The first varsity football game at Cary-Grove High School ended well for the home squad, as Cary-Grove blew out visiting Dundee-Crown by a final score of 51-10. 

The whole team looked like they didn’t miss a beat in the first crowd-filled game since the fall of 2019. The offense was effective, scoring 21 points in the first quarter alone, the defense picked off Dundee-Crown on three occasions, and the kicking squad was good, adding on two blocked punts forced by Cary-Grove. 

This 2021-22 squad looks pretty good, even if it was just one game against a sub-par Dundee-Crown team. The impact COVID-19 had on the football landscape and the school made this win even sweeter, too.

The school, like most Illinois schools, started off remote in the 2020-21 school year. Zoom calls became the new way to learn in class, the new way to talk in groups, to ask teachers questions, to participate in clubs. Football was an afterthought. 

Although Cary-Grove played in the spring of 2021, it just wasn’t the same. The fans didn’t come in bunches. Masks were worn. It just wasn’t what it was supposed to be. Well, after Zoom calls, virtual clubs, homework becoming all-digital until students came back in 2021, the uncertainty, all of it, the varsity football experience at Cary-Grove High School has made its way back.

Finally, students, parents, teachers — everyone who enjoys the culture of high school football — can now enjoy it again. Mask-free, worry-free. Free of the COVID-19 cloud hanging over their heads. Hopefully in more instances than just football as the seasons change. 

COVID-19 had an impact on this school that we will never forget. And welcoming back the Cary-Grove faithful to a blowout win and fun entertainment courtesy of the cheerleaders, poms, band and color guard is pretty dang awesome. 

The 2021 varsity team looks like a team destined to make this season one that will go in the trophy cases, on a picture frame, all of it. Even from one game. CG had a 17-game win streak at one point, so anything is possible, really. Especially after the joy this team brought to the school, and to themselves. It’s going to be a fun year. 

GOOOOO TROJANS!!!!!