Gio Zeman couldn’t have picked a better time for a breakout game.
Yorkville faced a daunting task last season, entering Week 9 needing a win to be playoff eligible. Up next was Oswego, which had just clinched a share of the conference title.
The Foxes responded with their best game of the season in a 48-26 win. Zeman, a junior running back, was one of many stars with 17 carries for 133 yards and five touchdowns.
Unfortunately, Zeman wasn’t able to build off that performance, suffering an ankle injury on the second play of Yorkville’s first of two playoff games that ended his season.
“That got me all mad and obviously upset,” he said. “To contribute one week like that and then you can’t do it the next week.”
Almost mad enough to hit something. And that’s fitting, considering it pretty much sums up Zeman’s running style.
After a summer of working out, including a heavy dose of running hills and interval ladder workouts almost every day, the 6-foot, 205-pound Zeman is back at it.
Two weeks into his senior season for Yorkville (2-0), he leads a deep group of running backs, averaging 7.8 yards per carry with 156 yards and two TDs on 20 carries.
Those numbers have come limited action during a pair of lopsided wins.
“I’d probably describe my style as going head-to-head,” Zeman said. “I’m more of a physical runner than juke-somebody-out runner. If I need to, I’ll try to, but I’m more likely to go for a truck or break a tackle than try to avoid contact.”
It helped last season as he finished with 65 carries for 347 yards and a team-high nine TDs. Deajeion Lewis led the Foxes with 127 carries for 648 yards and three TDs.
“Gio’s role was more in our short yardage package,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said. “He saw a lot action in the red zone quite a bit. And against Oswego, we ran that grouping almost the whole game.
“Gio and Deajeion almost split time 50-50, but Gio also had some sickness and missed about two weeks earlier in the season.”
McGuire said Zeman’s running style reminds him of former Yorkville star Mike Kurtz, who went on to Valparaiso after averaging 27.4 carries a game in 2014 and leading the area with 2,168 yards and 24 TDs.
“He’s very, very close to Mike Kurtz in terms of his forward lean — he never falls backward,” McGuire said. “Gio is really good at being patient, finding that hole and then exploding through.”
McGuire was defensive coordinator under coach Karl Hoinkes for that team, and then took over the next season when Hoinkes stepped down.
“Gio is very physical, but sometimes, he’s maybe too physical,” McGuire said. “We’ve had to tell him, ‘Sometimes, you just have to go out of bounds. We need you for the whole season, and staying healthy is important, too.'”
Kurtz, of course, was a workhorse. He had a whopping 51 carries for 276 yards that season in a first-round playoff win over Crete-Monee.
Zeman isn’t likely to get that kind of workload.
“We try to rotate our kids in as much as we can,” said McGuire, who’s likely to use up to four on a regular bases. “I’m not saying these are the best running backs we’ve had but top to bottom. We have the most depth we’ve had at that position.
“We’re trying to take advantage of our kids’ strengths and trying to keep them fresh throughout the game.”
Zeman, who also plays baseball, plans to focus on football and hopes to play at the next level. Aurora, Loras, Augustana and North Central College are among teams that have expressed interest.
In the meantime, he’s hoping for another postseason run. And getting to play.
“We want to do better than last year when we won one playoff game and got sent home on the second one,” Zeman said. “I had to watch that one from the sidelines. That sucks.”