By Brad Engel
STAFF WRITER

  He hopes the dream comes true.

   With his two grandfathers playing football for Naperville Community High School in the 1940s, his father playing his senior year at Naperville Central High School in 1975 and his cousin the current defensive coordinator for Naperville North, the idea's a figment of his imagination.

   With only one chance for it to come true, Naperville Central senior A.J. Sagen would like to intercept a pass in today's Crosstown Classic, streak down North's sideline, get tackled out of bounds and flip the ball to North defensive coordinator Sean Drendel, his mom's first cousin and Sagen's personal trainer during the off-season.

   This is Naperville football as we know it now, as generations before could have only imagined.

   Something special blossomed in the Illinois football world when Naperville Community High School became Naperville Central and Naperville North played its first varsity season in 1975. The split divided the public as fans, but united them as families of football.

   "I am so proud to be a Napervillian, and there really aren't many of them," said Eddie Sagen, A.J.'s father and husband to Donna Drendel. "And I just want to keep those stories alive for A.J."

   Unlike distant rivalries such as Mount Carmel and Joliet Catholic, Naperville's rivalry is rooted in the same historical town and has flourished through the community sprawl that brought another high school just a mile apart. Countless stories and 32 matchups later, it's even at 16 wins apiece.

   "Mount Carmel and Joliet Catholic don't see each other on a daily basis," Drendel said. "They see each other when they play the game and that's it. Here you see each other all year. It's never fun unless you're on the winning side."

Sharing dreams
 

  With just as much family stock in Naperville football as Sagen, don't think Drendel passed up creating his own version of Sagen's dream.

   Jokingly, Sagen said Drendel told him he would trip his second cousin on the sideline before he ever had a chance to get tackled after the interception. Drendel added if he were a little younger, he would probably run out on the field and tackle Sagen himself.

   "We have a special relationship," Drendel said. "I consider him a little brother. Last year, it didn't mean as much to either one of us because he's not out there playing. For me there's nothing better than beating them that night. Any other night of the year, I hope they do well."

   Drendel's father, Eugene, former superintendent of District 203, had three sons — Joe, Doug and Sean, who all played football for Naperville North.

   Drendel received a full scholarship to play Division I football at Eastern Illinois University before coaching at Naperville North. Drendel has spent the last two years as the Huskies defensive coordinator and the five previous years as the running backs coach, building a foundation of tradition and legacy for the Huskies to embrace.

   "You grow up with a lot of these people," Drendel said. "A lot of the kids you play or coach against have been around for a long time. I remember when I played, kids played baseball or other sports, they were my teammates and then all of a sudden you're going head to head with them."

The cross-town bond
 

  The 33rd Crosstown Classic has been renamed the Wes Spencer Crosstown Classic this year, after the Naperville Community football coach who won 99 games from 1952 to 1969.

   A perfect choice — no one single person better embraced the football world in Naperville, up until his death last year.

   Spencer left the teaching and coaching world at the community high school to teach at Naperville North and coach the Huskies freshman football team. Having won homecoming king and class president honors while attending North Central College, there's no better venue for the city clash than the stadium at his alma mater. For Spencer's son Rick, whose two sons have played football at Central, the family tradition has taken a slight turn this year.

   "It's hard not having him here — on Friday nights I feel it the most," Rick said of his father. "On the other hand, all the football seasons and the season that Tyke's having with the Redhawks, it's very rewarding. We know so many of the people, all his friends. It's a culmination of their whole lifetimes. Parents and guys that we've known for many years, and my dad knows them all."

   Rick and his brothers, Mike and Kim, each played football for their father in the 1960s. Coming from San Francisco and North Carolina, both Mike and Kim will attend the big game, bridging to the new generation and reliving the old.

A glance at tomorrow
 

  With every old face comes a new face and the potential for another generation of football players and Naperville heritage to unfold at the high school level.

   More than just a suburb, more than just a place of residence to these football families, Naperville means taking a look back, embracing today and looking toward tomorrow.

   This year brings the end of three of Central's four legacies after Spencer, Sagen and fullback Jason Paquette graduate. Paquette's grandfather, Bud Mueller, played on the first state championship team in the 1940s. More than half a century later, Paquette's concluding the final stages of his generation.

   "I know my grandparents have lived in this town for longer than I've known," said Paquette, whose father played football at Wheaton Central High School and later at Wake Forest University. "They've been here for their whole lives. There's just a bunch of guys on the team whose grandparents have been through the same system we've been through, but I definitely think there's some tradition behind our team as well as North's team too.

   After this year, the immediate future of legacy football in Naperville remains in Central junior Joe Strauf, whose dad played in 1976, and sophomore center Joe Nikkel, son of Sally Nikkel, whose mother, Grace, was born a Drendel. North coach Larry McKeon and son Corey, a junior halfback for the Huskies, also have a tradition started.

   For the current cast, the sentimentality of the game may not truly hit until they become older and possibly watch their kids play in the cross-town contest. Then, the history of a town settled in 1870 and its glorified athletic heritage will shock them.

   "It hits a little bit," Tyke Spencer said. "I'm sure it will hit a little more during the game because (grandfather Wes) was always at my games. It just adds a little bit to the meaning of the game. It's always just going to be football, two football teams squaring off head to head. That's always the most important part of the game."

   Buy your tickets. Invite your friends and family members. Watch football and think tradition.

   "Those kids, I don't want to call them my boys, but they are like my little brothers at North," Drendel said. "It's a family thing. Consider it a family thing. I'm rooting for them, I tell them I'm on their side and that no matter what happens I care about them. I tell them to play their best, stay healthy and wish them luck."

   A sentiment based on tradition and bred in Naperville.