Nazareth has won back-to-back Class 5A state championships. Still, the road to those titles hasn’t been smooth, especially through the regular season.
The Roadrunners started 0-4 last year and barely squeaked into the playoffs. They were 2-5 to begin the 2022 season.
A lot of those struggles are because of the schedule. Nazareth plays a loaded slate featuring some of the area’s top teams, often much bigger schools.
Roadrunners coach Tim Racki and his players don’t believe that’s an acceptable excuse for the losses. Last year in the preseason, Nazareth talked about improving its mentality. This year, the focus for the No. 4 Roadrunners is on conditioning.
“This camp has been tremendously hard,” Racki said. “That’s because of my failures in preparation the past two years. So I did a lot of research and soul searching and talking to other people. And so we think so far, the plan’s been working great in terms of getting them in shape, mentally and physically.”
Senior quarterback Logan Malachuk is on board. He took over the starting job halfway through his freshman season.
“These are the hardest practices I’ve had, just with the amount of running and conditioning,” Malachuk said. “There’s been a lot of issues with cramping in the past. That won’t happen this season. We will be ready. Probably the best conditioned team in the state.”
Malachuk passed for 3,477 yards last season and accounted for 42 total TDs.
Seventeen starters return for Nazareth, possibly the most any state champion has ever brought back. And that doesn’t even tell the whole story.
“I’ve never had this many seniors that are four-year players,” Racki said. “We have five or six. And there are a lot of seniors that are two- or three-year starters.”
Stanford recruit Gabe Kaminski leads the defense. He has played multiple positions in his four-year career but will focus on linebacker this season. Kaminski thinks the hot, humid temperatures in the first few weeks of the season have been a factor in Nazareth’s slow starts.
“We just weren’t prepared overall,” he said. “That won’t happen again.”
Senior cornerback Garrett Reese, an Indiana recruit, is one of the team’s most improved players, according to Racki.
The Roadrunners have talented, college-level players all over the field. Receivers James Penley, Trenton Walker and Jaden Fauske are threats, and junior Lesroy Tittle has made a significant impact on both sides of the ball in his first two seasons.
Once again, the schedule is loaded, with very few automatic wins. The Week 3 matchup with Mount Carmel stands out. Both schools are on two-year state-title runs.
“They are one of the best programs, if not the best, in Illinois,” Reese said. “We definitely want to take them down.”