This year’s football team has been phenomenal. As Coach Woodburn said, “I am incredibly proud of our team; they have improved significantly and their commitment this season has made me incredibly proud of them. I can’t wait to see what next season brings.”
Coach Woodburn is currently in his first year as head coach for Lincoln-Way Central, as last year he was an assistant coach. Although this is his second year teaching at Central, he has taught at Lincoln-Way East since 2002 (I’d say he ended up at the better school). Woodburn talked significantly about how proud he is of his team, specifically of the defense. “Our defense this year has been fantastic, I am very proud of how hard it is for other schools to get past our defense.” Some of the team’s accomplishments this year include reaching 110 rushing yards (besting the national average of only 76 rushing yards).
This year our Knights had many more fantastic accomplishments, such as making it to the IHSA 7A Playoffs! Some of our favorite highlights include:
Playing Jacobs High School week one and Batavia week two of playoffs, completing their goal, as stated by Coach Woodburn “…was to play a football game in November – we needed to beat Jacobs to accomplish that goal- because that was in October.” The game against Jacobs HS was a huge win for our program, as it was one of the most physical football games we played all year. When discussing the game with Woodburn he explained, “We went down early, weather was bad…the team did what they do time in and time out, they persevered. We got the lead back, ended up taking control of the game, and we had a late fourth down call on the line. We were trying to decide if we should kick the field goal or go for it.” Woodburn took the chance to go for it, as our offense was going well that game. This action is what sealed the win for them as they ended up running a trick play. Michael Kuehl pitched the ball to Braden Meyer, Meyer caught it and then threw a touchdown pass to Justin Bafia. This was our first playoff win since 2017.
As Woodburn talks about the second playoff game he recalled, “When going into Batavia, we knew we would have to play almost a perfect game to beat them. They were in the State Championship last year. We made too many early-on errors as a team to recover from their difficult plays.”
Coach Woodburn and all of Lincoln-Way Central is beyond proud of our football team for playing into November and completing their goal. We surely are “setting a new era and legacy for Lincoln-Way Central.”
When asked of his plans for next year Woodburn responded, “I hope to increase our commitment in the off-season and build up our numbers on the team.” I can’t wait to see how far our team can go. Great job this year, Knights, and good luck next season!