One by one, Unity football players filed by Dane Eisenmenger. Coaches, too.
Dusk had descended upon Monticello on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the engines on the nearby charter buses were idling in the cold.
But Eisenmenger wasn’t moving away from the brick wall just beyond one of the end zones at Monticello High School’s compact football field.
The Unity junior quarterback had changed out of his all-white uniform, removed his maroon helmet littered with stickers noting his many accomplishments and into a hoodie and sweatpants some 15 minutes after a difficult and controversial 23-20 loss to the Sages in a Class 3A state semifinal game. His last-second Hail Mary pass, caught by Brady Parr in the opposite end zone from near where he stood at this particular moment in time, was nullified by an ineligible man downfield penalty against the Rockets. Unity didn’t get another snap again after officials ruled the game had ended.
But instead of sulking, the 6-foot-4, 195-pound Eisenmenger stood up straight outside the Rockets’ visiting locker room. He shared a word with every player who passed him by. A quick hug with others.
He let the moment sink in. Whether he liked it or not.
“It was especially rough walking off that field,” Parr said three months later, sitting on a bench inside the Unity boys’ basketball locker room at the Rocket Center in Tolono. “Everyone had some tears in their eyes then. Walking into that locker room, I was one of the later guys in there. Dane just stood out there the whole time. I remember giving him a hug at the end and he just said, ‘I love you, bro. I’m grateful to have played with you.’
“It means a lot coming from a guy like him who has a lot of talent and is coming back. He’s definitely established himself as a leader.”
Quarterbacks are often forced to. Yet for Eisenmenger, thinking back on the last football game of his superb junior season with the Rockets, the moment outside the visiting locker room at Monticello seemed to happen naturally. He didn’t plan on offering up small words of encouragement in one of the most difficult moments he’s experienced in his athletic career.
“I just wanted everybody to know that if they ever need anything outside of football, I’m there for them,” Eisenmenger said after a recent Unity boys’ basketball practice. “It’s just important for me to have everyone know I’ve got their back. I felt bad for the seniors. Some of those guys, they’d never get the chance to play a sport again and I’d played with so many ever since we were growing up. It was tough.
“But I want to make a deeper run next year than I did this year. The motivation to get everybody better and back in the weight room was there. We still have more sports. We still have more to accomplish this year. I wanted to keep everybody motivated and let them know it’s OK.”
He did. And now, the Unity boys’ basketball team he plays such a critical role on during the winter months, is thriving.
Getting in the basketball groove
Matt Franks wishes he had some formula he could apply each November when the Unity boys’ basketball team he coaches gets going with practices. How to integrate many football players who are more used to throwing, catching, tackling and blocking than they are shooting, passing or dribbling a basketball.
“I reach out to coaches who have similar situations and how do they handle that,” said Franks, in his second season coaching his alma mater after previous stints at Morton and Tuscola. “Each kid is different. Each group is a little different. We want to give them a mental break more than anything. Then you add in the fact it was a heart-breaking loss to end their football season, and that makes it even more difficult.”
Eisenmenger and the rest of his teammates in both football and basketball — guys like Parr, Tre Hoggard, Coleton Langendorf and Brayden Henry, among others — got back to work on basketball the day after Thanksgiving. Instead of playing in a 3A football state championship game that day, they were getting back in rhythm with basketball.
“Even though football is completely different from basketball, we all know we can trust each other and what’s going to happen if we give the other person the ball,” said Hoggard, Eisenmenger’s favorite wide receiver last fall and one of the Rockets’ leading scorers in basketball. “We had 11 seniors last year in basketball, so it was a whole new team this year. But we’ve all just been playing together a lot more, and we know our roles. It’s really helped us get through a rough start to the season.”
Conference title on the line
The wins and losses seemed to alternate through the first half of the season for the Rockets, who stood at 8-6 after a 56-45 home loss against Normal U-High on Jan. 7.
Then, Unity didn’t lose again until Tuesday night’s 76-69 home nonconference setback against Danville, one of four losses this season by the Rockets against either a Class 3A or 4A team. The Rockets, who will find out their 2A postseason seed on Thursday and their postseason pairings on Friday, had reeled off a 13-game win streak. The highlight was a 55-52 victory this past Saturday night at Williamsville, the second-ranked team in last week’s Class 2A Associated Press statewide poll and still ranked third this week.
The Rockets (21-7) are setting their sights on an Illini Prairie Conference regular-season title. Something the program has never done since the league was formed ahead of the 2017-18 season and something they’re in a prime spot to capture since they’ve won their first seven league games this season.
Standing in their way on Friday night? A quick road trip to play rival and reigning league champion St. Joseph-Ogden, who is 18-7 on the season and 6-1 in league play after the Spartans sustained their first conference loss last Friday night during a 60-53 overtime home loss against Bloomington Central Catholic.
“We hope it’s for the conference,” Eisenmenger said. “We’re not really labeled as a basketball school. We just want to put it out there that we’re to be taken seriously.”
Honing in on football
Eisenmenger treats whatever sport he is in that particular season seriously.
But football is his true passion.
A two-year starter for the Rockets, Eisenmenger threw for 2,773 yards, 37 touchdowns and just four interceptions while completing 69 percent of his passes this past season. He’ll head into his senior season next fall with 5,318 career passing yards, 70 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.
How badly does he want to continue his football career into college?
“Really badly,” Eisenmenger replied without hesitation. “That’s the main goal.”
But right now, at this point in mid-February, Eisenmenger is still waiting on his first college offer. He’s competed in camps across the Midwest already and has taken unofficial visits to Illinois, Iowa State and Northern Illinois at the FBS level. He also visited an Eastern Illinois game last fall and, with a 3.8 grade-point average, has virtual visits set up this winter with Princeton and Yale.
“I think I’m more of an FCS-level guy, and they just got done with their 2025 class,” Eisenmenger said, “so a lot more coaches are starting to reach out.”
Recruiting is a daily thought in his head. Along with the transfer portal. Mainly because of the effect it has on high school football recruiting, with college coaches more prone to take an interest in an athlete who has already played college football compared to one who is still in high school.
“It’s hard,” Eisenmenger said. “There’s so many other levels of people I have to compete against to get an offer because 10-15 years ago, before the transfer portal, would I be a higher-level guy without the transfer portal? It’s a tough subject to think about sometimes.”
So he doesn’t dwell on it. He just gets back to work.
Staying confident and ready
When Eisenmenger is not averaging 11 points and 4.4 rebounds while making a team-high 43 three-pointers so far this season for the Unity boys’ basketball team, football is on his mind.
He is working out each Sunday morning in the winter, making two trips a month to an indoor training facility in Aurora and spending the other two Sundays in Tolono working out with his receivers inside. Venturing to the Chicago suburbs on those Sundays has him waking up around 3 a.m., with the sessions going from 6-8 a.m. He mostly sleeps on the rides north while his dad, Chad, mans the steering wheel.
The past month has also seen a significant leadership change with Unity football moving forward. Hall of Fame coach Scott Hamilton announced his retirement in early January after 31 seasons coaching the Rockets. One of Hamilton’s long-time assistant coaches, Tony Reetz, is the new Unity football coach but is recovering from brain surgery he underwent last month to remove a benign tumor.
“Coach Hamilton and I have been talking every week,” Eisenmenger said. “I had an idea he was probably going to be done. I’m excited for Coach Reetz to come in, get back and start working towards next season.”
Eisenmenger is a three-sport athlete for the Rockets. But instead of playing baseball this spring for Unity, like he has done his first two years of high school, he is shifting to track and field. Specifically the hurdles, an event he’s familiar with after placing third at the IESA Class 3A state meet when he was in eighth grade in 2022.
“The biggest thing I’m going to miss with baseball is being around all the guys I’ve played baseball with my whole life,” Eisenmenger said. “For my future in football, that’s the best option, though.”
Plenty has changed for Eisenmenger since. But one trait remains the same. His competitive, confident nature.
“He has great skill,” Franks said, “but what drives Dane is he’s the ultimate competitor.”
It’s a sentiment his teammates echo.
“He’s got a lot of confidence in himself. He can shoot the ball. He can drive. He can even play defense when he needs to,” Parr said with a smile. “But his confidence takes him a long way.”
Going above and beyond
All eyes are on Eisenmenger every snap during football season given the position he plays. While he’s frequently on the basketball court with the Rockets, he knows not every single move he makes is scrutinized to the level it is in football.
“Really, there’s no pressure at all,” Eisenmenger said. “I might have people watching me, but I know my goal is to play college football. It’s nice having 10 guys around that can also score. If I’m having an off night or Tre is having an off night, we’ve got eight other dudes who can go pick us up and put the ball in the basket.”
The leadership aspect comes through in that last statement by Eisenmenger. Deflecting credit and praise to his teammates, with Langendorf (13.0 points, 6.8 rebounds), Hoggard (11.2 points) and Henry (8.3 points, 3.1 assists) also capable options for the Rockets.
Eisenmenger has some time still before his senior football season at Unity kicks off in six months. Still time to talk with college coaches. Still time to go on visits. Still time to earn his first offer.
But when the Rockets take to the football field in 2025, they’ll do so with Eisenmenger leading the way. He proved that in his play last season and his subtle way of leading after the season-ending loss at Monticello.
“I got in the locker room way before and I got out before he probably got there outside the locker room in Monticello,” Hoggard said. “But I could see him doing that. He’s just a leader.”
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