You are who you are. Might as well enjoy it.
After 13 weeks of games, six months of preparation, and a year or a lifetime of conditioning, for the best and most fortunate of the 256 playoff football teams there’s one step left — this weekend’s IHSA state finals at Hancock Stadium in Bloomington-Normal.
There aren’t a lot of surprises. There is plenty of gratitude.
“We’re there,” Geneva coach Troy “Boone” Thorgesen told his players on Monday, “so we’ve done a lot of things that every one of you wanted to do and everybody that put pads on in Illinois wanted to do when they started the season.
“We’re the lucky ones that keep playing, and we’re going to enjoy it, we’re going to have fun, and we’re going to be loose and do what we do.”
The greatest challenge a head coach may have this week is keeping things simple, sticking to routine in what could be a once-in-a-lifetime scenario.
Other than when he played at Northern Illinois University after graduating from Kaneland High School, Thorgesen has never practiced on Thanksgiving.
Neither have his players, though running backs coach Sean Grady and program assistant Michael Santacaterina played for the Vikings’ 2008 7A runner-up. Sophomore coach Brad Wendell also was on staff in 2008.
It’ll be a quick 90-minute Thanksgiving morning practice before players head back to their homes and families “because that’s important, too,” Thorgesen said.
The coach’s attempt at weekly normalcy included Monday’s film session followed by “Teaching Tuesday” (getting up to speed on Class 6A foe East St. Louis) and “Work Wednesday” (full-speed practice), “Feel Good Thursday” (cleaning things up) and “Walk-through Friday,” before Saturday’s big game.
“We’ll kind of keep it the same,” Thorgesen said. “That’s the motto, that’s the goal this week, as it’s prep for another game.”
He’s a fourth-year head coach in his first state title game, but it’s a message common even to veterans of these moments.
Montini head coach Mike Bukovsky, whose Broncos face Monticello in Friday’s Class 3A final, will be in his 10th state championship as an assistant or head coach.
Bukovsky says the same things: “Do what we have done all year long, and control what we can control.”
Thorgesen doesn’t lack for advice.
Batavia coach Dennis Piron, preparing his team for the 7A title game against Mt. Carmel, “has been fantastic” in reaching out to Thorgesen, he said.
Retired Geneva coach Rob Wicinski, who had Thorgesen on his staff as a sophomore coach five seasons before Thorgesen got the head job in 2021, has been there as well.
Of course Boone’s father, Joe Thorgesen, won consecutive 3A titles at Kaneland in 1997 and 1998.
“You just kind of see what they did, and obviously things are always different and you’ve always got to put your twist on it, what works for your team and schedule,” Boone Thorgesen said. “But it’s always nice to hear what other coaches have done in the past. When they practice on Thanksgiving, preparation leading up and whatnot.”
The best advice he’s received, for his players and himself, has nothing to do with East St. Louis, offense, defense or special teams.
“Just enjoy it,” Thorgesen said.
“You work so hard in this and invest so much of your time, just enjoy it, soak it in. Because you’re going to look back and one, you may never get here again; and two, you’ve made a lot of memories so you just want to enjoy the heck out of it. Because it is pretty special.”
