When the Bear’s opened their season against Fremd on August 31, they took the field under new leadership. David Proffitt, who had coached at LZHS for six years before succeeding Bryan Stortz as head coach after his move to Rock Island, has only made minor changes while keeping the momentum from past seasons moving forward.

“The only changes that were made were made to the delegation of authority. As far as the structure and the normal daily operations; there have been no changes,” Proffitt said. “I have given more responsibility to other assistant coaches that have expressed interest in being more involved in the program. That has worked out very well in delegating responsibilities.”

Proffitt, who coached at Marian Central Catholic in Woodstock for 12 years from 1991 to 2002, carries impressive experience in head coaching. And while the game play has continued to be successful, the way the players represent the program is impressive in itself.

On the first day of school, members of the program introduced themselves to their teachers as football players and offered to help the class in any way they could.

“We have always felt that the football program is one part of the overall structure of the school,” Proffitt said. “There are many different parts of the school, the football program being one of those, but we also feel that it plays an important part in the school, so we want to make sure that the teachers and students understand that these young men are part of them, they are Lake Zurich.”

As the attitude and representation of the football program maintains its high-held status, a few adjustments have been made to the offense, while Proffitt’s defense remains the same it has been for the past six years (Proffitt was formerly, and still acts as defensive coordinator).

“Coach Towne [offensive coordinator] and Coach Beaver [assistant head coach/ offensive line coach] have made some adjustments to the offense that we ran last year. They have tried to make the offense more appliable to the personnel that we have and to run something that they feel comfortable with,” Proffitt said. “So far, I am very pleased with it. Defensively we really have made no changes to the defense we’ve played for the last six years.”