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EDWARDSVILLE - Metro-East Lutheran High School appears ready for a major breakout 8-man football season in 2024.
The roster only has one senior – running back/defensive back Zach Daly - and the players and coaches on the team feel confident about the Knights contending for an Illinois 8-Man Football Association playoff berth this coming season.
"Oh, it's been going great this year," said MELHS assistant coach Kai Luckert, who was sitting in for head coach Mike Koch, who was on an out-of-town trip the day of the interview recently. 'I'm going into my third year helping out with coaching at Metro-East Lutheran. I graduated back in 2018, so I'm pretty invested in seeing the team succeed. But this is the first season where I can confidently say that we're building on top of what we had last year. And instead of taking one step forward, two steps back, it feels like we're taking five steps in the right direction, and frankly, we're excited for a successful season this year."
The Knight had made the eight-man postseason once before, in 2019, their first postseason appearance since 2003 in the IHSA 11-man tournament, and Luckert is looking ahead to the new season, which starts Thursday, Aug. 29, at Decatur Christian-Mt Pulaski, and it's a rivalry game he's looking forward to.
"It's a bit of a rivalry game for us," Luckert said. "We're expecting a big win, and we're optimistic heading into it. We picked up the win against them last season (62-34). So looking forward getting a rematch, and taking home the Lutheran Cup yet again," he said with a laugh.
There are two key returnees to the Knights from last season's 2-7 campaign,, and both are expected to make major contributions to the team's success.
"One of our top players last year, and again this year, will be Andrew Adams," Luckert said. "He's one of our captains, plays running back and outside linebacker. Just a tremendous athlete, he was first-team all-conference (the Illinois Eight-Man South division) outside linebacker last year, second team all-conference running back, and just a tremendous athlete on the field. He's definitely our guy. And in the secondary, we've got Zach Daly, he's actually our only senior this year. And Zach, he's turned into quite a headhunter on defense, playing cornerback. He knows how to fill hard against the run, and just blow things up, and plays some receiver on offense as well."
For fans and others who aren't familiar with eight-man football, although the field in narrower (45 yards wide, compared to 53-and-a-third yards wide on a standard American football field, and 65 yards wide on a Canadian football field), and there's three less men on either side of the ball, the game, at its heart, is still American football, and the intensity is the same and the hitting is just as fierce as standard 11-man football.
"Yeah, that's right," Luckert said. "If you have any doubts about eight-man football, I highly encourage you to come out, watch a game, and it still has that feeling of man, this is high school football under the lights. This is what everybody loves."
Luckert is very optimistic about the Knights' chances going into the new season.
"Frankly, we're anticipating a very successful season," Luckert said. "That's kind of strange to say as, when I played at Metro, we didn't win a single varsity game in four years. And to see us, my first season here in 2022, we went 1-8. And then in 2023, last year, we went 2-7. But this year, I mean, with the schedule that we've got is probably the best schedule we could ask for, realistically. We have to play against two state semifinalists in week two and three (Champaign St. Thomas More and Martinsville, respectively), so that's going to be tough. But, we're hoping and optimistic that we're going to make the playoffs this year."
The 2024 slate also includes a rivalry game against Pawnee-Raymond Lincolnwood in week four and a total of five home games and Knights Field, climaxing with a match Oct. 25 against Danville Schlarman Catholic. The schedule includes match-ups against Kincaid South Fork, Oblong, Hutsonville-Palestine, and Blue Ridge-Deland-Weldon. It's a schedule that will definitely test the Knights. And it could land Metro-East into the 2024 postseason.
"Oh, absolutely," Luckert said. "Like I said, week two and three, and four, too, we're going to have some really tough games against St. Thomas More, from Champaign, Martinsville, out in eastern Illinois, and then, Pawnee. We've been playing Pawnee for a long, long time. We played Pawnee when I was in high school. That's going to be a really tough three-game gauntlet, but I hope we can compete in those game, and win one or two of them. Or all three of them. And the rest of the season, from there, we're really looking forward to winning some games."
Luckert is very optimistic about the future of eight-man football in Illinois, as smaller schools adopt the sport, and the IHSA is giving serious consideration to adding on eight-man football to its state championship roster in the future. The organization will have a girls flag football series this fall, and eight-man football could be around the corner. But the ultimate goal is to return to traditional 11-man football.
"Well, every year, we're seeing more and more teams come out for eight-man football," Luckert said. "And frankly, it's an awesome opportunity for schools like us. We've struggled a lot in the past, playing against schools like Alton Marquette Catholic, and East Alton-Wood River, these fairly large schools. And it's really difficult for a school our size to compete with them, especially when there's not a lot of football tradition or football culture So, our hope here at Metro-East Lutheran is to see success in eight-man football, get more players to come out to the field, and hopefully, eventually go back to 11-man football when we've built a little bit of a program. We probably need about 35 players or so in order to be successful in 11-man. Right now, we're at 22, averaging about 22 at these practices. So, if we can see some success this year, get some more kids to come out, we'll see what happens."
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