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VOL. 87 • NO. 49
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WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1, 2021
Panthers win fifth State Title in 11 years By Trenten Scheidegger CORRESPONDENT
Not many high school football programs have the word “dynasty” thrown around when discussing a team’s success. Even the NFL has seen just a handful of dynasty franchises over its history of play. Building such a program is even more challenging in high school football with the amount of turnover on the roster after each season. Lena-Winslow Head Coach, Ric Arand, has managed to build one of the best programs in Illinois high school football history, however. In his twenty-fifth season as coach, Arand has led the Panthers to five state titles. Their fifth title set an IHSA record as LeWin became the first Class 1A school to win five state titles and Arand holds the most state titles by any Class 1A coach. When asked about how the Panthers reached this championship status, Arand joked, “If I knew that, I probably would have done it the previous decade before that.” Arand credits the continued success over the last decade to the way the coaching staff has grown together, saying “This is my twenty-fifth year coaching. The first fourteen years, prior to winning a championship, we had good teams. We had teams that were okay.
We had some teams that overachieved and some teams that underachieved. The only thing I can make sense out of it would be that as a head coach and as a staff, we have all gotten a little older, maybe more mature together, a little bit smarter, and a lot of experience in that time. Through all of that, through time and experience, that has made us better.” This was the Panthers’ second championship in just three years. Technically, Le-Win earned back to back championships with the cancellation of the 2020 football postseason. This year’s campaign felt a little different from 2019, in the fact that the Panthers faced little competition in their 2019 as they dominated every week, up until the championship. This year, the Panthers suffered a pair of regular season losses that may have brought out some doubters. Those losses never appeared to knock Arand and his squad off the tracks, however, as they remained focused on the main goal. Arand spoke about those regular season losses, and how a team can learn from them, saying “The DuPec loss, I don’t know if that benefited us a whole lot. I don’t know that we played very well, but we also played a really good team. I think
the Forreston loss was one of those that was a good loss. It doesn’t feel like it at the time, but looking back on it now, that was more of a motivating loss. We knew we played really bad and, even at the time, thought we had a shot to play them again in the postseason. I though they played about as well as they could play against us.” It was that type of motivation that showed up week after week in the postseason for the Panthers. It was especially evident in star running back Marey Roby, who broke out with an electric performance in each and every postseason game. Roby finished the postseason with just over one thousand yards rushing and fifteen touchdowns as he put the team on his back. He showed up at the state title game with the same attitude as he rushed for 245 yards and three scores in the 38-25 win over Carrollton. Arand spoke about the special run that Roby made and how it brought back some memories, saying “Marey had a postseason a lot like a kid by the name of Tyler Oakley back in 2013. He had an early season injury, and he was a kid kind of like Marey. He was a cutter, a slasher, had great speed in the open field. He had a bad high-ankle sprain early in the year, and it took
him until the playoffs to get it going again. I am pretty certain he had a thousand yards in the postseason, like Marey just did.” Roby’s success brought out some emotion from Arand, as he explained “The run that Marey had was just crazy. I was so happy for him, just
from the standpoint of what a crushing blow that injury was. Not only to us as a team, but to him as an individual last spring. I know how hard he worked in the offseason to get back to where he was a few days ago. I guarantee you there is nobody in the state, or maybe no one in all
of high school football, that worked any harder than he did and is more deserving of the postseason that he had.” While the love is evident for Roby, the Panthers are aware this engine runs on team performance. Arand
See STATE TITLE, Page 9
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DAN PACKARD The Shoppers Guide
The Lena-Winslow Panthers beat the Carrollton Hawks 38-25 to capture the Illinois High School Association Class 1A football championship at Huskie Stadium in Dekalb. The win gives the Panthers their fifth 1A title. See more photos inside.
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