He never leaves the field. You can get tired just watching him kick, play defense and run the ball down opponents’ throats.
And senior running back John Dergo of Morris isn’t even playing his best sport in the fall.
Despite putting up huge numbers in football, Dergo’s best sport is wrestling, where the 6-footer is the defending state champion at 171 pounds.
Dergo, who plays football at 192 pounds, is serious about wrestling. He and his father, George, know Illinois wrestling coach Mark Johnson rather well, and Dergo also knows many wrestlers in Champaign.
And last week he made it public that he’ll wrestle at Illinois.
“U of I showed interest,” Dergo said. “I’ve been trying not to say much about it, but I like that school, and I’ve been there many times. It’s a fun experience to be down at the U of I.”
He made his decision to wrestle in college instead of play football during the summer. The day after Johnson visited his house, Dergo called the coach and said he liked what the Illini had to offer. He’ll join a program that won its first Big Ten title since 1952 last spring and produced four individual NCAA champions in five years.
But he didn’t want anyone to know in case football came into play. Dergo, who started playing football in the sixth grade, said he hadn’t heard from any football programs until the season started.
But by then his mind was made up: He went with his heart and picked the sport he likes more.
“Wrestling gives me more [athletic] opportunities,” Dergo said. “I like it more, and a lot of people might not like me saying that, but I’ve been wrestling since I was 2 years old when my dad started me in the sport.
“That’s where my heart is. There’s not much that can beat [wrestling].”
Dergo has great memories of wrestling at Assembly Hall during the state tournament. He won an individual Class AA title last year as a junior and placed third his sophomore year.
But you can’t ignore Dergo’s football stats. Through five games, he has rushed for 1,176 yards on 108 carries for an average of 10.9 a carry and 235 a game. Dergo also has 19 touchdowns.
“I look at myself as just an athlete,” Dergo said. “When it’s football season, I like to play football. When it’s wrestling, I like to be the wrestler, and I always am working harder to be the best that I can be.”
And just when you think Dergo has outdone himself, he does a whole lot more.
Against Riverside-Brookfield, a 61-8 pasting on Sept. 16, Dergo scored six touchdowns, kicked three PATs, rushed for 234 yards and had seven tackles and an interception return for a touchdown — scoring 39 points.
But if you ask him about specific stats, Dergo doesn’t remember. It seems that the numbers are getting bigger and are blurring together.
I could have sworn Dergo never came off the field that night in Brookfield until the end of the third quarter, when George Dergo, the Morris coach and John’s father, took him out.
The best part was that Dergo said he wasn’t even tired.
“I didn’t get to really come off the field in the first half, because you don’t know if [R-B was] punting or not with that [five-receiver] offense,” Dergo said. “I was on the field the whole time this game.”
He’s not concerned with being the coach’s kid, either. It doesn’t matter to him or George Dergo.
“He trusts me and my coaching ability,” George Dergo said. “We take athletics as having a lot of fun. I’ve coached him since he was a little kid and it’s not a big deal.”
John Dergo said that it’s “awesome” to have his father as football coach. George Dergo is in his first year at Morris after replacing Dan Darlington, who now coaches at Plainfield North.
“He knows how I get fired up, and he’s a good coach,” Dergo said. “I can say whatever I want to him, but whatever he wants, that’s what he’s doing. And that’s how it should be.”
Dergo also runs track in the spring. He qualified for the state meet last spring in the 400-meter dash but did not get into the finals.
Morris is on a mission this year to get back to the state championship game and reverse what happened last year on Thanksgiving weekend. The Redskins lost to Joliet Catholic 17-0 in the Class 5A title game.
“This has been a good time, and this year the team has gotten really close,” Dergo said. “I’m just out there having fun, and whatever happens, happens.”
Wrestling Gear
