history [again] this year and before I leave I’m going to make sure we win at least two state [playoff] games.”
“Not to belittle the Prep Bowl and the history behind the Prep Bowl – we had an awesome experience last year,” LeBlanc said. “But if you’re in the state of Illinois and your ultimate goal isn’t to win the state championship, then you’re doing a disservice to your program.”
The Condors graduated some key members of last year’s 9-6 team, including current Wisconsin defensive end James Adeyanju, But there’s also big-time talent back, led by Fleming and Vaughn King.
Fleming, a 6-foot, 180-pounder, picked Iowa over Indiana and Wisconsin. A quarterback, defensive back and likely punt returner for the Condors, he’s been told he’ll be a DB, return kicks and possibly play some wide receiver for the Hawkeyes as a true freshman. King (5-11, 235) is a hard-hitting linebacker with an offer in hand from Western Illinois.
Their job, according to Fleming, is to make sure their younger teammates are up to the challenge of competing in the Public League’s toughest section – the Illini Red Bird, which also includes Simeon, Dunbar and Young, among others – and ending that state playoff drought.
“We’re taking it back old school,” Fleming said. “We can’t be nice. When we [were] playing peewee football, our coaches yelled at us, taught us the right way. We’ve go to yell at them and tell them the right way. We’ve got to coach them, [be] like the point guard on a basketball team.”
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