John Wrenn is the most successful failure in high school football.
His record speaks loudly to his success: In 11 seasons as a head football coach he has won nine conference titles, including six SICA East crowns in his six years at Homewood-Flossmoor. In those 11 years, he has won 76.3 percent of his games, compiled three undefeated regular seasons and won his last 32 league games.
Wrenn`s dreams speak painfully to his failure. He dreams he has coached H-F to a state football championship. He dreams it constantly, and always it is so real he can feel the rush of victory.
But always, too, he wakes to an empty silence because he has yet to cradle a state championship trophy while he`s awake.
”One of these days, it`s going to happen . . . one of these days,” he says. ”I dream about it. I can`t get it out of my mind. I dream what I`ll say when we win, what plays I`ll call.
”I can see almost the whole game in my head. It`s going to be weird when it happens.”
That`s when, not if. As obsessions go, Wrenn`s quest for a state crown is not the stuff of Moby Dick, but it`s fair to say neither George Bush nor Bill Clinton is chasing the White House with any more zeal than Wrenn is putting into his pursuit of a title.
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”I want to be there,” he says. ”I won`t lie. I`m jealous of those coaches who have won state championships. Yeah, I want to win it. That`s it.” It`s no surprise, then, that Wrenn has been crushed by H-F`s playoff losses, especially the five where he thought he had the talent to win it all. The one that really haunts him is Mt. Carmel`s legendary 13-12 Class 6A 1988 quarterfinal victory, in which the Caravan scored the winning TD on a tipped pass as time expired.
Afterward, Wrenn was so upset he could barely speak.
”I was devastated,” he said. ”I felt we had the best team. I felt we lost because of me, because I blew it. I felt I let the kids down.”
It was a watershed moment for both programs. Mt. Carmel went on to win the first of its record-tying four consecutive titles. Homewood-Flossmoor has not advanced past the second round of the playoffs since. Last year, Brother Rice upset H-F 30-24 in the first round.
Homewood-Flossmoor has gone 9-0, 9-0, 8-1 in the regular season those three years, leading some to label Wrenn an overrated coach who can`t win the big one. Forget that. Not only has he turned around three high school programs (East Aurora, West Aurora and H-F), but also seven of the teams that beat him in the playoffs advanced to the 6A title game.
A big reason for Wrenn`s success is his willingness to take chances. In 1985, he left West Aurora for a graduate assistant coaching job at Illinois. It was a huge financial sacrifice for a man with a wife and two kids, but Wrenn believed he could learn a lot from Illini head coach Mike White.
”I want to get better, not stay the same,” he said. ”If I`m not getting better, I feel I`m not doing justice to the kids. I see too many coaches just put their time in. I don`t want that to happen to me.”
He`s proving that this season by changing-or trying to, anyway-his clenched-fists approach to football. Calling Wrenn intense is like calling Fridge Perry pleasingly plump. Jumping up and down and getting up close and personal with players at high-decibel levels has been more rule than exception.
The man demands perfection from his players because he believes nothing less will yield a state title. He demands it from himself because he believes that when players work as hard as his do, it`s his fault when they lose.
Now Wrenn is starting to believe that one reason for his 9-9 playoff record is that withering intensity. So he`s trying to be more relaxed, more positive, less mercurial. He even reduced the team`s summer program because he feared his players were getting worn out by the playoffs.
Wrenn believes that his current team, ranked No. 3 by the Tribune, is his most talented group since the star-crossed `88 edition, and he is leaving nothing to chance.
”I`m trying real hard,” the 41-year-old said. ”I`m a lot better than I`ve been been in the past. I`m doing a lot of counting to 10, backing off, trying to relax myself.
”You reach a level where you`re doing well and don`t want to rock the boat, but it`s not where we want to go. To get where we want to go we maybe have to change some things.”
Wrenn is still no walk in the park at practice, but the real test of his new approach will be Friday when H-F meets Young.
”I know there will be some slips,” he said, laughing. ”I`m me, and I`m going to act like me. I`m trying real hard, but there`s a lot of the old John Wrenn left in me.
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”I`m a very emotional person. I get mad, yell; but I also hug. I`ll tell you if you`re doing something wrong or right. I can`t keep it in.
”I`m trying to change because I want to reach a goal, and I believe I have to change to reach the goal. But I`ll be John Wrenn.”
Wrenn was born to be a football coach. He fell in love with the job watching his dad, John Sr., coach at East Moline and Northern Illinois University. His father was his idol, but his inspiration and the source of much of his drive was his mother, Jeanne.
Jeanne Wrenn contracted polio when her son was 5 and later died of cancer, but John Jr. never heard a word of complaint. He would have known she was tough, anyway, because she used to refuse to feed him when he slacked off at football practice.
”If I ever feel sorry for myself or get down, I think about her, about how she never missed seeing me play in any of my high school or college games,” Wrenn said. ”She was tougher than anyone.”
So he works as hard as ever, up till midnight and up again at 5 a.m. as he chases his dream. He figures he`ll keep coaching at least until he catches it.
”I love being around young people, and right now I`m real happy with what I`m doing,” he said. ”I need a driving force. My driving force is to win the state championship. When I do, I`ll have to (re-evaluate coaching)
because I don`t want to lose that force. Till I do, you`ll see me scratching and clawing.”