Aug. 15--In many ways, Drake Spears is an old-school guy.
The West Aurora senior competes in three sports -- football, basketball and track -- and can't imagine it any other way. One of his favorite football players is Deion Sanders, who retired right around the time Spears was starting his football career as a second-grader.
But there's nothing backward about the vision Spears has for West Aurora's football program, which has long lived in the shadow of the school's powerhouse basketball team.
The Blackhawks' last winning season was 2004, when they were 5-4, and the last of their four Illinois High School Association playoff berths came in 1994. But there are signs of hope this fall with plenty of depth, experience and talent back from a 4-5 team, especially on the offensive side.
"This is a totally different vibe from the past couple years," said Spears, a 6-2, 202-pounder. "I believe we have a lot to prove to the school and the city -- to everybody, really."
That may be true of the Blackhawks collectively, but it's not the case for their leader. Spears plays running back, maybe some wide receiver and linebacker for West Aurora. He has verbally committed to Illinois, where he's projected to play safety or the star position.
"I like him a lot," CBS Sports Network recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said. "I think he's perfect for the safety position. He can hit and he's got good range. He's right in the Kenney Lyke (of Fremd, a Michigan State commit) territory as the one of the top safeties in the state."
Not that the easy-going Spears would ever make that claim for himself.
"He's definitely a humble young man," West Aurora coach Nate Eimer said. "I think that's what makes it special. He brings it every day at practice, which I think for a kid with his kind of talent is rare. They have a tendency to take days off because they don't have to work hard. He's just not like that."
Not taking things for granted is a way of life for Spears, whose other activities include going to meetings of the faith-based Breakthrough group.
He didn't expect to be a Big Ten recruit, he said, though "it was always a dream. I never thought I would make it here. I never thought I would play on varsity my freshman year."
That was an easy call for Eimer, though.
"Any time you're 6-2, 200 pounds and can run a 4.58 (40-yard dash) -- I think he had the ability to be D-I," Eimer said. "He's also done a nice job in the classroom."
Spears had a bit of a hiccup last spring. A fracture in his right foot sidelined him for the Blackhawks' basketball supersectional loss to Bolingbrook and kept him off the track. Eimer took it easy on his franchise player this summer as he worked his way back to football shape.
"We went a little slow in the summer, which he didn't like," Eimer said.
But, the coach added, "he's been a two-way starter for two years, a starter for three. I don't need to see him in June."
What the Blackhawks do need is to see Spears making plays on both sides of the ball in the fall. He ran for 469 yards and seven touchdowns and had 37 tackles last season despite missing time with a concussion.
This year, Spears will try to put a charge into a West Aurora program trying to get over the hump before he heads off to Champaign. There, he'll join another team trying to raise its profile. Lifting teams up is something Spears enjoys.
"I really want to help build that program up," he said. "I love being part of teams like that, that (are) not at the tip top, but on the rise."
