Q&A With Coach Wood

Patch.com: Great season this year for the Knights, though I know you were disappointed with not making the playoffs after coming so close. You did, however, have an amazing offensive scheme that really gave defensive coaches fits.

Coach Steve Wood: We put up a lot of points this year, in fact, the most we’ve ever scored. We knew we had some weapons in A.J. Fish, Josh Cokefair, Charlie Pine and David Collins. We went to a lot of clinics, talked with a lot of coaches and picked and chose what we wanted to bring into our offense.

Patch.com: You definitely had a lot of speed on your team. We haven’t seen that kind of speed in quite some time, if ever.

Coach Wood: You got that right. We had by far the fastest team that we’ve ever had at North. Josh Cokefair was just running away from people. He was banged up early and didn’t get his full speed until week three or four. From that point forward he was pretty hard to catch.

Patch.com: You put up a lot of points against some really good defenses this year, including 21 against Jacobs.

Coach Wood: We didn’t play well in that Jacobs game with six turnovers. Had we not turned the ball over so much, I think we could have scored 40-45 points against them. We were still learning the offense and only scored 6 points against Lakes (and held them to 17), so with the 21 against Jacobs, that was our lowest point totals of the season.

Patch.com: Well, you certainly had the offense firing on all cylinders by the end of the season.

Coach Wood: We went into our last three games and had the lead in all of them and really could have, should have, would have. But we came up short on the defensive side of the ball. We’ve got A.J. coming back at quarterback and Charlie Pine and David Collins so we’re pretty excited about where we are at this point.

Patch.com: With the weapons you will have next year, your team should be an offensive force and give plenty of Fox Valley defensive coaches nightmares trying to figure out how to stop you.

Coach Wood: That’s what we’re hoping for. Our focus will be on how to turn our defense around a little and hope the offense continues to click. Our defense has to give us a chance to win. When we’re scoring 35-40 points in a game and still not winning, then we have to fix that.

Patch.com: Defensively, who are you looking to step up and lead your team next year?

Coach Wood: We return some pretty good linebackers like Jesse Davis, a sophomore who played up.

Patch.com: He’s a decent quarterback as well.

Coach Wood: He is. That’s why we went to this offensive scheme of ours, because we knew that we had three good quarterbacks. Our freshman quarterback is really good, too. He just might be our second best quarterback, to be honest with you.

Defensively, we have some holes to fill with seniors graduating that have played for a couple of years. We have some good sophomores coming up and some juniors-to-be that backed up our starters this year. We have our work to do defensively as coaches to get ready for next year.

Patch.com: So there will be some good competition for starting spots next year?

Coach Wood: Kids are really going to have to compete next year. Our freshmen went 8-1 and won the conference. There’s a good chance that we’re going to have a handful of those kids up on the varsity next year as sophomores. The offseason this year will determine how our season goes next year. That’s how football is and you know that.

Patch.com: Will many of the kids be wrestling this winter?

Coach Wood: Well, it hasn’t started yet, but we’ll have a fair share. Jimmy Prince is really good wrestler and anchored our defense as a linebacker. We’d love to get more kids out to wrestle, but it’s getting harder and harder to get kids to see the benefits of wrestling.

Patch.com: Are you involved with the offseason conditioning program?

Coach Wood: We have about seven coaches who are involved with that. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we will be working with our varsity kids, and Tuesdays and Thursdays with our freshmen from now until the school year ends.

Patch.com: Grayslake North has only been competing at a varsity level for such a short period of time (since 2006), and the growth of the football program has been phenomenal.

Coach Wood: It really has. We had some struggles early, and it’s really starting to come around. We’re not quite where Grayslake Central is. You know they made the playoffs the last two years in a row. Obviously they will have their work cut out for them with Joey Valdivia graduating this year. They’ve had quite a bit of success over there. I really think that the better each school does, the more it pushes the other school. Hopefully we can get some good stuff going in Grayslake between the two of us.

Patch.com: Both Grayslake schools are showing the rest of the conference and area teams that they just can’t come in here and chalk this up as an easy win. They are really going to have to come in here and battle to come away with a victory.

Coach Wood: You’re right. It’s been a long time since we could say that. We were the doormats of the league for a long time. Both coaching staffs and kids have worked extremely hard to erase that stigma from our town.

Patch.com: I think your time is coming soon. I would be truly amazed if North does not make the playoffs next year.

Coach Wood: I really thought we had a chance this year, and we came up a little bit short. I definitely like the way the tide has turned. We are on an upward swing, and I’m pretty excited to be the coach, to be honest with you.

Patch.com: You certainly appear to have had the kids buy into your program to keep building upon your successes.

Coach Wood: We’ve got a great group of kids. They listen to their coaches. We just hope that will translate into a few more wins.

Patch.com: What were your goals for the team at the beginning of the year?

Coach Wood: We definitely wanted to make the playoffs. We made no bones about it. We knew we had a tough nonconference schedule. We knew we had to beat Grayslake Central and Woodstock North and we didn’t do it. We lost five games and all five teams went into the playoffs and had at least six wins.

Patch.com: Does your team need to develop a tougher mindset of closing teams out, especially on defense?

Coach Wood: Yes. That’s something the coaching staff has looked at. It’s one of the projects I have given my assistants to do over the offseason to see what we can do differently. This is the first year that we’ve had that problem. Usually our defense plays really well and keeps us in the games, but this year it didn’t happen. It’s twice as frustrating to me because first of all, I’m the head coach and secondly, I’m the defensive coordinator. I’ve got great coaches and we will figure it out and won’t have the same problem next fall.

Patch.com: I think you do a great job at North and you really do a nice job with the kids.

Coach Wood: Thank you very much. I really appreciate that.