'That's our goal, is to be competitive this year'

RANTOUL — Brett Trefren’s goals for Rantoul’s football team are simple ahead of the 2024 season.

The Eagles’ new coach — who played at Rantoul before graduating in 2011 and has been an assistant for the last seven seasons — thinks the program can make strides as it chases its first win since Oct. 5, 2018.

“I think it’s going to be a process,” Trefren said. “Not coming in thinking year one (we’re) going to be juggernauts. I think we’ll have a chance to compete in some games and that’s our goal, is to be competitive this year.”

Trefren’s first season at the helm of the program — where he earned All-Corn Belt Conference honors in 2009 and was named the program’s best offensive lineman in 2010 — is off to a good start.

For one, enrollment is on the upswing compared to past seasons with roughly 80 players having taken part in the Eagles’ offseason program.

“Our goal this first year is to create a culture of devotion,” Trefren said. “We really feel like we’ve progressed significantly. One example is, we have a standard where a kid has to hit 75 percent of offseason weightlifting.

“Last year if we were to measure that, we probably would have had 10-15 kids. We just finished, for the most part, our offseason program and we were at 40 players who hit that standard.”

Then there’s his familiarity with the program’s roster, an advantage that the program’s coaches haven’t always had at the onset of their stints with the Eagles.

That stood out to athletic director Chris Dryer when evaluating the candidates for the vacancy left by Jeremy Wooten.

“The fact that he knows the teams, knows the programs, and the key thing for us was he knows the kids,” Dryer said.

“We looked at what is best for the kids and getting that consistency of someone that’s been there for them every year. He’s put in his time, he’s put in his effort (and) he’s ready to lead that program.”

Trefren also inherits the talents of wide receiver Emarion White and lineman Drew Owens to lead the Eagles through the 2024 season, which opens at home against Charleston on Aug. 30.

“We’ve got the perfect group of kids to build off that foundation,” Trefren said. “They are kids that are 100 percent bought in, the most athletic group that we’ve had so far, kids that just really care about the program.”

Efforts to boost football’s stature within Rantoul’s hallways started early, when Trefren and his staff hosted a signing day and asked players and coaches to sign off on a list of standards to abide by within the program.

So far, so good.

Trefren expects the Eagles to field teams across the freshman, junior varsity and varsity levels this fall after only competing in the latter divisions last fall.

“They had to sign up and say, ‘I’m committing to this,,” Trefren said. “Having that day really generated a lot of buzz ... so that was one thing, trying to make the program exciting again and trying to create that culture of devotion.”

Rantoul’s relative lack of recent success hasn’t dissuaded players from wanting to turn the school’s fortunes around.

“We’re a program that hasn’t won and we’re still getting 70-75 kids out,” Dryer said. “They’re doing something right to get the numbers out. The kids aren’t discouraged.”

Now a freelance writer and substitute teacher, Trefren played for coach Scott Carter during his final three seasons at Rantoul, the last two of which ended with three-win campaigns.

Trefren is still close with Tom Hess, an offensive coach for the Eagles during that time who later served as the program’s head coach from 2017-21, with Trefren working as an assistant from 2018 onward.

“Me and him are pretty close,” Trefren said. “I’ve probably called him four or five times over this whole process. He was always my mentor, not just as a player but coaching alongside him.”

Then there’s plenty of support from Dryer and the rest of Rantoul’s administration. And Trefren hopes support from the rest of the community is quick to follow.

“Our kids are a really good group of kids,” Trefren said. “This has been the most devoted group that we’ve seen, kids that believe in each other, believe in us, believe in football. Getting fans in the stands would be really important and really good for these kids that have earned that.”