Three hours or so before his team wrapped up a 29-26 overtime victory against Niles North on Friday, Lake Forest junior linebacker John Deering made a strong first impression on the visitors from Skokie.
Deering made the tackle on the game’s opening kickoff, had a solo stop on Niles North’s first run from scrimmage and then teamed up with with fellow inside linebacker Gabe Funk to make the stop on the Vikings’ next play.
Niles North eventually punted, as Deering helped set the tone defensively for the Scouts (2-0).
“Deering brings quite the edge,” Funk said. “He’s probably the most physical out of all (the linebackers). He flies around, sets the tempo, and we all feed off of it.”
Deering finished with a team-high seven tackles and three sacks, though Lake Forest head coach Chuck Spagnoli said he was not interested in those numbers.
“I don’t know what his statistics are, and I don’t really care,” Spagnoli said. “I know that (Deering) gave us all he had, and that’s all you can ask for. He’s passionate about what he does, and his passion shows in his play.”
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Though Lake Forest’s defense wasn’t flawless, the 26 points Niles North scored came despite a strong showing. The Scouts’ defense allowed only one touchdown. Niles North kicker Nick Mihalic nailed four field goals, including three of 40-plus yards. The Vikings also scored on an interception return.
The Scouts’ four-man linebacking crew was particularly solid. In addition to Deering, Funk finished with six tackles, junior outside linebacker Bryan Ooms had two sacks and senior outside linebacker Cal Wonham had a sack.
The 6-foot-2, 218-pound Deering improved dramatically toward the end of last season and appears to have taken his game to another level this fall.
“Last season, I was like a raw football player: Running, hitting, doing what I could, but I didn’t have the knowledge of the game,” he said. “I was still stuck in middle-school football, where you run after and get the ball.”
Deering said a great deal of credit for his development goes to Highland Park’s EFT Sports Performance. There, he worked with personal trainer Kerry Neal, a former collegiate linebacker at Notre Dame who spent some time with the Indianapolis Colts.
Neal guided Deering through workouts and taught him some of the intricacies of playing linebacker.
“He helped me a ton last offseason, like with pass-coverage tips and stepping up on the ball. He was a mentor to me,” Deering said. “He took me under his wing, watched my film and critiqued it. He helped a ton.”
Deering said that if there was one underlying message to Neal’s teachings, it was the importance of playing fast.
Deering also plays with the Lake Forest Harriers rugby club, which includes players from several North Shore high schools.
Deering said he knew almost nothing about the sport before a few friends convinced him to give it a try. But after spending the spring playing the number-eight position for the Harriers — which is rugby’s two-way equivalent of being a linebacker — Deering declared his experiment a success.
“It got me going into the football season hitting the ground running because I was in shape, had been hitting people and was having fun doing it,” he said. “Plus, rugby is a game that is non-stop and flows a little more than a football game. You have to be pretty mentally tough.”
The previous spring, Deering had played lacrosse while a freshman at Loyola. He said he gave up that sport because he ended up losing too much weight while playing.
Deering also left Loyola after his freshman year in order to return to his hometown school and play alongside his lifelong friends in Lake Forest.
Loyola won the Class 8A state football title last fall. But Deering, who played for the Ramblers’ sophomore squad as a freshman and almost certainly would have been part of the title team, said he doesn’t have any regrets about leaving.
“I could not be happier for (the guys at Loyola), they are my buddies,” he said. “But it was right for me to come back. I needed to be with the guys I grew up with, having fun. I’m glad I’ve gotten to do that.”
Dan Shalin is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Twitter @danshalin