DANVILLE — It seemed at times inexperience was the theme for the Danville football team.
A mostly young team struggled to a 2-7 record last year, which means a team of experience is here for this year to improve.
“This year, we feel a little better because of the natural growth of kids getting a year of experience of understanding the speed of the game, the physicality in the conference and a year of being in our system and getting used to the coaching.
“As 10th or 11th graders, they were not really accustomed to that, but this year, the experience and understanding has helped them. They are growing together and understanding a little bit more how cohesiveness work when they play together. Last year, they were trying to solely focus on not messing up on their job, now they understand the importance of their job and how it affects the overall play.”
The Vikings return seven seniors, led by wide receiver/cornerback D’Mario Jackson, who has not stopped working since winning three gold medals at the IHSA Class 2A track meet in May.
“Coming off track season and doing some big things, people expect you to take a week off. But I made a commitment to the team and I decided to go in and work on football,” Jackson said. “We are really dedicated and we have been working since the start of summer to get ready for the season, We have a lot to prove as a team.”
“He is one the best teammates anyone can have,” Forrest said. “As talented a he is, as much as he was good of winning the 100, 200 and 400, he put effort into a relay because he was looking for other kids to go to state. He is one of the best kids that we have that can lead the others. Nothing get to his head, he just continues to work and improve.
“He is one of those kids you wish you had more of and you hate to see him go. As a state champion that comes back, he didn’t focus solely on track, he came back because he enjoys football, competing and hanging with his teammates. There is nothing more than you can ask for a kid than to be that person that want to encourage and teach those around him.”
Jackson is one of the returners for last season that had solid moments and are hoping for more.
“We have D’Mario Jackson, Amillian Beasley and Allante Anderson in the backfield, while on the line we have Jerral Morris, Ashton Anderson, Kyle Loewenstein, Mekhye Gouard, Bentley Lewsader and Christyan Forbes. So we have a whole line that has played a game at some point last season.”
As a senior leader, Jackson said it is time to reverse things from last season so his last year in Danville is a memorable one.
“After that 2-7 last season, me and the seniors stepped up,” Jackson said. :We don’t want a season where we go 2-7 again, so we just want to make sure that everyone is doing their part and we are as well.”
The main controversy is quarterback, where Aidan Henderson started in his senior season last year. For his replacement, Forrest is thinking about a platoon.
“We have had some changes from last year, even with those who played quarterback who are not with us this year,” Forrest said. “It will be by committee. We will have a couple of different kids. Last year, we had one returner from last year in Rylan Moore. It is about developing what we are going to have and who will be the one that we can put in to stabilized us, but we have a week to work on it.”
Whoever is the quarterback will have a good bunch of runners to help him.
“We have a stable of running backs that run hard and fast,” Forrest said. “Amillian can run hard and Allante, who was part of the 400 relay team that set the school record and you have D’Mario who will play running back some times and you have Demario Kropp-Morris, Jaymion Cunningham, who is a sophomore who as learned and grown to earn our trust and Tarnell Young.”
Other than the seniors, the juniors and sophomores will be there to try to make an impact as well.
“We will still have a lot of juniors who were sophomores and played last year and sophomores who were freshmen,” Forrest said. “We have Jaymion Cunningham, we have Tarnell Young, who is another young man that will play running back and linebacker. We have Talmadge Brown, who will play tight end for us and we will expect a nice bit of to see what he can do. Owen Gritton will be a junior, he played as a freshman, but he took a sabbatical last season. He’s a nice sized kid that’s smart and that will help us.”
The first chance to see a change for the Vikings will be in their first game on Aug. 21 at Champaign Central. Not only is it a rivalry matchup, but it is a chance for Danville to get revenge from a 36-14 loss at home to the Maroons last season.
“They have always been a rivalry game and they got us pretty good,” Forrest said. “They are a confident team, they have a nice bit of size, athleticism and speed coming back and another year of growing in their system with their coach.
“They came to our place and put a whopping on us. So we will see off the bat how much we have grown and how much better that we have gotten and improved and see how competitive we are with them next Friday.”
“It would be a great game to get a win,” Jackson said. “They beat us pretty bad in our home turf, so we are going to come in dedicated and trying to get the win.”
If they can get the win next week, along with a few others, the Vikings could make the playoffs thanks to the expanded playoffs, but Forrest said he wants no doubts.
“We want to see a turnaround. We want to get back to being the fast, physical tough and smart football team we are accustomed to being,” Forrest said. “We want it to be an abnormality that we had a dropoff season and that we can bounce back. Wherever we play and whoever we are against, we want to leave an impression of how good and disciplined and physical we are. It is not like Minnesota or Indiana, where everyone makes it, but they dropped it and you have yourself an opportunity. We want to grow and play so we can earn it but also compete when we get there.”