By Bryan Bloodworth
A pair of tradition-rich Livingston County teams – Prairire Central and Pontiac -are trying to get back on the winning track after sub .500 seasons last year and in the Corn Belt Conference.
It’s been two years since Prairie Central has been in the playoffs and first-year head coach Aaron Hilgendorf is excited about the opportunity to build the Hawks’ program back to playoff form after a 2-7 campaign last season.
“I’ve been looking forward to it all summer since I took the job,” said Hilgendorf. “It’s an exciting time. We’re just looking forward to getting better every day.”
Hilgendorf, who was an assistant coach at Watseka last year, inherits a squad that returns half its players from last season, including 18 senlors, and he likes what he’s seen.
“I see a lot of eager kids,” he said. “That’s real encouraging. As a coach you can’t ask for much more than that. They are eager to learn. We’re building every day. I like the morale of the kids and they are buying in to what we want to do with the program.”
Hilgendorf said the Hawks will try to spread teams out with their offense.
“We’ll primarily be a spread team,” he added. “I think every team wants to run the ball. Championship-type teams want to run the ball and need to run the ball, but you have to have a good balance. We’re going to throw the ball and we have some good weapons outside we’d like to utilize.”
And what about on the defensive side of the ball?
“We’re going to stay with our even front and mix up coverage a little bit,” continued Hilgendord. “Bring pressure sometimes, but we’re going to stick to our 4-3 scheme, play good sound defense and get to the football the best we can.”
Meanwhile, former Pontiac standout Buck Casson returns for his third season as the Indians’ head coach with the goal of instilling the winning ways back into a program he holds dear to his heart after a 3-6 mark a year ago.
“I love Pontiac football,” he said. “It’s something that’s probably like that in a lot of small towns or communities around here. Whenever you’re born and raised in that area and you’re used to being a part of that culture then that’s what you know and that’s what you love.
‘I’m very fortunate to be a part of it and we’re hoping that more people, who go through our program, keep on feeling that way and the more numbers we have shows we are reaching that mentality once again.”
Casson believes the Indians’ strength is in his players.
“In general, I feel like we have a bunch of athletes,” he added. ‘ It feels like the supporting cast is significantly better this year and in the upcoming years as well.”
