When John Hoerster took over the Oak Park and River Forest High School football program in 2011, the Huskies had been underachieving for the better part of two decades. Three years later, OPRF is a team on the rise, creating buzz not seen since the program’s most recent heyday in the 1980s.
After going 3-6 in Hoerster’s first year, the Huskies have won 16 games the past two seasons, the first time they’ve accomplished that since 1987-88.
The 2012 team went 7-4 and won a playoff game for the first time since 1992. Last season’s crew was 9-2, beating Dundee-Crown in the first round of the playoffs before losing 34-21 to a powerful Maine South squad.
For his efforts in leading the turnaround, Hoerster has been named the Wednesday Journal Coach of the Year.
“We really have a great group of coaches,” Hoerster said. “I’m very fortunate to coach with those guys. We have 18 coaches, all on the same page in terms of what we’re driving for.”
What Hoerster and the Huskies are driving for is to make OPRF a perennial contender for a state championship. They showed glimpses of it last year, taking WSC Silver powerhouse Glenbard West down to the wire before losing 20-14 on Oct. 4 in a game that showed how far the team had come in a short amount of time.
“Our first year we played Glenbard West at home and nobody was there,” Hoerster remembered. “You could have looked around and counted the number of people [in the stands]. This year we had 6,000 people at the game. It was an electric atmosphere.”
 What changed? Mainly attitude, as Hoerster brought enthusiasm that matched the work ethic every team needs to succeed.
“I coached at Mount Carmel [as an assistant] for 10 years,” Hoerster said. “They wanted to wear that jersey in the building and in the neighborhood. They had a huge amount of pride.
“At Oak Park we’ve had the opportunity to go to the playoffs two years in a row. Now [the Huskies] want to be a part of something successful. There is an excitement about it.”
That palpable excitement starts with the head coach, who brings a boyish enthusiasm to the field and the classroom. The English teacher who loves reading books and discussing them with his students instilled a love of learning that also translates to mastering the blue-collar labor required by every football team.
“We added a lot of fun to the program,” Hoerster said. “The expectations are really high and I think the kids respond to the high expectations. They’ve really bought into the program and have great enthusiasm.”
Hoerster inherited his enthusiasm from his father, also named John, who was head football coach at Loyola for 16 years and guided the Ramblers to a state title in 1993.
“I never saw him have a bad day,” Hoerster said. “His entire career he never came home complaining. He woke up excited about his job and came home happy.
The elder Hoerster died suddenly of a massive heart attack at age 52, which is one reason his son approaches life with an upbeat attitude and an urgency to get things done, knowing that none of us is guaranteed tomorrow.
“I’m excited about my job,” Hoerster said. “As a kid, if you’re surrounded by a bunch of adults who are excited about what they’re doing, you’re going to get excited, so I try to be positive. I took that away from [my father] and the whole program has embraced it.”
Twelve players from the 2013 OPRF team will play college football, including Division I recruits Simmie Cobbs (Indiana), Jamal Baggett (Akron) and Adam Lemke-Bell (Northwestern).
But that group also includes a bunch of Division III commits, including backup quarterback Jake Lintvelt.
 “I think it has a lot to do with [having] a positive experience playing football their senior year,” Hoerster said. “Kids in [backup roles] could have pouted and moped but [Lintvelt] totally bought in.”
At first, it was a challenge for Hoerster to get the players to believe they could win, but the results speak for themselves.
“Now they’re prepared to beat anyone who shows up,” Hoerster said. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to win every game, but the kids really believe it.
“I think the sky’s the limit. I’d like to be playing on Thanksgiving weekend, and the kids would too.”