Willowbrook has had a resurgence in the last 3 years with some very solid teams. It looks like this year they are looking good as well. In the meantime Montini has not been as dominant and had early playoff exits. Is there a correlation? They’re one town apart and I know in the past Villa Park frequently sent kids to Montini. Have the better players opted to go to Willowbrook instead of Montini? Honest question for the board.
Willowbrook/Montini question
- Thread starter eagles2k3
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Location, location, location. If a catholic School (oops! Meant to say private) known for its football program is in an area that has public schools with poor athletic and sometimes academics, then they will get those athletes. Especially those that attended catholic grammar schools. Driscoll vs. AT or Fenton - no contest. Montini when GBE and Willowbrook were really bad. Same thing. Earlier JC and PC before the Lincolnways showed up. 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s Mt Carmel and Rita. Same thing. Now, if the area public schools improve as the private tuition increases, then some of that talent flows the other way. Why is St. Fransis not power? Wheaton North, Wheaton South, GBW and the Naperville. If Willowbrook and GBE can improve, then they will start t get potential Montini kids
I'd say that Willowbrook has improved due to head coach Nick Hildreth and the switch from a double-wing offense to the spread offense. Hildreth is the unsung hero of the western suburbs. Montini's best and core players in the championship runs weren't from Villa Park. Montini slippage results more from the retirement of Adriano and a staff in transition searching for its voice and scholarship backers.
Agreed I don't think many of the star players from Montini came from Villa Park. The only one I can think of was years ago, Garrett Goebel. Goebel was a captain at Ohio State.
The reason for Montini not doing well in the playoffs lately is the retirement of Andriano and transition to Bu and the dominance of Prairie Ridge.
The reason for Montini not doing well in the playoffs lately is the retirement of Andriano and transition to Bu and the dominance of Prairie Ridge.
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Willowbrook also has a couple of good assistant coaches from Driscoll football, the Gebharts.
With Andriano’s retirement do you think that has affected how many studs Montini has been getting ? There was a run of big-time Division I players and haven’t really seen that in the last few years .
All.... I know it's calpreps and one has to take computer generated score projections (always) with a grain of salt but they are not showing much love for the Broncos. 42-7 at a neutral site Warriors. Even though Montini is 5A and Willowbrook is in 6A I believe this would be a good competitive game if they played each other. Ratsy
and success factor. playing back in 5A, where they belong will allow them to succeed further in the playoffs, should they get there.
Well one media outlet has them now having 3 of the top 80 players in the state. One signed with Illinois and one with Kent State. That's very good for a coed school with 600 kids.
I think depth is going down as the years go by. There is more two way starters now then previous years. That hurts you in the 3rd and 4th quarters if you want to compete against the top 7a and 8a schools.
If Montini could find a way to get those kids from Villa Park and the ones from around Addison when Driscoll closed they would really be great.
Right now there is a lot of private school competition in the western burbs, people are leaving IL in droves, taxes in IL are ridiculous and mix that in with high tuition costs makes it more difficult to get that talent like the past.
Willowbrook's offense has been putting up big number for the last couple years. I would think the offensive coordinator Mike Marotta would have a lot to do with that as well.
I'm not saying youare trashing Andriano or Bukovsky, but Bukovsky has won a ton of state titles in wrestling and one in softball. He will win one in football. Just because Montini lost in the first round last year doesn't mean they program is going down the tubes. The biggest difference between Montini in the past and now is Bukovsky switched the offense. They still went 6-3 last year and will go 6-3 or better this year.
Unrelated I believe
Willowbrooks success is largely the result of a talented coaching staff and kids who have bought in. Montini will be successes factor again in 2020.
Willowbrooks success is largely the result of a talented coaching staff and kids who have bought in. Montini will be successes factor again in 2020.
I will never trash Andriano or Bu. I think very highly of both of them. That will never change. All I said is the team depth is shrinking due to economics, not as many parents letting kids play football and I think private school enrollment levels overall are slowly getting smaller due to all the corruption in our state government.
Could it just be natural cycles? If you look programs it is very rare a program to stay at the truly elite level for more than 10 years. Montini will be good but not elite and that’s fine.
Willowbrook is on the upswing and if I had to guess I would bet it has more to do with coaching and mining the halls for talent rather then getting kids from Montini.
Willowbrook is on the upswing and if I had to guess I would bet it has more to do with coaching and mining the halls for talent rather then getting kids from Montini.
Willowbrook would have played Montini last year in the playoffs but Montini lost to Dekalb in the first round and did not win a play off game for the 1st time in many years. Quite frankly last years team was very good on offense and average on defense. A lot of talent has come back this year. Last year was the 1st year for Coach Bu and a new offensive coordinator and it showed in several games which were lost. Don't look to see that happening again. Montini dropped down to 5A so they won't face Willowbrook anytime soon but Montini gets kids from all over the West suburbs and not so many from the Southwest suburbs. I do not see them being average this year or in the immediate future. They will have solid football teams for the next 4 years at least.
Could win it this year and next year will be a better team.
Glenbard East is 4-0. Gotta think they are also keeping talent that normal would be Broncos
Everybody 4-0 in VP and Lombard! Maybe a few from GE, but not many...
I don't know if it really would be more than a few from GE either.
I'm not really familiar with the new conference GE plays in now but they really seemed to struggle when playing in the DVC conference.
I'm not really familiar with the new conference GE plays in now but they really seemed to struggle when playing in the DVC conference.