Countdown to kickoff: Guilford football looking forward after breakout season
The G-Vikes are coming off a 7-2 regular season.
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Last year, the Guilford Vikings built perhaps one of the best turnarounds in stateline football. They broke an eight-year playoff drought and took down top teams in Harlem and Belvidere North along the way. With 2022 in the books though, the G-Vikes aren’t allowing themselves to get caught looking in the rearview mirror.
“My sophomore year we went 2-7,” senior center Jayceon Scott said. “Nobody expected us to go 7-2 our junior year so that shows just one offseason, enough work in the offseason can get you to where you want to be.”
“Belvidere (Guilford’s week one opponent) is working just as hard as we are,” Scott added. “We can’t come in here and overlook nobody.”
“We got 0-0 man,” Guilford junior defensive lineman James Benson said. “We’re just coming out hitting as hard as we can.”
Guilford brings in Anthony Capriotti for just his third year as head coach. Last season Guilford’s season came to a close in the first round of the 7A playoffs where they lost to eventual state runner-up Batavia. The young coach is still learning to put together the details together for his program and said getting to play a powerhouse in Batavia brought a lot of learning tools and helped forge a new relationship.
“You know this is only my third year as head coach,” Capriotti said, “I learned a lot on how they operate like a food tent at halftime to get their guys Gatorade and bars and we’re going to do that this year, and little things like that.”
“We got to go up and practice with them one day this summer so being able to already have that under our belt rolling into week one, we’re excited to see where we’re going to be,” Capriotti said.
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