Antioch’s Giulian Santoyo had a feeling there was more to his game than he showed in 2025.
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Santoyo began with honest self-reflection, and he concluded that he had played well, just not well enough, as the Sequoits’ starting right guard in his first varsity season. One thing in particular gave him pause.
“I looked back on my junior year and thought, ‘I’m low-key weak,’” Santoyo said. “So I made sure I changed that. We have something called Zero Hour, which is before school, and I worked out then. I would work out after school and sometimes get a third lift in at 9 or 10 o’clock at night.
“I got rid of a lot of belly fat I had, and now I look better — and I’m healthier.”
Santoyo gained about 20 pounds, and that physical transformation left no doubt that the 6-foot-1, 270-pound senior, who was already known as one of the most committed players in the program, meant business this season.
“He was a good offensive lineman last year, but the work he did in the weight room changed everything,” Antioch coach Brian Glashagel said. “He looks the part now. When we break the huddle, he’s hard to miss.
“When you see him now, you hope that younger players in the program emulate the work he’s put in. Everything he has, he’s worked for.”
Santoyo has shifted to center for Northern Lake County Conference co-leader Antioch (5-0, 3-0), and he’s a key figure in an offense that totaled 660 yards against Round Lake last week. Among the talented skill players, senior running back Gavin Stone has rushed for 19 touchdowns this season.
“We do have a lot of guys who can make things happen with the ball,” Santoyo said. “They make our job a little easier up front.”
Santoyo’s position change was undertaken early in the summer. He moved barely 2 feet to the left, but guard and center are very different.
“In the second week of pads, I got a concussion, and toward the end of my protocol, the offensive line coach said, ‘We need a center,’” Santoyo recalled. “We have a lot of guards, so it sort of fell on me.
“At first, I didn’t know if I wanted to do it. I had to learn all of the things that are completely different from guard.”
Snapping the ball was the most obvious new skill Santoyo had to learn. The Sequoits use a decent amount of shotgun formations, and Santoyo said he adapted to that snapping distance fairly quickly.
“The snap is unique because you have to snap it and step into the play at the same time,” he said. “It took me about a week to get it down, and then it became muscle memory. After a few weeks, I really started to like it.
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“The coaches saw something in me, and hopefully I’m proving that I can take that responsibility on.”
Santoyo has convinced Glashagel.
“You can drop all the X’s and O’s you want, but if the center can’t snap and do the basics, you’re done,” Glashagel said. “We’re fortunate that Giulian takes his craft very seriously.”
Santoyo has also taken on the leadership required of a center, which is another change for him.
“I had never really been that guy who’s been the leader before, so it’s a new experience,” he said. “Now that it’s been put on me, it doesn’t feel that different. There’s the part of the job making calls at the line, and if we have a bad drive, the coaches want me to pick everyone else up.”
Those instances have been few and far between for the Sequoits, who have scored at least 70 points in back-to-back games. Senior defensive end Willie Hamilton understands Santoyo’s importance to that offense.
“It’s very annoying practicing against him because he picks up on defensive schemes very fast,” Hamilton said. “He knows everything we’re doing. If we pull a stunt, he reacts right away to it, and he’s always filling the gap we’re trying to get into.
“Our quarterback and running backs get a lot of attention, which they deserve, but guys like Giulian aren’t talked about enough.”
That’s OK with Santoyo, who takes pride in his team-high 12 pancake blocks, three times as many as he totaled last season.
“It feels really good because you can look at them lying on the ground and you know that you just dominated that guy,” he said. “I definitely put my full effort on the field every game, and I worked really hard to become a better player with the hope of this year being special.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.