By Miles Toogo- Photos by Lauren Gray
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MOKENA— Two years ago when many of these 9U Jr. Celtics were playing as 7U, nothing seemed to go well for them. After several games, all they had to show for it was a low scoring tie.
Nothing Coach Tom Comise or his coaching staff tried worked. They suffered through a dismal season and took their lumps. Scoring was an issue and preventing scores was even more so. They never quit but just couldn’t get to a point where effort and talent worked together.
A year later, playing a D3 schedule as 8U, Comise and company found themselves winning numerous games, riding high and enjoying the fruits of their labor. The kids were having fun too and learning the game more. They went on to end their season with an impressive 7-2 record.
The game came easier and players picked up new plays faster. Wins began to pile up and everything was rolling in the right direction. Credit experience for some and for others, pretty good coaching and development.
The opposing talent level wasn’t as high but you play whoever is on your schedule and have to execute to be successful. They did that quite well last season.
Fast-forward to this season. Because of the success of last year, Tom Comise’s 9U team had to move up and play the 2025 season at the D2 level where the competition is overall more talented and more competitive.
After two games played, the Jr. Celtics have found the road ahead quite difficult, losing both games, unable to score a point while giving up plenty.
In their latest game during their Homecoming, the Jr. Celtics committed too many mistakes against a talented Plainfield Saints team, fell behind early and never recovered, being out manned by a score of 30-0.
“Yeah, we are going to have to take some licks through the early part of the year,” said Coach Comise. We got forced up into Divison 2 after the success we had in D3 last year. I feel our kids are in the right spots, we just have to play harder and we got to want it more.”
“Credit to the other team, they ran hard when they got in the open field. I think the kids are just adjusting to the game speed between D2 and D3. We can’t simulate that in practice. We are going to take some lumps and bruises along the way and hopefully start competing soon. We will have three good plays in a row and then have three bad plays in a row. We can’t control much playing like that, we just have to put it all together.”
Starting the game offensively, the Jr. Celtics saw John Skuzinski run for 5-yards, a good start. The next two plays lost 15 and 14 yards due to high snaps over Quarterback’ Michael Comise head. The ensuing punt didn’t go very far and that gave the Saints a very short field.
After Jack Mackiney made a stop, the Saints ran 17-yards for the games opening score and an 8-0 lead after booting the kick through.
Things didn’t get any better on the Jr. Celtics next possession. two runs by Skuzinski produced -2 yards. An incompletion on third down saw the Jr. Celtics go for it on fourth down deep in their own territory. Again the snap went sailing over Comise head, giving the Saints another opportunity 18-yards from the endzone.
Tackles by Vincent Venegas, Skuzinski, Jacob Guisinger and Corbin Caine plus three penalties shut down the Saints who lost possession on downs. The Jr. Celtics avoided the scoring threat.
Although the Jr. Celtics made a stop, they couldn’t do much on their next series, punting after a three and out to begin the second quarter.
The defense was now playing better, once again they stopped the Saints offense behind the tackling of Owen Miller, Jack Christou and Guisinger.
The Jr. Celtics offense showed some spark after the turnover on downs. They proceeded to go on a ten play-drive using mostly the running of Skuzinski but Comise also connect twice through the air including a 17-yarder to Hendrix Bernard.
Skuzinski kept geting the call, giving his all on every try but it was slim pickings as the Saints defense got to him quickly.
The drive came to a halt after reaching near midfield. A fourth down run came up short forcing the Jr. Celtics to give up the ball.
After Ryder Dow made a tackle, the Saints found the endzone again on a 27-yard run. With the conversion kick, the Saints upped the lead to 16-0 nearing halftime.
The second half saw a back and forth third quarter. The Jr. Celtics defense again forced a turnover on downs with Dow collecting a couple tackles. Offensively, workhorse Skuzinski continued to get the ball, getting 11-yards on two carries to begin their possession. The next four plays resulted in a short gain. a loss of two, a fumble and an incomplete pass.
Again, the defense stepped up and forced another trunover on downs. The aggressive play of Dow continued grabbing a pair of tackles including a sack along with tackles from Nash Surber and Aiden Samanich, headed to the final quarter.
Skuzinski rushed three straight times for six yards and when Comise gained just two on fourth down, again the Jr. Celtics offense was turned back.
The Saints struck twice in the final two minutes. First a a 19-yard run ended in their third touchdown of the game and elevated the lead over the hosts to 22-0. A Pick Six followed immediately after as Comise pass fell directly into the defenders arms. He returned the interception 46-yards for the games final tally and a 30-0 lead after the conversion kick.
A frustrating day was quite evident on the faces of the Jr. Celtics after they shook hands and coming back to their sideline. Among them was John Skuzinski. All game none of the Jr. Celtics seem to quit as they continued to try up to the last tic of the clock, but for Skuzinski, the effort he displayed on every run, every play, no one was out-doing him in his want to succeed.
“I’m really frustrated. Our defense is overpursuing, we won’t breakdown and we are tackling with one hand, and our offense, we need better blocking,” said an emotional Skuzinski. “It was really tough going. It seemed as if I was doing everything on my own. We kind of shut down in the fourth quarter. I really think if we tried harder, we could beat them. We need to fix why we can’t score and we need to wrap on defense.”
Also disappointed in the loss was Quarterback and field general’ MIchael Comise. Last season, you saw Comise take over the offensive reigns and do an excellent job directing it. At nine-years old, it’s hard to say anyone has become an expert at a position in football, but for Comise, his poise and leadership is quite noticeable. His want to win is only second to Skuzinski.
“We had to move up a division because our team did better last year, so now we have to play tougher teams, that’s why we are struggling right now,” said Comise. “I kind of expected it, I thought we would see it’s harder but it’s more. I think we can do much better and I feel we will but our team can’t go 50% all the time. We have to play better, we can. I sometimes try to encourage them in the huddle to do better.”
It’s hard to be happy as a player when things seem to be going wrong more than right but for these Jr. Celtics, the talent is there and they could easily flip the switch and go on a winning streak. The want to win needs to be infectious throughout the entire team, maybe, just maybe, week three will see that for these Jr.Celtics.
Also playing and doing what they could for the team in this game were Finn Ward, James Short Jr., Tristyn Winke, Ethan Hamideh, John Drabeck, Joseph Paciorek, Caleb Partin, Paxton Kirk, Rocco MacalusoJack Sanders, Paul Herring III and Jack Mackiney
