Trojans counting on senior strong man Logan Chestovich to show the way in the secondary to less experienced players

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The first guess as to how each side of the ball on a high school football team will do usually starts with counting the number of returning starters.
For Chesterton High’s defense, that count shows the defense has a lot to prove, and Logan Chestovich, one of the three returning defensive starters, is fine with that.
Chestovich has moved from cornerback to safety on a defense that lost seven senior starters and an eighth starter when linebacker Benicio Rivera moved to Alabama.
So, the numbers say the Trojans’ defense won’t be as good as last year. According to Chestovich, that’s not the goal anyway.
“It’s important to not be complacent,” Chestovich said before a recent practice in advance of Wednesday’s home scrimmage against Lowell, which kicks off at 5:30. “You can’t just want to be where we were last year. We want to be better than that. We want to build off where we were last year.”
To that end, Chestovich doesn’t limit his football preparation to campus. He does his homework with a personal tutor. Logan’s father, Terry, is the team’s defensive coordinator.
“We talk about it all the time at home,” Logan said. “My mom actually kind of gets annoyed sometimes because we’re always talking about it. We watch a lot of film at home during the season to go over what I specifically need to work on or what the rest of us need to work on so we can all get better.”
His knowledge and experience is needed to help break in whichever less experienced players earn starting positions with him in the secondary.
As a safety, he has added responsibilities.
“Kind of like a captain of the secondary, have to get the rest of the kids lined up properly, know where the best receivers are lined up,” was how he explained his position.
Senior center Carlos Leon, the team’s post decorated player as a returning junior class all-state player, talked about how Chestovich is helping more than the secondary.
“He’s a great part of this team now, a big leader,” Leon said. “He’s stepped up a lot, he’s especially a great leader in the weight room.”
Strength and conditioning coach Matt Wagner called Chestovich “pound-for-pound the strongest player on the team.”
As a football coach, Chestovich’s father preached the virtues of the weight room to his son at a young age and he listened, even though he stepped away from football temporarily.
Logan played football as an eighth grader, but after spending part of the summer participated in football workouts before deciding to play fall baseball instead. He said he quickly regretted that decision.
“I missed playing football so much that year I had to come back,” he said. “I missed just being on the team, being around everybody. I’ve been around football my whole life, so it’s a big part of who I am.”
Chestovich, a backup outfielder on the baseball team last spring, has become a football player first, contrary to where he thought the sport ranked for him when he entered high school.
“I like how it doesn’t take just one guy,” he said. “Baseball can be a one-sided thing sometimes. Football, all 11 guys on both sides of the ball have to be at their best the whole game. I like the teamwork aspect, being around the guys in the locker room and stuff. That’s a big part of it.”
Aside from Chestovich, the lone returning starters on the defense are senior linebackers Lucas Anderson and Bobby Stabolito.
“I think we look pretty decent for not having a lot of starters back,” Chestovich said. “We’re pretty young, but the guys who are coming in are working with us to get better.”