Larkin cornerback Denzel Goodwin thought back to his early days on the varsity.
Then, he was an undersized sophomore battling very big Upstate Eight receivers.
“I was 113 pounds coming into my sophomore year,” Goodwin said. “So I kept working and working through the program, trying to get better, and a little bigger.”
Goodwin, now a 5-foot-5, 140-pound senior, has come a long way even if he hasn’t moved the scale or extended a tape measure a great deal. He makes a big impact for his size, and Larkin coach Dragan Teonic believes he has a team full of similar players.
“Program kids,” said Teonic, who is entering his third year. “Denzel Goodwin, Jeremy Weaver, Josh Matison, there are a bunch of them who have come a long way since we started as a group three years ago. They did everything we asked for the program.
“The problem in Year 1 was they were sophomores and good kids. But how do you lead when seniors are ahead of you who aren’t where they needed to be? Now that those sophomores are the seniors, you’re starting to see a change.”
Teonic would like more than the 35 players he had at Wednesday’s third practice. But with players like Goodwin giving extra effort, it’s apparent the Royals are built on quality if not quantity.
“Our numbers aren’t great,” Teonic said. “I think the numbers that are better were that 75 percent of our team was at 80 percent or more of our summer practices. That’s never happened before.
“These kids all listen and learn.”
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Goodwin knows no other way to play football.
“I really loved football since I was young,” Goodwin said. “I thought I knew a lot about it because I watched a lot of football but there’s so much more that goes into it and coach Teonic has taught me a lot.”
When Teonic arrived, one of his goals was to get more players to join track during the spring to improve conditioning and speed. Goodwin flourished from that end.
“He never misses anything,” Teonic said. “He puts 100 percent into everything. He’s a great student, a great person. He’s great in the weight room.
“Really, Will Bowman and Nate Kohler — a couple more receiver/DBs — also are kids who’ve come a tremendously long ways buying into what we do. We’re at a point now where we can put 11 kids on the field both ways who are fully vested, who’ve done everything we ask of them here and academically.”
Larkin will face high-powered passing attacks each week in the Upstate Eight River from opponents such as St. Charles North, Geneva and Batavia. Goodwin learned lessons during previous seasons.
“I know I have to be aggressive and I think I am way more aggressive this year than last year,” Goodwin said. “I think our defensive backs are the best we’ve had in my three years with varsity and we’re all playing more aggressively.
“We should be a strength on defense. We communicate better because we’ve been together for a long time and have bonded.”
Everyone on Larkin must be more aggressive and physical. Teonic thinks those factors kept the Royals (1-8) from winning three or four more games last season.
This senior-dominated team appears to have a better idea of what it takes after ending a 20-game losing streak last year by beating Elgin.
“I feel like that Elgin game set the tone for us,” said senior quarterback David Hibbler, another three-year starter on varsity. “Even though it was last year, looking back on that we knew then how it felt to win.
“We come out here every day keeping in mind we don’t want to lose.”
Now they hope the program at Larkin is about winning.
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