Niles West football played their homecoming game Friday, Sept. 23rd, against the Glenbrook South Titans. Unfortunately, the Wolves had a rough loss, with a final score of 31-0. However, the team did their best to keep their heads up and fight through.

Head coach Nick Toresso doesn’t see the homecoming game as something special or something the team should have been stressed about but as just another game. “All that stuff is kind of background noise, we are just focused on doing our jobs and making sure we are taking care of business,” Toresso said.

He doesn’t want the team to be under any pressure to win the infamous homecoming game, “That means nothing, homecoming is a distraction.” Toresso said. Still, for senior Joshua Cupich, it is his last year playing high school football, and that could be stress in itself. “It’s a little pressure to win because we are seniors,” Cupich said.

As it is Toresso’s second year as head coach the boys have learned a lot from him, he tells them that there will be ups and downs and that winning every game isn’t the goal, but how they fight and their attitude during the game. “The program and culture has changed significantly, losing mentality is gone, and we treat ourselves right, like a team,” Chupich said.

The team is filled with a majority of sophomores and juniors, they are a young team, which can be a strength and weakness. Being young benefits the player’s enthusiasm, for many of them it is their first year on a varsity football team, so they prove themselves and enjoy the new experience by giving it their all. In terms of the weakness of being a young team, is the lack of experience. “There are a lot for some of these guys to still learn,” Toresso said when asked why being a young team could be trouble.

The boys practice every day after school until 6 pm, training and working hard. “Practice is always intense,” senior Christian Najjar said. They focus on one game at a time, every game is a big one, “We talk about being contenders, not pretenders” Toresso said.

The homecoming game was very intense and played with passion. The beginning of the game was going great, almost making a touchdown and playing a great offense.

Halftime hit and the coaches had a very intense talk with the Wolves, they were ordered to rest their legs while the group of coaches discussed what their next move will be. “Fast full team, they bring the show to the party” After the coaches came up with the plan they split the team into two sections, offense and defense, and closed the door to have a meeting with either side.

When the wolves made their way back out they were hype and ready to get back to the game. “Let’s finish this” one of the boys yelled out, they then all put themselves in rows locking their arms together telling one another that they got their backs, and made their way back to the field barking on their way.

The next two quarters were pretty rough on the boys, the Titans hit with back-to-back points, not giving the wolves a breather. In the 4th quarter, they tried their best not to lose faith, telling each other that they got this and to fight. “Don’t start stirring up because of the game, keep playing” Toresso said during one of the time-outs.

The wolves didn’t stop fighting until the buzzer went off. “Our guys fight, they have a sense of fight in them they just got to learn to finish the fight” coach Kyle Wideman said after the game.

One of their biggest obstacles in this game seemed to be finishing. They would look like they are killing it offensively then would not be able to finish the play or go through to win the point.  ” We got to learn to finish a bit better,” Wideman said.

The football team circled up to have one big group meeting after the game. Though the wolves didn’t win they showed something better, a sense of family, a pack, they were always there for one another and went in with a winning mindset, ready for anything, and for that Niles West should be proud.

Cheer on the boys at their next home game on Oct. 14th against the New Trier Trevians.