First year head football coach, Wille Hayes, coached his first home game at Lemont on Friday, Sept. 1. Hayes filled the role as head coach following Brett Kooi’s retirement. In years past, Hayes was the defensive coordinator as well as the defensive lineman coach. Hayes has been coaching at Lemont for the past 12 years and was a former player at North Central College.
The football team played their first home game against Geneva High School on Friday, September 1 when Lemont lost 10-21. The intense game had Lemont scoreless in the first half. After a second-half quarterback change, senior Chris Montell threw a touchdown pass off the run, and soon after Lemont scored on a field goal to add three points. Regardless, it was a hard-fought game with the stands filled with supporters in gold for children’s cancer awareness.
“The atmosphere was outstanding! There was a really good crowd there Friday night and we cannot thank everyone enough for coming out,” Hayes said. “Of course we were hoping the outcome was different but it’s another learning opportunity for us to get better as a program. There is no other place I would want to be than at Lemont High School on a Friday night” said Hayes .
After coming up short in the first two weeks of the season, Hayes and the team will face off against conference opponents TF South, Richard, and Breman. Many more opportunities await in the bright future for Coach Hayes. Only time will tell how the season will go as well as how the coaching would affect it. Coach Hayes has lots of time in front of him and has a very bright future.
