October 11, 2024.

That was the night Joliet Central beat Plainfield Central, 37-17. On the surface, it was just a regular-season game.

To the Steelmen, however, it was far more than that.

That night was the first time Joliet Central had won a football game in five years, almost to the day. The players celebrated as though they had won a state championship. Coach Thomas Hart and athletic director Kevin Fitzgerald shed tears of joy on the field.

Gone from that squad are about 25 seniors. It’ll be a mostly new and young group, including a sophomore quarterback. But Hart said that despite the lack of victories, Joliet Central has seen improvement over the past half decade. He hopes that it translates to more wins this year.

“Every year we have to take steps forward,” Hart said. “When I first got here, we were having scoreless games, so now we’re trying to not have any of those. We’re trying to put up at least 28 points and keep opponents under 30. We want to score every game, and instead of one win we want two or three.”

Thursday saw this fall’s Steelmen get a look at how they handle outside competition as Joliet Central hosted a joint practice with Thornton.

“It was definitely nice to get a joint practice in, especially against another team that has similar struggles to us,” Hart said. “It was nice getting together, seeing where both teams were at and what we both need to work on.”

As with any practice, there were highs and lows. The highs mostly came on defense as the Steelmen hauled in a pair of interceptions off Thornwood, with Dimarius Matthews leading the effort.

“The defense is doing very, very well,” Hart said. “They’ve had a lot of time this offseason camp to work together. It’s easier to work with defense on the hot days because of the temptation to hit and tackle. They put in a lot of work, and they’re starting to jell early.”

On offense, there’s still some growing to do. Quarterback Jeffery Woods had success on the freshman/sophomore team last season, recording four victories. He had a pair of nice completions Thursday to receiver Tristen Sellers, who displayed good speed and movement in the open field.

However, there were a few turnovers and off-target throws. Hart chalked that up to youth and is confident cohesion will come with experience.

“[The growth is] coming along well with how close both our levels were last year,” Hart said. “A lot of these kids who have to pull up now as juniors were on the sidelines. They drove to our win last year and got to see that and feel that excitement. Now we just have to grow.”

After ending their winless streak last season, the Steelmen are set to stop another streak this season, as well. When Joliet Central closes the season at Joliet West, it will be the first time since the early 1990s the rivals will face off on Friday night. Since then, the two teams either played as one team or faced off on Saturday afternoons.

While Joliet Central made the playoffs in 1993 and 1994 as Joliet Township, the Steelmen haven’t made the postseason as their own team since 1976. Hart and Woods are hoping that will be another streak that ends this year.

“So far we’ve been doing [well] in practice, but there’s still so much we’re trying to improve,” Woods said. “With this opportunity to get to play varsity as a sophomore, I want to take my team to more than one win this year.

“If I can, I want to lead them to a championship.”