Shiny happy Senators: Smiles plentiful for 4-0 Springfield High football team

There’s always an unwritten level of machismo in football, an understood need for stoicism.

But when a team is 4-0 for the first time since the players were in preschool, there’s also a time for a few more smiles and lightheartedness. Not too much, Springfield High football coach Jon Hebb cautions: there’s still plenty of work ahead for the 4-0 Senators.

Even Monday’s constant drizzle of rain during a walkthrough ahead of Friday’s Central State Eight Conference meeting at Memorial Stadium against Quincy Notre Dame couldn’t damper the spirits of SHS players, who have taken care of business through four games for the first time since 2010. For senior linebacker Keyshaun Harris and junior receiver Kale Thurman, they were just 3-year-olds that season, which was also the last time the Senators appeared in the quarterfinals of the Illinois High School Association playoffs.

Winning is infectious, Harris said.

“It’s getting better,” said Harris, who leads the team with 28 tackles. “The group energy keeps rising after every win. I think (winning has helped the players rally) together. It’s better to be together as a group and not as individuals to keep the energy going.”

No letting up

No one on the team has to be reminded that now is not a time to relax. QND (3-1 overall, 2-0 CS8’s west division) comes to town fresh off upending Sacred Heart-Griffin 37-7 in Week 4. And with playoff contenders Jacksonville, SHG, Rochester and Chatham Glenwood to finish out the season, Hebb knows even one more win — and a potential playoff berth — isn’t guaranteed. He wants to get six wins.

“In my head, we’ve got to get two (more) to make sure that we’re in” Hebb said. “It’s going to be a gauntlet. We’ve got great respect for coach (Jack) Cornell at Quincy Notre Dame and (Jacksonville) coach (Mark) Grounds comes to town after that. You’ve got five outstanding head coaches (ahead) with coaching experience and playing experience. It’s not going to be easy: our staff knows that, and I think our kids know that.

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Brody Scheffler, in his second year guiding the Senators, was asked how close the team is to its ceiling.

“We are so far,” the junior signal-caller said. “We have not played anywhere near our potential. That’s a good thing and a bad thing. (It’s bad because) we’ve got to fix it fast, but we have so much room to grow and so much more we can do right.”

Problems fixed

Sophomore Bryce Bryant, an outside linebacker and occasional running back, wasn’t on the varsity team last year, but he could tell something was amiss.

“I could see from a distance, there was a lot more attacking people on the team than this year,” Bryant said.

He also added that a lot those issues have so far been a thing of the past due to the team’s, “discipline, keeping it the way we’ve been keeping it, everybody staying together (and) nobody playing for themselves, but the team.”

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Everybody seemingly could point to a different issue last year. Harris said there were “a lot of missed tackles,” while Thurman said it was the old adage of trying to put an “I” in team.

“I’d say our route-running and playing as a team,” Thurman said of what’s better. “We had a lot of ‘self’ players last year. I think that’s changed a lot this year. Everybody really just understood that. Always about the stats (last year): that’s not this year at all.”

Perhaps those things don’t always show up on the stat sheet. Scheffler said he understood one glaring stat he wanted to improve: turnovers. Despite throwing for 1,706 yards and 16 touchdowns, he did not like seeing 17 interceptions thrown on his stat line.

“Last year, I was lousy with the football: too many turnovers and it led to a lot of our losses,” said Scheffler, who has completed 68% of his passes for 808 yards, nine touchdowns and just two INTs so far in 2024. “In the offseason, I talked to coach that we’ve got to fix that to get better.”

High hopes

What’s it like being around the Senators on a day-to-day basis?

“A lot (of smiles),” Thurman said. “We’re having a lot more fun, too.”

With a tough five-game stretch to close out the season, Hebb doesn’t want to let any potential loss derail the good vibes the team has going.

“I think the goal stays the same,” Hebb said. “We’re fighting for the playoffs right now and we know it’s not going to be easy over the next five weeks. We’ve got to be focused and make sure we don’t lose sight of what the goal is.”

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Few players on the Senators were even in high school when the team last made the playoffs in 2021, in Roy Gully’s final season as coach. But the players see something special with the group.

“We’ve got something going for us this year,” Thurman said.

When reminded that Monday’s wet, cool weather could be a precursor for what playoff practices might look like — especially deeper into the postseason — Bryant smiled.

“I don’t like playing in the cold, but I hope that we do,” he said. “I know we will.”

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA football: Springfield High football 4-0 for first time since 2010