Niles West looks ahead as season comes to end
BY DAN SHALIN Contributor October 24, 2011 5:24PM
Niles West's Nick Johnson sacks Evanston quarterback Max Block for a 10-yard loss.| Kevin Tanaka~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: October 28, 2011 11:09AM
As the 2011 season concluded with Friday’s 34-0 home loss to Evanston, Niles West’s players and coaches looked ahead to potentially better days.
The Wolves (2-7, 0-5) turned in a solid defensive effort against Evanston (5-4, 2-3). Junior defensive end Vaughn Monreal-Burner registered three sacks, while junior linebacker James Williams had two. Sophomore defensive back Nick Johnson recorded another.
“Vaughn — a phenomenal wrestler, a championship wrestler — is a quiet kid,” coach Scott Baum said. “He’s a hard-nosed kid who doesn’t say much. I don’t know if he’s said more than three words all year. But, man, he fights. He’s finally getting healthy (from groin and hip problems). He works so hard for us.”
The fact that Monreal-Burner, Williams, Johnson, junior defensive back Anthony Underwood and recent sophomore call-up Garrett Iverson, a defensive back, are scheduled to return next season gives Baum and the Wolves reason to be optimistic about 2012. The team’s most exciting player, wide receiver/defensive back/kick return specialist Jeremiah Jordan also is a junior.
“(Next year), we’ll have more returning starters than we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Baum, who’s worked at Niles West for six years and has been head coach for three. “But it’s a lot of work to compete with the Evanstons, the Maine Souths and Glenbrook Souths — that’s a lot of work. But we like it. We want to be like them. But it doesn’t come overnight.”
In addition to Jordan, the Wolves also will return quarterback Mike McGivern on offense. Johnson and junior Jack Glotzer were two of the team’s top running backs.
Niles West lost four fumbles in all. One was returned for a 50-yard touchdown and another was taken back 50 yards, setting up an Evanston score. The Wolves also had two punts blocked.
West pressured Evanston quarterback Max Block for much of the night, sacking him six times.
“Our defense has been fun to watch,” said Niles West head coach Scott Baum. “We play in a good conference and we get beat up a little bit. But they play with some enthusiasm and fire that we knew we had. We have some kids who can hit, and they like to run around, and they did that (Friday night).”
In all-too-familiar fashion, Niles West was done in Friday by an inability to move the ball, combined with costly turnovers and mistakes.
Senior quarterback Ben Assioua got a chance to play in the season finale, rotating with McGivern. Assioua had completions of 39 and 26 yards to Jordan, though he showed some inexperience when flushed out of the pocket.
“He’s a senior and we got him some reps,” Baum said about the signal-caller. “It’s neat to see him leave here having some success, because he works so hard. That’s why he was in the game. He’s our scout team quarterback and he works hard, and he cares. He throws a good ball.”
Niles West will lose a number of key seniors to graduation, including linebackers Terrance Bramlett, Brandon Jones and Andrew Matias, and lineman Milan Erturk.
But Baum said the seniors made important strides, on and off the field.
“I think every one of those kids left a better football player,” the coach said. “More importantly, I think they left with some tools to go accomplish something outside of football. There are not many guys who make a living off doing this (playing football). If they can take some things out of this, learn from the sacrifice they made, I think, as coaches, we’re doing our job.”
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