South Beloit embracing changes under new head coach Josh Redieske

SOUTH BELOIT — As South Beloit head coach Josh Redieske roams around practice yelling out to his players, whether it be to praise them for a good play or to scold them for a miscue, he has no need to look for piece of tape that has an athlete’s name scribbled on it stuck to anybody’s helmet.

It is a common practice used by head honchos during fall camp to help them learn and memorize who their players are.

The SoBos are forgoing that. Redieske has no need. Not only has he helped the high school with its summer program in the past, but he ​​coached with the Boys & Girls Club before the formation of the Future SoBos and has coached teams at the junior-high level for the past six years.

And that familiarity has made the transition from Jim Morrow, who left the SoBos after three seasons to return to NIC-10 Harlem, to Redieske, a 1996 South Beloit graduate who was hired to take over the squad in April, a smooth one.

“It’s so wonderful,” Redieske said. “Kids like Trudane Peterson I literally have coached since the second grade. We're installing lots of new stuff, but that's easy to do because they already know so much of what we've already done. They came in knowing a pretty easy junior high playbook. We're really just adding stuff. 80 to 90% of the team I've had eight years in a row now.”

Redieske has experience coaching 8-man football as the junior high team has used that format the past two seasons. The SoBos have 38 players currently on the roster.

“That’s a really good number for us,” he said. “That’s as good a number as any year for us. Our sophomore class is huge. We have 16 sophomores. For a school like us, that's a lightning in the bottle type of class. We're going to be really good right now, but in the next two years we're going to get stronger and stronger.”

Changes are abundant around South Beloit, which went 6-3 last fall, its third-straight winning season, before falling in the first round of the postseason.

The SoBos will be starting almost an entirely new lineup after graduation created several holes, none bigger than the two created by explosive playmakers Dez Hampton, a wide reciever/defensive back, and quarterback Kaden Myhres, who accounted for 23 TDs and 1,526 all-purpose yards last season.

“Kaden is definitely hard to replace,” Redieske said. “And we’re really not trying to replace him or Dez. We’re doing a completely different offense. We don't have one star, we have a lot of really equal kids. I got a huge rotation going — too many kids that are on an equal playing field to even have a starting lineup. We're going to have a rotation every time.”

Redieske is overhauling how the SoBos’ offense have operated over the last few seasons.

“There won't really be any similarities (to last year’s offense) to tell you the truth,” Redieske said. “Jim really ran that read option quite a bit, that triple option play up the middle. We do have that play, but it won't be the focus. We're probably 50-50 on running and passing. I know we will be a good running team this year. If we can protect the quarterback, we'll be able to throw the ball real good, too.”

Peterson, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound senior fullback/linebacker, has been happy with how the SoBos look under Rediekse.

“The changes have been good,” he said. “He makes it more simple, more easy, and we just play football with our strength and all that. We don’t get all messed up and confused.”

In addition to being a hard-hitting linebacker with a nose for the ball, Peterson is also expected to be one of South Beloit’s primary ball carriers,

“Trudane is going to be an all-state type of player, on both sides of the ball,” Redieske said. “He’s really strong in the weight room.”

Peterson will share the rushing duties with sophomore Chase Harrington, who the head coach said “might be one of the best players around here.”

“Chase is going to be very good,” he continued. “He's very small, but he's a quick and hard runner. A shifty runner that’s a very hard hitter. I don't want to have him going both ways, so he probably won't be. I'm going to be saving him. If he was on defense, he’d be a lockdown corner.”

Junior Landen Reed takes over at quarterback, and Redieske said that he will be throwing the rock a lot more than Myhres did under Morrow.

“One of the things I like that he brings is he's a junior so I get him for two years,” the head coach added. “He's shooting up in height, got really tall, and is throwing the ball well. He'll really succeed if we can protect him. If he has a clean pocket, he's going to find receivers.”

Peterson and Harrington will both catch plenty of passes as will junior BJ Pletcher, who will see some time at tailback in addition to his work as a wide receiver, and Kaden Cook.

The offensive line will be slightly undersized, but Redieske likes the skillset that they possess.

“Keyon Floyd is really top notch,” he said. “I'm trying not to use too many guys both ways. We have so many kids and we have so much talent. But some kids, it's just hard to deny them going both ways. Keyon is one of those.

“Reece Binder is a heck of a defensive player. I just couldn't get anyone to land in my shotgun snaps really consistently. He is stepping up and playing center, even though O-line wasn't really something he wanted to do. My other starting lineman would be Valente Ortega, but I have depth. I got 2 or 3 seniors like Max Bartholomew, he'll get time. He's really good.”

Under Redieske, the SoBos are going to be heavy blitzers. Gunning for the quarterback and getting the opposition out of sync will be a big part of how South Beloit operates.

“Jacob Wilhite's going to be our foundation at safety,” the coach said. “Trudane is going to be a standout linebacker. I have two lock down corners in BJ Pletcher and Kaden Cook, who just transferred from Turner last year. Garrett Ludtke is a sophomore that has the highest ceiling of anybody on this field right now. He's a monster. He literally is taking every record off the board in our weight room. He's fast and going to be our defensive end. He'll be a force this year.

“On the other side at defensive end, which is a big part of my defense — I'm trying to get to the quarterback at all times — will be junior Daniel Winterland. He really brings the heat. He's a big boy.”

The SoBos open up against Polo, and Redieske is hoping that the SoBos can come out and surprise people.

“Polo was a state semifinalist last year,” Redieske said. “Theoretically, that's the toughest team on our schedule. But in 8-man with graduating seniors, we don't really ever know. Just like people might be looking at us as an easy game on their schedule. We're treating week one like a huge game. If we win week one, our kids should be dreaming about an undefeated season. Our second game is against Orangeville, that's also a tough game. We come out with two wins, which is what we want, we should be really optimistic about the second half of the season.”

Peterson’s expectations are just as high.

“Getting a state ring would be nice,” the senior said. “Otherwise, we have make it pretty deep in the playoffs. We're not really a team that makes it pretty deep, so it'd be really nice to show that we're actually a good team.”

2024 SCHEDULE:

AUG. 30: at Polo.

SEPT. 6: ORANGEVILLE; 13: RIVER RIDGE; 20: at Hiawatha; 27: at AFC.

OCT. 4: at Alden-Hebron, 8 p.m.; 11: MILLEDGEVILLE; 18: at Christian Life.

• NOTE: All kickoffs 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.