Lake Central junior quarterback Wes Lalich stands poised for a breakout.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Lalich showed glimpses of his ability last year in limited snaps behind then-senior Cameron Reddick, who is a freshman at Air Force, before an ankle injury ended his season.
Now the clearcut starter, Lalich is powering full speed ahead for the Indians.
“He’s the kind of kid, he’s a master of his craft, so he’s all football all the time,” Lake Central coach Pete Koulianos said. “He works extremely hard. I don’t want to put labels on kids, but he could be our hardest worker. We have a lot of kids that work really hard, and Wes is definitely within that realm of those kids.
“Everything that he’s doing is earned on his end, and we’re looking for a big season from him.”
Lalich completed 31 of 59 passes for 387 yards and two touchdowns last year, when he worked his way into a prominent role for the Indians (3-7) by midseason. After shining against Michigan City in a Duneland Athletic Conference game on Sept. 26, he suffered a torn ligament on the outside of his left ankle and fractured the lower part of his fibula against Chesterton one week later.
“A guy landed on me, and then my toes essentially were almost touching my shin,” Lalich said.
Saying he was “crushed” to be sidelined, Lalich returned for the team’s workouts in February. He has been 100% since then but continues to wear a brace on his ankle for additional support.
“I just want to stay healthy,” Lalich said. “I want to lead these guys. I want to win games. I just want to be the kind of team player that gets our team to win games, no matter how we do it.
“I’m a little wiser this season, a little more confident in myself. I want to lead the team, make sure everyone’s on the same page, motivate the guys and make sure everyone’s focused on the same goal. I feel like everyone looks up to me as a person, and I have to be a great role model for them. Cam was a good role model — I liked how he led. He was a little bit more vocal than me. I need to get a little more vocal, but I feel like I’ve improved with that over the past two, three years.”
Koulianos, who begins his third season as Lake Central’s coach after playing on the 1993 state runner-up team, recognized Lalich’s potential from the outset.
As Koulianos headed into his first season, he invited Lalich as an eighth grader to participate in the team’s spring workouts. Lalich, who was born on Christmas Day with his twin sister, Kenley, a volleyball player for Lake Central, was the quarterback for the junior varsity team as a freshman and then got extensive varsity experience last season.
“We knew Wes was going to be pretty good, and we’ve tried to get him prepared as the heir apparent to Cam,” Koulianos said. “He was playing exceptionally well last year in practices in the summer and early on in the season. With a kid going to Air Force, I was kind of gun-shy to put him in, just from a standpoint of like, ‘How do you put in a kid over a kid that’s going to Air Force?’
“We put him in at Munster (in the season opener), and we felt like the game was a little too fast for him at times. But then it all seemed to click, and we ended up actually going with him against Michigan City, and he had a phenomenal performance. Then he was injured against Chesterton, and the rest is history. But we knew we had something good with Wes, and it was just a matter of getting him to do all the things we needed him to do, getting in the weight room, get working on his highs, working on his strength. His arm strength has improved significantly. His communication has improved significantly.”
Lake Central senior wide receiver Frankie Verta
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, a Grand Valley State recruit, has seen the work Lalich has put into the process. Lalich said he has gained about 25 pounds since last season.“We’ve built an absolutely amazing connection over the past year,” Verta said. “That’s my best friend — like, we’ve taken vacations together. Everything out of school, we do together. We’ve just really built up great chemistry through the past year and a half, and it’s going to really pay off this year, not just with me but with all of the other receivers too.
“I’m just expecting him to take a big leadership role, and I’m just expecting him to show what he showed against Michigan City when we went for a bunch, just having that every game. It’s big things coming. We all trust him. We all have 100% trust in him.”
The Indians also trust this season can be a turning point. They haven’t had a .500 record since they went 5-5 in 2015 and last posted a winning mark in 2014. They’ve gone 3-7 in each of Koulianos’ first two seasons.
“This is coach K’s third year, and everyone’s on board and knows what he wants,” Lalich said. “We have to take steps, but we have to get that winning record, and I’m very confident that we can.
“This group, I just feel like there’s something different about this group. If there’s a team to do it, it’s this one.”