By Madeline Savoie

The weather conditions were treacherous. The sweltering hot sun beat down on their helmets and sweat dripped down their faces. Add in some slow-mo running shots and the Lane Tech Varsity Football practice could have been in a Nike commercial. Lane’s football teams practiced rigorously all summer long in order to shape up for this season, and not even the summer heat slowed them down.

“If you’re out in that weather everyday like we were, the heat becomes normal,” one Varsity Captain, Alexander Mueller, Div. 273, said. “Believe it or not, the heat actually helped us and made us a stronger, more focused team.”

Though many of Lane’s fall sports teams begin practicing in August, only a few teams can reach the collected number of hours put in by Lane’s football players throughout the year. From off-season lifting and conditioning, to summer football camp in June and July, to five hour long practices five days a week starting in August after a short two week break, these boys put in the time to prepare themselves for the season.

“Every team at this school pushes to be the best,” another Varsity Captain, Daniel Murray, Div. 267, said. “I wouldn’t say we work significantly harder, but we do put in an enormous amount of hours.”

With so many fans doubting the team’s ability to succeed this year, the team is working much harder to prove themselves to the school as the champions they know they are.

“Those people who criticize us aren’t with us everyday and aren’t a part of [our team],” Mueller said. “We may not be the biggest or fastest, but this team definitely has the most heart. Other schools may or may not have put in as much time as us this summer, but I know we worked the hardest.”

With an entirely new coaching staff, offense, and defense put in within the last two years, there was a lot of learning for the players and the team to accomplish.

“The football team has gone through so much to try and return to where we are expected to be at the School of Champions,” Murray said. “After a whole year under our belt of running one of the most complex offenses, a new defensive scheme, and many new special team plays, our team is light years ahead of last year.”

The team’s recent losses in their first two games against two tough suburban and Catholic League teams, Glen Brook North and De La Salle, motivated the team to overpower the Bogan Bengals, 28-6, in their third game of the year. All three captains and the rest of the team expect to carry that motivation with them to Homecoming and dominate against Whitney Young at the big game.

Though the two first losses had the team members’ heads hung low, Kevin Yoo, Div. 273, says that he and his fellow captains make sure the team keeps their heads up no matter what.

“We will have a great season, because I believe in this team, the coaches, and the unity that we have,” Yoo said.