It was November of 2013, and the Lake Forest football team was playing at De La Salle in the second round of the Class 6A state playoffs.
Out of the corner of his eye, Scouts junior defensive lineman Nick Athenson saw a De La Salle ball carrier. He ran toward him, a couple of yards behind the play. When he arrived, Athenson’s helmet crashed into another player’s. Only it wasn’t the intended target.
Athenson had hit his teammate, Lake Forest linebacker Jack Traynor.
“I thought it was the running back, and I hit Traynor,” Athenson said. “He slapped me on the helmet and said ‘What are you doing? That was mine.’ “
Traynor, then a junior, was credited with the tackle. It possessed the characteristics of so many tackles made by Traynor — brutish and ferocious, yet perfunctory and mechanical. After the conclusion of the 2014 season, his senior year, no high school player in the history of Illinois had made more tackles.
A 6-foot, 220-pound middle linebacker, Traynor finished his three-year varsity career with 378 tackles. According to the Illinois High School Association website, that broke the 24-year-old state record for solo tackles by 23 (Brian Zeeb of Greenville set the previous record with 355 between 1988-90).
Traynor didn’t get to 378 by taking shortcuts. Quite the opposite. He has a clear set of values when it comes to playing football. It’s a fusion of old fashioned, mud-on-your-uniform principles and a bookishly fastidious approach to preparation.
“There’s a right way to tackle and a wrong way to tackle. If you go in thinking ‘I’ll bend the rules a little bit and do something different because its easier,’ you’re not going to end up being successful,” Traynor said.
Lake Forest opened the 2012 season hosting Buffalo Grove. Traynor was starting his first varsity game. On Buffalo Grove’s first possession, the quarterback threw a pass to a receiver running a curl route. He gained five yards before Traynor brought him down.
“I opened to my right, kind of closed my eyes and hoped to hit something,” Traynor said.
It was his first career tackle. Traynor made 108 more in 12 starts that year, including the playoffs. By his junior season, his body was much stronger. So was his mind.
“It’s a necessity you love the intellectual part of the game,” Traynor said.
Through vigorous film study, he sharpened his brain on the nuances of playing the position. As a result, he eliminated much of the guesswork that came ahead of so many tackles his sophomore season.
“What he learned that year and started to perfect was understanding keys and schemes of offenses and put himself in position to make plays that as a sophomore he would have misread,” Scouts coach Chuck Spagnoli said. “He has a great ability to comprehend not just his responsibilities but, those around him.”
Athenson added: “He was giving us the strength calls on where to line up. He was the brain of our defense, an extension of the coaches.”
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By his senior year, Traynor evolved into a fully formed player. His skills in pass coverage equaled his run-stopping ability. Pre-snap, his recognition was flawless. If they were close enough to the field, spectators could often hear Traynor yell “Red! Red!” or “Green! Green!” The calls were used to communicate to the defense where the “strong” side of the field was for the offense. If a spectator lost sight of the ball, one fallback plan rarely failed.
Just follow No. 34, Traynor’s number. He usually found the football.
“A relentless player. That’s where he made his tackles. He was not to be denied,” Spagnoli said. “To this day as good as I’ve been around.”
And in Illinois high school football history, no one has tackled better than Jack Traynor.