Naperville Central will host its annual Red & White Night on Friday, Aug. 23. The event will include a club expo and scrimmages from all Fall sports with the exception of varsity football, who will play a week zero scrimmage at Wheaton-Warrenville South High School.
This is the first year the IHSA has allowed football teams to participate in an inter-squad preseason scrimmage. While the option was available for all divisions, freshman and sophomore football will continue to scrimmage against themselves at Central.
“Going against a new opponent gives us a chance to evaluate [our team] better,” head football coach Mike Ulreich said. “It’s a new policy and we’re just trying to take advantage of it.”
In absence of varsity football, boys soccer will headline the event from 6-7 p.m. in the stadium.
“The nice thing is [that] soccer gets an opportunity to be the [headliner], and we have a tremendous soccer program,” Ulreich said.
Ulreich hopes that future preseason scrimmages can be held at Central as part of Red & White Night.
“A year from now, hopefully Wheaton [Warrenville] South comes here,” Ulreich said. “We haven’t been at Wheaton [Warrenville] South since 2017, and it was a school that we had a positive, fun rivalry with.”
After becoming Athletic Director in July, this will be Jeff Plackett’s first year leading Red & White Night.
“Right now we’ve got a pretty good formula,” Plackett said. “Now that we’ve settled into the start of the school year, we’ve got the lay of the land, learned our schedules and met our teachers, let’s use Friday night to figure out how we can get a little bit more involved.”
Central teacher Brad Neubauer will MC the event, which in the past has been led by Plackett.
“I’m excited to see what little changes and personal touches [Neubauer] puts on the event,” Plackett said. “For a number of years I’ve been the public address voice in the press box for events, and now that’s going to be Neubauer, and he’s going to be great.”
This will be Plackett’s first large event as Athletic Director.
“[It’s] an opportunity for all of us to get back together as a big group and celebrate who we are, what we do and what our values are,” Plackett said.
