Restocked Cougars expected to produce

By NICK VLAHOS
For The Weekly Post

ONEIDA – By spending a summer slinging melons, Drake DeJaynes might have learned a few things about throwing a football. Or at least about how to assemble a successful football team.

In that regard, time will tell how well DeJaynes and his ROWVA-Williamsfield teammates produce.
For the second consecutive season, DeJaynes is to start at quarterback for the Cougars. A mid-season five-game losing streak resulted in a 4-5 record in 2024 and no state-playoffs berth. That came after R-W won at least once in each of two successive Class 1A postseason appearances.

DeJaynes and teammate Carter Smith – two of only seven seniors on the 40-plus-player R-W roster – would prefer to start a new streak.

“We have a good chance to make people remember why we are a good football team,” said Smith, a linebacker and offensive lineman. “We might have had a down year last year, but at the end of the day, we know our stuff. We know we are a good football team, and we know how to do what we do best.”

Much of that R-W belief was honed during off-season football activities, like weightlifting. Some of it was honed in the produce department of the Hy-Vee supermarket on Main Street in Galesburg. That’s where DeJaynes worked this summer, about 35 hours a week.

DeJaynes restocked shelves, cut fruit, cleaned displays – whatever needed to be done, he said. He learned a few things he can apply to his current primary avocation.

“I think knowing that it’s so much bigger than your one little job,” said DeJaynes, who also is an R-W linebacker. “Doing something right on a defense thing, that one little thing makes everything fall into place. Same thing at Hy-Vee.”

It appears less annoying, perhaps, than what Smith dealt with at his summer job. He said he enjoyed working at Menards in Galesburg, but he could do without the home-improvement firm’s earworm jingle blaring over the store loudspeakers every few minutes.

“I have nightmares about it, I’m not going to lie. But I like my job,” a smiling Smith said.
R-W Coach Grant Gullstrand appears to like the job his youth-oriented team is doing ahead of its season opener Friday night at Monmouth United. He said he was a little nervous when preseason practice began, based on lack of summer-activity attendance.

But the 29 freshmen and sophomores in practice have a chance to excel, according to Gullstrand. That might be particularly true about the sophomore group. Wide receiver-defensive back Parker Tamburro and running backs-linebackers Jose Estrada, Garrett Goff and Jaden Koepp are among those to watch.

“They’re strong and they’re fast and they like to hit people,” Gullstrand said.

That doesn’t mean the older guard should be overlooked. Lineman Taylor Foster and running back-defensive back Keagan Gerlach, both seniors, are likely to join DeJaynes and Smith in the leadership group.

An even-older veteran who is a new addition on the sidelines also is expected to help. Andy Gibbons, the former head coach at Knox College in Galesburg, is to assist the Cougars this season.
The 34-year Knox fixture, who now is a Prairie Fire administrator and head strength and conditioning coach, is to retire from there next year. His wife, Carla, is a ROWVA English teacher who had Gullstrand in one of her classes back in the day.

“He’s been a part of the community forever,” Gullstrand said about his new assistant. “If you can add someone with that type of background to your staff, the kids automatically kind of pay attention and listen a little bit.”

If Gibbons can help R-W achieve at least five victories and a postseason berth in an ultra-competitive LincolnLand Conference small division, it certainly will catch Smith’s ear. More than that Menards jingle, to be certain.

“I think we can at least do five wins … (but) push for greatness instead of just settling,” Smith said. “Yeah, we might get five wins, but we don’t want to settle. We want another one and another one.
“I don’t want to see the program drop off right after I leave. I want to see continued success after I leave, so I can come back and smile and be like, ‘We started something great.’”