Lockport community rallies to celebrate state champions
Porters football team wins 3rd state title, 1st since 2003
Lockport High School’s Gabe Czako won a medal grand slam in 2021.
On June 19, Czako, who was a junior at the time, won a pair of medals for finishing second in the state in the Illinois High School Association’s Class 3A 110-meter high hurdles and 300 intermediate hurdles events at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
On Nov. 6, he and his Porter soccer teammates won medals for taking third place in the Class 3A tournament at Hoffman Estates High School. But the best was yet to come. The senior kicker and his Porter football teammates won the Class 8A football championship with a 24-6 victory over Maine South Saturday night at Huskie Stadium in Dekalb.
While Czako said he cherishes all of his medals equally, it was Saturday’s accomplishment that brought out the crowd Sunday.
Win or lose, there was going to be a celebration and more than 500 came out on a sunny but cold day to celebrate the Porters’ third football state title and first since 2003.
“I never thought at the beginning of the season that this would happen,’’ Czako said of winning a fourth medal. “It’s great because these guys worked so hard and I’m lucky enough to have been a little part in making it happen. It means the world to me.’’
Czako booted a field goal and three extra points in the triumph.
The celebration featured speeches from athletic director Michael Dwyer, East Campus Principal John Greenan, Central Campus Principal Kerri Green, High School District 205 Superintendent Robert McBride, Jr. and coach George Czart.
Czart was an assistant coach at Lockport for the state titles in 2002 and 2003. After coaching at Lincoln-Way North, he returned in 2019. Prior to his arrival, the Porters were 2-7 and 0-9.
It took just three years for the coach to help turn this team into a state champion, but he is not taking much of the credit.
“It was all the about the kids and giving them a chance to show what they are made of,” Czart told the crowd. “They are going to be the next generation of leaders and that’s awesome.”
The Porters opened this season winning seven in a row and in the first five games, they outscored opponents, 196-7.
There was one hiccup in the regular season when they dropped a 12-10 decision to defending state champion Lincoln-Way East. But they corrected things in the final week with a 45-15 victory over Andrew before Before up four playoff games to get to DeKalb, including a 35-21 road victory over Loyola in the semifinals.
Two key players on the Porters were quarterback Hayden Timosciek, who threw for 2,123 yards and 23 touchdowns this season and Ty Schultz, a senior running back who finished with 1,245 yards and 22 touchdowns.
After the ceremony, McBride sought out Schultz and said “That was amazing. I haven’t seen many things like that and I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years. We’re very proud of you. That’s a lot of heart.”
Schultz’s 2021 has been a roller coaster. On a snowy Valentine’s Day, he tore his ACL at the Best of the Midwest College Combine in Indiana.
On the drive back home, he and his father, Robb, had a hard time finding ice. Robb took a shirt, a plastic bag and scooped up some snow and tied it all to the knee.
Ty returned to the field in early September and worked his way back and had a legendary state championship game.
“Things went better as the year went on,” he said. “Rehab went faster than I thought it would. As soon as I built my legs back up, I started feeling stronger than before I got hurt.”
Defensive stars in the state title game included Danny Martisek, who had two interceptions, Ethan Gallagher, who
had an interception plus Troy Mutz and Cole Silzer, who had fumble recoveries. Nick Franciskovich had 11 tackles including three for losses.
Longtime baseball and football assistant coach Ron Kulwinski sported a jacket at the celebration hailing the Porters’ 2002 and 2003 championships.
Before the ceremony, the sophomore defensive line coach said there is a good chance this program will stay strong.
“The juniors were 5-1 when they were sophomores in the spring,” he said. “And this year the sophomores were 8-1. That’s never happened. I can see us being playoff bound for a while.”